Setup MSVC GitHub Action

This GitHub Action configures a complete Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) development environment on Windows by invoking vcvarsall.bat. It automatically detects installed Visual Studio instances, selects the correct toolset, Windows SDK, and architecture, and exposes all environment variables required to build C and C++ projects with MSVC.

Examples

Minimal

steps:
  - name: Setup MSVC
    uses: mlocati/setup-msvc@v1

Full

steps:
  - name: Setup MSVC
    uses: mlocati/setup-msvc@v1
    id: msvc
    with:
      vs-version: latest
      architecture: x64
      platform-type: store
      windows-sdk-version: 10.0.26100.0
      toolset-version: '14.44'
      spectre-mode: true
      canonicalize-paths: true
      if-not-windows: fail
      update-env: |
        !Path
      debug: true
  - name: Dump value of INCLUDE detected by by the setup-msvc action
    run: echo "${{ steps.msvc.outputs.include }}$"

Features

Automatic detection of installed Visual Studio versions
Support for all MSVC architectures: x86, x64, x86_x64, x86_arm, x86_arm64, x64_x86, x64_arm, x64_arm64
Optional selection of:
- Windows SDK version
- MSVC toolset version
- Spectre mitigation mode
- Platform type (desktop, Store, UWP)
Outputs all environment variables set by vcvarsall.bat
Updates the environment for all subsequent workflow steps (by default, but it can be disabled)
Includes a debug mode for troubleshooting
Fully tested

Inputs

`vs-version`

Specify the Visual Studio version.

Allowed values (case insensitive):

latest (default)
Aliases: last, empty string
2026
Aliases: 18, 18.…
2022
Aliases: 17, 17.…
2019
Aliases: 16, 16.…
2017
Aliases: 15, 15.…
2015
Aliases: 14, 14.…
2013
Aliases: 12, 12.…
2012
Aliases: 11, 11.…
2010
Aliases: 10, 10.…
2008
Aliases: 9, 9.…
2005
Aliases: 8, 8.…

`architecture`

Architecture for the MSVC tools.

Allowed values (case insensitive):

x86 (default in case of 32-bit OS)
Aliases: 32, i386, i686, ia32, win32
Host: x86 or x64
Target: x86
x64 (default in case of 64-bit OS)
Aliases: 64, amd64, win64, x86_64, x86-64
Host: x64
Target: x64
x86_x64
Aliases: x86_amd64, x86-amd64, x86-x64
Host: x86 or x64
Target: x64
x86_arm
Aliases: x86-arm, x86_arm32, x86-arm32
Host: x86 or x64
Target: ARM
x86_arm64
Aliases: x86-arm64
Host: x86 or x64
Target: ARM64
x64_x86
Aliases: amd64_x86, amd64-x86, x64-x86
Host: x64
Target: x86
x64_arm
Aliases: amd64_arm, amd64-arm, x64-arm, amd64_arm32, amd64-arm32, x64_arm32, x64-arm32
Host: x64
Target: ARM
x64_arm64
Aliases: amd64_arm64, amd64-arm64, x64-arm64
Host: x64
Target: ARM64

`platform-type`

Configure the target application model.

Allowed values (case insensitive):

desktop (default)
For building desktop / console applications
uwp
For building Universal Windows Platform applications (Microsoft Store apps, ...)
store
Legacy alias of uwp

`windows-sdk-version`

Version of the Windows SDK.

The full version of the Windows SDK (eg 10.0.26100.0). Use 8.1 to use the Windows 8.1 SDK.

Default value: use the most recent installed version.

`toolset-version`

Version of the Visual C++ compiler toolset.

It can be a major version (eg 14), a major.minor version (eg 14.44) or major.minor.patch version (eg 14.44.35207).

Default value: use the most recent installed version.

`spectre-mode`

Whether spectre mode should be enabled.

Allowed values:

false (default)
for libraries without spectre mitigations
true
for libraries with spectre mitigations

`canonicalize-paths`

Use this input to standardize the paths in the environment variables set by Visual Studio.

Allowed values:

false (default)
Don't touch the environment variables
true
Standardize existing paths.
For example, this may change the value of VCINSTALLDIR from
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\
to
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC

`if-not-windows`

This action only works on Windows runners.
With this option, you can control what to do when the runner is not Windows.

Allowed values (case insensitive):

fail (default)
The action will fail
warn
The action will raise a warning, without failing
ignore
The action won't do anything

`update-env`

Use this option to control whether environment variables should be set for subsequent workflow steps.

Allowed values:

true (default)
The environment variables configured by Visual Studio (eg Path, INCLUDE, LIB, ...) will be available in subsequent workflow steps
false
No environment variable will be set
newline-separated list of variable names to only update a subset of them (case insensitive)
Prepend ! to a variable name to exclude it from updating.
Examples:
- Set all environment variables except Path and LIB
```
update-env: |
  !Path
  !LIB
```
- Set only the Path and LIB environment variables
```
update-env: |
  Path
  LIB
```

`debug`

Use this option to control whether you want to see debug details.

Allowed values:

false (default)
No debug message will be printed
true
Debug messages will be sent to the workflow

Outputs

`vcvarsall-path`

The path of the detected vcvarsall.bat file Visual Studio.

Example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat

`path`

The directories added by Visual Studio to the Path environment variables.

Example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\bin\HostX64\x64;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\VC\VCPackages;…

`include`

The value of the INCLUDE environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\ATLMFC\include;…

`lib`

The value of the LIB environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\ATLMFC\lib\x64;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\lib\x64;…

`libpath`

The value of the LIBPATH environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\ATLMFC\lib\x64;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\lib\x64;…

`vc-installdir`

The value of the VCINSTALLDIR environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\

`vs-installdir`

The value of the VSINSTALLDIR environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\

`vs-version`

The value of the VisualStudioVersion environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
17.0

`vctools-installdir`

The value of the VCTOOLSINSTALLDIR environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\

`vctools-version`

The value of the VCTOOLSVERSION environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
14.44.35207

`windows-sdk-dir`

The value of the WindowsSdkDir environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\

`windows-sdk-version`

The value of the WindowsSDKVersion environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
10.0.26100.0\

`windows-sdk-lib-version`

The value of the WindowsSDKLibVersion environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
10.0.26100.0\

`ucrt-version`

The value of the UCRTVersion environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
10.0.26100.0

`platform`

The value of the Platform environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
x64

`vcmd-arg-host-arch`

The value of the VSCMD_ARG_HOST_ARCH environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
x64

`vcmd-arg-tgt-arch`

The value of the VSCMD_ARG_TGT_ARCH environment variable set by Visual Studio.

Example:
x64

`all`

All the environment variables configured by Visual Studio, in JSON format. Please remark that Path will only include the directories added by Visual Studio.

Example:

{
  "Path": "C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Enterprise\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.44.35207\\bin\\HostX64\\x64;C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Enterprise\\Common7\\IDE\\VC\\VCPackages;…"
  "CommandPromptType": "Native",
  "DevEnvDir": "C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Enterprise\\Common7\\IDE\\",
  "Framework40Version": "v4.0",
  ...
}

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 10 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
.vscode		.vscode
dist		dist
src		src
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmrc		.npmrc
.prettierrc		.prettierrc
LICENSE.txt		LICENSE.txt
README.md		README.md
action.yml		action.yml
jest.config.ts		jest.config.ts
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
rollup.config.ts		rollup.config.ts
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

Setup MSVC GitHub Action

Examples

Minimal

Full

Features

Inputs

vs-version

architecture

platform-type

windows-sdk-version

toolset-version

spectre-mode

canonicalize-paths

if-not-windows

update-env

debug

Outputs

vcvarsall-path

path

include

lib

libpath

vc-installdir

vs-installdir

vs-version

vctools-installdir

vctools-version

windows-sdk-dir

windows-sdk-version

windows-sdk-lib-version

ucrt-version

platform

vcmd-arg-host-arch

vcmd-arg-tgt-arch

all

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Languages

`vs-version`

`architecture`

`platform-type`

`windows-sdk-version`

`toolset-version`

`spectre-mode`

`canonicalize-paths`

`if-not-windows`

`update-env`

`debug`

`vcvarsall-path`

`path`

`include`

`lib`

`libpath`

`vc-installdir`

`vs-installdir`

`vs-version`

`vctools-installdir`

`vctools-version`

`windows-sdk-dir`

`windows-sdk-version`

`windows-sdk-lib-version`

`ucrt-version`

`platform`

`vcmd-arg-host-arch`

`vcmd-arg-tgt-arch`

`all`