upload-rust-binary-action

GitHub Action for building and uploading Rust binary to GitHub Releases.

• Usage
  • Inputs
  • Example workflow: Basic usage
  • Example workflow: Basic usage (multiple platforms)
  • Example workflow: Customize archive name
  • Example workflow: Build with different features on different platforms
  • Example workflow: Cross-compilation
    • cross
    • setup-cross-toolchain-action
    • cargo-zigbuild
  • Example workflow: Include additional files
  • Other examples
  • Optimize Rust binary
• Supported events
• Compatibility
• Related Projects
• License

Usage

This action builds and uploads Rust binary that specified by bin option to GitHub Releases.

Currently, this action is basically intended to be used in combination with an action like create-gh-release-action that creates a GitHub release when a tag is pushed. See also supported events.

Inputs

Name	Required	Description	Type	Default
bin	true	Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload	String
token	true [1]	GitHub token for creating GitHub Releases (see action.yml for more)	String
archive	false	Archive name (non-extension portion of filename) to be uploaded	String	$bin-$target
target	false [2]	Target triple, default is host triple	String	(host triple)
features	false	Comma-separated list of cargo build features to enable	String
no-default-features	false	Whether to disable cargo build default features	Boolean	false
tar	false	On which platform to distribute the .tar.gz file (all, unix, windows, or none)	String	unix
zip	false	On which platform to distribute the .zip file (all, unix, windows, or none)	String	windows
checksum	false	Comma-separated list of algorithms to be used for checksum (sha256, sha512, sha1, or md5)	String
include	false	Comma-separated list of additional files to be included to the archive	String
asset	false	Comma-separated list of additional files to be uploaded separately	String
leading-dir	false	Whether to create the leading directory in the archive or not	Boolean	false
bin-leading-dir	false	Create extra leading directory(s) for binary file(s) specified by bin option	String
build-tool	false	Tool to build binaries (cargo, cross, or cargo-zigbuild, see cross-compilation example for more)	String
ref	false	Fully-formed tag ref for this release (see action.yml for more)	String
manifest-path	false	Path to Cargo.toml	String	Cargo.toml
profile	false	The cargo profile to build. This defaults to the release profile.	String	release
dry-run	false	Build and compress binaries, but do not upload them (see action.yml for more)	Boolean	false
codesign	false	Sign build products using codesign on macOS	String

[1] Required one of token input option or GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable. Not required when dry-run input option is set to true.
[2] This is optional but it is recommended that this always be set to clarify which target you are building for if macOS is included in the matrix because GitHub Actions changed the default architecture of macos-latest since macos-14.

(Previously, option names were only in "snake_case", but now both "kebab-case" and "snake_case" are available.)

Example workflow: Basic usage

In this example, when a new tag is pushed, creating a new GitHub Release by using create-gh-release-action, then uploading Rust binary to the created GitHub Release.

An archive file with a name like $bin-$target.tar.gz will be uploaded to GitHub Release.

name: Release

permissions:
  contents: write

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v[0-9]+.*

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/create-gh-release-action@v1
        with:
          # (optional) Path to changelog.
          changelog: CHANGELOG.md
          # (required) GitHub token for creating GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload-assets:
    needs: create-release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
        with:
          # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
          # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
          bin: ...
          # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

You can specify multiple binaries when the root manifest is a virtual manifest or specified binaries are in the same crate.

- uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
  with:
    # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
    # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
    bin: app1,app2
    # (optional) Archive name (non-extension portion of filename) to be uploaded.
    # [default value: $bin-$target]
    # [possible values: the following variables and any string]
    #   variables:
    #     - $bin    - Binary name (non-extension portion of filename).
    #     - $target - Target triple.
    #     - $tag    - Tag of this release.
    # When multiple binary names are specified, default archive name or $bin variable cannot be used.
    archive: app-$target
    # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Example workflow: Basic usage (multiple platforms)

This action supports Linux, macOS, and Windows as a host OS and supports binaries for various targets.

See also cross-compilation example.

name: Release

permissions:
  contents: write

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v[0-9]+.*

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/create-gh-release-action@v1
        with:
          # (optional) Path to changelog.
          changelog: CHANGELOG.md
          # (required) GitHub token for creating GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload-assets:
    needs: create-release
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
            os: ubuntu-latest
          - target: x86_64-apple-darwin
            os: macos-latest
          - target: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
            os: windows-latest
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
        with:
          # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
          # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
          bin: ...
          # (optional) Target triple, default is host triple.
          # This is optional but it is recommended that this always be set to
          # clarify which target you are building for if macOS is included in
          # the matrix because GitHub Actions changed the default architecture
          # of macos-latest since macos-14.
          target: ${{ matrix.target }}
          # (optional) On which platform to distribute the `.tar.gz` file.
          # [default value: unix]
          # [possible values: all, unix, windows, none]
          tar: unix
          # (optional) On which platform to distribute the `.zip` file.
          # [default value: windows]
          # [possible values: all, unix, windows, none]
          zip: windows
          # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Example workflow: Customize archive name

By default, this action will upload an archive file with a name like $bin-$target.$extension.

You can customize archive name by archive option.

name: Release

permissions:
  contents: write

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v[0-9]+.*

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/create-gh-release-action@v1
        with:
          # (optional) Path to changelog.
          changelog: CHANGELOG.md
          # (required) GitHub token for creating GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload-assets:
    needs: create-release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
        with:
          bin: ...
          # (optional) Archive name (non-extension portion of filename) to be uploaded.
          # [default value: $bin-$target]
          # [possible values: the following variables and any string]
          #   variables:
          #     - $bin    - Binary name (non-extension portion of filename).
          #     - $target - Target triple.
          #     - $tag    - Tag of this release.
          # When multiple binary names are specified, default archive name or $bin variable cannot be used.
          archive: $bin-$tag-$target
          # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Example workflow: Build with different features on different platforms

This action enables the systemd and io_uring features for Linux, and leave macOS, and Windows with default set of features.

name: Release

permissions:
  contents: write

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v[0-9]+.*

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/create-gh-release-action@v1
        with:
          # (optional) Path to changelog.
          changelog: CHANGELOG.md
          # (required) GitHub token for creating GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload-assets:
    needs: create-release
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
            os: ubuntu-latest
            features: systemd,io_uring
          - target: x86_64-apple-darwin
            os: macos-latest
          - target: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
            os: windows-latest
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
        with:
          # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
          # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
          bin: ...
          # (optional) Target triple, default is host triple.
          target: ${{ matrix.target }}
          # (optional) On which platform to distribute the `.tar.gz` file.
          # [default value: unix]
          # [possible values: all, unix, windows, none]
          tar: unix
          # (optional) On which platform to distribute the `.zip` file.
          # [default value: windows]
          # [possible values: all, unix, windows, none]
          zip: windows
          # (optional) Build with the given set of features if any.
          features: ${{ matrix.features || '' }}
          # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Example workflow: Cross-compilation

cross

By default, this action uses cross for cross-compilation (if cross supports that target). In the following example, only aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu uses cross, the rest use cargo.

If cross is not installed, this action calls cargo install cross --locked to install cross. If you want to speed up the installation of cross or use an older version of cross, consider using install-action.

name: Release

permissions:
  contents: write

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v[0-9]+.*

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/create-gh-release-action@v1
        with:
          # (optional) Path to changelog.
          changelog: CHANGELOG.md
          # (required) GitHub token for creating GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload-assets:
    needs: create-release
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - target: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
            os: ubuntu-latest
          - target: aarch64-apple-darwin
            os: macos-latest
          - target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
            os: ubuntu-latest
          - target: x86_64-apple-darwin
            os: macos-latest
          # Universal macOS binary is supported as universal-apple-darwin.
          - target: universal-apple-darwin
            os: macos-latest
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
        with:
          # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
          # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
          bin: ...
          # (optional) Target triple, default is host triple.
          target: ${{ matrix.target }}
          # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

setup-cross-toolchain-action

However, if the host has another cross-compilation setup, it will be respected. The following is an example using setup-cross-toolchain-action. In this example, this action uses cargo for all targets.

name: Release

permissions:
  contents: write

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v[0-9]+.*

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/create-gh-release-action@v1
        with:
          # (optional) Path to changelog.
          changelog: CHANGELOG.md
          # (required) GitHub token for creating GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload-assets:
    needs: create-release
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - target: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
            os: ubuntu-latest
          - target: aarch64-apple-darwin
            os: macos-latest
          - target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
            os: ubuntu-latest
          - target: x86_64-apple-darwin
            os: macos-latest
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install cross-compilation tools
        uses: taiki-e/setup-cross-toolchain-action@v1
        with:
          target: ${{ matrix.target }}
        if: startsWith(matrix.os, 'ubuntu')
      - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
        with:
          # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
          # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
          bin: ...
          # (optional) Target triple, default is host triple.
          target: ${{ matrix.target }}
          # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

cargo-zigbuild

if you want to use cargo-zigbuild, if the heuristic to detect host cross-compilation setups does not work well, or if you want to force the use of cargo or cross, you can use the build-tool input option.

If cargo-zigbuild is not installed, this action calls pip3 install cargo-zigbuild to install cargo-zigbuild.

name: Release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v[0-9]+.*

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/create-gh-release-action@v1
        with:
          # (optional)
          changelog: CHANGELOG.md
          # (required)
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload-assets:
    needs: create-release
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
            os: ubuntu-latest
            build-tool: cargo-zigbuild
          # cargo-zigbuild's glibc version suffix is also supported.
          - target: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.2.17
            os: ubuntu-latest
            build-tool: cargo-zigbuild
          - target: aarch64-apple-darwin
            os: macos-latest
            build-tool: cargo
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
        with:
          # (required)
          bin: ...
          # (optional) Target triple, default is host triple.
          target: ${{ matrix.target }}
          # (optional) Tool to build binaries (cargo, cross, or cargo-zigbuild)
          build-tool: ${{ matrix.build-tool }}
          # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Example workflow: Include additional files

If you want include additional file to the archive, you can use the include option.

name: Release

permissions:
  contents: write

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - v[0-9]+.*

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/create-gh-release-action@v1
        with:
          # (optional) Path to changelog.
          changelog: CHANGELOG.md
          # (required) GitHub token for creating GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload-assets:
    needs: create-release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
        with:
          # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
          # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
          bin: ...
          # (optional) Comma-separated list of additional files to be included to archive.
          # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
          include: LICENSE,README.md
          # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

By default, the expanded archive does not include the leading directory. In the above example, the directory structure of the archive would be as follows:

/<bin>
/LICENSE
/README.md

You can use the leading-dir option to create the leading directory.

- uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
  with:
    # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
    # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
    bin: ...
    # (optional) Comma-separated list of additional files to be included to archive.
    # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
    include: LICENSE,README.md
    # (optional) Whether to create the leading directory in the archive or not. default to false.
    leading-dir: true
    # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

In the above example, the directory structure of the archive would be as follows:

/<archive>/
/<archive>/<bin>
/<archive>/LICENSE
/<archive>/README.md

You can use the bin-leading-dir option to create extra leading directory(s) for binary file(s) specified by bin option.

- uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
  with:
    # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
    # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
    bin: ...
    # (optional) Comma-separated list of additional files to be included to archive.
    # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
    include: LICENSE,README.md
    # (optional) Whether to create the leading directory in the archive or not. default to false.
    leading-dir: true
    # (optional) Create extra leading directory(s) for binary file(s) specified by `bin` option. default to empty.
    bin-leading-dir: opt/leading
    # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

In the above example, the directory structure of the archive would be as follows:

/<archive>/
/<archive>/opt/leading/<bin>
/<archive>/LICENSE
/<archive>/README.md

If you want upload additional file separately, you can use the asset option.

upload-assets:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: taiki-e/upload-rust-binary-action@v1
      with:
        # (required) Comma-separated list of binary names (non-extension portion of filename) to build and upload.
        # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
        bin: ...
        # (optional) Comma-separated list of additional files to be uploaded separately.
        # Note that glob pattern is not supported yet.
        asset: LICENSE,README.md
        # (required) GitHub token for uploading assets to GitHub Releases.
        token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

In the above example, the following 3 files will be uploaded:

<bin>-<target>.tar.gz
LICENSE
README.md

Other examples

• cargo-hack
• tokio-console

Optimize Rust binary

You can optimize performance or size of Rust binaries by passing the profile options. The profile options can be specified by [profile] table in Cargo.toml, cargo config, environment variables, etc.

The followings are examples to specify profile options:

• lto

  With profile:

  [profile.release]
  lto = true

  With environment variable:

  env:
    CARGO_PROFILE_RELEASE_LTO: true

• codegen-units

  With profile:

  [profile.release]
  codegen-units = 1

  With environment variable:

  env:
    CARGO_PROFILE_RELEASE_CODEGEN_UNITS: 1

• strip

  With profile:

  [profile.release]
  strip = "symbols"

  Default is strip = debuginfo.

Note: Some of these options may increase the build time.

Supported events

The following two events are supported by default:

• tags (on.push.tags)

  For example:

  on:
    push:
      tags:
        - v[0-9]+.*

• GitHub release (on.release)

  For example:

  on:
    release:
      types: [created]

You can upload binaries from arbitrary event to arbitrary tag by specifying the ref input option.

For example, to upload binaries to the my_tag tag, specify ref input option as follows:

with:
  ref: refs/tags/my_tag

Compatibility

This action has been tested for GitHub-hosted runners (Ubuntu, macOS, Windows). To use this action in self-hosted runners or in containers, at least the following tools are required:

• rustup, cargo, rustc
• bash, GNU Coreutils, GNU grep, GNU tar
• gh (GitHub CLI)
• zip (only Unix-like)
• 7z (only Windows)

Related Projects

• create-gh-release-action: GitHub Action for creating GitHub Releases based on changelog.
• setup-cross-toolchain-action: GitHub Action for setup toolchains for cross compilation and cross testing for Rust.
• install-action: GitHub Action for installing development tools.
• cache-cargo-install-action: GitHub Action for cargo install with cache.

License

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT license at your option.

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.