cache VS azure-pipelines-agent

> with no persistent storage

There's https://github.com/actions/cache though?

Use Cache Actions: GitHub Actions provides cache actions that simplify caching implementation. The @actions/cache JavaScript library is a popular choice for managing caching in workflows. It offers flexible options for storing and retrieving cache artifacts based on keys, scopes, and paths.

GitHub maintain a set of repos called actions. One of which is called cache.

By utilizing the actions/cache action action, we implemented a strategy to store and retrieve dependencies, preventing redundant installations.

I do think it's good practice to enable caching, such that your script doesn't hit RubyGems / pip / npm / etc every time it runs.

That way at least the automation activity stays entirely within the GitHub / Azure network.

It looks like you can do that for Ruby by adding this:

https://github.com/actions/cache/blob/master/examples.md#rub...

    - uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1

➜ getting-started-with-act git:(master) act -j build WARN ⚠ You are using Apple M1 chip and you have not specified container architecture, you might encounter issues while running act. If so, try running it with '--container-architecture linux/amd64'. ⚠ [Node.js CI/build] 🚀 Start image=node:16-buster-slim [Node.js CI/build] 🐳 docker pull image=node:16-buster-slim platform= username= forcePull=false [Node.js CI/build] 🐳 docker create image=node:16-buster-slim platform= entrypoint=["tail" "-f" "/dev/null"] cmd=[] [Node.js CI/build] 🐳 docker run image=node:16-buster-slim platform= entrypoint=["tail" "-f" "/dev/null"] cmd=[] [Node.js CI/build] ☁ git clone 'https://github.com/actions/setup-node' # ref=v3 [Node.js CI/build] ☁ git clone 'https://github.com/actions/cache' # ref=v3 [Node.js CI/build] ☁ git clone 'https://github.com/actions/upload-artifact' # ref=v3 [Node.js CI/build] ⭐ Run Main actions/checkout@v3 [Node.js CI/build] 🐳 docker cp src=/Users/andrewevans/Documents/projects/getting-started-with-act/. dst=/Users/andrewevans/Documents/projects/getting-started-with-act [Node.js CI/build] ✅ Success - Main actions/checkout@v3 [Node.js CI/build] ⭐ Run Main Use Node.js 16.x [Node.js CI/build] 🐳 docker cp src=/Users/andrewevans/.cache/act/actions-setup-node@v3/ dst=/var/run/act/actions/actions-setup-node@v3/ [Node.js CI/build] 🐳 docker exec cmd=[node /var/run/act/actions/actions-setup-node@v3/dist/setup/index.js] user= workdir= [Node.js CI/build] 💬 ::debug::isExplicit: [Node.js CI/build] 💬 ::debug::explicit? false

You could try to find some point in the process where you can set up Actions caches with actions/cache, otherwise Container customization for Self-Hosted Runners is currently in Beta.

I would configure Github Actions cache so Docker doesn't have to compile all layers from scratch every time

In the copied example, npm caching is done via actions/cache@v2 action. But we can simplify our workflow by dropping this step and using built-in functionality for caching

> GitHub Actions is based on Visual Studio Team Foundation Server's CI, and later Azure DevOps

Yes and no, ADO Agent (https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent) is far more secretive and "black-box" alike.

Fun fact: Microsoft had a plan to provide that!

They canned it.

https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent/pull/2687...

You will need to download the agent (https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent/releases/latest ) and run the configure command.

A GitHub issue was opened to track support for different Node versions with custom tasks, but it remained unresolved for a long time. In October 2022 it was announced that Node.js 16 support was available.

Even thought im in the EU datacenter, my hosted agent is version 2.213.2, which is also the latest version of the agent taht was released by MS - https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent

{ "name": "AzurePipelines", "dockerFile": "Dockerfile", // Configure tool-specific properties. "customizations": { // Configure properties specific to VS Code. "vscode": { // Add the IDs of extensions you want installed when the container is created. "extensions": [ "ms-vscode.azurecli", "ms-vscode.powershell", "hashicorp.terraform", "esbenp.prettier-vscode", "tfsec.tfsec" ] } }, // Use 'forwardPorts' to make a list of ports inside the container available locally. // "forwardPorts": [], // Use 'postStartCommand' to run commands each time the container is successfully started.. "postStartCommand": "/home/vscode/azure-pipelines/start.sh", // Comment out to connect as root instead. More info: https://aka.ms/vscode-remote/containers/non-root. "remoteUser": "vscode", // Amend Azure Pipelines agent version and arch type with 'ARCH' and 'AGENT_VERSION'. https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent/releases. "build": { "args": { "UPGRADE_PACKAGES": "true", "ARCH": "x64", "AGENT_VERSION": "2.206.1" } }, "features": { "terraform": "latest", "azure-cli": "latest", "git-lfs": "latest", "github-cli": "latest", "powershell": "latest" } }

Looks like they are working on it:https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent/issues/3922

Thanks for sharing this. As mentioned in this GitHub issue, the build pipeline does render PS 7.2 new color escape sequences, however release pipeline does not.