#rinstall

rinstall is an helper tool that installs software and additional data into the system. Many programs often include man pages, documentation, config files and there is no standard way to install them except for using Makefiles. However, Makefiles are notoriously complicated to setup; it is especially hard to follow the Directory Variables from the GNU Coding Standard (link).

rinstall read a declarative YAML file (install.yml) containing the list of the files to install. It then installs the program either system-wide or for the current user (following the XDG BaseDirectories). It reads the default configuration for the system from /etc/rinstall.yml or .config/rinstall.yml, using a default one otherwise.

#Rationale

The rationale can be found in the maintainer blog:

https://danyspin97.org/blog/improving-linux-packaging-rinstall/

#Features

• Shift the install phase from packagers to developers
• Flexible and configurable
• Reproducible installation

#Build

To build from source run the following command:

$ cargo build --release

To install rinstall for the current user:

$ ./target/release/rinstall --user

#Usage

If the project has an install.yml file present, either in the root directory or in the .package directory, it supports installation via rinstall.

Run the following command as root to perform a system-wide installation:

# rinstall

To perform an user installation:

$ rinstall --user

#Configuration

The installation directories chosen by rinstall can be configured by adding and tweaking the file rinstall.yml under the sysconfdir. By default, /etc/rinstall.yml and $HOME/.config/rinstall.yml will be used respectively for the root user and the non-root user.

The root configuration should already be installed by the rinstall package of your distribution and it can also be found in the config/root/ directory of this repository; the non-root user configuration can be found in the config/user/ directory. All the placeholders will be replaced at runtime by rinstall.

Additionally, a different configuration file can be passed by using the --config (or -c) command line argument. All the values can also be overridden when invoking rinstall by using the respective command line arguments.

The configuration is a YAML file that can contains the following keys:

prefix
exec_prefix
bindir
libdir
datarootdir
datadir
sysconfdir
localstatedir
runstatedir
includedir
docdir
mandir

Please refer to the Directory Variables for their usage.

#Writing install.yml

To support rinstall, place an install.yml file into the root of your project. This file shall contains at least the name and the version of the program to install and its type. Then it allows a list of entries differentiated by their type.

Example file:

name: rinstall
version: 0.1
type: rust
exe:
  - rinstall
docs:
  - LICENSE.md
  - README.md

#Entries

Each entry list a file to install and it shall either be a string or a struct containing the following data:

• src: the source, containing the location to the file that will be installed. Unless noted, it shall always be relative to the project directory.
• dst: the destination (optional), containing the directory or file where that this entry should be installed to. It shall always be relative, the corresponding system directory will be appended based on the type of entry; e.g. for exe entries, the destination part will be appended to bindir. To mark the destination as a directory, add a leading path separator /.

When the entry is only a string, it shall contains the source and follows the same rules as src.

Example entry defined by a struct:

src: myprog.sh
dst: myprog

Example entry where destination is a directory:

src: myprog
dst: internaldir/

#Type

The type part can either be rust or custom.

#rust

Use rust type when the project is built using cargo. By doing so the target directory (fetched using cargo metadata) will be used as root for executables and libraries. I.e. you don't need to use target/release/myexe when listing executables, but just myexe.

#Valid keys

rinstall allows for the following keys:

#exe

For the executables; they will be installed in bindir (which defaults to /usr/local/bin)

#libs

For the libraries; they will be installed in libdir (which defaults to /usr/local/lib)

#man

For the man pages; they will be installed under the correct folder in mandir (which defaults to /usr/local/share/man)

#data

For architecture independent files; they will be installed in datarootdir (which defaults to /usr/local/share)

#docs

For documentation and examples; they will be installed in folder doc/<pkg-name>-<pkg-version> under folder datarootdir (which defaults to /usr/local/share/doc/<pkg-name>-<pkg-version>)

#config

For configuration files; they will be installed in sysconfdir (which defaults to /usr/local/etc)

#desktop-files

For .desktop files; they will be installed in folder applications under datarootdir (which defaults to /usr/local/share/applications)

#appdata

For appdata files; they will be installed in folder appdata under datarootdir (which defaults to /usr/local/share/appdata)

#completions

For completions files; they will be installed in the respective shell completions directory, under datarootdir:

• bash-completion/completions for bash
• fish/vendor_completions.d for fish
• zsh/site-functions for zsh

Example:

completions:
  bash:
    - cat.bash
    - cp.bash
  fish:
    - cat.fish
    - cp.fish
  zsh:
    - _cat
    - _cp

#TODO

• Add --reversible (reverse the installation)
• Add --exclude flag

#License

rinstall is licensed under the GPL-3+ license.