This repo contains two scripts that demonstrate Dependabot Core. It is intended to give you a feel for how Dependabot Core works so that you can use it in your own project.

If you're looking for a hosted, feature-rich dependency updater then you probably want Dependabot itself.

If instead you want to run it manually, the quickest and easiest way to run dependabot yourself is via the Docker image.

rbenv install # (Install Ruby version from ./.ruby-version)
bundle install

Languages that require native helpers to be installed: Terraform, Python, Go, Elixir, PHP, JS

To install the native helpers, export an environment variable that points to the directory into which the helpers should be installed and add the relevant bins to your PATH:

export DEPENDABOT_NATIVE_HELPERS_PATH="$(pwd)/native-helpers"
mkdir -p $DEPENDABOT_NATIVE_HELPERS_PATH/{terraform,python,dep,go_modules,hex,composer,npm_and_yarn}
export PATH="$PATH:$DEPENDABOT_NATIVE_HELPERS_PATH/terraform/bin:$DEPENDABOT_NATIVE_HELPERS_PATH/python/bin:$DEPENDABOT_NATIVE_HELPERS_PATH/go_modules/bin:$DEPENDABOT_NATIVE_HELPERS_PATH/dep/bin"
export MIX_HOME="$DEPENDABOT_NATIVE_HELPERS_PATH/hex/mix"

Copy the relevant helpers from the gem source to the new install location

Build the helpers you want to use (you'll also need the corresponding language installed)

The update scripts are configured using environment variables. The available variables are listed in the table below. (See ./generic-update-script.rb for more context.)

There are other variables that you must pass to your container that will depend on the Git source you use:

Github

Github Enterprise

Gitlab

Azure DevOps

Also note that the PROJECT_PATH variable should be in the format: organization/project/_git/package-name.

Bitbucket

* Either BITBUCKET_ACCESS_TOKEN must be passed, or BITBUCKET_APP_USERNAME and BITBUCKET_APP_PASSWORD.

There are a few ways of running the script:

• interactively with ./update-script.rb,
• non-interactively with ./generic-update-script.rb,
• and non-interactively using Docker.

You can also set it up to run as part of your repositories workflows

• GitHub Actions Standalone
• GitLab

1. bundle exec irb
2. Edit the variables at the top of the script you're using, or set the corresponding environment variables.
3. Copy and paste the script into the Ruby session to see how Dependabot works.

If you run into any trouble with the above please create an issue!

1. Configure your shell with the correct environment variables.
2. Execute the script with Bundler:

   bundle exec ruby ./generic-update-script.rb

If you don't want to setup the machine where the script will be executed, you could run the script within a dependabot/dependabot-script container.

You can build and run the Dockerfile in order to do that. You'll also have to set several environment variables to make the script work with your configuration, as specified above. (You can find how to pass environment variables to your container in Docker run reference.)

Steps:

1. Build the dependabot-script Docker image

git clone https://github.com/dependabot/dependabot-script.git
cd dependabot-script

docker build -t "dependabot/dependabot-script" -f Dockerfile .

2. Run dependabot

docker run --rm \
  --env "PROJECT_PATH=organization/project" \
  --env "PACKAGE_MANAGER=bundler" \
  "dependabot/dependabot-script"

If everything goes well you should be able to see something like:

/home/dependabot/dependabot-script# ./generic-update-script.rb
Fetching gradle dependency files for myorganisation/project
Parsing dependencies information
...

The dependabot-core Dockerfile installs dependencies as the dependabot user, so volume mouning won't work unless you build the image by passing in the USER_UID and USER_GID arguments. This creates the dependabot user with the same IDs ensuring it owns the mounted files and can write to them from within the container.

Steps:

1. Build dependabot-core image

git clone https://github.com/dependabot/dependabot-core.git
cd dependabot-core

docker build \
  --build-arg "USER_UID=$(id -u)" \
   --build-arg "USER_GID=$(id -g)" \
  -t "dependabot/dependabot-core" .
cd ..

2. Install dependencies

git clone https://github.com/dependabot/dependabot-script.git
cd dependabot-script

docker run -v "$(pwd):/home/dependabot/dependabot-script" -w /home/dependabot/dependabot-script dependabot/dependabot-core bundle install -j 3 --path vendor

3. Run dependabot

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/home/dependabot/dependabot-script" -w /home/dependabot/dependabot-script -e ENV_VARIABLE=value dependabot/dependabot-core bundle exec ruby ./generic-update-script.rb

The easiest and most common way to run Dependabot on GitHub is using the built-in Dependabot service as described here. This is recommended for most users.

However, sometimes you may need to run Dependabot manually either for testing, or to enable features/plugins that are not currently available in Dependabot. This is relatively straight-forward to achieve with a shell-based GitHub action.

• In your GitHub repository, create a directory .github/workflows if it doesn't already exist.
• Copy manual-github-actions.yaml into that directory.
• Customize PACKAGE_MANAGER to suit your needs, see the possible values above.
• (Optional) Customize OPTIONS to suit your needs or delete

By default this action is set to run on workflow dispatch, which means that you need to manually trigger the workflow run. If you would rather run it on a set schedule, you can switch to schedule dispatch.

The easiest configuration is to have a repository dedicated to the script. Many pipeline schedules can be added on that single repo to manage multiple projects. Thus https://[gitlab.domain/org/dependabot-script-repo]/pipeline_schedules dashboard becomes your own dependabot admin interface.

• Clone or mirror this repository.
• Copy .gitlab-ci.example.yml to .gitlab-ci.yml or set a custom CI config path for direct usage.
• Set the required global variables used in ./generic-update-script.rb.
• Create a pipeline schedule for each managed repository.
• Set in the schedule the required variables:
  • PROJECT_PATH: group/repository
  • PACKAGE_MANAGER_SET: bundler,composer,npm_and_yarn
• If you'd like to specify the directory that contains the manifest file in the repository, you can set the following environment variable:
  • DIRECTORY_PATH: /path/to/point
• If you'd like Merge Requests to be assigned to a user, set the following environment variable:
  • PULL_REQUESTS_ASSIGNEE: Integer ID of the user to assign. This can be found at https://gitlab.com/api/v4/users?username=<your username>

• Single dependency update script
• GitLab/GHE update script