40Ants-CI - Github Workflow Generator

This is a small utility, which can generate GitHub workflows for Common Lisp projects.

It generates workflow for running tests and building docs. These workflows use 40ants/run-tests and 40ants/build-docs actions and SBLint to check code for compilation errors.

40ANTS-CI ASDF System Details

• Version: 0.10.1

• Description: A tool simplify continuous deployment for Common Lisp projects.

• Licence: BSD

• Author: Alexander Artemenko

• Homepage: https://40ants.com/ci/

• Source control: GIT

Reasons to Use

• This system hides all entrails related to caching.

• Includes a few ready to use job types.

• Custom job types can be defined and distributed as separate ASDF systems.

• You don't have to write YAML anymore!

Quickstart

This system allows you to define workflows in the lisp code. The best way is to make these definitions a part of your ASDF system. This way 40ants-ci will be able to automatically understand for which system it builds a workflow.

Each workflow consists of jobs and each job is a number of steps.

There are three predefine types of jobs and you can create your own. Predefined jobs allows to reuse steps in multiple CL libraries.

In next examples, I'll presume you are writing code in a file which is the part of the package inferred ASDF system EXAMPLE/CI. A file should have the following header:

(defpackage #:example/ci
  (:use #:cl)
  (:import-from #:40ants-ci/workflow
                #:defworkflow)
  (:import-from #:40ants-ci/jobs/linter)
  (:import-from #:40ants-ci/jobs/run-tests)
  (:import-from #:40ants-ci/jobs/docs))

Job Types

Linter

The simplest job type is linter. It loads a

(defworkflow linter
  :on-pull-request t
  :jobs ((40ants-ci/jobs/linter:linter)))

When you'll hit C-c C-c on this definition, it will generate .github/workflows/linter.yml with following content:

{
  "name": "LINTER",
  "on": {
    "pull_request": null
  },
  "jobs": {
    "linter": {
      "runs-on": "ubuntu-latest",
      "env": {
        "OS": "ubuntu-latest",
        "QUICKLISP_DIST": "quicklisp",
        "LISP": "sbcl-bin"
      },
      "steps": [
        {
          "name": "Checkout Code",
          "uses": "actions/checkout@v3"
        },
        {
          "name": "Setup Common Lisp Environment",
          "uses": "40ants/setup-lisp@v2",
          "with": {
            "asdf-system": "example"
          }
        },
        {
          "name": "Install SBLint",
          "run": "qlot exec ros install cxxxr/sblint",
          "shell": "bash"
        },
        {
          "name": "Run Linter",
          "run": "qlot exec sblint example.asd",
          "shell": "bash"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Here you can see, a few steps in the job:

1. Checkout the code.

2. Install Roswell & Qlot using 40ants/setup-lisp action.

3. Install SBLint.

4. Run linter for example.asd.

Another interesting thing is that this workflow automatically uses ubuntu-latest OS, Quicklisp and sbcl-bin Lisp implementation. Later I'll show you how to redefine these settings.

Critic

This job is similar to linter, but instead of SBLint it runs Lisp Critic.

Lisp Critic is a program which advices how to make you Common Lisp code more idiomatic, readable and performant. Also, sometimes it might catch logical errors in the code.

Here is how you can add this job type in your workflow:

(defworkflow ci
  :on-pull-request t
  :jobs ((40ants-ci/jobs/critic:critic)))

Also, you might combine this job together with others, for example, with linter:

(defworkflow ci
  :on-pull-request t
  :jobs ((40ants-ci/jobs/linter:linter)
         (40ants-ci/jobs/critic:critic)))

and they will be executed in parallel. See docs on 40ants-ci/jobs/critic:critic function to learn about supported arguments.

Running Tests

Another interesting job type is 40ants-ci/jobs/run-tests:run-tests (1 2).

When using this job type, make sure, your system runs tests on (ASDF:TEST-SYSTEM :system-name) call and signals error if something went wrong.

(defworkflow ci
  :on-push-to "master"
  :by-cron "0 10 * * 1"
  :on-pull-request t
  :jobs ((40ants-ci/jobs/run-tests:run-tests
          :coverage t)))

Here I've added a few options to the workflow:

• by-cron - sets a schedule.

• on-push-to - defines a branch or branches to track.

It will generate .github/workflows/ci.yml with following content:

{
  "name": "CI",
  "on": {
    "push": {
      "branches": [
        "master"
      ]
    },
    "pull_request": null,
    "schedule": [
      {
        "cron": "0 10 * * 1"
      }
    ]
  },
  "jobs": {

    "run-tests": {
      "runs-on": "ubuntu-latest",
      "env": {
        "OS": "ubuntu-latest",
        "QUICKLISP_DIST": "quicklisp",
        "LISP": "sbcl-bin"
      },
      "steps": [
        {
          "name": "Checkout Code",
          "uses": "actions/checkout@v3"
        },
        {
          "name": "Setup Common Lisp Environment",
          "uses": "40ants/setup-lisp@v2",
          "with": {
            "asdf-system": "example"
          }
        },
        {
          "name": "Run Tests",
          "uses": "40ants/run-tests@v2",
          "with": {
            "asdf-system": "example",
            "coveralls-token": "${{ secrets.github_token }}"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

The result is similar to the workflow generated for Linter, but uses 40ants/setup-lisp action at the final step.

Also, I've passed an option :coverage t to the job. Thus coverage report will be uploaded to Coveralls.io automatically.

Defining a test Matrix

Lisp has many implementations and can be used on multiple platforms. Thus it is a good idea to test our software on many combinations of OS and lisp implementations. Workflow generator makes this very easy.

Here is an example of workflow definition with three dimentional matrix. It not only tests a library under different lisps and OS, but also checks if it works with the latest Quicklisp and Ultralisp distributions:

(defworkflow ci
  :on-pull-request t
  :jobs ((run-tests
          :os ("ubuntu-latest"
               "macos-latest")
          :quicklisp ("quicklisp"
                      "ultralisp")
          :lisp ("sbcl-bin"
                 "ccl-bin"
                 "allegro"
                 "clisp"
                 "cmucl")
          :exclude (;; Seems allegro is does not support 64bit OSX.
                    ;; Unable to install it using Roswell:
                    ;; alisp is not executable. Missing 32bit glibc?
                    (:os "macos-latest" :lisp "allegro")))))

Multiple jobs

Besides a build matrix, you might specify a multiple jobs of the same type, but with different parameters:

(defworkflow ci
  :on-push-to "master"
  :on-pull-request t
  :jobs ((run-tests
          :lisp "sbcl-bin")
         (run-tests
          :lisp "ccl-bin")
         (run-tests
          :lisp "allegro")))

This will generate a workflow with three jobs: "run-tests", "run-tests-2" and "run-tests-3".

Meaningful names might be specified as well:

(defworkflow ci
  :on-push-to "master"
  :on-pull-request t
  :jobs ((run-tests
          :name "test-on-sbcl"
          :lisp "sbcl-bin")
         (run-tests
          :name "test-on-ccl"
          :lisp "ccl-bin")
         (run-tests
          :name "test-on-allegro"
          :lisp "allegro")))

Here is how these jobs will look like in the GitHub interface:

Building Docs

Third predefined job type is 40ants-ci/jobs/docs:build-docs (1 2). It uses 40ants/build-docs action and will work only if your ASDF system uses a documentation builder supported by 40ants/docs-builder.

To build docs on every push to master, just use this code:

(defworkflow docs
  :on-push-to "master"
  :jobs ((40ants-ci/jobs/docs:build-docs)))

It will generate .github/workflows/docs.yml with following content:

{
  "name": "DOCS",
  "on": {
    "push": {
      "branches": [
        "master"
      ]
    }
  },
  "jobs": {
    "build-docs": {
      "runs-on": "ubuntu-latest",
      "env": {
        "OS": "ubuntu-latest",
        "QUICKLISP_DIST": "quicklisp",
        "LISP": "sbcl-bin"
      },
      "steps": [
        {
          "name": "Checkout Code",
          "uses": "actions/checkout@v3"
        },
        {
          "name": "Setup Common Lisp Environment",
          "uses": "40ants/setup-lisp@v2",
          "with": {
            "asdf-system": "example",
            "qlfile-template": ""
          }
        },
        {
          "name": "Build Docs",
          "uses": "40ants/build-docs@v1",
          "with": {
            "asdf-system": "example"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Caching

To significantly speed up our tests, we can cache installed Roswell, Qlot and Common Lisp fasl files.

To accomplish this task, you don't need to dig into GitHub's docs anymore! Just add one line :cache t to your workflow definition:

(defworkflow docs
  :on-push-to "master"
  :cache t
  :jobs ((40ants-ci/jobs/docs:build-docs)))

Here is the diff of the generated workflow file. It shows steps, added automatically:

modified   .github/workflows/docs.yml
@@ -20,13 +20,40 @@
           "name": "Checkout Code",
           "uses": "actions/checkout@v3"
         },
+        {
+          "name": "Grant All Perms to Make Cache Restoring Possible",
+          "run": "sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/roswell\n                 sudo chown \"${USER}\" /usr/local/etc/roswell\n                 # Here the ros binary will be restored:\n                 sudo chown \"${USER}\" /usr/local/bin",
+          "shell": "bash"
+        },
+        {
+          "name": "Get Current Month",
+          "id": "current-month",
+          "run": "echo \"::set-output name=value::$(date -u \"+%Y-%m\")\"",
+          "shell": "bash"
+        },
+        {
+          "name": "Cache Roswell Setup",
+          "id": "cache",
+          "uses": "actions/cache@v3",
+          "with": {
+            "path": "qlfile\n                           qlfile.lock\n                           /usr/local/bin/ros\n                           ~/.cache/common-lisp/\n                           ~/.roswell\n                           /usr/local/etc/roswell\n                           .qlot",
+            "key": "${{ steps.current-month.outputs.value }}-${{ env.cache-name }}-ubuntu-latest-quicklisp-sbcl-bin-${{ hashFiles('qlfile.lock') }}"
+          }
+        },
+        {
+          "name": "Restore Path To Cached Files",
+          "run": "echo $HOME/.roswell/bin >> $GITHUB_PATH\n                 echo .qlot/bin >> $GITHUB_PATH",
+          "shell": "bash",
+          "if": "steps.cache.outputs.cache-hit == 'true'"
+        },
         {
           "name": "Setup Common Lisp Environment",
           "uses": "40ants/setup-lisp@v2",
           "with": {
             "asdf-system": "40ants-ci",
             "qlfile-template": ""
-          }
+          },
+          "if": "steps.cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'"
         },
         {

Details

TODO: I have to write a few chapters with details on additional job's parameters and a way how to create new job types.