setup-dotnet-dnvm

A GitHub Action that installs a specific .NET SDK version using dnvm as the install engine, as an alternative to actions/setup-dotnet.

Because dnvm installs into a manifest-tracked DNVM_HOME, re-running the action for an SDK that is already installed is a no-op — combine it with actions/cache on the install directory to skip re-downloads across runs.

Usage

- uses: dn-vm/setup-dotnet-dnvm@v1
  with:
    dotnet-version: '8.0.100'

- run: dotnet --version

Or install the version pinned by a global.json (roll-forward rules are applied):

- uses: dn-vm/setup-dotnet-dnvm@v1
  with:
    global-json-file: global.json

Inputs

Name	Required	Default	Description
dotnet-version	*		Exact .NET SDK version to install (e.g. 8.0.100).
global-json-file	*		Path to a global.json whose SDK version is installed (with roll-forward).
dnvm-version	no	1.1.2	dnvm version used as the install engine. Windows only — on Linux/macOS the latest dnvm is fetched from dnvm.net/install.sh.
install-dir	no	$HOME/.dnvm	DNVM_HOME directory the SDK is installed into.

* Provide exactly one of dotnet-version or global-json-file.

Note: v1 supports exact SDK versions and global.json. Floating versions and channels (latest, lts, 8.0, 8.0.1xx), quality, and architecture selection are planned for later releases.

Outputs

Name	Description
dotnet-version	The installed .NET SDK version.
dotnet-root	DOTNET_ROOT of the installed SDK.

Environment set for later steps

• Prepends the SDK directory to PATH.
• Sets DOTNET_ROOT.

Caching

Like actions/setup-dotnet, the SDK is downloaded on each run. setup-dotnet's cache input caches the NuGet global-packages folder (~/.nuget/packages), not the SDK — you can do the same here with actions/cache, independently of this action.

Because dnvm tracks installed SDKs in a manifest, you can optionally also cache the install directory to skip the SDK download on a cache hit — something setup-dotnet cannot easily do:

- uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: ~/.dnvm
    key: dnvm-${{ runner.os }}-${{ runner.arch }}-8.0.100

- uses: dn-vm/setup-dotnet-dnvm@v1
  with:
    dotnet-version: '8.0.100'

Platform support

OS	x64	arm64
Linux	✅	✅
macOS	✅	✅
Windows	✅	❌ (dnvm publishes win-x64 only)