Installing shell scripts from Github with Basher

The problem

On my previous post about Basher I mentioned that one of its goals was to be able to install scripts directly from github with minimal manual intervention. During the last month, I had to make some changes to get closer to that goal.

The package.sh file contains package information like binaries, completions, dependencies etc. The problem with having a package descriptor is that I need to fork every repo I want to install and add the file (maybe pull request a change for the maintainer to add the file). There is nothing wrong with this apprach, and it is in fact what bpkg does. This is partly what allows them to have custom install scripts per package.

On the other hand, what I really wanted was to see a package on github, run a one liner and keep working.

Besides, sourcing the package.sh file was a silly security problem. In addition, I never felt really confortable with having two different formats for packages (basher and bpkg). The discussion evolved but not fast enough for me.

So I got rid of it.

Conventions to the rescue

Now, basher looks for a bin folder and links any files in there. If there is no bin folder, it links all executable files in the package root.

With this change, I’ve been very happy installing packages with one liners.

Working packages

1. sstephenson/bats Bash Automated Testing System
2. pote/gpm Go package manager
3. pote/gvp Go versioning packager
4. treyhunner/tmuxstart named tmux sessions
5. zsh-users/antigen plugin manager for zsh
6. bripkens/dock easy bootstrapper using docker

Kind of working packages

1. holman/spark it also links an extra test executable
2. hecticjeff/shoreman binary ends with ‘.sh’

Future work

I want to automatically remove the ‘.sh’ from binaries. Also figure out how to install completions for packages.