How Do I Get .NET Preview Versions in GitHub Actions?
I wanted to setup a GitHub Action to build and test a .NET Preview project. Come in to read about how you can add a preview .NET version to your GitHub Action.
![How Do I Get .NET Preview Versions in GitHub Actions?](/content/images/size/w2000/2022/07/header-4.jpg)
Short Version
Use the preview version's full name. For my example, I'll be using .NET 7 Preview 5:
- name: Setup dotnet
uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v2
with:
dotnet-version: '7.0.100-preview.5.22307.18'
Feel free to use whichever preview version you desire (maybe even .NET 8+ if that's in preview when you're reading this 🤔).
If you want to know where to get those long preview versions, read on below.
Long Version
I wanted to setup build and test checks for my project GameboyColour-Decolouriser:
Normally when setting up a specific .NET version, you can use the tidy, normal version, such as this for .NET 6:
- name: Setup dotnet
uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v2
with:
dotnet-version: '6.0'
See more with the .NET GitHub Action documentation.
However, with the preview versions not fully out, you must specify the exact version such as:
- name: Setup dotnet
uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v2
with:
dotnet-version: '7.0.100-preview.5.22307.18'
Where do you get this version number? If you are using a preview version in your development environment, you can use the command:
dotnet --version
![](https://www.nikouusitalo.com/content/images/2022/07/image-44.png)
dotnet --version
.Or, you can check what the latest full version is from the .NET download website. For example, to the .NET 7 downloads (at the time of writing this):
![](https://www.nikouusitalo.com/content/images/2022/07/image-46.png)
OR, if you want to check out what the bleeding edge is, you can head over to the tables in the dotnet installer repo, which are badged with the most recent builds.
![](https://www.nikouusitalo.com/content/images/2022/07/image-45.png)
Putting this all together, whole .yml
file I'm using for this project:
name: Build and Tests
on: [push]
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Setup dotnet
uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v2
with:
dotnet-version: '7.0.100-preview.5.22307.18'
- name: Install dependencies
run: dotnet restore
- name: Build
run: dotnet build --configuration Release --no-restore
- name: Test
run: dotnet test --no-restore --verbosity normal
Which resulted in a successful run:
![](https://www.nikouusitalo.com/content/images/2022/07/image-47.png)
To Conclude
I hope this helped you understand which .NET preview version you can add to your GitHub Action for building, testing, or whatever your needs may be 😁.