Building CMake project with Boost libraries on GitHub Actions gives error "Could NOT find Boost"

Question

I'm trying to build my CMake project on GitHub Actions workflow. Everything is working locally on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and building a Docker image, but not when using the same OS on GitHub Actions.

The error is the following:

CMake Error at /usr/local/share/cmake-3.23/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:230 (message):
  Could NOT find Boost (missing: Boost_INCLUDE_DIR system filesystem thread
  date_time chrono regex serialization program_options)
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /usr/local/share/cmake-3.23/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:594 (_FPHSA_FAILURE_MESSAGE)
  /usr/local/share/cmake-3.23/Modules/FindBoost.cmake:2376 (find_package_handle_standard_args)
  CMakeLists.txt:261 (find_package)

My GitHub Actions workflow job:

install:
    name: Install Dependencies
    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
    needs: [ clean ]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Install General
        run: |
          sudo apt-get update
          sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libboost-all-dev libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-dev gcc-11 g++-11 git cmake librocksdb-dev cron rpcbind libboost-system1.74.0 libboost-filesystem1.74.0 libboost-thread1.74.0 libboost-date-time1.74.0 libboost-chrono1.74.0 libboost-regex1.74.0 libboost-serialization1.74.0 libboost-program-options1.74.0 libicu70

  build:
    name: Build Target
    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
    needs: [ install ]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Create Build Dir
        run: mkdir build
      - name: CMake
        run: cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-g0 -Os -fPIC -std=gnu++17" -DBoost_DEBUG=ON -DBoost_ARCHITECTURE=-x64 ..
        working-directory: build
      - name: Make
        run: make -j$(nproc) --ignore-errors
        working-directory: build

My CMake configuration of Boost:

set(Boost_NO_BOOST_CMAKE ON)
set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS ON)
set(Boost_USE_STATIC_RUNTIME ON)
find_package(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS system filesystem thread date_time chrono regex serialization program_options)
message(STATUS "Boost Found: ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS}")
include_directories(SYSTEM ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})

When building it in a Docker container with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS it works without any problems.

My Dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu:22.04

COPY . /usr/src/project_name
WORKDIR /usr/src/project_name

# install build dependencies
RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y \
      build-essential \
      libssl-dev \
      libffi-dev \
      python3-dev \
      gcc-11 \
      g++-11 \
      git \
      cmake \
      librocksdb-dev \
      libboost-all-dev \
      libboost-system1.74.0 \
      libboost-filesystem1.74.0 \
      libboost-thread1.74.0 \
      libboost-date-time1.74.0 \
      libboost-chrono1.74.0 \
      libboost-regex1.74.0 \
      libboost-serialization1.74.0 \
      libboost-program-options1.74.0 \
      libicu70

# create the build directory
RUN mkdir build
WORKDIR /usr/src/project_name/build

# build and install
RUN cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-g0 -Os -fPIC -std=gnu++17" .. && make -j$(nproc) --ignore-errors

WORKDIR /usr/src/project_name/build/src

All of the dependencies are installed on the GitHub runner with a job before. Any ideas why this might occur? Anyone else had this issue? I can post the CMake debug info if requested.

Answer 1

github.com will give you a fresh runner for every job.

See here https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-github-hosted-runners/about-github-hosted-runners#using-a-github-hosted-runner for details.

Thus it is not possible to prepare the machine in one job and use it in a later job.

You should move the installation of the needed packages inside your build job.

In case you need to exchange artifacts, like binaries from one job to a later job, you should take a look at the github actions upload-artifact and download-artifact.