Nixpkgs¶

Since: v1.19

After releasing to GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea, GoReleaser can generate and publish a nixpkg to a Nix User Repository.

The nix section specifies how the pkgs should be created:

# .goreleaser.yaml
nix:
  - #
    # Name of the recipe
    #
    # Default: ProjectName
    # Templates: allowed
    name: myproject

    # IDs of the archives to use.
    # Empty means all IDs.
    ids:
      - foo
      - bar

    # GOAMD64 to specify which amd64 version to use if there are multiple
    # versions from the build section.
    #
    # Default: v1
    goamd64: v1

    # URL which is determined by the given Token (github, gitlab or gitea).
    #
    # Default depends on the client.
    # Templates: allowed
    url_template: "https://github.mycompany.com/foo/bar/releases/download/{{ .Tag }}/{{ .ArtifactName }}"

    # Git author used to commit to the repository.
    commit_author:
      name: goreleaserbot
      email: [email protected]

    # The project name and current git tag are used in the format string.
    #
    # Templates: allowed
    commit_msg_template: "{{ .ProjectName }}: {{ .Tag }}"

    # Path for the file inside the repository.
    #
    # Default: pkgs/<name>/default.nix
    # Templates: allowed
    path: pkgs/foo.nix

    # Your app's homepage.
    #
    # Templates: allowed
    homepage: "https://example.com/"

    # Your app's description.
    #
    # Templates: allowed
    description: "Software to create fast and easy drum rolls."

    # License name.
    license: "mit"

    # Setting this will prevent goreleaser to actually try to commit the updated
    # package - instead, it will be stored on the dist directory only,
    # leaving the responsibility of publishing it to the user.
    #
    # If set to auto, the release will not be uploaded to the repository
    # in case there is an indicator for prerelease in the tag e.g. v1.0.0-rc1
    #
    # Templates: allowed
    skip_upload: true

    # Runtime dependencies of the package.
    #
    # Since: v1.20
    dependencies:
    - zsh
    - chromium
    - name: bash
      os: linux
    - name: fish
      os: darwin

    # Custom install script.
    #
    # Default: 'mkdir -p $out/bin; cp -vr $binary $out/bin/$binary', and
    #   `makeWrapper` if `dependencies` were provided.
    # Templates: allowed
    install: |
      mkdir -p $out/bin
      cp -vr ./foo $out/bin/foo

    # Custom additional install instructions.
    # This has the advantage of preventing you to rewrite the `install` script
    # if the defaults work for you.
    #
    # Since: v1.20
    # Templates: allowed
    extra_install: |
      installManPage ./manpages/foo.1.gz

    # Custom post_install script.
    # Could be used to do any additional work after the "install" script
    #
    # Templates: allowed
    post_install: |
      installShellCompletion ./completions/*

    # Repository to push the generated files to.
    repository:
      # Repository owner.
      #
      # Templates: allowed
      owner: caarlos0

      # Repository name.
      #
      # Templates: allowed
      name: my-repo

      # Optionally a branch can be provided.
      #
      # Default: default repository branch
      # Templates: allowed
      branch: main

      # Optionally a token can be provided, if it differs from the token
      # provided to GoReleaser
      # Templates: allowed
      token: "{{ .Env.GITHUB_PERSONAL_AUTH_TOKEN }}"

      # Sets up pull request creation instead of just pushing to the given branch.
      # Make sure the 'branch' property is different from base before enabling
      # it.
      #
      # Since: v1.17
      pull_request:
        # Whether to enable it or not.
        enabled: true

        # Whether to open the PR as a draft or not.
        #
        # Since: v1.19
        draft: true

        # If the pull request template has checkboxes, enabling this will
        # check all of them.
        #
        # This feature is only available in GoReleaser Pro.
        # Since: v1.20 (pro)
        check_boxes: true

        # Base can also be another repository, in which case the owner and name
        # above will be used as HEAD, allowing cross-repository pull requests.
        #
        # Since: v1.19
        base:
          owner: goreleaser
          name: my-repo
          branch: main

      # Clone, create the file, commit and push, to a regular Git repository.
      #
      # Notice that this will only have any effect if the given URL is not
      # empty.
      #
      # Since: v1.18
      git:
        # The Git URL to push.
        #
        # Templates: allowed
        url: 'ssh://[email protected]:repo.git'

        # The SSH private key that should be used to commit to the Git
        # repository.
        # This can either be a path or the key contents.
        #
        # IMPORTANT: the key must not be password-protected.
        #
        # WARNING: do not expose your private key in the configuration file!
        #
        # Templates: allowed
        private_key: '{{ .Env.PRIVATE_KEY_PATH }}'

        # The value to be passed to `GIT_SSH_COMMAND`.
        # This is mainly used to specify the SSH private key used to pull/push
        # to the Git URL.
        #
        # Default: 'ssh -i {{ .KeyPath }} -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new -F /dev/null'
        # Templates: allowed
        ssh_command: 'ssh -i {{ .Env.KEY }} -o SomeOption=yes'

Tip

Learn more about the name template engine.

Things not supported¶

Generating packages that compile from source (using buildGoModule)
Generating packages when archives.format is binary

Dependencies¶

`nix-prefetch-url`¶

The nix-prefetch-url binary must be available in the $PATH for the publishing to work.

GitHub Actions¶

To publish a package from one repository to another using GitHub Actions, you cannot use the default action token. You must use a separate token with content write privileges for the tap repository. You can check the resource not accessible by integration for more information.

Setting up a NUR¶

To set up a Nix User Repository, follow the instructions in their repository.

Then, you'll need to:

publish a release with GoReleaser: it should create the package at ./pkgs/{name}/default.nix or whatever path you set it up to
make sure ./flake.nix is correct with what you want, especially the systems bit
add your package to ./default.nix
edit your README.md removing the template stuff

That's it!

Pull Requests¶

Since v1.17

GoReleaser allows you to, instead of pushing directly to the main branch, push to a feature branch, and open a pull requests with the changes.

Templates¶

Since v1.19

GoReleaser will check for a .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md, and set it in the pull request body if it exists.

We do that to prevent extra work for maintainers of things like winget-pkgs, nixpkgs, and so on.

Cross-repository pull requests¶

Since v1.19

You can also push to a fork, and open the pull request in the original branch.

Here's an example on how to set it up:

# .goreleaser.yml
# ...
something: # can be nix, brews, etc...
  - repository:
      owner: john
      name: repo
      branch: "{{.ProjectName}}-{{.Version}}"
      pull_request:
        enabled: true
        base:
          owner: mike
          name: repo
          branch: main

This will:

Try to sync the john/repo fork with mike/repo:main (if on GitHub).
Create the files into john/repo, in the branch foo-1.2.3 (assuming ProjectName=foo and Version=1.2.3). ¹
Open a pull request from john/repo into mike/repo, with the branch main as target. ²

Things that don't work¶

Opening pull requests to a forked repository (go-github does not have the required fields to do it).
Since this can fail for a myriad of reasons, if an error happen, it'll log it to the release output, but will not fail the pipeline.

In GitHub's terms, this means head=john:repo:foo-1.2.3 ↩
In GitHub's terms, this means base=mike:repo:main ↩