Improve and extend documentation for dependency-graph generation (#851)

* Improve documentation for dependency-graph generation

Fixes #849
Fixes #843
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Daz DeBoer 2023-08-18 23:50:06 +02:00 committed by GitHub
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@ -513,6 +513,8 @@ The `gradle-build-action` has support for submitting a [GitHub Dependency Graph]
The dependency graph snapshot is generated via integration with the [GitHub Dependency Graph Gradle Plugin](https://plugins.gradle.org/plugin/org.gradle.github-dependency-graph-gradle-plugin), and saved as a workflow artifact. The generated snapshot files can be submitted either in the same job, or in a subsequent job (in the same or a dependent workflow).
The generated dependency graph snapshot reports all of the dependencies that were resolved during a bulid execution, and is used by GitHub to generate [Dependabot Alerts](https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/dependabot/dependabot-alerts/about-dependabot-alerts) for vulnerable dependencies, as well as to populate the [Dependency Graph insights view](https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/supply-chain-security/understanding-your-software-supply-chain/exploring-the-dependencies-of-a-repository#viewing-the-dependency-graph).
## Enable Dependency Graph generation for a workflow
You enable GitHub Dependency Graph support by setting the `dependency-graph` action parameter. Valid values are:
@ -547,9 +549,52 @@ jobs:
run: ./gradlew build
```
The `contents: write` permission is not required to generate the dependency graph, but is required in order to submit the graph via the GitHub API.
The above configuration will work for workflows that run as a result of commits to a repository branch, but not when a workflow is triggered by a PR from a repository fork.
For a configuration that supports this setup, see [Dependency Graphs for pull request workflows](#dependency-graphs-for-pull-request-workflows).
## Limiting the scope of the dependency graph
At times it is helpful to limit the dependencies reported to GitHub, in order to security alerts for dependencies that don't form a critical part of your product.
For example, a vulnerability in the tool you use to generate documentation is unlikely to be as important as a vulnerability in one of your runtime dependencies.
There are a number of techniques you can employ to limit the scope of the generated dependency graph:
- [Don't generate a dependency graph for all Gradle executions](#choosing-which-gradle-invocations-will-generate-a-dependency-graph)
- [For a Gradle execution, filter which Gradle projects and configurations will contribute dependencies](#filtering-which-gradle-configurations-contribute-to-the-dependency-graph)
- [Use a separate workflow that only resolves the required dependencies]()
> [!NOTE]
> Ideally, all dependencies involved in building and testing a project will be extracted and reported in a dependency graph.
> These dependencies would be assigned to different scopes (eg development, runtime, testing) and the GitHub UI would make it easy to opt-in to security alerts for different dependency scopes.
> However, this functionality does not yet exist.
### Choosing which Gradle invocations will generate a dependency graph
Once you enable the dependency graph support for a workflow job (via the `dependency-graph` parameter), dependencies will be collected and reported for all subsequent Gradle invocations.
If you have a Gradle build step that you want to exclude from dependency graph generation, you can set the `GITHUB_DEPENDENCY_GRAPH_ENABLED` environment variable to `false`.
```yaml
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Setup Gradle to generate and submit dependency graphs
uses: gradle/gradle-build-action@v2
with:
dependency-graph: generate-and-submit
- name: Build the app, generating a graph of dependencies required
run: ./gradlew :my-app:assemble
- name: Run all checks, disabling dependency graph generation
run: ./gradlew check
env:
GITHUB_DEPENDENCY_GRAPH_ENABLED: false
```
### Filtering which Gradle Configurations contribute to the dependency graph
If you do not want to include every dependency configuration in every project in your build, you can limit the
If you do not want the dependency graph to include every dependency configuration in every project in your build, you can limit the
dependency extraction to a subset of these.
To restrict which Gradle subprojects contribute to the report, specify which projects to include via a regular expression.
@ -558,16 +603,10 @@ You can provide this value via the `DEPENDENCY_GRAPH_INCLUDE_PROJECTS` environme
To restrict which Gradle configurations contribute to the report, you can filter configurations by name using a regular expression.
You can provide this value via the `DEPENDENCY_GRAPH_INCLUDE_CONFIGURATIONS` environment variable or system property.
Example of a simple workflow that limits the dependency graph to `runtimeClasspath` configuration and to exclude `buildSrc` dependencies:
For example, if you want to exclude dependencies in the `buildSrc` project, and only report on dependencies from the `runtimeClasspath` configuration,
you would use the following configuration:
```yaml
name: Submit dependency graph
on:
push:
permissions:
contents: write
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@ -580,24 +619,35 @@ jobs:
- name: Run a build, generating the dependency graph from 'runtimeClasspath' configurations
run: ./gradlew build
env:
DEPENDENCY_GRAPH_INCLUDE_CONFIGURATIONS: runtimeClasspath
DEPENDENCY_GRAPH_INCLUDE_PROJECTS: "^:(?!buildSrc).*"
DEPENDENCY_GRAPH_INCLUDE_CONFIGURATIONS: runtimeClasspath
```
### Gradle version compatibility
### Use a dedicated workflow for dependency graph generation
The plugin should be compatible with all versions of Gradle >= 5.0, and has been tested against
Gradle versions "5.6.4", "6.9.4", "7.0.2", "7.6.2", "8.0.2" and the current Gradle release.
Instead of generating a dependency graph from your existing CI workflow, it's possible to create a separate dedicated workflow (or Job) that is solely intended for generating a dependency graph.
Such a workflow will still need to execute Gradle, but can do so in a way that is targeted at resolving exactly the dependencies required.
The plugin is compatible with running Gradle with the configuration-cache enabled. However, this support is
limited to Gradle "8.1.0" and later:
- With Gradle "8.0", the build should run successfully, but an empty dependency graph will be generated.
- With Gradle <= "7.6.4", the plugin will cause the build to fail with configuration-cache enabled.
For example, the following workflow will report only those dependencies that are part of the `runtimeClasspath` or the `my-app` project.
To use this plugin with versions of Gradle older than "8.1.0", you'll need to invoke Gradle with the
configuration-cache disabled.
```yaml
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Setup Gradle to generate and submit dependency graphs
uses: gradle/gradle-build-action@v2
with:
dependency-graph: generate-and-submit
- name: Extract the 'runtimeClasspath' dependencies for 'my-app'
run: ./gradlew :my-app:dependencies --configuration runtimeClasspath
```
### Dependency snapshots generated for pull requests
Note that the above example will also include `buildSrc` dependencies, since these are resolved as part of running the `dependencies` task.
If this isn't desirable, you will still need to use the filtering mechanism described above.
## Dependency Graphs for pull request workflows
This `contents: write` permission is not available for any workflow that is triggered by a pull request submitted from a forked repository, since it would permit a malicious pull request to make repository changes.
@ -643,3 +693,16 @@ jobs:
dependency-graph: download-and-submit
```
## Gradle version compatibility
The plugin should be compatible with all versions of Gradle >= 5.0, and has been tested against
Gradle versions "5.6.4", "6.9.4", "7.0.2", "7.6.2", "8.0.2" and the current Gradle release.
The plugin is compatible with running Gradle with the configuration-cache enabled. However, this support is
limited to Gradle "8.1.0" and later:
- With Gradle "8.0", the build should run successfully, but an empty dependency graph will be generated.
- With Gradle <= "7.6.4", the plugin will cause the build to fail with configuration-cache enabled.
To use this plugin with versions of Gradle older than "8.1.0", you'll need to invoke Gradle with the
configuration-cache disabled.