How do I call sile when using GitHub Actions integration

[khaledhosny]

I tried adding to my workflow file

   - name: The SILE Typesetter
      uses: sile-typesetter/[email protected]

But then my makefile can’t find sile (I need to use the makefile, since it does a bit of setup for the *.sil file). Any idea how to make sile available in the PATH when using it this way (if possible at all). I’m currently using the PPA version, and I was happy with it until I realized that it used an old HarfBuzz version that has a specific issue my project is hitting (so I really need an up to date HarfBuzz version)

[alerque]

The way the GitHub Action works it does not add sile to the path of the host container. It may be possible to setup a job that does that, but currently only the container based step is supported.

The best way to proceed probably depends on how much other work you need to do in various steps. The most likely two directions I see might be these (but there are other options, if you give me more info about what needs to happen I'll help find a way...)

1. Do your other work preparing the sil files first in other steps, then when the source file is ready to go, call the SILE action with the necessary path(s):

   - name: Prepare sources
     run: make source_file.sil
   - name: The SILE Typesetter
     uses: sile-typesetter/sile@v0
     with:
       args: source_file.sil

2. Use the SILE image as your host container for the runner and install your other dependencies inside it:

   container:
   runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
   image: sile-typesetter/sile@v0
     options: --entrypoint=bash
   steps:
   - name: Install dependencies
     run: pacman -S make
   - name: Build
     run: make

   In this scenario sile will be in the path and usable from your Makefile, but you will be in an Arch Linux container instead of an Ubuntu one.

   This method has the downside of not being able to run other GitHub action "steps" because the entire workflow is inside a docker container.

3. Run the SILE Docker build yourself by downloading the image into the default Ubuntu container yourself:

   container:
   runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
   steps:
   - name: Fetch sile
     run: docker pull ghcr.io/sile-typesetter/sile:v0
   - name: Build
     run: |
       export SILE="docker run --volume '$(pwd):/data' --user '$(id -u):$(id -g)' sile-typesetter/sile:v0
       make

   Of course you'd want to use $(SILE) instead of sile in your Makefile for this arrangement.

If you need more complex tooling, there are more options, just let me know what the needs are.

[alerque]

Also note I just noticed my shell quote nesting is probably wrong in example 3. It would depend on how you used it in the Makefile actually, and I did it that way because I often use ZSH with special expansion options but what is shown here probably won't work for bash. Use escaped double quotes (\") instead of the nested single quotes (') shown here.

[khaledhosny]

I’m completely new to docker, but docker pull ghcr.io/sile-typesetter/sile@v0 fails with invalid reference format both on CI an locally.

[alerque]

Sorry wrong separator for that context, use : not @ for the version. The GitHub Action YAML syntax for uses: uses at-sign separators, but Docker native commands use :.

[khaledhosny]

I ran into another issue, now with running SILE though docker the input device is not a TTY. I ended up using macOS on the CI, since that is what me and my collaborators use anyway (it is a font project, SILE is used to typeset sample files) and I get latest SILE and HarfBuzz from Homebrew. But I’ll keep the docker options if I need this for other projects.

[alerque]

Drop the -it flags from above, -i is interactive and -t is allocate a tty. Those are recommended for using the Docker image from a shell alias (where I copied from the readme), but are not appropriate for a CI job.

[simoncozens]

I'm a simple person. This is what my build.yaml looks like:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Set up Python 3.8
      uses: actions/setup-python@v2
      with:
        python-version: 3.8
    - name: Install Linux dependencies
      run: |
        sudo apt-get install libcairo2-dev libfreetype6-dev
        sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sile-typesetter/sile
        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get install sile
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --upgrade pip
        pip install -r requirements.txt
    - name: Build font
      run: |
        make
    - name: Build specimen & proof
      run: sile specimen/specimen.sil

[khaledhosny]

This is basically what I’m doing now, but gives me an old HarfBuzz that has a bug I’m hitting, so I’m looking for a way to get sike with a recent enough HarfBuzz.

[alerque]

The version of sile in the PPA that you get this way is compiled against the matching Ubuntu version's system Harfbuzz, which is, um, chronically out of date. Using the Docker images mentioned in my alternatives above will get you whatever version of Harfbuzz was current on Arch Linux at the time of the SILE release. Arch Linux usually bumps Harfbuzz within about 24 hours of releases, so that's pretty current. As of the SILE v0.12.2 images being built it was Harfbuzz 3.2.0.

There are actually at least two relatively easy ways to get a Github Action or other CI workflow to run using SILE with even newer Harfbuzz versions than it was originally released with WITHOUT even having to compile either yourself, one way using Arch Linux and one way using Nix. If you ever need those tricks feel free to ping me.

[alerque]

It might be water under the bridge for your current workflow; but in case it is relevant the Docker image for v0.12.3 was built with Harfbuzz 3.4.0 and the just released v0.12.4 build has Harfbuzz 4.0.0.

[khaledhosny]

Thanks!