In this tutorial, I will give you the instruction how I set up CI/CD to build and test my C++ multiplatform game engine named NeoSekaiEngine with GitHub Actions.
Note: The original post is at LinkedIn: Link here
Oh wait! What is NeoSekaiEngine?
NeoSekaiEngine is my 2D game engine built base on what I know about game development. This game engine is written in C++ and can run on Windows, Linux and Web platform.
Here the link for the repository if you are interested. Link
Let get started
First at all, set thing up by creating a file named build_test.yaml in the folder .github/workflows
Checkout the code
In the build_test.yaml file, we configure it to clone the source code first.
name: Build and Test Engine
run-name: ${{ github.ref }} on ${{ github.repository }} is being built and tested out Github actions
on: [ push ]
jobs: Build-Engine: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - run: echo "The job was automatically triggered by a ${{ github.event_name }} event." - name: Check out the repository code uses: actions/checkout@v4 - run: echo "The ${{ github.repository }} repository has been cloned to the runner." - name: Check repository run: ls ${{ github.workspace }} Let see what inside here
-
name: The name of the workflow. -
run-name: The name for workflow runs generated from the workflow. -
on: It defines which event can causes workflow runs. In this file, workflow run when you push your code. -
jobs: This sections is defined the jobs of the workflow. -
runs-on: The platform the the workflow runs on. -
steps: The instructions to executing the job
And here is the result.
Install the dependencies
Because at that moment, I built for single platform(Ubuntu). Let’s install dependencies.
name: Build and Test Engine
run-name: ${{ github.ref }} on ${{ github.repository }} is being built and tested out Github actions
on: [ push ]
jobs: Build-Engine: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - run: echo "The job was automatically triggered by a ${{ github.event_name }} event." - name: Check out the repository code uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: setup library run: /bin/bash ./scripts/pre-installer/linux/debian/preinstaller.sh And here is the result.
Build and run test
It seemed like everything good. Let build and run test.
name: Build and Test Engine
run-name: ${{ github.ref }} on ${{ github.repository }} is being built and tested out Github actions
on: [ push ]
jobs: Build-Engine: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - run: echo "The job was automatically triggered by a ${{ github.event_name }} event." - name: Check out the repository code uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: setup library run: /bin/bash ./scripts/pre-installer/linux/debian/preinstaller.sh - name: build project with test for static lib run: cmake -S ./ -B ./build -DRUN_TEST=1 -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=0 && cmake --build ./build - name: run test run: build/out/engine_test --gtest_output="xml:build/test-results.xml"
Here is the result.
Create artifacts
After running test, we need something to get the result and storing into artifacts is a good idea. By using actions/upload-artifact@v4, you can store file in artifacts.
name: Build and Test Engine
run-name: ${{ github.ref }} on ${{ github.repository }} is being built and tested out Github actions
on: [ push ]
jobs: Build-Engine: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - run: echo "The job was automatically triggered by a ${{ github.event_name }} event." - name: Check out the repository code uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: setup library run: /bin/bash ./scripts/pre-installer/linux/debian/preinstaller.sh - name: build project with test for static lib run: cmake -S ./ -B ./build -DRUN_TEST=1 -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=0 && cmake --build ./build - name: run test run: build/out/engine_test --gtest_output="xml:build/test-results.xml" - name: Upload test result uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4 with: name: test-results-ubuntu-static.xml path: build/test-results.xml
And here is the result
Run workflows for multiplatform
After completing a workflow for a single platform, let make it for multiple one.
name: Build and Test Engine
run-name: ${{ github.ref }} on ${{ github.repository }} is being built and tested out Github actions
on: [ push ]
jobs: Build-Engine: strategy: fail-fast: false matrix: build_shared: [0, 1] os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest] runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }} steps: - run: echo "The job was automatically triggered by a ${{ github.event_name }} event." - name: Check out the repository code uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: setup library if: ${{ matrix.os != 'windows-latest' }} run: /bin/bash ./scripts/pre-installer/linux/debian/preinstaller.sh - name: build project with test for BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=${{ matrix.build_shared }} run: cmake -S ./ -B ./build -DRUN_TEST=1 -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=${{ matrix.build_shared }} && cmake --build ./build - name: run test if: ${{ matrix.os != 'windows-latest' }} run: build/out/engine_test --gtest_output="xml:build/test-results.xml" - name: run test if: ${{ matrix.os == 'windows-latest' }} run: .\build\out\Debug\engine_test.exe --gtest_output="xml:build/test-results.xml" - name: Upload test result if: ${{ matrix.build_shared == 0 }} uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4 with: name: test-results-${{matrix.os}}-static.xml path: build/test-results.xml - name: Upload test result if: ${{ matrix.build_shared == 1 }} uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4 with: name: test-results-${{matrix.os}}-shared.xml path: build/test-results.xml
Here we can see something new named matrix. This is a strategy on GitHub Actions that helps you use variables in a single job definition to automatically create multiple job runs that are based on the combinations of the variables.
Here is the result
Inconclusion
Here is all the instructions how I built and test my multiplatform project using GitHub Actions. Hope you learn something from it.
See you in next article.