instopt - Download and install software
This document describes version 0.021 of instopt (from Perl distribution App-instopt), released on 2023-11-20.
In ~/.config/instopt.conf:
# if not the default ~/software download_dir = /home/ujang/software # if not the default /opt install_dir = !path ~/opt # if not the default /usr/local/bin program_dir = !path ~/bin
Then:
# List all installed software in /opt % instopt list-installed % instopt list-installed -l # List installed versions of a software in /opt % instopt list-installed-versions firefox # Compare installed versions vs downloaded vs latest, for all installed software % instopt compare-versions # Download a software (e.g. firefox), will be put in $ARCHIVE/f/firefox/<VERSION>/<ARCH>/ % instopt download firefox # Download all known software % instopt download-all # List all downloaded software % instopt list-downloaded % instopt list-downloaded -l # List downloaded versions of a software % instopt list-downloaded-versions firefox % instopt list-downloaded-versions -l firefox # Update (download + install) a software in /opt % instopt update firefox # Update all software in /opt % instopt update-all # Cleanup installed dir (remove inactive versions) % instopt cleanup-install-dir # Cleanup download dir (remove older versions) % instopt cleanup-download-dir # Update program to the latest from CPAN % instopt --self-upgrade ; # or -U
STATUS: Early, experimental release. Many things can change without notice.
instopt is an opinionated tool to automate downloading and installing software binaries (by default to /opt, hence the name: "install to /opt"). To describe how it works, I'll describe how I install my software to /opt.
Normally, I depend on the package manager of my OS (Linux distribution) to install software. But some software need to be updated more often. Let's take as example firefox, where the OS version is usually too old for my taste. I'll usually do this:
Go to the Mozilla download page and download the latest firefox binary, let's say firefox-99.1.2.tar.bz2.
Save this file to ~/software/f/firefox/99.1.2/linux-x86_64/, so I can share this with my other laptops and PC, to avoid redownloading the same stuff.
To install, I do the rest of the steps as root. I extract the tarball to /opt/firefox-99.1.2/.
I create (or update) symlink /opt/firefox to point to /opt/firefox-99.1.2.
I create (or update) symlink /usr/local/bin/firefox to /opt/firefox/firefox.
When a new version of Firefox comes out, I do the following:
Go to the Mozilla website. Download the latest Firefox tarball, e.g. firefox-99.1.3.tar.bz2.
Save it to ~/software/f/firefox/99.1.3/linux-x86_64/.
Extract the tarball to /opt/firefox-99.1.3.
Update the symlink /opt/firefox to point to /opt/firefox-99.1.3.
Optionally delete /opt/firefox-99.1.2.
instopt is the tool I wrote to automate the above tasks. Now I only need to do:
# instopt update firefox
This will download the latest firefox, save the tarball to the appropriate location, extract it to /opt, and create/update the symlinks.
You can customize the install directory (/opt) and the download directory (~/software).
To start using instopt, first install it from CPAN. Also install the catalog module for the software that you want/need, e.g. for firefox Software::Catalog::SW::firefox. This module tells instopt how to find out the latest version, where the download URL is, and so on.
You might also want to create a configuration file ~/.config/instopt.conf containing:
# if not the default ~/software download_dir = /mnt/shared/software # if not the default /opt install_dir = /usr/local/opt
After that, install away.
Remove older versions of downloaded software.
Remove inactive versions of installed software.
Compare installed vs downloaded vs latest versions of installed software.
Download latest version of one or more software.
Download latest version of all known software.
Check if any version of a software is downloaded.
The download does not need to be the latest version. To check if the latest version of a software is downloaded, use is-downloaded-latest.
is-downloaded-latest
Check if latest version of a software has been downloaded.
To only check whether any version of a software has been downloaded, use is-downloaded-any.
is-downloaded-any
Check if any version of a software is installed.
The installed version does not need to be the latest. To check whether the latest version of a software is installed, use is-installed-latest.
is-installed-latest
Check if latest version of a software is installed.
To only check whether any version of a software is installed, use is-installed-any.
is-installed-any
List software.
List all downloaded software.
List all downloaded versions of a software.
List all installed software.
List all installed versions of a software.
Update a software to the latest version.
Update all installed software.
* marks required options.
*
Set path to configuration file.
Can actually be specified multiple times to instruct application to read from multiple configuration files (and merge them).
Set configuration profile to use.
A single configuration file can contain profiles, i.e. alternative sets of values that can be selected. For example:
[profile=dev] username=foo pass=beaver [profile=production] username=bar pass=honey
When you specify --config-profile=dev, username will be set to foo and password to beaver. When you specify --config-profile=production, username will be set to bar and password to honey.
--config-profile=dev
username
foo
password
beaver
--config-profile=production
bar
honey
Shortcut for --log-level=debug.
(No description)
Choose output format, e.g. json, text.
Default value:
undef
Output can be displayed in multiple formats, and a suitable default format is chosen depending on the application and/or whether output destination is interactive terminal (i.e. whether output is piped). This option specifically chooses an output format.
Display help message and exit.
Set output format to json.
Set log level.
By default, these log levels are available (in order of increasing level of importance, from least important to most): trace, debug, info, warn/warning, error, fatal. By default, the level is usually set to warn, which means that log statements with level info and less important levels will not be shown. To increase verbosity, choose info, debug, or trace.
trace
debug
info
warn
warning
error
fatal
For more details on log level and logging, as well as how new logging levels can be defined or existing ones modified, see Log::ger.
When outputing as JSON, strip result envelope.
0
By default, when outputing as JSON, the full enveloped result is returned, e.g.:
[200,"OK",[1,2,3],{"func.extra"=>4}]
The reason is so you can get the status (1st element), status message (2nd element) as well as result metadata/extra result (4th element) instead of just the result (3rd element). However, sometimes you want just the result, e.g. when you want to pipe the result for more post-processing. In this case you can use --naked-res so you just get:
--naked-res
[1,2,3]
Do not use any configuration file.
If you specify --no-config, the application will not read any configuration file.
--no-config
Do not read environment for default options.
If you specify --no-env, the application wil not read any environment variable.
--no-env
Filter output through a pager.
This option will pipe the output to a specified pager program. If pager program is not specified, a suitable default e.g. less is chosen.
less
Shortcut for --log-level=error.
Update program to latest version from CPAN.
List available subcommands.
Shortcut for --log-level=trace.
Shortcut for --log-level=info.
Display program's version and exit.
View output using a viewer.
This option will first save the output to a temporary file, then open a viewer program to view the temporary file. If a viewer program is not chosen, a suitable default, e.g. the browser, is chosen.
Can also be specified as the 1st command-line argument and onwards.
Can be specified multiple times.
See --software-or-pattern.
--software-or-pattern
Can also be specified as the 1st command-line argument.
If true, will only list downloaded software.
If true, will only list installed software.
If true, will only list software which have their latest version downloaded.
If set to true, a software which is not downloaded, or downloaded but does not have the latest version downloaded, will not be included.
If set to false, a software which has no downloaded versions, or does not have the latest version downloaded, will be included.
If true, will only list software which have their latest version installed.
If set to true, a software which is not installed, or installed but does not have the latest version installed, will not be included.
If set to false, a software which is not installed, or does not have the latest version installed, will be included.
Do not download latest version from URL, just find from download dir.
Shortcut for --no-download.
See --no-download.
--no-download
This script has shell tab completion capability with support for several shells.
To activate bash completion for this script, put:
complete -C instopt instopt
in your bash startup (e.g. ~/.bashrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.
It is recommended, however, that you install modules using cpanm-shcompgen which can activate shell completion for scripts immediately.
To activate tcsh completion for this script, put:
complete instopt 'p/*/`instopt`/'
in your tcsh startup (e.g. ~/.tcshrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.
It is also recommended to install shcompgen (see above).
For fish and zsh, install shcompgen as described above.
This script can read configuration files. Configuration files are in the format of IOD, which is basically INI with some extra features.
By default, these names are searched for configuration filenames (can be changed using --config-path): /home/u1/.config/instopt.conf, /home/u1/instopt.conf, or /etc/instopt.conf.
--config-path
All found files will be read and merged.
To disable searching for configuration files, pass --no-config.
To put configuration for a certain subcommand only, use a section name like [subcommand=NAME] or [SOMESECTION subcommand=NAME].
[subcommand=NAME]
[SOMESECTION subcommand=NAME]
You can put multiple profiles in a single file by using section names like [profile=SOMENAME] or [SOMESECTION profile=SOMENAME] or [subcommand=SUBCOMMAND_NAME profile=SOMENAME] or [SOMESECTION subcommand=SUBCOMMAND_NAME profile=SOMENAME]. Those sections will only be read if you specify the matching --config-profile SOMENAME.
[profile=SOMENAME]
[SOMESECTION profile=SOMENAME]
[subcommand=SUBCOMMAND_NAME profile=SOMENAME]
[SOMESECTION subcommand=SUBCOMMAND_NAME profile=SOMENAME]
--config-profile SOMENAME
You can also put configuration for multiple programs inside a single file, and use filter program=NAME in section names, e.g. [program=NAME ...] or [SOMESECTION program=NAME]. The section will then only be used when the reading program matches.
program=NAME
[program=NAME ...]
[SOMESECTION program=NAME]
You can also filter a section by environment variable using the filter env=CONDITION in section names. For example if you only want a section to be read if a certain environment variable is true: [env=SOMEVAR ...] or [SOMESECTION env=SOMEVAR ...]. If you only want a section to be read when the value of an environment variable equals some string: [env=HOSTNAME=blink ...] or [SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME=blink ...]. If you only want a section to be read when the value of an environment variable does not equal some string: [env=HOSTNAME!=blink ...] or [SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME!=blink ...]. If you only want a section to be read when the value of an environment variable includes some string: [env=HOSTNAME*=server ...] or [SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME*=server ...]. If you only want a section to be read when the value of an environment variable does not include some string: [env=HOSTNAME!*=server ...] or [SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME!*=server ...]. Note that currently due to simplistic parsing, there must not be any whitespace in the value being compared because it marks the beginning of a new section filter or section name.
env=CONDITION
[env=SOMEVAR ...]
[SOMESECTION env=SOMEVAR ...]
[env=HOSTNAME=blink ...]
[SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME=blink ...]
[env=HOSTNAME!=blink ...]
[SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME!=blink ...]
[env=HOSTNAME*=server ...]
[SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME*=server ...]
[env=HOSTNAME!*=server ...]
[SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME!*=server ...]
To load and configure plugins, you can use either the -plugins parameter (e.g. -plugins=DumpArgs or -plugins=DumpArgs@before_validate_args), or use the [plugin=NAME ...] sections, for example:
-plugins
-plugins=DumpArgs
-plugins=DumpArgs@before_validate_args
[plugin=NAME ...]
[plugin=DumpArgs] -event=before_validate_args -prio=99 [plugin=Foo] -event=after_validate_args arg1=val1 arg2=val2
which is equivalent to setting -plugins=-DumpArgs@before_validate_args@99,-Foo@after_validate_args,arg1,val1,arg2,val2.
-plugins=-DumpArgs@before_validate_args@99,-Foo@after_validate_args,arg1,val1,arg2,val2
List of available configuration parameters:
arch (see --arch) softwares_or_patterns (see --software-or-pattern)
arch (see --arch)
quiet (see --quiet-arg) software (see --software)
detail (see --detail) downloaded (see --downloaded) installed (see --installed) latest_downloaded (see --latest-downloaded) latest_installed (see --latest-installed)
arch (see --arch) detail (see --detail)
arch (see --arch) software (see --software)
detail (see --detail)
software (see --software)
download (see --no-download) softwares_or_patterns (see --software-or-pattern)
download (see --no-download)
String. Specify additional command-line options.
instopt.version - This file is written in the hardlinked installed software directory to mark which version the software is. Unlike with symlinking, when hardlinking there is no straightforward way to know the version.
% instopt list --installed --nolatest-installed
% instopt list --downloaded --nolatest-downloaded
% instopt list --latest-downloaded --nolatest-installed
Please visit the project's homepage at https://metacpan.org/release/App-instopt.
Source repository is at https://github.com/perlancar/perl-App-instopt.
swcat from App::swcat
perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>
To contribute, you can send patches by email/via RT, or send pull requests on GitHub.
Most of the time, you don't need to build the distribution yourself. You can simply modify the code, then test via:
% prove -l
If you want to build the distribution (e.g. to try to install it locally on your system), you can install Dist::Zilla, Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, Pod::Weaver::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, and sometimes one or two other Dist::Zilla- and/or Pod::Weaver plugins. Any additional steps required beyond that are considered a bug and can be reported to me.
This software is copyright (c) 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 by perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=App-instopt
When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.
To install App::instopt, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm App::instopt
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install App::instopt
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.