Cache APT Packages Action v2 :: FAQ ## Why did you create a new version? ### Bash Scripts Bash shell scripting grew in complexity and became very unreadable. The action needed higher level language idioms like: - arrays, map handling, complex pattern matching, and complex text processing; - robust logging, debugging, other instrumentations; and - avoiding cryptic shell and system environment considerations. The lack of these ### Language Choice Languages like Python, Go, Rust, etc. have performance and writeability trade offs that would also meet these requirements, but ultimately Typescript was chosen because it: - is the most performant and well supported for GitHub actions; - has native strongly typed libraries for actions maintained by GitHub like - [`@actions/core`](https://github.com/actions/toolkit/tree/main/packages/core) for runtime environment, and - other common services like [`@actions/cache`](https://github.com/actions/toolkit/tree/main/packages/cache) and [`@actions/artifact`](https://github.com/actions/toolkit/tree/main/packages/artifact); - requires no binary compilation; - provides a balance of code comprehension and performance for contributors; and - allows for better continuous integration, release workflow, hermetic unit testing, and smoke testing. ## Where did all the APT functionality go? Since this has been a complex part of the codebase, I decided to separate the concern as its own library. This can now be found at [`npm/ts-apt`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/ts-apt) with the sourcecode in the [`awalsh128/ts-apt`](http://github.com/awalsh128/ts-apt) repository. For ease of use there is an option to bring in the workspace for inline source via `npm run dev:tsapt:[un]link` so it can be debugged and then PR'd to the [awalsh128/ts-apt](http://github.com/awalsh128/ts-apt) repository. ## How do I start using this? > [!IMPORTANT] > This is in the early phase of development. Use at your own risk! **No change is needed and the action signatures are backwards compatible.** - Just change to the latest `v2.*` in your GitHub workflow. - `v1.*` will still get patch updates but is in maintenance mode. ## Some internal changes - Logging uses native GitHub calls that will result in run annotations. - Output will tend to be more verbose but this will be tuned as this version matures. - All the metadata generated like manifests, the cache key, and logs are now stored as artifacts. - Debug mode can either be specified via an input parameter `debug` or [as part of the repository settings](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/how-tos/monitor-workflows/enable-debug-logging).