setup-dlang

Automatically downloads and installs the D programming language compiler DMD or LDC and the package manager dub on Windows, Linux and OSX in a GitHub Action. Support for GDC is also available but only on Linux.

Usage

Basic usage:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: dlang-community/setup-dlang@v1
    with:
      compiler: dmd
  - name: Run tests
    run: dub test

Matrix testing:

name: Run all D Tests
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    name: Dub Tests
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macOS-13]
        dc: [dmd, ldc, dmd-2.085.0, ldc-1.17.0 ]
        exclude:
          - { os: macOS-13, dc: dmd-2.085.0 }

    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install D compiler
        uses: dlang-community/setup-dlang@v1
        with:
          compiler: ${{ matrix.dc }}

      - name: Run tests
        shell: bash
        run: dub -q test

The above example test 11 possible combinations: the latest dmd and latest ldc on all three platforms, ldc-1.17.0 on all three platforms, and dmd-2.085.0 on ubuntu-latest and windows-latest.

Gdc usage:

name: Run all D Tests
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    name: Dub Tests
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macOS-latest]
        dc: [dmd, ldc, gdc-12]
        # You have to exclude gdc configurations from non-linux OSes
        exclude:
          - { os: windows-latest, dc: gdc-12 }
          - { os: macOS-latest, dc: gdc-12 }
        # Or include them manually, optionally using gdmd instead of gdc
        include:
          - { os: ubuntu-latest, dc: gdmd }

    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install D compiler
        uses: dlang-community/setup-dlang@v1
        with:
          compiler: ${{ matrix.dc }}
          # dub doesn't come with gdc.
          # You wouldn't need the line below if only using dmd or ldc
          dub: latest

      - name: Run tests
        shell: bash
        run: dub -q test

Simply add the setup-dlang action to your GitHub Actions workflow to automatically download and install a D compiler and package manager bundled with the compiler or separately downloaded. The action will automatically add the D binaries to the PATH environment variable and set the DC environment variable to the selected compiler executable name.

Input to this action

Examples:

- uses: dlang-community/setup-dlang@v1
  with:
    compiler: dmd^3
    dub: 1.37.0

- uses: dlang-community/setup-dlang@v1
  with:
    compiler: gdmd-12
    # dub doesn't come with gdc
    dub: latest
    # Install gdmd from https://github.com/D-Programming-GDC/gdmd/blob/0a64b92ec5ad1177988496df4f3ca47c47580501/dmd-script
    gdmd_sha: '0a64b92ec5ad1177988496df4f3ca47c47580501'

compiler

The compiler field is used to specify which D compiler needs to be installed. It can be left empty, in which case the action picks dmd for x86_64 runners, or ldc for all the others. All the ways it can be specified are:

• dmd - install the latest release of dmd on https://downloads.dlang.org/releases/2.x/

• dmd-latest - same as above

• dmd-beta - install the latest pre-release of dmd on https://downloads.dlang.org/pre-releases/2.x/. If this version is lower than what would be installed if dmd-latest would have be specified then that version is installed instead.

• dmd-2.099.0 - install the version 2.099.0. You can browse https://downloads.dlang.org/releases/2.x/ to find all available versions.

• dmd-2.108.1-beta.1 - same as above, but installs a pre-release instead of a release. You can browse https://downloads.dlang.org/pre-releases/2.x/ to find all available versions.

• dmd-2.107 - install the highest version that has the minor component 107. Specifically this would install version 2.107.1. This may require that the action receives a github api token (it receives one by default so you don't need to bother with it unless doing something exotic).

• dmd-2.107b - same as above but also take into account pre-releases. Note that this form only matters when specifying the latest minor version available. Example: if version 2.108.1 is not releases but 2.108.1-rc.1 and 2.108.0 are, then 2.108b would install 2.108.1-rc.1 and 2.108 would install 2.108.0. This may require that the action receives a github api token.

• dmd^3 - install the version that is 3 versions before dmd-latest. This is useful if your project wants to guarantee support for a range of versions of dmd but you don't want to periodically go and update the version number. Example: if the latest released version is 2.109.0 then dmd^3 would install dmd-2.106, the final version is computed as described above. This may require that the action receives a github api token.

• dmd-master - install the latest nightly build as it appears on https://github.com/dlang/dmd/releases/nightly

• ldc - install the latest release of ldc from https://github.com/ldc-developers/ldc/releases

• ldc-latest - same as above

• ldc-beta - install the latest pre-release of ldc from https://github.com/ldc-developers/ldc/releases

• ldc-1.37.0 - install a specific version

• ldc-1.35.0-beta1 - same as above. You can browse https://github.com/ldc-developers/ldc/releases for a list of all releases.

• ldc-1.37 - same behavior as dmd-2.107, see above

• ldc-1.37b - see above

• ldc^3 - see above

• ldc-master - install the latest CI artifacts from https://github.com/ldc-developers/ldc/releases/CI. This may requires a github api token.

• gdc - install the apt package gdc

• gdc-12 - install the apt package gdc-12

• gdmd - install the apt packages gdc and gdmd

• gdmd-12 - install the apt packages gdc-12 and gdmd. The available versions of gdc you can install are the versions available in the ubuntu repositories. For ubuntu-22.04 (ubuntu-latest currently) those are gdc-12, gdc-11, and, gdc which corresponds to gdc-11. If in doubt check https://packages.ubuntu.com

Whatever compiler you specify you can expect that the environment variable $DC will be set to point to that compiler binary. Currently absolute paths are used but you shouldn't depend on it. The compiler bin folder is also added to $PATH so you can run programs like rdmd or dub without specifying full paths. Less useful but the library directory of the compiler is also added to $PATH on windows and LD_LIBRARY_PATH on linux and macos. The compilers are already configured to embed this path themselves so you really shouldn't have to consider this but know that it is set.

The distinction between gdc and gdmd is mostly what the $DC variable gets set to. The gdc program uses command line arguments that don't match the ones used by dmd or ldc. If your project uses these you can specify gdmd instead of gdc to get a more portable command line interface.

dub

If you need a specific version of dub or if the D compiler doesn't come with one (gdc) you can explicitly install one.

You can specify this version as:

• latest - install the latest version from https://github.com/dlang/dub/releases. This may require an api token.
• 1.24.0 - install https://github.com/dlang/dub/releases/tag/v1.24.0

gh_token

A github token used to perform queries to https://api.github.com. Check the compiler input for when this token is used. Github generates a token for each workflow run and this action will use that by default.

gdmd_sha

In case the gdmd script in the ubuntu repositories is too old you can specify a commit sha in https://github.com/D-Programming-GDC/gdmd and this action will use that to download a git version of the script.

Compiler support

DMD

All DMD versions of releases and pre-releases since 2.065.0 on https://downloads.dlang.org/releases/2.x/ and https://downloads.dlang.org/pre-releases/2.x/ are supported. Be aware that with the macos-latest (that currently resolve to macos-14) runners, the cpu architecture is arm64 and because of this dmd doesn't work on them.

DMD releases come with some extra tools like rdmd and dub. You are free to use them at your leisure.

LDC

All releases on https://github.com/ldc-developers/ldc/releases are available. Arm64 macos support in ldc begins with v1.25.0. Like dmd, ldc releases come with programs like rdmd and dub.

GDC

Gdc is currently only available on linux. The exact versions available are those in the ubuntu repos. Note that gdc won't come by default with any extra programs like rdmd or dub so you would need to install them separately or install another compiler that comes with them. You can do that with:

- uses: dlang-community/setup-dlang@v1
  name: Install dub and tools
  with:
    compiler: dmd

- uses: dlang-community/setup-dlang@v1
  name: Install D compiler
  with:
    compiler: gdc-12

  # Now you have dub, rdmd and gdc-12 in $PATH and $DC point to gdc-12

DUB support

dub is installed alongside the selected compiler for any versions of dmd and ldc higher than v2.072.0 (2016-10-31).

If the dub parameter is provided to the action, that version will be the one installed instead.

Note that DUB versions prior to v1.13.0 (DMD version v2.084.0, released 2019-01-02) do not support HTTP2, meaning they will not work for fetching packages. Additionally, some tags of dub (v1.29.1 - v1.36.0) don't have releases so you won't be able to install them (dlang-community#64)