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bindown

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bindown is a declarative dependency manager for binary files. It is designed to be used in development and ci environments where it is important to guarantee the same version of the same binary is used by everyone.

Configuration and binaries are localized within the project directory so that it is easy to use different versions of the same dependency in different projects and you won't pollute your system path with binaries you don't need.

Installation

Using bootstrap-bindown.sh

This is the preferred method for ci or development environments. Each release contains a shell script bootstrap-bindown.sh that will download bindown for the current os. Place bootstrap-bindown.sh from the latest release in your project's repository. Don't forget to make it executable first (chmod +x bootstrap-bindown.sh on most systems). Then you can call bootstrap-bindown.sh before bindown in the project's bootstrap script or Makefile.

./bootstrap-bindown.sh -h
./bootstrap-bindown.sh: download the bindown binary

Usage: ./bootstrap-bindown.sh [-b bindir] [-d]
  -b sets bindir or installation directory, Defaults to ./bin
  -d turns on debug logging

go install

If you happen to already have go installed on your system, you can install bindown with:

go install github.com/willabides/bindown/v4/cmd/bindown@latest

Note the lowercase willabides. Pro-tip: Your life will be easier with a lowercase GitHub username.

Quick Start

Set up your first dependency

This will show you how to get bindown configured to install jq in the development environment for your project.

  1. Install bindown using one of the methods above and make sure it is in your PATH.

  2. (optional) Configure completions for your shell.

    $ `bindown install-completions`

  3. In your project's root create a bindown configuration file (.bindown.yaml)

    $ bindown init

  4. Add a template source that contains a template for jq. We will use https://github.com/WillAbides/bindown-templates.

    $ bindown template-source add origin https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WillAbides/bindown-templates/main/bindown.yml

  5. Add the jq dependency. It will prompt you for a version. You can use any version you like. 1.6 is currently the latest version of jq, so let's use 1.6

    $ bindown dependency add jq --source origin jq
Please enter a value for required variable "version":	1.6

  6. Install jq to bin/jq.

    $ bindown install jq
installed jq to bin/jq
$ bin/jq --version
jq-1.6

  7. Add the .bindown cache directory to your .gitignore. If you aren't already ignoring bin, you should add that too.

    $ echo '/.bindown/' >> .gitignore
$ echo '/bin/' >> .gitignore

  8. Commit .bindown.yaml and .gitignore.

    $ git add .bindown.yaml .gitignore
$ git commit -m 'Add initial bindown configuration'

Integrate with make

  1. Add this to your Makefile

    BINDOWN_VERSION := 3.10.0

bin/bootstrap-bindown.sh: Makefile
	@mkdir -p bin
	curl -sL https://github.com/WillAbides/bindown/releases/download/v$(BINDOWN_VERSION)/bootstrap-bindown.sh -o $@
	@chmod +x $@

bin/bindown: bin/bootstrap-bindown.sh
	bin/bootstrap-bindown.sh

bin/jq: bin/bindown
	bin/bindown install jq

  2. Install jq

    $ make bin/jq
curl -sL https://github.com/WillAbides/bindown/releases/download/v3.10.0/bootstrap-bindown.sh -o bin/bootstrap-bindown.sh
bin/bootstrap-bindown.sh
bin/bootstrap-bindown.sh info installed ./bin/bindown
bin/bindown install jq
installed jq to bin/jq

  3. Run jq

    $ bin/jq --version
jq-1.6

Integrate with scripts-to-rule-them-all

If you use scripts-to-rule-them-all, you can create scripts for each dependency bindown manages.

  1. Download bootstrap-bindown.sh from the latest release.

    $ curl -L https://github.com/willabides/bindown/releases/latest/download/bootstrap-bindown.sh -o script/bootstrap-bindown.sh

  2. Create script/bindown

    #!/bin/sh

set -e

CDPATH="" cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.."
mkdir -p bin
[ -f bin/bindown ] || sh script/bootstrap-bindown.sh 2>/dev/null
exec bin/bindown "$@"

  3. Create script/jq

    #!/bin/sh

set -e

CDPATH="" cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.."
script/bindown install jq > /dev/null
exec bin/jq "$@"

  4. Make your scripts executable

    $ chmod +x script/bindown script/jq

  5. Run jq

    $ script/jq --version
jq-1.6

Config file properties

cache

The directory where bindown will cache downloads and extracted files. This is relative to the directory where the configuration file resides. cache paths should always use / as a delimiter even on Windows or other operating systems where the native delimiter isn't /.

Defaults to <path to config file>/.bindown

install_directory

The directory that bindown installs files to. This is relative to the directory where the configuration file resides. install_directory paths should always use / as a delimiter even on Windows or other operating systems where the native delimiter isn't /.

Defaults to <path to config file>/bin

dependencies

Dependencies are all the dependencies that bindown can install. It is a map where the key is the dependency's name.

PropertyDescription
urlThe url to download a dependency from.
archive_pathThe path in the downloaded archive where the binary is located. Default is ./<dependency name>.
binThe name of the binary to be installed. Default is the name of the dependency.
linkWhether to create a symlink to the bin instead of copying it.
templateThe name of a template to provide default values for this dependency. See templates.
varsA map of variables that will be interpolated in the url, archive_path and bin values. See vars
overridesA list of value overrides for certain systems. See overrides
substitutionsValues that will be substituted for one variable. See substitutions
systemsA list of systems that this dependency is compatible with in format os/arch. For example linux/amd64 or darwin/arm64.

vars

Vars are key value pairs that are used in constructing url, archive_path and bin values using go templates. If you aren't familiar with go templates, all you need to know is that to use the value from a variable named "foo", you would write {{.foo}}. Go templates can do more than this, but that's all that is practical for bindown.

In addition to variables explicitly defined in vars, bindown adds os and arch variables based on the current system.

Consider this dependency:

myproject:
  url: https://github.com/me/myproject/releases/download/v{{.version}}/myproject_{{.version}}_{{.os}}_{{.arch}}.tar.gz
  archive_path: myproject_{{.version}}_{{.os}}_{{.arch}}/myproject
  vars:
    version: 1.2.3

When bindown is run for a linux/amd64 system, it will download from https://github.com/me/myproject/releases/download/v1.2.3/myproject_1.2.3_linux_amd64.tar.gz and use the archive path myproject_1.2.3_linux_amd64/myproject

substitutions

Substitutions provide replacement values for vars. The primary use case is for projects that don't use the same values for os and arch.

substitutions:
  arch:
    "386": i386
    amd64: x86_64
  os:
    darwin: Darwin
    linux: Linux
    windows: Windows

templates

Templates provide base values for dependencies. If a dependency has an unset value, the value from its template is used.

For vars, the value is initially set to the template's var map which is then overridden by values from the dependency. substitutions is handled similarly.

overrides concatenated with the template values coming first.

Template configuration is identical to dependencies.

overrides

Overrides allow you to override values for certain operating systems or system architectures.

It is a list of overrides that each contain a matcher and a dependency. Dependency properties are the same as described in dependencies. Matchers match "os", "arch" or vars. A matcher matches if any of its values match the config value. Matchers can be semver constraints or strings.

overrides:
  - matcher:
      os:
        - windows
    dependency:
      vars:
        archivepathsuffix: .exe
  - matcher:
      arch:
        - arm
        - arm64
      version:
        - ">=1.0.0"
    dependency:
      archive_path: special/path/for/arm

Usage

<!--- everything between the next line and the "end usage output" comment is generated by script/generate-readme ---> <!--- start usage output ---> 
Usage: bindown <command>

Flags:
  -h, --help                 Show context-sensitive help.
      --json                 treat config file as json instead of yaml
      --configfile=STRING    file with bindown config. default is the first one of bindown.yml,
                             bindown.yaml, bindown.json, .bindown.yml, .bindown.yaml or
                             .bindown.json ($BINDOWN_CONFIG_FILE)
      --cache=STRING         directory downloads will be cached ($BINDOWN_CACHE)
  -q, --quiet                suppress output to stdout

Commands:
  download                            download a dependency but don't extract or install it
  extract                             download and extract a dependency but don't install it
  install                             download, extract and install a dependency
  wrap                                create a wrapper script for a dependency
  format                              formats the config file
  dependency list                     list configured dependencies
  dependency add                      add a template-based dependency
  dependency add-by-urls              add a dependency by urls
  dependency add-by-github-release    add a dependency by github release
  dependency remove                   remove a dependency
  dependency info                     info about a dependency
  dependency show-config              show dependency config
  dependency update-vars              update dependency vars
  dependency validate                 validate that installs work
  template list                       list templates
  template remove                     remove a template
  template update-from-source         update a template from source
  template update-vars                update template vars
  template-source list                list configured template sources
  template-source add                 add a template source
  template-source remove              remove a template source
  supported-system list               list supported systems
  supported-system add                add a supported system
  supported-system remove             remove a supported system
  checksums add                       add checksums to the config file
  checksums prune                     remove unnecessary checksums from the config file
  checksums sync                      add checksums to the config file and remove unnecessary
                                      checksums
  init                                create an empty config file
  cache clear                         clear the cache
  bootstrap                           create bootstrap script for bindown
  version                             show bindown version
  install-completions                 install shell completions

Run "bindown <command> --help" for more information on a command.
<!--- end usage output --->