GitHub dependencies

Paket allows you to automatically manage the linking of files from github.com or gist.github.com into your projects.

If you have Git installed then Paket also allows you to reference files from other git repositories.

Referencing a single file

You can reference a single file from github.com simply by specifying the source repository and the file name in the paket.dependencies file:

1:	`github forki/FsUnit FsUnit.fs`

If you run the paket update command, it will download the file to a subdirectory in paket-files and also add a new section to your paket.lock file:

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GITHUB
  remote: forki/FsUnit
    FsUnit.fs (7623fc13439f0e60bd05c1ed3b5f6dcb937fe468)

As you can see the file is pinned to a concrete commit. This allows you to reliably use the same file version in succeeding builds until you elect to perform a paket update command at a time of your choosing.

By default the master branch is used to determine the commit to reference, you can specify the desired branch or commit in the paket.dependencies file:

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github fsharp/fsfoundation:gh-pages img/logo/fsharp.svg
github forki/FsUnit:7623fc13439f0e60bd05c1ed3b5f6dcb937fe468 FsUnit.fs

If you want to reference the file in one of your project files then add an entry to the project's paket.references file:

1:	`File: FsUnit.fs`

and run paket install command. This will reference the linked file directly into your project and by default, be visible under paket-files directory in project.

GitHub file referenced in project with default link

You can specify custom directory for the file:

1:	`File: FsUnit.fs Tests\FsUnit`

GitHub file referenced in project with custom link

Or if you use . for the directory, the file will be placed under the root of the project:

1:	`File: FsUnit.fs .`

GitHub file referenced in project under root of project

Referencing a GitHub repository

You can also reference a complete github.com repository by specifying the repository id in the paket.dependencies file:

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// master branch
github tpetricek/FSharp.Formatting

// version 2.13.5
github tpetricek/FSharp.Formatting:2.13.5

// specific commit 30cd5366a4f3f25a443ca4cd62cd592fd16ac69
github tpetricek/FSharp.Formatting:30cd5366a4f3f25a443ca4cd62cd592fd16ac69

This will download the given repository and put it into your paket-files directory. In this case we download the source of FSharp.Formatting.

Recognizing build action

Paket will recognize build action for referenced file based on the project type. As example, for a *.csproj project file, it will use Compile build action if you reference *.cs file and Content build action if you reference file with any other extension.

Remote dependencies

If the remote file needs further dependencies then you can just put a paket.dependencies file into the same GitHub repository directory. Let's look at a sample:

Octokit module

And we reference this in our own paket.dependencies file:

1:	`github fsharp/FAKE modules/Octokit/Octokit.fsx`

This generates the following paket.lock file:

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NUGET
  remote: https://nuget.org/api/v2
    Microsoft.Bcl (1.1.9)
      Microsoft.Bcl.Build (>= 1.0.14)
    Microsoft.Bcl.Build (1.0.21)
    Microsoft.Net.Http (2.2.28)
      Microsoft.Bcl (>= 1.1.9)
      Microsoft.Bcl.Build (>= 1.0.14)
    Octokit (0.4.1)
      Microsoft.Net.Http (>= 0)
GITHUB
  remote: fsharp/FAKE
    modules/Octokit/Octokit.fsx (a25c2f256a99242c1106b5a3478aae6bb68c7a93)
      Octokit (>= 0)

As you can see Paket also resolved the Octokit dependency.

Referencing a private GitHub repository

To reference a private GitHub repository the syntax is identical to above and supports the same branch and file definitions the only extra item to add is an identifier which defines which credential key to use (see paket config).

1:	`github fsharp/private src/myprivate/file.fs githubAuthKey`

Using a GitHub authentication key from environment variable

Paket will use a GitHub token from a enviroment variable PAKET_GITHUB_API_TOKEN. This will allow you to access private repositories and to work around the GitHub API limit on public repositories.

Gist

Gist works the same way. You can fetch single files or multi-file Gists as well:

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gist Thorium/1972308 gistfile1.fs
gist Thorium/6088882

If you run the paket update command, it will add a new section to your paket.lock file:

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GIST
  remote: Thorium/1972308
    gistfile1.fs
  remote: Thorium/6088882
    FULLPROJECT