actions-rust-cross/README.md
2023-12-10 17:42:14 -06:00

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# GitHub Action to Cross Compile Rust Projects
This action lets you easily cross-compile Rust projects using
[cross](https://github.com/cross-rs/cross).
Here's an example from the release workflow for
[my tool `precious`](https://github.com/houseabsolute/precious):
```yaml
jobs:
release:
name: Release - ${{ matrix.platform.release_for }}
strategy:
matrix:
platform:
- release_for: FreeBSD-x86_64
os: ubuntu-20.04
target: x86_64-unknown-freebsd
bin: precious
name: precious-FreeBSD-x86_64.tar.gz
command: build
- release_for: Windows-x86_64
os: windows-latest
target: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
bin: precious.exe
name: precious-Windows-x86_64.zip
command: both
- release_for: macOS-x86_64
os: macOS-latest
target: x86_64-apple-darwin
bin: precious
name: precious-Darwin-x86_64.tar.gz
command: both
# more release targets here ...
runs-on: ${{ matrix.platform.os }}
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Build binary
uses: houseabsolute/actions-rust-cross@v0
with:
command: ${{ matrix.platform.command }}
target: ${{ matrix.platform.target }}
args: "--locked --release"
strip: true
# more packaging stuff goes here ...
```
## Input Parameters
This action takes the following parameters:
| Key | Type | Required? | Description |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | --------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `command` | string (one of `build`, `test`, or `both`) | no | The command(s) to run. The default is `build`. Running the `test` command will fail with \*BSD targets, non-x86 Windows, and macOS ARM. |
| `target` | string | yes | The target triple to compile for. This should be one of the targets listed by running `rustup target list`. |
| `working-directory` | string | no | The working directory in which to run the `cargo` or `cross` commands. Defaults to the current directory (`.`). |
| `toolchain` | string (one of `stable`, `beta`, or `nightly`) | no | The Rust toolchain version to install. The default is `stable`. |
| `GITHUB_TOKEN` | string | no | Defaults to the value of `${{ github.token }}`. |
| `args` | string | no | A string-separated list of arguments to be passed to `cross build`, like `--release --locked`. |
| `strip` | boolean (`true` or `false`) | no | If this is true, then the resulting binaries will be stripped if possible. This is only possible for binaries which weren't cross-compiled. |
| `cross-version` | string | no | This can be used to set the version of `cross` to use. If specified, it should be a specific `cross` release tag. If this is not set then the latest version will always be used. |
## How it Works
Under the hood, this action will compile your binaries with either `cargo` or `cross`, depending on
the host machine and target. For Linux builds, it will always use `cross` except for builds
targeting an x86 architecture like `x86_64` or `i686`.
On Windows and macOS, it's possible to compile for all supported targets out of the box, so `cross`
will not be used on those platforms.
If it needs to install `cross`, it will install the latest version by downloading a release using
[my tool `ubi`](https://github.com/houseabsolute/ubi). This is much faster than using `cargo` to
build `cross`.
When compiling on Windows, it will do so in a Powershell environment, which can matter in some
corner cases, like compiling the `openssl` crate with the `vendored` feature.
Finally, it will run `strip` to strip the binaries if the `strip` parameter is true. This is only
possible for builds that are not done via `cross`. In addition, Windows builds for `aarch64` cannot
be stripped either.
## Caching Rust Compilation Output
You can use the [Swatinem/rust-cache](https://github.com/Swatinem/rust-cache) action with this one
seemlessly, whether or not a specific build target needs `cross`. There is no special configuration
that you need for this. It just works.