Dependabot for Azure DevOps

This repository contains convenience tool(s) for updating dependencies in Azure DevOps repositories using Dependabot.

In this repository you'll find:

1. Dependabot's Update script in Ruby.
2. Dockerfile and build/image for running the script via Docker here.
3. Azure DevOps Extension and source.
4. Kubernetes CronJob template.
5. Hosted versions: fully hosted, self hosted (source code and instructions coming soon).

Using a configuration file

Similar to the GitHub native version where you add a .github/dependabot.yml file, this repository adds support for the same official configuration options via a file located at .azuredevops/dependabot.yml. This support is only available in the Azure DevOps extension and the hosted version. However, the extension does not currently support automatically picking up the file, a pipeline is still required. See docs.

Credentials for private registries and feeds

Besides accessing the repository, sometimes, private feeds/registries may need to be accessed. For example a private NuGet feed or a company internal docker registry. Adding credentials is currently done via the DEPENDABOT_EXTRA_CREDENTIALS environment variable. The value is supplied in JSON hence allowing any type of credentials even if they are not for private feeds/registries.

When working with Azure Artifacts, some extra steps need to be done:

1. The PAT should have Packaging Read permission.
2. The user owning the PAT must be granted permissions to access the feed either directly or via a group. An easy way for this is to give Contributor permissions the [{project_name}]\Contributors group under the Feed Settings -> Permissions page. The page has the url format: https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_packaging?_a=settings&feed={feed-name}&view=permissions.

Kubernetes CronJob

A Kubernetes CronJobs is a useful resource for running tasks (a.k.a Jobs) on a recurring schedule. For more information on them read the documentation. Using the Docker image, we can create a CronJob and have it run periodically. The environment variables are supplied in the job template but can be stored in a ConfigMap for ease of reuse.

Use the template provided and replace the parameters in curly braces (e.g. replace {{azure_organization}} with the actual value for your organization), then deploy it. Be sure to replace the {{k8s_schedule}} variable with the desired schedule as per the Cron format.

Notes

1. Timezone support is not yet available in Kubernetes (Issue 1, Issue 2). If this is important to you, consider using cronjobber.
2. History for successful and failed jobs is restricted to 1 (change to suit you).
3. Jobs are removed after 2 days (ttlSecondsAfterFinished: 172800). No need keep it for too long.
4. Jobs run duration is capped at 1 hour (activeDeadlineSeconds: 3600). This should be enough time.
5. Labels can be used to find cronjobs created.
6. Annotations can be used to store extra data for comparison but not searching/finding e.g. package ecosystem.

Hosted version

The hosted version (source code) for Azure DevOps work almost similar to the native version of dependabot on GitHub, hosted in your own Kubernetes cluster. It supports:

1. Pulling configuration from a file located at .azuredevops/dependabot.yml.
2. Adding/updating the file, triggers a run.
3. Extra credentials for private registries, feeds and package repositories.
4. Hosted on Kubernetes; easier compared to using Azure build agents.
5. Auto resolving of merge conflicts using webhooks.
6. Viewing the most recent runs for each repository, project and organization configured.

Still using the old *.visualstudio.com URL?

The new URL in the format https://dev.azure.com/{organization} is recommended. If you are still using the older {organization}.visualstudio.com URL, you need to toggle on the new URL. As far as out testing has gone, we have not had any issues using both the new and old URL. It is possible to keep both. The core implementation will only support the new one. See #27 for more explanation. For someone really looking to use dependabot to keep dependencies up to date, migrating to the new URL should really be a no-brainer.

Acknowledgements

The work in this repository is based on inspired and occasionally guided by some predecessors in the same area:

1. Official Script support: code
2. Andrew Craven's work: blog, code
3. Chris' work: code
4. andrcun's work on GitLab: code
5. WeWork's work for GitLab: code

Issues & Comments

Please leave all comments, bugs, requests, and issues on the Issues page. We'll respond to your request ASAP!

License

The code is licensed under the MIT license. Refer to the LICENSE file for more information.