setup-vsdevenv

GitHub Action for setting Visual Studio build environment variables and paths for subsequent steps in the job.

This can be especially useful for building C++ using the MSVC compiler using build tools like CMake which lack the good sense to find VS themselves.

The action can find any compatible VS installation (via required VS components), though it will still always run the vsdevenv command and update the environment accordingly.

Inputs

• vswhere: Path to vswhere.exe (default system-installed copy).
• arch: Build architecture (default amd64).
• host_arch: Host architecture override.
• winsdk: WinSDK version override.
• toolset_version: Build toolset version override.
• components: List of required VS components, semi-colon separated. (default Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64)
• verbose: Display information about the installation that vswhere selects.

Outputs

• install_path: Selected VS installation path.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Usage Example

jobs:
  build:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: compnerd/gha-setup-vsdevenv@main
    - run: |
        mkdir build
        cd build
        cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=cl.exe ..
    - run: cmake --build build