# [webi-installers](https://github.com/webinstall/webi-installers)
> [webi](https://webinstall.dev) is how developers install their tools
[](https://webinstall.dev)
- no `sudo`
- no package manager
- no messing with system permissions
- in short: no nonsense
```sh
curl https://webi.sh/webi | sh
```
This repository contains the primary and community-submitted packages for
[webinstall.dev](https://webinstall.dev).
# How webi works
- Contacts official release APIs for download URLs
- Selects the appropriate package version and archive format
- Installs to `$HOME/.local/opt` or `$HOME/.local/bin`, as appropriate.
- Updates `PATH` via `$HOME/.config/envman/PATH.env`
- Symlinks or copies current selected version
More technically:
1. `<package>/releases.js` transforms the package's release API into a common
format
- (i.e. HTML, CSV, TAB, or JSON into a specific JSON format)
- common release APIs are in `_common/` (i.e. `_common/github.js`)
2. `_webi/bootstrap.sh` is a template that exchanges system information for a
correct installer
- constructs a user agent with os, cpu, and utility info (i.e. `macos`,
`amd64`, can unpack `tar,zip,xz`)
3. `_webi/template.sh` is the base installer template with common functions for
- checking versions
- downloading & unpacking
- updating PATH
- (re-)linking directories
4. `<package>/install.sh` may provide functions to override `_webi/template.sh`
5. Recap:
- `curl https://webi.sh/<pkg>` => `bootstrap-<pkg>.sh`
- `sh bootstrap-<pkg>.sh` =>
`https://webinstall.dev/api/installers/<pkg>@<ver>.sh?formats=zip,tar`
- `sh install-<pkg>.sh` => download, unpack, move, link, update PATH
# Philosophy (for package authors / maintainers publishing with webi)
- Should install to `$HOME/.local/opt/<package>-<version>` or `$HOME/.local/bin`
- Should not need `sudo` (except perhaps for a one-time `setcap`, etc)
- Examples:
- Full Packages:
- Node.js: <https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/node>
- Golang: <https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/golang>
- PostgreSQL: <https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/postgres>
- Single-Binary Installers:
- Caddy: <https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/caddy>
- Ripgrep: <https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/ripgrep>
- Gitea: <https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/gitea>
- Convenience Scripts:
- Prettier: <https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/prettier>
- Rust-lang: <https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/rustlang>
- vim-sensible:
<https://github.com/webinstall/packages/tree/master/vim-sensible>
## Creating an Installer
An install consists of 5 parts in 4 files:
```
my-new-package/
- README.md (package info in frontmatter)
- releases.js
- install.sh (POSIX Shell)
- install.ps1 (PowerShell)
```
1. Create Description
2. Fetch Releases
3. Version Check (semi-optional)
4. Update PATH
See these **examples**:
- https://github.com/webinstall/packages/blob/master/rg/
- https://github.com/webinstall/packages/blob/master/golang/
The `webinstall.dev` server uses the list of releases returned by
`<your-package>/releases.js` to generate a shell script with most necessary
variables and functions pre-defined.
You just fill in the blanks.
### TL;DR
Just create an empty directory and run the tests until you get a good result.
```sh
git clone git@github.com:webinstall/webi-installers.git
pushd ./webi-installers/
git submodule update --init
npm clean-install
```
```sh
mkdir -p ./new-package/
node _webi/test.js ./new-package/
```
### 1. Create Description
Just copy the format from any of the existing packages. It's like this:
`README.md`:
````md
---
title: Node.js
homepage: https://nodejs.org
tagline: |
JavaScript V8 runtime
description: |
Node.js® is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine
---
```sh
node -e 'console.log("Hello, World!")'
> Hello, World!
```
````
### 1. Fetch Releases
All you're doing in this step is just translating from one form of JSON or CSV
or TAB or whatever, to a format understood by `webi`.
- Using Github releases? See `ripgrep/releases.js` (which uses
`_common/github.js`)
- Have a special format? See `golang/releases.js` or `node/releases.js`.
It looks like this:
`releases.js`:
```js
module.exports = function () {
return github(null, owner, repo).then(function (all) {
// if you need to do something special, you can do it here
// ...
return all;
});
};
```
### 2. Bash Installer
1. Variables _you_ can set
2. Functions _you_ must define
3. Convenience / Helper Functions
(optional, if needed) Bash variables that you _may_ define:
```sh
# Define this if the package name is different from the command name (i.e. golang => go)
pkg_cmd_name="foobar"
# These are used for symlinks, PATH, and test commands
pkg_dst="$HOME/.local/opt/foobar"
pkg_dst_cmd="$HOME/.local/opt/foobar/bin/foobar"
#pkg_dst_bin="$(dirname "$pkg_dst_cmd")"
# These are the _real_ locations for the above
pkg_src="$HOME/.local/opt/foobar-v$WEBI_VERSION"
pkg_src_cmd="$HOME/.local/opt/foobar-v$WEBI_VERSION/bin/foobar"
#pkg_src_bin="$(dirname "$pkg_src_cmd")"
```
(required) A version check function that strips all non-version junk
```sh
pkg_get_current_version() {
# foobar-v1.1.7 => 1.1.7
echo "$(foobar --version | head -n 1 | sed 's:foobar-v::')"
}
```
For the rest of the functions you can copy/paste from the examples:
```sh
pkg_format_cmd_version() {} # Override, pretty prints version
pkg_link # Override, replaces webi_link()
pkg_pre_install() { # Override, runs any webi_* commands
webi_check # for $HOME/.local/opt tools
webi_download # for things that have a releases.js
webi_extract # for .xz, .tar.*, and .zip files
}
pkg_install() {} # Override, usually just needs to rename extracted folder to
# "$HOME/.local/opt/$pkg_cmd_name-v$WEBI_VERSION"
pkg_post_install() { # Override
webi_path_add "$pkg_dst_bin" # should probably update PATH
}
pkg_done_message() {} # Override, pretty print a success message
```
## Script API
See `webi/template.sh`
These variables will be set by the server:
```sh
WEBI_PKG=example@v1
WEBI_TAG=v1
WEBI_HOST=https://webinstall.dev
WEBI_RELEASES=https://webinstall.dev/api/releases/example@v1?os=macos&arch=amd64&pretty=true
WEBI_CSV=v1.0.2,
WEBI_VERSION=1.0.2
WEBI_MAJOR=1
WEBI_MINOR=0
WEBI_PATCH=2
WEBI_LTS=
WEBI_CHANNEL=stable
WEBI_EXT=tar
WEBI_PKG_URL=https://cdn.example.com/example-macos-amd64.tar.gz
WEBI_PKG_FILE=example-macos-amd64.tar.gz
```
```sh
PKG_NAME=example
PKG_OSES=macos,linux,windows
PKG_ARCHES=amd64,arm64,x86
PKG_FORMATS=zip,xz
```
```sh
WEBI_TMP=${WEBI_TMP:-"$(mktemp -d -t webinstall-foobar.XXXXXXXX)"}
WEBI_SINGLE=""
```
```sh
webi_check # Checks to see if the selected version is already installed (and re-links if so)
webi_download # Downloads the selected release to $HOME/Downloads/webi/<package-name>.tar.gz
webi_extract # Extracts the download to /tmp/<package-name>-<random>/
webi_path_add /new/path # Adds /new/path to PATH for bash, zsh, and fish
webi_pre_install # Runs webi_check, webi_download, and webi_extract
webi_install # Moves extracted files from $WEBI_TMP to $pkg_src
webi_link # replaces any existing symlink with the currently selected version
webi_post_install # Runs `webi_path_add $pkg_dst_bin`
```
# Roadmap
- Wrap release APIs to unify and expose
- [ ] Support more Windows packages
- [ ] Support arbitrary git urls (i.e. `@github.com/node/node`)
- (maybe `ghi node/node` for github specifically)
- [ ] Support git as an archive format
<!--
# Windows Notes
```bat
set WEBI_HOST=https://webinstall.dev
```
Windows has curl too!?
```bat
curl.exe -sL https://webi.ms/node | powershell
```
And it's easy enough to ignore the execution policy
```bat
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass install.ps1
```
And if we want something that looks as complicated as we expect Windows to be,
historically, we have options:
```bat
powershell "Invoke-Expression ( Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing https://webi.ms/node ).Contents"
```
```bat
powershell ( Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing https://webi.ms/node ).Contents | powershell
```
-->