Testing Perl on Windows with github actions - windows

Question

I've released MooseX::Extended to the CPAN (github repository here).
I'm trying to set up github actions and the linux tests run just fine. However, (Windows is failing with this error:
Configuring true-v1.0.2 ... OK
==> Found dependencies: Function::Parameters
--> Working on Function::Parameters
Fetching http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/M/MA/MAUKE/Function-Parameters-2.001003.tar.gz ... OK
Configuring Function-Parameters-2.001003 ... OK
Building Function-Parameters-2.001003 ... OK
Successfully installed Function-Parameters-2.001003
! Installing true failed. See C:\Users\RUNNER~1\.cpanm\work\1653412748.5640\build.log for details. Retry with --force to force install it.
Building true-v1.0.2 ... FAIL
Of course, I can't see that C:\Users\RUNNER~1\.cpanm\work\1653412748.5640\build.log to understand what happened.
The true module passes its CPAN testers tests on Windows, so I don't know why it's failing in Github Actions.
My workflow looks like this:
# Hacked from https://github.com/skaji/perl-github-actions-sample/blob/master/.github/workflows/windows.yml
# See also: https://perlmaven.com/github-actions-running-on-3-operating-systems
name: windows
on:
push:
branches:
- '*'
tags-ignore:
- '*'
pull_request:
jobs:
perl:
runs-on: windows-latest
strategy:
fail-fast: false
matrix:
perl-version:
- '5.20'
- '5.22'
- '5.24'
- '5.26'
- '5.28'
- '5.30'
- '5.32'
- '5.34'
- 'latest'
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- name: Set up Perl
run: |
choco install strawberryperl
echo "C:\strawberry\c\bin;C:\strawberry\perl\site\bin;C:\strawberry\perl\bin" >> $GITHUB_PATH
- name: perl -V
run: perl -V
- name: Install Dependencies
run: curl -sL https://git.io/cpm | perl - install -g --show-build-log-on-failure Dist::Zilla
- name: Run Tests
run: |
dzil authordeps --missing | cpanm --notest
dzil listdeps --author --missing | cpanm --notest
dzil test --author --release
This is the PR to which the actions are attached.
I don't have access to a Windows box. Does anyone know what I missed?

Answer 1

Since GitHub Actions/Workflows uses a container for Windows that already has a version of Strawberry Perl pre-installed, it will not allow you to install any other version. You cannot remove the version of Perl that's pre-installed, and removing/installing a new one via Chocolatey is also next to impossible. If you re-install the version from Chocolatey that's already on the container, it seems to allow this, but it's basically a NOOP for you as a test setup.
The container also has MinGW installed; this can be bad for us as well. Having MinGW installed separately prevents XS modules from building (whether they be a dependency or if your own module is an XS module). Granted, this only happens if MinGW appears in the PATH ahead of your Perl install, but when you remove one Perl and add another, you're going to hit this problem.
To get around this, the best course of action is to remove the currently installed version of Perl from the PATH environment variable, along with their currently installed version of MinGW. Once both are safely out of the PATH, you can install a Portable[1] Strawberry Perl, put that Perl's paths in your PATH and begin testing with a fresh install of Strawberry Perl. GitHub recently broke our ability to do this directly in an Action YAML file.
That all sounds like a big headache, but it's really not. There's an Action available to us for this very purpose: actions-setup-perl. With this action you can easily test using any version of Perl you like. So, if you're hearing someone report a bug on Perl v5.26 on Windows, you can now add that to your matrix and test easily without the need for any back-and-forth from the user:
name: windows
on:
push:
branches:
- '*'
tags-ignore:
- '*'
pull_request:
jobs:
perl:
runs-on: windows-latest
strategy:
fail-fast: true
matrix:
perl-version:
- '5.30'
# - '5.28'
# - '5.26'
# - '5.24'
# - '5.22'
# - '5.20'
# - '5.18'
# - '5.16'
- '5.14'
steps:
- name: Setup perl
uses: shogo82148/actions-setup-perl#v1
with:
perl-version: ${{ matrix.perl-version }}
distribution: strawberry
- name: Set git to use LF
run: |
git config --global core.autocrlf false
git config --global core.eol lf
- uses: actions/checkout#v2
- name: perl -V
run: perl -V
- name: Ensure we have a working toolchain
run: cpanm ExtUtils::Manifest App::cpanminus
- name: Install Dependencies
run: cpanm -n --installdeps .
- name: Run Tests
run: cpanm --test-only -v .
[1] Portable versions of Strawberry Perl are zipped up, already compiled versions of Perl that do not require you to run an installer on Windows. This means that no heightened privileges are required, etc. You just unzip the archive in the directory you want to run Perl from, then add the relevant paths to Perl in your $env:PATH variable. It takes away any annoyances of build irregularities, etc. I've found it to be the most sane way to test on Windows.