GitRel

GitHub binary manager - install and update single binary releases via GitHub API

Install/Update

via Curl/Shell script (recommended):

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/izirku/gitrel/main/xtra/install.sh)"

via Cargo:

cargo install gitrel

Linux and macOS users may want to update gitrel just like any other managed binary, if installed via Curl/Shell script. Simply add gitrel itself, as one of the installed packages:

gitrel install izirku/gitrel

Usage

If a repo has the same name as user/org, a short-hand can be used, so, "gitrel install rust-analyzer" is the same as "gitrel install https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer@*". Where "@*" stands for a latest release.

A SEMVER, matching a release tag can be specified as [repo/]user@SEMVER.

When updating a binary, gitrel, if applicable, will first try to update to a newer compatible semantic version. It will also check the remote's release tag publish date to what is installed locally. If a remote has a newer publish date, gitrel will download and install it. This is useful for installing and keeping up to date some rolling releases, such as rust-analyzer@nightly.

Glob pattern specified by --asset-glob only matches against an asset file name and its extension. Therefore use of ** and / is disallowed here. Glob pattern specified by --entry-glob on the other hand, matches against a full path inside of an archive, and use of ** and / is possible there.

Basic Install Examples

# install binary (specific tag)
gitrel install rust-analyzer@nightly

# install binary (latest release)
gitrel install gokcehan/lf

# install binary (match tag to a SemVer)
gitrel install https://github.com/JohnnyMorganz/StyLua@^0.11

Advanced Install Examples

Since there is no single standard on naming release artifacts, automatic matching algorithm may fail. This is why a manual matching escape hatch is provided. We can use RegEx and glob patterns, to match against asset names and archive entires. Here are some examples:

# force install binary, rename, use glob pattern asset match
gitrel install -fa "bbl-v*_osx" -r bbl cloudfoundry/bosh-bootloader

# install binary, strip, use RegEx pattern asset match
gitrel install -sA "^yq_darwin_amd64$" mikefarah/yq

# install binary, strip, use glob pattern match on asset and archive entry
gitrel install -sa "staticcheck_darwin_amd64.tar.gz" \
  -e "**/staticcheck" -r staticcheck dominikh/go-tools

Sometimes there is a need to run a command after binary has been installed. For example, michaeleisel/zld (a faster alternative to ld on macOS) is dynamically linked against full XCode, and fails to run for users with CommandLine Tools only.

It's possible to fix this by running a command post install (currently Linux/macOS only):

# note that env variable `$f` containing installed binary path is exported
gitrel install -fsa "zld.zip" \
  -p "/usr/local/bin" \
  -x 'install_name_tool -add_rpath /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/lib $f' \
  michaeleisel/zld

# or use ":bin:" which gets substituted as well
gitrel install -fsa "zld.zip" \
  -p "/usr/local/bin" \
  -x "install_name_tool -add_rpath /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/lib :bin:" \
  michaeleisel/zld

Update, Uninstall, Info, and List Examples

Running update will honor any manual matching, renames, binary strip (Linux/macOS), and post install command to run (currently Linux/macOS only), as they were specified during the install. Subsequently, update command may fail if a never binary version uses a sufficiently different packaging schema. In such case, force re-install such binary (i.e. gitrel install -f ...), providing new pattern matching parameters.

# update all installed binaries
gitrel update

# update a single binary
gitrel update bbl

# uninstall binaries
gitrel uninstall bbl yq

# get information about a release on GitHub
gitrel info izirku/gitrel

# list installed binaries
gitrel list

# list installed binaries, displaying installation path
gitrel list -w

NOTE: Regardless of OS kind, binary files are "installed" under ~/.local/bin or ~/bin directory, if it exists. Otherwise, ~/.local/bin directory is created, and binaries are placed there.

Configuration

Configuration files are stored in ~/.config/gitrel directory, regardless of an operating system kind. Currently, it only stores the packages.json there.

Disclamer

Author and contributors bear no responsibilities whatsoever for any issues caused by the use of this software, or software installed via this software. Use at your own risk.