KSP Build Tools

This repository aims to provide a common set of tools for developing mods for Kerbal Space Program. Note that it's still in "alpha" stages so expect things to change or break.

To use it, either:

• Reference this package in your csproj

  run dotnet add package KSPBuildTools

  or add the following to your csproj

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="KSPBuildTools" Version="0.0.0-alpha.0.214" /> 
  </ItemGroup>

• Add this repository as a submodule:

  git submodule add https://github.com/KSPModdingLibs/KSPBuildTools.git

• Or you can copy the files you want into your own repository and use them however you like - though that will make it harder to get updates

Most things in this repository will work best if you have a directory in your repository that corresponds to the directory that the user will install into GameData (or several such directories). Placing these into a GameData folder in your repository is recommended but not required.

While working on your mod, I recommend that you create a junction or symlink from the game's GameData folder pointing at the content folder in your repository. That way any changes you make will be immediately available, and you don't need to deploy or copy anything. If you'd like to see other workflows supported please ask!

Table of Contents

• KSPCommon.targets
• update-version.sh
• Github Workflows
• Github Actions

KSPCommon.targets

This is a msbuild targets file that you can include in your .csproj files.

What it does:

• Provides a standard way to find your KSP install and the game's libraries that works on anyone's machine and any operating system
• Provides a way for individual developers to select their KSP install location without modifying git-tracked files
• Properties can be set for the entire mod instead of needing to do it per project file
• Provides a standard way to copy output files that works on all operating systems
• Sets the debug symbols format to portable so that you can debug your mod
• Sets up Visual Studio's debugging start actions so you can launch KSP directly from VS
• Includes a target for installing dependencies with CKAN
• Designed to be used by the Build github workflow

If not using a PackageReference, import KSPCommon.targets in your .csproj file after it imports Microsoft.CSharp.targets. You should remove ALL the existing assembly references to System, Assembly-CSharp, and Unity.

<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)/Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)KSPBuildTools/KSPCommon.targets" />

Here's an example from kOS.

Note that KSPCommon.targets makes use of KSPCommon.props for advanced users, which sets all the below properties but does not include the build targets. If you only want the properties and not the targets, you can use KSPCommon.props instead.

Versioning

MinVer is recommended for versioning mods. KSPCommon.targets will use the generated version correctly.

Customization

Properties can be customized at several points:

Canonical properties (committed to version control)

• Per-project properties should be set in the .csproj file before importing KSPCommon.targets
• Properties for the whole mod should be set in $(SolutionName).props which will be imported by KSPCommon.props

Per-User properties (not committed to version control)

• Per-user per-project properties should be set in the .csproj.user file adjacent to each csproj file. This is typically where you set the $(ReferencePath) pointing to your KSP install (this can be set from inside VS!)
• Per-user properties for the whole mod should be set in $(SolutionName).props.user. If you have multiple projects in the solution, you can set $(KSPRoot) in here so that you don't have to set it for each project.

You should have *.user files added to your .gitignore file.

The following properties are exposed to be customized per mod, project, or user. Properties that represent directories should not include a trailing slash.

RepoRootPath

Default value: $(SolutionDir)

This specifies the root directory of your mod repository. Generally you'll want to set this to be relative to $(SolutionDir).

BinariesOutputRelativePath

Default value: GameData\$(SolutionName)

This is the directory where compiled binaries should be copied. This is relative to the RepoRootPath. The binaries will be copied after each build.

KSPRoot

This property should be set to the root directory of your KSP install. If it is not specified, then KSPCommon.props will try some defaults:

• If $(ReferencePath) is set, then that becomes the value of the KSPRoot property. This is the best way for individual developers to specify where their KSP install is, because the $(ReferencePath) is typically stored in the .csproj.user file that is not committed to version control. NOTE: .csproj.user files are imported by Microsoft.CSharp.targets which is why it's important for KSPCommon.targets to be placed afterward. If it comes first, you won't be able to use $(ReferencePath).
• If the KSP_ROOT environment variable is set, then that becomes the value of the KSPRoot property. This is used in CI scripts like the compile action below.
• If $(SolutionDir)KSP/buildID.txt exists, then $(SolutionDir)KSP becomes the value of the KSPRoot property. This could be a full copy of a KSP install, or just a symlink or junction to one.
• If KSPRoot still isn't set, then it will default to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program on Windows or $(HOME)/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Kerbal Space Program on macOS.

CKANCompatibleVersions

Default value: 1.12 1.11 1.10 1.9 1.8

Used by the CKANInstall target to set additional KSP versions to treat as compatible when installing dependencies.

GenerateKSPAssemblyAttribute

If set to true, automatically generates the KSPAssembly for your assembly from the Version property.

GenerateKSPAssemblyDependencyAttributes

If set to true, automatically generates KSPAssemblyDependency attributes for each dependency. Dependencies should have either the CKANIdentifier metadata or KSPAssemblyName metadata. Versions can be supplied with CKANVersion or KSPAssemblyVersion. See Referencing Dependencies below.

Referencing Dependencies

Referencing assemblies (DLLs) from other mods should be done with a HintPath relative to $(KSPRoot). These should be placed after importing KSPCommon.targets so that $(KSPRoot) will be defined. In addition, you can include the CKAN identifier of the mod to make it installable when restoring the project. Dependencies should have the private flag set to false, unless they are intended to be included alongside the main dll.

Example from Shabby:

<ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="0Harmony">
      <HintPath>$(KSPRoot)/GameData/000_Harmony/0Harmony.dll</HintPath>
      <CKANIdentifier>Harmony2</CKANIdentifier>
      <Private>false</Private>
    </Reference>
</ItemGroup>

Installing Dependencies

Dependencies are installed by the CKANInstall target, which automatically runs when the dotnet project is restored. Dependencies will be installed in $(KSPRoot).

Example usage:

msbuild -t:restore

Dependencies that get referenced in your assembly should be marked with its CKANIdentifier as shown above. If you want to install a dependency without referencing it, you can list it like so:

<ItemGroup>
    <CKANDependency Include="ModuleManager"/>
</ItemGroup>

update-version.sh

This is a bash shell script that can update version numbers in several text files (AssemblyInfo.cs, .version files, readme, etc). All it does is process files with a common extension and replaces certain tokens in them.

This file can be run from your own repository locally, and it's also used in some of the github actions and workflows. If you're already using git for windows, you have a bash shell that you can run this from.

Usage

update-version.sh [-g (true|false)] [-d (true|false)] VERSION_STRING TEMPLATE_EXTENSION [FILES]

Example:

update-version.sh 1.2.3.4 .vtxt AssemblyInfo.cs.vtxt

Example template files:

• AssemblyInfo.cs from RasterPropMonitor
• .version file from RasterPropMonitor

VERSION_STRING

Required. This is the new version you want to set, in MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.BUILD form. Any of the values can be omitted (starting from the right).

TEMPLATE_EXTENSION

Optional. Default: .versiontemplate

This is a file extension that indicates which files the script should consider. When processing a file, if it ends with this extension then the script will store the output in a new file with the template extension removed. Otherwise the file is updated in-place.

FILES

Optional.

This is a list of files to process. If omitted, the script will process all files in the subtree that end with TEMPLATE_EXTENSION.

-g (true|false)

Optional. Default: false

If true, calls git add on each of the modified files (but does not commit).

-d (true|false)

Optional. Default: false

If true, deletes the template file after processing (if the file was not updated in-place).

Tokens

The script will replace the following tokens in processed files:

• @VERSION_STRING@ : replaced with the raw VERSION_STRING
• @VERSION_FULL@ : replaced with VERSION_MAJOR.VERSION_MINOR.VERSION_PATCH.VERSION_BUILD. That is, it is VERSION_STRING with all non-digit characters removed
• @VERSION_MAJOR@ : replaced with the major version number
• @VERSION_MINOR@ : replaced with the minor version number
• @VERSION_PATCH@ : replaced with the patch version number
• @VERSION_BUILD@ : replaced with the build version number

Github Workflows

These are full-blown workflows that can be triggered from your own repository on certain events.

build

Compiles a KSP mod and uploads the results as a workflow artifact. It's meant to be suitable for continuous integration builds, as it simply compiles whatever is in the repository without updating version numbers etc.

For details:

• compile action
• assemble-release action

Example usage from RasterPropMonitor

create-release

Builds and packages a new version of mod. You can reference this workflow in your own repository on workflow-dispatch and have the developer type in a version number. Then it does the rest!

Note that this action DOES commit files to git (updated changelogs, version files, etc) so if you're testing it out you should do it on a separate branch.

After running update-version, this workflow commits the changelog and version file changes and creates a new tag. Then it runs compile and assemble-release. And then finally it creates a draft github release with the packaged mod attached.

For details:

• update-version action
• compile action
• assemble-release action

Example usage from RasterPropMonitor

validate

Performs validation to help check for errors. Right now it just invokes CKAN's KSPMMCfgParser action to check for syntax errors in cfg files, but it may do more in the future. You may want to add this to a continuous integration workflow that is triggered on pull requests and commits.

Github Actions

These are smaller units of tasks that can be combined in workflows to help automate testing, building, and releasing mods.

assemble-release

Packages a mod for release or upload. Uses actions/upload-artifact so the output is attached to the workflow job and can be used by other workflow jobs.

Env:

• RELEASE_STAGING

  The artifact files will be copied to this directory before being packaged in the zip file. This becomes the input for upload-artifact. If not set, /tmp/release is used instead

Inputs:

• artifacts

  A list of files or directories to include in the output (relative to the repository root). Defaults to GameData LICENSE* README* CHANGELOG* - that is, anything in the GameData directory, and any license, readme, or changelog files will be included.

• output-file-name

  The name of the output zip file (without the extension). Defaults to the repository name. This is used in the upload-artifact action. In addition, a zip file with this name will be created in the github workspace so that it can be immediately consumed by other actions in the workflow without having to download the artifact.

Outputs:

• artifact-id and artifact-url

  The outputs from actions/upload-artifact

compile

Compiles C# code using msbuild into a mod assembly. This action will install any dependent mods declared in the csproj file and restore NuGet packages.

Environment:

• KSP_ROOT

  The path to use as the root of a KSP install. Dependencies will be downloaded here and the ksp-zip-url libraries will be extracted here. This is generally set by the build or assemble-release workflows. If not set, /tmp/ksp is used instead.

Inputs:

• build-configuration

  The project configuration to build. Defaults to Release.

• solution-file-path

  The path to the solution file to build. Defaults to empty, which will invoke msbuild on the root directory of the repo and builds any *.sln file it finds there.

• ksp-zip-url

  A url for a zip file that contains the assemblies from the game to link against. This should either be stripped so that it only contains public interfaces, or encrypted so that the libraries are not being redistributed unprotected.

  Defaults to https://github.com/KSPModdingLibs/KSPLibs/raw/main/KSP-1.12.5.zip which contains stripped versions of the libraries and should be suitable for most users.

• ksp-zip-password

  If the ksp library zip is encrypted, this is the password. It should be stored in your repository's secrets.

setup-ckan

Installs CKAN and sets up a KSP installation

Environment:

• KSP_ROOT

  The path to use as the root of a KSP instance for CKAN to set-up. If not set, /tmp/ksp is used instead.

Inputs:

• ckan-version

  CKAN tag to install. set to an empty string to always install the most recent version. See the CKAN releases page for a list of available tags

• ckan-compatible-versions

  KSP versions to mark as compatible. Newline-separated. Defaults to versions from 1.8 to 1.12

• ckan-filters

  File globs to ignore when installing mods. Newline-separated. Defaults to most large asset files included in mods. Set to an empty string if you need the entire mod installed for bundling.

install-dependencies

Uses CKAN to install dependencies. You should generally prefer to specify them in the .csproj file. Requires setup-ckan to have already been run.

Inputs:

• dependency-identifiers

A space-separated list of CKAN identifiers to install.

update-version

Uses yaclog and yaclog-ksp to update a changelog and get release notes. Then runs update-version.sh to replace version tokens in several text files. All modifications will be staged to git but not committed.

Inputs:

• version-string

  Required. A version number in major.minor.patch.build form, or one of the special strings --major --minor --patch which will increment the version based on the most recent entry in the changelog file.

• changelog-input-file

  Optional. Default: CHANGELOG.md

  The name of a changelog file to use. Should be formatted according to Keep a Changelog, with a ## Unreleased section at the top for changes that are pending release. yaclog release will be invoked which replaces the ## Unreleased section with the version number and the date stamp.

• changelog-output-file

  Optional. If specified, this action will run yaclog-ksp on the changelog input file which generates a changelog .cfg file suitable for Kerbal Changelog. As such, changelog-output-file should be somewhere in your mod's artifact path so that it will be included when the mod is installed.

• release-notes-output-file

  Optional. If specified, uses yaclog to save the most recent changelog info in Markdown format to this file. This can then be used by the assemble-release action.

• template-extension

  Corresponds to the input to update-version.sh. Defaults to .versiontemplate

• files

  Corresponds to the input to update-version.sh.

• ksp-build-tools-root

  Where to download update-version.sh.

Outputs:

• The final version string is saved in VERSION_STRING as an environment variable and outputs.version-string
• The path to the release notes file is saved in RELEASE_NOTES_FILE as an environment variable and outputs-release-notes-output-file