Setting Up CI/CD with GitHub Actions and Python Virtual Environments

It sounds like you’re diving into an exciting project! Setting up a CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions for a Python project is definitely a great way to automate your workflow.

Creating the Workflow File

To get started, you’ll need to create a workflow file in your GitHub repository. This file usually goes in the .github/workflows directory. You can name it something like ci.yml.

Here’s a simple template you can work with:

name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
        with:
          python-version: '3.8' # You can specify your desired version here

      - name: Create and activate virtual environment
        run: |
          python -m venv venv
          . venv/bin/activate
          pip install -r requirements.txt

      - name: Run tests
        run: |
          . venv/bin/activate
          pytest # or your testing command

    

Using Virtual Environments

In the snippet above, venv is created using python -m venv venv, and it’s important to activate it by running . venv/bin/activate. The pip install -r requirements.txt command installs your dependencies listed in the requirements.txt file.

Caching Dependencies

To speed things up, you can cache your dependencies. Here’s how you can do that:

      - name: Cache Python packages
        uses: actions/cache@v2
        with:
          path: venv
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-venv-${{ hashFiles('**/requirements.txt') }}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-venv-

    

Version Compatibility

When you specify the Python version in the setup-python step, GitHub Actions will indeed use that version when creating the virtual environment. So, you don’t need to manage that separately. Just ensure your dependencies are compatible!

Final Thoughts

Make sure to check out the documentation for setup-python and GitHub Actions for more options and features you can use. If you encounter any issues, feel free to ask for help—that’s part of the learning process!