Improve Winget workflow

[sitiom]

Use the Winget Releaser action instead. This significantly simplifies the workflow. You also just only need the public_repo scope on your PAT.

If you would like to read about this action further, the documentation is here, and the source code is here.

If you want to see an example of a PR created using this action, see microsoft/winget-pkgs/pulls (Pull request has been automatically created using 🛫 WinGet Releaser).

[rcmaehl]

Tagging my existing winget CI contributors for their feedback.
@gnpaone and @Macleykun

[gnpaone]

Um, there's no necessity to move from existing solution to new one as the existing one is already pretty straightforward. You mean "simplified" in the sense just reducing the words, but it increases the loop - instead of existing mser is released, GitHub action runs and package updates, now it's mser released, GitHub action runs, the package is ran by the bot and submits to winget, the same bot works in main repo doing the job - unnecessary increase of loop + first time contributor stuff for that new repo (The workflow stuff idea initiated by me [here] (microsoft/winget-pkgs#56758) few months ago.). In my opinion one simple working automation is good and existing stuff is already working hassle-free.

[sitiom]

Can you clarify what you are trying to say? The new action does the same exact thing (find the new URLs, update the manifest correspondingly, and PR to Winget) as before, so there really no added "complexity" in the end. You can check the other repos using it so you could see it for yourself.

[gnpaone]

Same thing, there's no complexity in existing solution too for making it simplified 😉. For more clarity, u can take some package that's using this method as an example, let's say "X" package, go to X package developer original repository, there GitHub action is ran with vedantmgoyal2009/vedantmgoyal2009/winget-pkgs-automation/[email protected], then it submits to vedantmgoyal2009 repo where the bot (it's using firebase over there)(u can check actions page in that repository) to verify the package and submits to winget-pkg repository where checks are ran again (this time azure is used) and moderator approves (the package to main repo is submitted by wingetbot that they created). Now mser submission is done via the GitHub action (first step as previous) then checks are ran in main winget-pkgs repo and moderator approves, direct step. U can definitely use above clues to link everything and their code is over there u can verify that.

[sitiom]

GitHub action is ran with vedantmgoyal2009/vedantmgoyal2009/winget-pkgs-automation/[email protected], then it submits to vedantmgoyal2009 repo

Oh, no it doesn't. You directly PR to https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs like before. Another prerequisite is that you need to have https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs forked (which @rcmaehl already does, so I didn't mention). Example: microsoft/winget-pkgs#60863

[gnpaone]

Example: microsoft/winget-pkgs#60863

No, u still didn't get it, why do we need Winget releaser to update stuff when @rcmaehl can do it. It's in the same example of what u shown, the package from developer goes using "github-actions" to "winget releaser" then "winget releaser" to "winget-pkgs" repo as a PR instead of the package from developer submits using "github-actions" to "winget-pkgs" repo as a PR, what's the point of extra step, not needed, and what's the "necessity" of changing from current working stuff to alternate stuff when it's doing the same thing - update the package, is the current way obsolete?

[sitiom]

"github-actions" to "winget releaser" then "winget releaser" to "winget-pkgs" repo as a PR instead of the package from developer submits using "github-actions" to "winget-pkgs" repo as a PR

Winget Releaser is the GitHub Action, what extra step are you talking about?

Why do we need Winget releaser to update stuff when @rcmaehl can do it.

It works exactly like that, just like the old action: @rcmaehl's PAT is used to directly PR to winget-pkgs and it will be under @rcmaehl's name.

"necessity" of changing from current working stuff to alternate stuff when it's doing the same thing - update the package, is the current way obsolete?

Like I said, it simplifies the workflow. The extra steps of cloning the repo and getting the latest tag are removed, as Winget Releaser already does that.

[sitiom]

Maybe @vedantmgoyal2009 can help clear things up; I'm sure he'd be happy to help.

[vedantmgoyal9]

@sitiom I will suggest to update the uses: to vedantmgoyal2009/winget-releaser@latest. I've created a separate repository for the action.

Edit: thanks, you've already done when I was writing the comment.

I think @gnpaone hasn't been able to understand the things clearly. I use firebase for hosting the documentation website and it isn't used by action. You can see the new separate repo to get what the action actually uses.

[sitiom]

@sitiom I will suggest to update the uses: to vedantmgoyal2009/winget-releaser@latest. I've created a separate repository for the action.

Already did ahead of time 🙂

[vedantmgoyal9]

Azure checks will be ran everytime whether you, me, or anyone submits a pull request at winget-pkgs repo. They are ran by Microsoft to ensure the Installer URLs in the manifests are safe and it doesn't install any viruses/malware on user's computer.

[vedantmgoyal9]

I also manage a automation to update packages which aren't on github by getting the version and Installer URL from the software's API. Sometimes a maintainer doesn't want to manage the winget releases by themselves but they want their software to be available on winget so they request to put their repository in my automation. Here, I use a github bot ID to make "commits" so that it can be distinguished if there's some issue, etc. You may still notice that "pull requests" are created using my github id since Microsoft doesn't want to add another bot when their own @msftbot and @wingetbot are fighting over different tasks.

Hence the bot is also not used by the action anyways.

[vedantmgoyal9]

Again, the separate repository structure may help you understand things better. I know since I was keeping everything in same repository (monorepo, kind of), you have get confused between the things: automation, it's bot and the ACTION.

[gnpaone]

I think @gnpaone hasn't been able to understand the things clearly. I use firebase for hosting the documentation website and it isn't used by action. You can see the new separate repo to get what the action actually uses.

Yah, I've seen that, buy why is it compulsory to change to this? It's kinda forcing to use this. Let people use the method they already been using na. That's why I asked in another discussion that is the current method obsolete. It's better for new winget users adopting winget releaser as they just started exploring, probably.

[vedantmgoyal9]

Now that's @rcmaehl's decision since he's maintaining the project. I can't say anything about that. If he's fine with the current setup, he can stick with it. My action basically combines the work of getting the release tag, removing "v" from it and then the process of updating values in the manifests into one (3 -> 1 😉).

[gnpaone]

I also manage a automation to update packages which aren't on github by getting the version and Installer URL from the software's API. Sometimes a maintainer doesn't want to manage the winget releases by themselves but they want their software to be available on winget so they request to put their repository in my automation. Here, I use a github bot ID to make "commits" so that it can be distinguished if there's some issue, etc. You may still notice that "pull requests" are created using my github id since Microsoft doesn't want to add another bot when their own @msftbot and @wingetbot are fighting over different tasks.

Hence the bot is also not used by the action anyways.

That's what, we want to manage it ourselves including package stuff like updating the package deleting the package etc etc to checking the logs of what's happening and knowing it to troubleshooting stuff here etc. This is the same reason we took chocolatey package managing from a random maintainer and using GitHub action. Chocolatey has similar stuff where a seperate repo can be used as chocolatey package repo and various packages can be pushed via that using id as you did. That's what we avoided.

[rcmaehl]

Geez. Give me a bit to read through all this

[vedantmgoyal9]

Take your time.

[vedantmgoyal9]

@rcmaehl any plans to merge?

[sitiom]

@rcmaehl any plans to merge?

Bump

[vedantmgoyal9]

@rcmaehl I guess you should try the improved workflow, and if you have any concerns, you can mention me or sitiom ;)

[Macleykun]

Sorry, somehow i wasn't notified about being mentioned here!
I suggest to switch over :) if it simplifies with the same ease then i believe it's worth doing so.

[vedantmgoyal9]

Tagging my existing winget CI contributors for their feedback. @gnpaone and @Macleykun

@rcmaehl would you like to consider this now? One of the existing winget CI contributors has approved the PR.

[rcmaehl]

Tagging my existing winget CI contributors for their feedback. @gnpaone and @Macleykun

@rcmaehl would you like to consider this now? One of the existing winget CI contributors has approved the PR.

More than likely, working on trying to get #160 resolved at the moment.

Please let me know what I need to do to distribute only the x64 build with this new CI.

[vedantmgoyal9]

@rcmaehl Well, there's nothing that needs to be modified distribute only x64 build.

@sitiom I would suggest incorporating the WinGet publishing step into the main CI. You can see main...vedantmgoyal2009:MSEdgeRedirect:patch-1.

[sitiom]

@sitiom I would suggest incorporating the WinGet publishing step into the main CI. You can see main...vedantmgoyal2009:MSEdgeRedirect:patch-1.

Is that the recommended way now? The current method works and looks cleaner as it is in a separate workflow.

[gnpaone]

Yah, it's good to try new stuff as long as it works similar to current workflow 🙂. I suggest maintaining seperate workflow as main workflow contains development versions and main workflow will be running many times as per requirement

[vedantmgoyal9]

@rcmaehl please merge 👍🏻

[rcmaehl]

@vedantmgoyal2009

Latest action failed with an error:

  D:\a\_actions\vedantmgoyal2009\winget-releaser\latest\dist\index.js:9765
        version || new RegExp(/(?<=v).*/g).exec(releaseInfo.tag_name)[0],
                                                                     ^
  
  TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading '0')
      at D:\a\_actions\vedantmgoyal2009\winget-releaser\latest\dist\index.js:9765:68
      at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)

[sitiom]

Possibly the regex (?<=v).* does not account for tags without the v prefix:

@vedantmgoyal2009

At the time this was merged, the default regex was [0-9.]+ though 🤔

[rcmaehl]

Possibly the regex (?<=v).* does not account for tags without the v prefix:

@vedantmgoyal2009

At the time this was merged, the default regex was [0-9.]+ though 🤔

It's not using version pinning in the PR