nix-shell-action

Run any command you like in a deterministic Nix shell on Linux and macOS.

Usage

Create shell.nix in your repo, for example

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
  pkgs.mkShell {
    # nativeBuildInputs is usually what you want -- tools you need to run
    nativeBuildInputs = with pkgs; [ which nodejs python39 perl ];
}

Create .github/workflows/test.yml in your repo with the following contents:

name: "Test"
on:
  pull_request:
  push:
jobs:
  tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - uses: cachix/install-nix-action@v14.1
      with:
        nix_path: nixpkgs=channel:nixos-unstable
    - uses: dx-oss/nix-shell-action@v11
      with:
        script: |
          which node
    - uses: dx-oss/nix-shell-action@v11
      with:
        interpreter: python3
        script: |
          print("hello world from python")
    - uses: dx-oss/nix-shell-action@v11
      with:
        interpreter: perl
        file: shell.nix
        script: |
          use warnings;
          print("Hello, World! from perl\n");

For now, this action implicitly depends on having Nix installed and set up correctly, such as through the install-nix-action demonstrated in the examples above.

See also cachix-action for a simple binary cache setup to speed up your builds and share binaries with developers.

Options with: ...

• interpreter: Interpreter to use in the script, defaults to bash.

• file: nix-shell file, Defaults to shell.nix.

• script: The actual script to execute in your shell. Will be passed to the interpreter.

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Hacking

See https://github.com/actions/typescript-action