actions-setup-perl

This action sets by perl environment for use in actions by:

• optionally downloading and caching a version of perl
• registering problem matchers for error output

Usage

See action.yml

Basic:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: shogo82148/actions-setup-perl@v1
    with:
      perl-version: "5.38"
  - run: cpanm --installdeps .
  - run: prove -lv t

Install CPAN Modules from cpanfile and cache them:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: shogo82148/actions-setup-perl@v1
    with:
      perl-version: "5.38"
      install-modules-with: cpanm
      install-modules-args: --with-develop --with-configure
  - run: prove -lv t

Matrix Testing:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: ["ubuntu-latest", "macos-latest", "windows-latest"]
        perl: ["5.38", "5.36", "5.34"]
    name: Perl ${{ matrix.perl }} on ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up perl
        uses: shogo82148/actions-setup-perl@v1
        with:
          perl-version: ${{ matrix.perl }}
      - run: perl -V
      - run: cpanm --installdeps .
      - run: prove -lv t

Use Strawberry Perl on Windows

actions-setup-perl uses the binaries customized for GitHub Actions by default. If you want to use Strawberry Perl on Windows, add distribution: strawberry into the "with" section.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: shogo82148/actions-setup-perl@v1
    with:
      perl-version: "5.32"
      distribution: strawberry
  - run: cpanm --installdeps .
  - run: prove -lv t

This option is available on Windows and falls back to the default customized binaries on other platforms.

Supported Platforms

The action works for GitHub-hosted runners.

Operating System	Supported Versions
Linux	ubuntu-20.04, ubuntu-22.04, ubuntu-24.04
macOS	macos-13, macos-14, macos-15
Windows	windows-2019, windows-2022

Self-hosted runners are not supported.

Action inputs

All inputs are optional. If not set, sensible defaults will be used.

perl-version

Specifies the Perl version to setup. Minor version and patch level can be omitted. The action uses the latest Perl version available that matches the specified value. This defaults to 5, which results in the latest available version of Perl 5. In addition, the value latest is available, the actions uses the latest available version of Perl including 5, 7 or later major versions.

perl-version-file

Specifies the path to the version file such as .perl-version.

distribution

Specify the distribution to use, this is either default or strawberry. (The value strawberry is ignored on anything but Windows.)

• Default: default

multi-thread

Enables interpreter-based threads (ithread) options (-Duseithreads). true and false are accepted.

• Default: depends on platform. On Linux and macOS, the default value is "false" (ithread is disabled). On Windows, the default value is "true" (ithread is enable) for fork emulation.

install-modules-with

Install CPAN modules from your cpanfile with the specified installer. cpanm(App::cpanminus), cpm(App::cpm), and carton(Carton) are available. CPAN modules is installed into ${working-directory}/local/.

• Default: Nothing. Any CPAN module is not installed.

install-modules-args

The argument for CPAN module installer.

• Default: Nothing

install-modules

List of one or more CPAN modules, separated by white spaces (space or new line). They are installed local directory on your working directory.

• Default: Nothing

enable-modules-cache

Enable caching of the local directory at the root of the working directory. true enables the cache and false disables it. The cache key will be generated by hashing the contents of cpanfile in the repository root. This is intended for preserving locally installed modules between builds, which reduces build times. See Caching dependencies to speed up workflows for more information.

Warning: If your repository does not use a cpanfile or if it uses a subdirectory named local for a different purpose, you probably want to set this option to false to prevent old files from being cached unexpectedly between builds.

• Default: true

working-directory

The working directory.

• Default: .

Action outputs

perl-version

The perl version actually installed. (e.g. "5.38.2")

perl-hash

The digest of perl -V. It is useful for the cache key, because this value vary the platform, the version of perl, the compiler option for building perl, etc.

Supported Shells

The GitHub runner come with a preinstalled version of Perl, used by the system Git. Unfortunately, some shell types prepend the directory containing the system Perl to the PATH which makes it impossible to use the Perl installed by this action.

shell parameter	Linux	macOS	Windows (default)	Windows (Strawberry)
bash	✔️	✔️	❌1)	❌1)
pwsh	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
python	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
sh	✔️	✔️	n/a	n/a
cmd	n/a	n/a	✔️	✔️
powershell	n/a	n/a	✔️	✔️
custom shell perl {0}	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️

1. On Windows, the bash shell always gets /usr/bin prepended to the PATH which contains the system Perl.

Pre-installed Scripts

The following Perl scripts are pre-installed for convenience.

• carton
• cpanm
• cpm

Pre-installed Modules

CPAN Modules

• JSON
• Cpanel::JSON::XS
• JSON::XS
• JSON::MaybeXS
• YAML
• YAML::Tiny
• YAML::XS
• Net::SSLeay
• IO::Socket::SSL
• Mozilla::CA
• Win32 (installed from CPAN in perl 5.8.3 or earlier. From perl 5.8.4, it is installed as a core module.)

Actions::Core

Perl port of @actions/core.

SYNOPSIS

use Actions::Core;

# Inputs/Outputs
my $input = get_input('inputName', { required: true });
my $boolean_input = get_boolean_input('boolean-input'); # accepts YAML 1.2 boolean values.
set_output('outputKey', 'outputVal');

# Exporting variables
export_variable('envVar', 'Val');

# Setting a secret
set_secret('myPassword');

# PATH Manipulation
add_path('/path/to/mytool');

# Exit codes
set_failed(`Action failed with error ${err}`);

# Logging
debug('debug message');
if (is_debug()) {
  # print verbose log
}
info('Output to the actions build log');

# Annotation
error('error')
warning('warning');
notice('notice');
notice('add an annotation to files', {
  title => 'Title',
  file => 'filename.txt',
  start_line   => 1,
  end_line     => 1,
  start_column => 1,
  end_column   => 10,
});

# Manually wrap output
start_group('Do some function');
do_some_function();
end_group();

# Summary
use Actions::Core::Summary;
Actions::Core::Summary->new()
  ->add_raw("some text")
  ->add_code_block("print 'Hello';", "perl")
  ->add_list(['item1', 'item2', 'item3'])
  ->add_table([['1', '2', '3'], ['one', 'two', 'three']])
  ->add_separator()
  ->add_heading('heading')
  ->add_details('label', 'content')
  ->add_image('https://github.com/actions.png', 'alt', { width => "32", height => "32" })
  ->add_quote('text', 'cite')
  ->add_link("Example", "http://example.com")
  ->write();

# Wrap Subroutines
my $result = group 'Do something async' => sub {
  return 'some results';
};

# Custom Functions of actions-setup-perl
# List Available Perl Versions
my @available_perls_on_current_platform = perl_versions(); # ('5.34.0', '5.32.1', '5.30.3', '5.28.3', ...)
my @available_perls_on_linux   = perl_versions(platform => 'linux');
my @available_perls_on_darwin  = perl_versions(platform => 'darwin');
my @available_perls_on_win32   = perl_versions(platform => 'win32');
my @available_strawberry_perls = perl_versions(platform => 'win32', distribution => 'strawberry');
my @including_patch_versions   = perl_versions(patch => 1); # ('5.34.0', '5.32.1', '5.32.0', '5.30.3', '5.30.2', ...)

List Available Perl Versions

Example matrix workflow of using perl_versions:

jobs:
  list:
    name: list available perl versions
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: shogo82148/actions-setup-perl@v1
      - id: set-matrix
        name: list available perl versions
        shell: perl {0}
        run: |
          use Actions::Core;
          set_output(matrix => {perl => [perl_versions()]});
    outputs:
      matrix: ${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.matrix }}

  run:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: list
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix: ${{fromJson(needs.list.outputs.matrix)}}
    steps:
      - uses: shogo82148/actions-setup-perl@v1
        with:
          perl-version: ${{ matrix.perl }}
      # do something

Known Issues

• On Windows, shell: bash steps continue to use the system perl #328

License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License

The Raptor in social-preview.svg is licensed under the CC-SA License, Version 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Copyright (C) 2012, Sebastian Riedel. https://github.com/kraih/perl-raptor