The run-vcpkg action restores from cache vcpkg along with the previously installed ports. On the other hand when there is a "cache miss":

• vpckg is fetched and installed; the cache's key is composed by hashing the hosting OS name, the command line arguments and the vcpkg's commit id.
  • Restoring from cache can be skipped with doNotCache: true.
• Then vcpkg is run to install the desired ports.
  • This step can be skipped with setupOnly: true.
• Artifacts and vcpkg are then saved in cache.
  • Saving to cache can be skipped with doNotCache: true.
  • Saving to cache happens at the end of the workflow in case setupOnly: true, otherwise it happens at the end of the action execution.

The provided samples use GitHub hosted runners.

Good companions are the run-cmake action and the get-cmake actions.

• Contributing
• Quickstart
  • Setup vcpkg and use CMake and a vcpkg.json to install and build
  • Setup vcpkg and use your own scripts
  • Flowchart
• Best practices
  • Use vcpkg as a submodule of your repository
  • Use vcpkg's vcpkg.json file to specify the dependencies
• Action reference: all input/output parameters
• Samples
• Projects

Read CONTRIBUTING.md

It is highly recommended to use both vcpkg as a submodule and a vcpkg.json manifest file to declaratively specify the dependencies.

Both suggestions are shown in the hosted-advanced-setup-vcpkg-manifest.yml workflow, here below an excerpt:

jobs: 
  build:
    env:
      buildDir: '${{ github.workspace }}/build/'
    steps:
      #-uses: actions/cache@v1   <===== YOU DO NOT NEED THIS!
      
      # Install latest CMake.
      - uses: lukka/get-cmake@latest

      # Restore from cache the previously built ports. If a "cache miss" occurs, then vcpkg is bootstrapped. Since a the vcpkg.json is being used later on to install the packages when run-cmake runs, no packages are installed at this time and the input 'setupOnly:true' is mandatory.
      - name: Restore artifacts, or setup vcpkg (do not install any package)
        uses: lukka/run-vcpkg@v6
        with:
          # Just install vcpkg for now, do not install any ports in this step yet.
          setupOnly: true
          # Location of the vcpkg submodule in the Git repository.
          vcpkgDirectory: '${{ github.workspace }}/vcpkg'
          # Since the cache must be invalidated when content of the vcpkg.json file changes, let's
          # compute its hash and append this to the computed cache's key.
          appendedCacheKey: ${{ hashFiles( '**/vcpkg_manifest/vcpkg.json' ) }}
          vcpkgTriplet: ${{ matrix.triplet }}
          # Ensure the vcpkg artifacts are cached, they are generated in the 'CMAKE_BINARY_DIR/vcpkg_installed' directory.
          additionalCachedPaths: ${{ env.buildDir }}/vcpkg_installed

      - name: Run CMake to install the dependencies specified in the vcpkg.json manifest, generate project file and build the project
        uses: lukka/run-cmake@v3
        with:
          cmakeListsOrSettingsJson: CMakeListsTxtAdvanced
          cmakeListsTxtPath: '${{ github.workspace }}/vcpkg_manifest/CMakeLists.txt'
          buildDirectory: ${{ env.buildDir }}
          # This input tells run-cmake to consume the vcpkg.cmake toolchain file set by run-vcpkg.
          useVcpkgToolchainFile: true
          buildWithCMake: true

When setupOnly: true, it only setups vcpkg without installing any port. The provisioned vcpkg can then be used in a subsequent step as shown:

    # Restore from cache the previously built ports. If cache-miss, download and build vcpkg (aka "bootstrap vcpkg").
    - name: Restore from cache and install vcpkg
      # Download and build vcpkg, without installing any port. If content is cached already, it is a no-op.
      uses: lukka/run-vcpkg@v6
      with:
        setupOnly: true
    # Now that vcpkg is installed, it is being used to run with the desired arguments.
    - run: |
        $VCPKG_ROOT/vcpkg install boost:linux-x64
      shell: bash

action.yml

When using vcpkg, be aware of how it works, specifically:

• a specific version of vcpkg must be used either locally and on build servers;
• a specific version of vcpkg is identified by the commit id of the used vcpkg repository;
• it not possible to choose which version of a port to install, instead it is the used version of vcpkg that establishes which version (just one) of a port is available;

To sum up, you need to pin the specific version of vcpkg you want to use to keep a consistent development experience between local and remote build environments. This is accomplished by using vcpkg as submodule of your Git repository; this way the version of vcpkg used is implied by the commit id specified by the submodule for vcpkg.

The vcpkg.json is a manifest file that declaratively specifies the dependencies to be installed. The file is being used automatically by running CMake when:

• starting CMake with the vcpkg.cmake toolchain file.
• the root CMake source directory contains a vcpkg.json file.

When conditions are satisfied, the toolchain execution starts vcpkg to install the packages declared in the manifest file.

Putting this manifest-like file under source control is highly recommended as this helps to run vcpkg the same exact way locally and remotely on the build servers.* The dependencies specified in the vcpkg.json file are installed when CMake runs (i.e. at run-cmake time), hence the 'run-vcpkg' step must have the input setupOnly: true.

View the workflows based on the run-cmake and run-vcpkg actions.

CMakeLists.txt samples
Linux/macOS/Windows, hosted runner, basic
Linux/macOS/Windows, hosted runner, advanced
Linux/macOS/Windows, hosted runner, vcpkg as submodule
Linux/macOS/Windows, hosted runner, setup only and vcpkg as submodule

CMakeSettings.json samples
Linux/macOS/Windows, hosted runner, with vcpkg as submodule

Project	Platform(s)
CppOpenGLWebAssemblyCMake	WASM/Linux/macOS
codehz/wine-bdlauncher	Windows
OPM/ResInsight	Windows/Linux
Mudlet/Mudlet	Linux/macOS
otland/forgottenserver	Linux/macOS/Windows
Element-0/ElementZero	Windows
zealdocs/zeal	Linux/Windows
libevent/libevent	Windows/macos/Linux
marian-nmt/marian-dev	Windows/Linux/macOS
GrinPlusPlus	Linux/Windows/macOS
OpenTDD	Windows/macOS
scummvm	Windows	n/a

All the content in this repository is licensed under the MIT License.

Copyright (c) 2019-2020-2021 Luca Cappa

Other than submitting a pull request, donating is another way to contribute to this project.