action-cpp

Reusable GitHub Actions shared across the Cucumber C++ projects.

install-cpp-dep

Checks out a Cucumber C++ sub-project at a given ref, builds it with a CMake workflow preset, and installs it so downstream projects find it via find_package(). This replaces the copy-pasted "Checkout + Build and install cucumber_*" step pairs currently duplicated across every test-cpp.yaml job.

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
dependency	yes	—	File containing owner/name@<40-character commit> with an optional # comment.
working-directory	yes	—	Directory in which the dependency file is read.
path	no	<name>-src	Checkout directory. Defaults to the repo name + -src.
preset	no	host-system	CMake workflow preset used to build the dependency.

Inputs are passed to commands as literal data, not executable shell source. The resolved repository, commit and checkout path must not contain CR or LF; multiline values (including multiple matching dependency references) fail before checkout outputs are written. Preset names remain subject to CMake's rules.

Usage

A downstream workflow references it by owner/repo@ref. For example, query's test-cpp.yaml only needs to declare its direct dependency — messages:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v7
    with:
      persist-credentials: false

  # ... install system packages (nlohmann-json, gtest, ...) ...

  - name: Install cucumber_messages
    uses: cucumber/action-cpp/install-cpp-dep@v1
    with:
      dependency: dependencies/messages.version
      working-directory: .

  - name: Build and unit test
    working-directory: cpp
    run: cmake --workflow --preset test-system

pretty-formatter, which depends on query (and transitively messages), would add one call per dependency it builds:

  - name: Install cucumber_messages
    uses: cucumber/action-cpp/install-cpp-dep@v1
    with:
      dependency: dependencies/messages.version
      working-directory: .

  - name: Install cucumber_query
    uses: cucumber/action-cpp/install-cpp-dep@v1
    with:
      dependency: dependencies/query.version
      working-directory: .

For example, dependencies/messages.version contains:

cucumber/messages@e85a9eaf3fa3787c25bc62b6ea67672e709ee4fa # v34.2.1

Keeping the pinned refs up to date with Renovate

Dependency files contain plain git commits. Configure a Renovate custom manager for these files in the downstream repository (or centrally in cucumber/renovate-config), for example:

{
  "customManagers": [
    {
      "customType": "regex",
      "managerFilePatterns": ["/^dependencies/.+\\.version$/"],
      "matchStrings": [
        "(?<depName>[0-9a-z]+/[0-9a-z]+)@(?<currentDigest>[0-9a-f]{40})"
      ],
      "datasourceTemplate": "git-refs",
      "packageNameTemplate": "https://github.com/{{{depName}}}",
      "currentValueTemplate": "main"
    }
  ]
}

This follows the repository's main branch.

The actions/checkout pin inside install-cpp-dep/action.yml is handled automatically by Renovate's built-in github-actions manager — no annotation required.

Regression tests

Run python -m pip install -r tests/requirements.txt, then python -m unittest discover -s tests -v from this repository. The tests execute the action scripts with stubbed commands; they do not install dependencies or invoke real sudo. PowerShell tests require pwsh and are skipped when it is unavailable. On Windows, set ACTION_TEST_BASH to the Git Bash executable. CI runs the tests on Linux and Windows.