Running Cake.Recipe on Ubuntu 22.04 fails every time

[nils-a]

The error is the following:

...

Setting up tools...
Error: One or more errors occurred. (Object reference not set to an instance of an object.)
	Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Detailed logs look like this:

...

Setting up tools...
Could not resolve path for tool "mono" using these directories: /usr/local/sbin,/usr/local/bin,/usr/sbin,/usr/bin,/sbin,/bin,/usr/games,/usr/local/games,/snap/bin,/snap/bin,/home/nils/.dotnet/tools
Error: System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. (Object reference not set to an instance of an object.)
 ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Submission#0.ToolSettings.SetToolSettings(ICakeContext context, String testCoverageFilter, String testCoverageExcludeByAttribute, String testCoverageExcludeByFile, Nullable`1 buildPlatformTarget, MSBuildToolVersion buildMSBuildToolVersion, Nullable`1 maxCpuCount, DirectoryPath targetFrameworkPathOverride, Boolean skipDuplicatePackages, String kuduSyncIgnore)
   at Submission#0.<<Initialize>>d__0.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Scripting.ScriptExecutionState.RunSubmissionsAsync[TResult](ImmutableArray`1 precedingExecutors, Func`2 currentExecutor, StrongBox`1 exceptionHolderOpt, Func`2 catchExceptionOpt, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Scripting.Script`1.RunSubmissionsAsync(ScriptExecutionState executionState, ImmutableArray`1 precedingExecutors, Func`2 currentExecutor, Func`2 catchExceptionOpt, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait(Int32 millisecondsTimeout, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait()
   at Cake.Infrastructure.Scripting.RoslynScriptSession.Execute(Script script) in C:\projects\cake\src\Cake\Infrastructure\Scripting\RoslynScriptSession.cs:line 166
   at Cake.Core.Scripting.ScriptRunner.Run(IScriptHost host, FilePath scriptPath) in C:\projects\cake\src\Cake.Core\Scripting\ScriptRunner.cs:line 172
   at Cake.Features.Building.BuildFeature.RunCore(IRemainingArguments arguments, BuildFeatureSettings settings) in C:\projects\cake\src\Cake\Features\Building\BuildFeature.cs:line 99
   at Cake.Features.Building.BuildFeature.Run(IRemainingArguments arguments, BuildFeatureSettings settings) in C:\projects\cake\src\Cake\Features\Building\BuildFeature.cs:line 49
   at Cake.Commands.DefaultCommand.Execute(CommandContext context, DefaultCommandSettings settings) in C:\projects\cake\src\Cake\Commands\DefaultCommand.cs:line 73

So it seems, that even on a dotnet (core) build, we're expecting mono to be installed somehow.

[nils-a]

The requirement of mono comes from the shouldUseTargetFrameworkPath build parameter.

This parameter has a default value of true for non-Windows builds.

Cake.Recipe/Source/Cake.Recipe/Content/parameters.cake

Line 476 in fce9759

ShouldUseTargetFrameworkPath = shouldUseTargetFrameworkPath ?? !context.IsRunningOnWindows();

And then, if is true (and no override path is explicitly set), a path relative to the mono executable on the system is set

Cake.Recipe/Source/Cake.Recipe/Content/toolsettings.cake

Lines 111 to 123 in fce9759

	if (BuildParameters.ShouldUseTargetFrameworkPath && targetFrameworkPathOverride == null)
	{
	if (context.Environment.Runtime.IsCoreClr)
	{
	var path = context.Tools.Resolve("mono").GetDirectory();
	path = path.Combine("../lib/mono/4.5");
	TargetFrameworkPathOverride = path.FullPath + "/";
	}
	else
	{
	TargetFrameworkPathOverride = new FilePath(typeof(object).Assembly.Location).GetDirectory().FullPath + "/";
	}
	}

I'm not sure why this is the way it is, but for the builds that I have tested, setting shouldUseTargetFrameworkPath to false seems to be a workaround for this.

Maybe we should change the default in the coming versions of Cake.Recipe?

(I am assuming here that the current setting has it's origins in the old days of building net core on non-Windows (i.e. mono) systems and is probably no longer needed since net5.0)

[nils-a]

Also, for Cake.Recipe 3.1.1, when the mono problem is fixed, the build still fails with an error No usable version of the libssl was found.

This is due to net5.0 and previous versions are using an older version of libssl, that no longer ships with ubuntu 24.04.

A workaround for that is bumping the gitVersionGlobalTool to 5.12.0, so gitversion uses net6.0.

// ...

ToolSettings.SetToolPreprocessorDirectives(
    gitVersionGlobalTool: "#tool dotnet:?package=GitVersion.Tool&version=5.12.0");

// ...

[nils-a]

When the above is worked around, local builds run on ubuntu 22.04. However, in CI builds still fail:

• The reportGeneratorGlobalTool (dotnet-reportgenerator-globaltool in version 4.8.5) also runs on net5.0 and produces the No usable version of the libssl was found error.
• The coverallsGlobalTool (coveralls.net in version 1.0.0) uses net2.1 and fails because of an incompatible libicu. (The exact error is: Couldn't find a valid ICU package installed on the system. Set the configuration flag System.Globalization.Invariant to true if you want to run with no globalization support.)

This can be worked around by bumping both tools to the current versions:

// ...

ToolSettings.SetToolPreprocessorDirectives(
    reportGeneratorGlobalTool: "#tool dotnet:?package=dotnet-reportgenerator-globaltool&version=5.4.7",
    coverallsGlobalTool: "#tool dotnet:?package=coveralls.net&version=4.0.1");

// ...

[nils-a]

After that, CI builds on PRs do run fine, however publishing releases and prereleases from the CI pipeline fails with the following error:

...
Adding NuGet source with user/pass...
Could not resolve path for tool "mono" using these directories: /usr/share/dotnet,/snap/bin,/home/runner/.local/bin,/opt/pipx_bin,/home/runner/.cargo/bin,/home/runner/.config/composer/vendor/bin,/usr/local/.ghcup/bin,/home/runner/.dotnet/tools,/usr/local/sbin,/usr/local/bin,/usr/sbin,/usr/bin,/sbin,/bin,/usr/games,/usr/local/games,/snap/bin/home/runner/work/Cake.BuildSystems.Module/Cake.BuildSystems.Module/tools/NuGet.CommandLine.5.8.1/tools/NuGet.exe is a .NET Framework executable, you might need to install Mono for it to execute successfully.

This is due to the nuget.exe being used to publish, which - on linux - still requires mono.
This can probably only be resolved by switching from nuget.exe to dotnet nuget for publishing in modern (i.e. dotnet) builds.

[gep13]

@nils-a with this PR, Cake.Recipe is now using Cake.Recipe to build itself, using Cake 3.0.0, and it is happily running on Ubuntu 22.04. If/when you have time, could you take the artifacts of that build for a spin, and let me know if you are still seeing problems? Thanks!