Maintaining up-to-date dependencies in your project repositories is a critical practice in the world of software development. It ensures that your code remains secure, efficient, and compatible with the latest innovations. Regularly updating dependencies helps patch vulnerabilities, improve performance, and unlock new features, ultimately enhancing the reliability of your software. However, manually managing dependencies across multiple project repositories within your organisation can be an overwhelming burden. It demands significant time and effort to track version changes, evaluate compatibility, and apply updates systematically. The complexity multiplies as the number of repositories grows, making it a formidable challenge for any development team. In this blog post, we’ll delve into strategies to alleviate the burden of manual dependency management, allowing you to streamline your development process and focus on delivering high-quality software.
Meet Dependabot
Despite its not-so-recent debut, Dependabot continues to stand strong as an essential tool within the ever-evolving landscape of modern software development. With a history of reliability and performance, Dependabot has consistently supported developers in their quest to maintain the up-to-dateness of their projects.
To initiate Dependabot for your repository, simply craft a new file named .github/dependabot.yml within your repository.
---
version: 2
updates:
- package-ecosystem: 'github-actions'
directory: '/'
schedule:
interval: 'weekly'
This workflow is designed to run on a weekly basis, proactively identifying and addressing outdated dependencies within your project. When executed, Dependabot will automatically generate a pull request, simplifying the process of updating these dependencies to their latest versions.
Taking it one step further
Managing this across numerous repositories in a sizable organization can be a daunting and monotonous undertaking. In addressing this challenge, Evergreen emerges as the solution to simplify and streamline the process. This powerful GitHub action is specifically designed to automate the propagation of Dependabot workflows across all your repositories. Evergreen can seamlessly scan your organization’s repositories and identify those lacking the Dependabot setup. With a single action, it can create pull requests, ensuring that every repository benefits from Dependabot’s dependency update automation, making maintenance a breeze.
To set up Evergreen, you’ll need to create an additional workflow file named .github/workflows/evergreen.yml.
---
name: Weekly dependabot checks
on:
workflow_dispatch:
schedule:
- cron: '2 1 * * *'
permissions:
issues: write
jobs:
evergreen:
name: evergreen
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Run evergreen action
uses: github/evergreen@v1
env:
GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.EVERGREEN_TOKEN }}
ORGANIZATION: fgaens
This workflow, named evergreen.yml, is a configuration file for the Evergreen GitHub action. It specifies the schedule at which Evergreen will run, weekly in this case, and it requires a Personal Access Token (PAT) to access and modify repositories within your organization.
Customizing for your needs
Since this is merely an illustrative example, it’s important to note that both Dependabot and Evergreen offer extensive configuration options to tailor these actions to your specific requirements. The configuration can be customized to match your organization’s specific needs, from update schedules to dependency handling strategies.
Demo and Resources
You can find a working example of this setup in action in our demo repository. Check out the links below for more information and resources.