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🎉 GoReleaser v2.19 is out! with Zstandard settings, declarative Homebrew cask hooks, Nix without Nix, and more!

Nix User Repositories

After releasing to GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea, GoReleaser can generate and publish a nix derivation to an existing Nix User Repository.

The nix section specifies how the pkgs should be created:

.goreleaser.yaml
nix:
  - #
    # Name of the recipe
    #
    # Default: the project name.
    # 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 }}"

    # 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.
    # Default: inferred from global metadata.
    homepage: "https://example.com/"

    # Your app's description.
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    # Default: inferred from global metadata.
    description: "Software to create fast and easy drum rolls."

    # License name.
    #
    # Default: inferred from global metadata.
    license: "mit"

    # The name of the binary inside the package, used for `meta.mainProgram`
    # (which is what `nix run` invokes).
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    # 
Since v2.16
main_program: "drumroll" # 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. 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. # # 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/* # Format the generated file. # Valid options: 'nixfmt', 'alejandra'. # #
Since v2.14
formatter: nixfmt # 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, or '{{ .ProjectName }}-{{ .Version }}' # when 'pull_request.enabled' is true.
Since v2.17
# 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 }}" # Optionally specify if this is a token from another SCM, allowing to # cross-publish. # # Only taken into account if `token` is set. # # Valid options: # - 'github' # - 'gitlab' # - 'gitea' # # This feature is only available in GoReleaser Pro. token_type: "github" # 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. # # This might require a personal access token. pull_request: # Whether to enable it or not. enabled: true # Whether to open the PR as a draft or not. draft: true # An optional token that can be provided for opening the pull request. # # Templates: allowed. #
Since v2.18
token: "{{ .Env.GITHUB_PERSONAL_AUTH_TOKEN }}" # If the pull request template has checkboxes, enabling this will # check all of them. # # This feature is only available in GoReleaser Pro, and when the pull # request is being opened on GitHub. check_boxes: true # Allows to set a body for the pull request. # If the repository has a pull request template, it will be appended to # this. # #
Since v2.12
body: | cc/ @foobar # Base can also be another repository, in which case the owner and name # above will be used as HEAD, allowing cross-repository pull requests. 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. 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' # Git author used to commit to the repository. # #
Since v2.11
# Default: inferred from global metadata.
Since v2.12
commit_author: # Git author name. # # Templates: allowed. name: goreleaserbot # Git author email. # # Templates: allowed. email: [email protected] # Git commit signing configuration. # Only useful if repository is of type 'git'. # #
Since v2.11
signing: # Enable commit signing. enabled: true # The signing key to use. # Can be a key ID, fingerprint, email address, or path to a key file. # # Templates: allowed. key: "{{ .Env.GPG_SIGNING_KEY }}" # The GPG program to use for signing. # # Templates: allowed. program: gpg2 # The signature format to use. # # Valid options: openpgp, x509, ssh. # Default: openpgp. format: openpgp
Learn more about the template language.

Things not supported

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

Dependencies

nix-hash

Since v2.19.

GoReleaser now hashes the artifacts itself, so nix-hash no longer needs to be in the $PATH. Nothing in this pipe requires Nix to be installed any more.

On earlier versions, the nix-hash binary had to be available in the $PATH, and the pipe was skipped when it was missing.

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

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

When pull_request.enabled is true and you don’t set a branch, GoReleaser defaults it to {{ .ProjectName }}-{{ .Version }}, so each release opens its own branch and pull request instead of stacking onto the repository’s default branch.

Templates

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

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.yaml
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 happens, it’ll log it to the release output, but will not fail the pipeline.

  1. In GitHub’s terms, this means head=john:repo:foo-1.2.3 ↩︎

  2. In GitHub’s terms, this means base=mike:repo:main ↩︎

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