How to Set Up .NET Core SDK Using GitHub Actions

name: 'Usage of setup-dotnet GitHub Action'
on:
    push:
        branches:
            - main
jobs:
    deploy:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
        - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        - uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
          with:
            dotnet-version: '3.1.x'

Setup Dotnet

Set up your GitHub Actions workflow with a specific version of the .NET core sdk

What is Setup Dotnet?​

The setup-dotnet action sets up a .NET CLI environment for use in GitHub Actions workflows. It optionally downloads and caches a version of the .NET SDK, registers problem matchers for error output, and sets up authentication to private package sources like GitHub Packages.

How to Set Up Multiple Versions of .NET Core SDK Using GitHub Actions​

The setup-dotnet action allows you to install multiple versions of the .NET Core SDK for use in your GitHub Actions workflows. This is useful for projects that need to build against multiple versions of the .NET SDK.

- name: Setup dotnet
  uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
  with:
    dotnet-version: | 
      3.1.x
      5.0.x
- run: dotnet build <my project>

How to Use the dotnet-quality Input with setup-dotnet Action​

The dotnet-quality input allows you to install the latest build of the specified quality for the .NET SDK. The possible values for dotnet-quality are: daily, signed, validated, preview, and ga.

The dotnet-quality input can only be used with .NET SDK versions in 'A.B', 'A.B.x', 'A', 'A.x', and 'A.B.Cxx' formats where the major version is higher than 5. In other cases, the dotnet-quality input will be ignored.

- uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
  with:
    dotnet-version: '6.0.x'
    dotnet-quality: 'preview'
- run: dotnet build <my project>

How to Use the global-json-file Input with setup-dotnet Action​

The setup-dotnet action can read the .NET SDK version from a global.json file. This allows you to specify the SDK version in your project's configuration file. The global-json-file input is used to specify the path to the global.json. If the specified file doesn't exist, the action will fail with an error.

- uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
  with:
    global-json-file: csharp/global.json
- run: dotnet build <my project>
  working-directory: csharp

How to Cache NuGet Packages Using setup-dotnet Action​

The setup-dotnet action includes built-in functionality for caching and restoring NuGet package dependencies. It uses toolkit/cache under the hood to cache global packages data but requires less configuration settings. By default, caching is turned off.

- uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
  with:
    dotnet-version: 6.x
    cache: true
- run: dotnet restore --locked-mode

Note: This action will only restore global-packages folder, so you will probably get the NU1403 error when running dotnet restore. To avoid this, you can use DisableImplicitNuGetFallbackFolder option.

<PropertyGroup>
  <DisableImplicitNuGetFallbackFolder>true</DisableImplicitNuGetFallbackFolder>
</PropertyGroup>

How to Cache NuGet Packages and Reduce Cache Size Using setup-dotnet Action​

The setup-dotnet action includes built-in functionality for caching and restoring NuGet package dependencies. You can also reduce the cache size by using the NUGET_PACKAGES environment variable, especially useful when some action runners already have large libraries (e.g., Xamarin).

env:
  NUGET_PACKAGES: ${{ github.workspace }}/.nuget/packages
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
  with:
    dotnet-version: 6.x
    cache: true
- run: dotnet restore --locked-mode

How to Cache NuGet Packages in Monorepos Using setup-dotnet Action​

The setup-dotnet action includes built-in functionality for caching and restoring NuGet package dependencies. In monorepos, you can specify multiple dependency paths for caching.

env:
  NUGET_PACKAGES: ${{ github.workspace }}/.nuget/packages
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
  with:
    dotnet-version: 6.x
    cache: true
    cache-dependency-path: subdir/packages.lock.json
- run: dotnet restore --locked-mode

How to Set Up Authentication for NuGet Feeds Using GitHub Actions​

This guide will show you how to set up authentication for NuGet feeds, specifically for GitHub Package Registry (GPR), using GitHub Actions. This setup allows you to authenticate and publish your .NET packages to GPR securely.

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
  with:
    dotnet-version: '3.1.x'
    source-url: https://nuget.pkg.github.com/<owner>/index.json
  env:
    NUGET_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN}}
- run: dotnet build <my project>
- name: Create the package
  run: dotnet pack --configuration Release <my project>
- name: Publish the package to GPR
  run: dotnet nuget push <my project>/bin/Release/*.nupkg