poof 🪄 - magic manager of pre-built software

Easy-to-use all-in-one binary with zero-config, zero-install, and zero-dependencies.

You just run poof install someuser/somerepo and... poof! it is installed and available in your shell.

"poof-poof"

What poof says when it makes awesome pre-built software available for you!

"I am poof"

What poof thinks of itself

For more information read below or check the documentation in the wiki. Got an idea? Let's talk in Discussions!

Note: this project is actively being developed. I'm making ongoing improvements to the code while trying to maintain stability and up-to-date documentation. However, things may break. If you encounter some issues during this development phase, please report them. Thank you!

Features

• 🛠️ Zero-config: Works immediately without any setup required for first run
• 📦 Zero-install: Simply download the binary for your platform and use it right away
• 🔗 Zero-dependencies: It runs standalone without requiring any additional software
• 👤 User-space: Designed to work in user-space, no root access needed
• 🌍 Cross-platform: Works on Linux and macOS and runs on different architectures (FreeBSD and Windows support is planned)
• 🚀 Easy to use: Sensible commands that are easy to remember and to type. Just run poof help to know more.

Bonus:

• ⚙️ Written in Rust: Safe and fast binaries built on reliable dependencies, with linting and formatting applied at commit time
• 0️⃣ Zero-versioned: Because major versions are a thing of the past (and poof, albeit magic, is baby).

Why

More and more often modern tools are built with languages like Rust and Go, and offer pre-built binaries. But they aren't always available in standard package managers. Here's where poof helps:

• Download and put in $PATH binaries from GitHub with a single command
• Install tools discovered on sites like Terminal Trove instantly
• Test newer versions of tools before they reach official repositories without uninstalling your current version
• Fast jump on interesting utilities you read about without hassle
• Prefer use of pre-built, portable, self-contained binaries without involving system package managers

Quick start

1. Get poof using one of the methods below:

   • Pre-built binary: Download the binary from latest release, and move it to some directory in your $PATH.
   • binstall: If you have binstall, you can get the binary using cargo and skip compilation:

   cargo binstall poof
   

   • cargo: Build and install latest release on crates.io using cargo:

   cargo install --locked poof
   

2. Add poof's bin directory to $PATH by running:

   poof enable
   

   Then reload you shell.

3. Done! Now try to install something, for example:

   poof install pirafrank/rust_exif_renamer
   

Additional information about installation and supported platforms is available in the Wiki.

Usage

poof - magic manager of pre-built software

Usage: poof [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
  download  Only download binary for the platform in current directory. No install
  install   Download binary for the platform and install it
  list      List installed binaries and their versions
  use       Make an installed version the one to be used by default
  enable    Persistently add poof’s bin directory to your shell PATH
  check     Check if poof's bin directory is in the PATH
  info      Show install and environment information
  version   Show version information
  help      Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -v, --verbose...  Increase logging verbosity
  -q, --quiet...    Decrease logging verbosity
  -h, --help        Print help
  -V, --version     Print version

For more information, visit: https://github.com/pirafrank/poof

If you encounter any issues, please report them at:
https://github.com/pirafrank/poof/issues

About poof's bin directory

poof installs and symlinks binaries in its own data directory.

Having a dedicated directory for poof binaries is a good practice, as it allows you to:

• keep them separate from other software installed on your system,
• keep them separate from paths you may manually edit (like ~/.local/bin),
• easily temporarily disable poof by removing the directory from your $PATH (read below).

Disable

poof's bin directory by default is added at the beginning of $PATH so that it takes precedence over any other version of same-named binary you may have installed other ways.

If you want to halt this behavior, you can disable it it temporarily or permanently.

Documentation

Updated documentation for the latest release is available in the Wiki.

Project goals

• Fetch and put in $PATH pre-built binaries available on Internet
• Work without requiring buckets, repositories, or registries
• Work out-of-the-box with no setup or configuration needed
• Be designed to in user-space
• Be as cross-platform as possible
• Be easy to use, with sensible and ergonomic commands and options
• Have no external dependencies

Non-goals

• Build software from source code
• Manage software that doesn't provide pre-built binaries
• Act as a general package manager
• Manage software installed by other tools or package managers
  • Replace or modify binaries installed by other package managers
  • Manage dependencies required by the software
  • Handle language-specific package managers (pip, npm, cargo, etc.)
  • Interface with system package managers (apt, yum, brew, etc.)

Roadmap

A list of features implemented/to implement is available in the Wiki. The list is not final and may change over time.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the Development page for information about how to build, and the CONTRIBUTING file for details on how to contribute to this project. Please make sure to follow the code of conduct when contributing. Thank you!

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgements

poof software is born out of a necessity of mine, yet its name is a tribute to the much more famous poof.