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Haskell GitHub Actions Version Support

I have been using GitHub Actions to publicly run the automated tests for my open source projects since the effective demise of Travis CI. I use Haskell GitHub Actions, which provides a runner that includes many versions of GHC, Cabal, and Stack. Other versions work if they are supported by GHCUp, ppa:hvr/ghc, or Chocolatey, but using them incurs additional cost, as the software has to be downloaded and installed with each run. For this reason, I have made sure to only configure automated tests that use pre-installed versions of GHC. I appreciate the free service that GitHub Actions provides and do not want to see it terminate like that of Travis CI.

The software versions pre-installed in the Haskell GitHub Actions runner have unfortunately not been kept up to date. I keep close watch on the project, eager to update the versions of GHC that are publicly tested with my projects. There was recently an issue asking about adding support for GHC 9.2.4, and it does not sound like use of non-pre-installed versions is discouraged. Perhaps the cost is not significant?

There is no clear answer at this time, but I went ahead and updated the TTC automated test configuration to test the versions that I would like to test, including GHC 9.4.1, GHC 9.2.4, and Cabal 3.8.1.0. The test run is all green. If the Haskell GitHub Actions team confirms that use of non-pre-installed software is encouraged, I look forward to updating the automated tests for my other projects.

I wrote a bit about version support in the GHC 9.2.2 blog entry. Once the Haskell GitHub Actions policy is clear, I think I will prepare an article about this topic.

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Travis Cardwell

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