bvm - Binary Version Manager

A version manager for all binaries.

Why?

I couldn't find a solution like this that also worked on Windows. Do you know something? If so, please stop me so I don't waste my time.

Setup

It's not recommended to try this out yet as there are no public binary manifest files, but if you want to:

1. For now, install bvm via cargo—cargo install bvm.
2. Manually add the binary folder as the first item on the path:
   • Windows: C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Local\bvm\bvm\bin
   • Mac/Linux: ~/.local/share/bvm/bin
3. Add a .bvmrc.json file to your project and specify the paths to the binary manifest files.

   {
     "binaries": [
       // these don't exist anywhere at the moment except on my machine (again, proof of concept)
       "http://localhost:8000/deno-1.3.1.json",
       "http://localhost:8000/dprint-0.9.0.json"
     ]
   }
   

4. Run bvm install

Commands

bvm install

Adds the binaries in the current configuration file to the path then downloads & installs them.

bvm install <url>

Installs a binary at the specified manifest file.

bvm use [binary name] [version]

Uses the specified binary name and version globally.

The binary and version must have been previously installed.

bvm resolve [binary name]

Resolves the executable path of the specified binary using the provided arguments based on the current working directory.

This command is used by the created shell/batch files to tell how to resolve the file.

bvm uninstall [binary name] [version]

Uninstalls the specified binary name and version.

Binary manifest file

At the moment, it looks like this:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "name": "deno",
  "group": "denoland",
  "version": "1.3.1",
  "windows": {
    "archive": "https://github.com/denoland/deno/releases/download/v1.3.1/deno-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip",
    "binaryPath": "deno.exe",
    "postExtract": "# this is the post extract script where you can run some commands if necessary to cause additional setup"
  },
  "linux": {
    "archive": "https://github.com/denoland/deno/releases/download/v1.3.1/deno-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.zip",
    "binaryPath": "deno"
  },
  "mac": {
    "archive": "https://github.com/denoland/deno/releases/download/v1.3.1/deno-x86_64-apple-darwin.zip",
    "binaryPath": "deno"
  }
}

Future improvements

High priority:

1. Improve user story for different binaries with the same name (bvm use denoland/deno 1.3.1 or bvm use name-stealer/deno 1.2.0)
2. Ability to easily switch back to using a binary on the path without bvm (bvm use deno path?).
   • Do this without removing the shim (so use the second result of whereis -b deno/where deno)

Others:

1. Ability to specify a range of supported versions in .bvmrc.json to reduce the number of downloaded binaries:

   {
     "binaries": [
       // I don't know... maybe something like this
       {
         "manifest": "http://localhost:8000/deno-1.3.1.json",
         "version": "^1.3.0"
       }
     ]
   }
   

2. Support for file paths everywhere in addition to urls.
3. Something similar to npm run <script-name>? Or is that out of scope?
4. Ability to specify pre & post install commands in the configuration file (ties into #4 maybe... might be better to make it separate though)
5. Ability to purge any binaries that haven't been run for X days.
6. Some way for binaries to specify all their version numbers and the ability to get their latest. I'm thinking each binary manifest file may have a url to a global binary manifest file where all that data is stored.
7. Checksums on paths to ensure downstream binaries stay constant.
8. bvm list - Lists the installed binaries.
9. bvm upgrade <binary name> - Upgrade to the latest version (requires binary manifest file to specify a global manifest file)
10. Support downstream binary dependencies.
11. Ability to get a specific version of a binary when using bvm resolve (ex. bvm resolve deno 1.3.1)
12. Ability to easily create and remove aliases (ex. deno2)
    • These should be associated with the binary they alias so when you uninstall the binary it deletes the alias.
13. Require --force on bvm install <url> if already installed.
14. bvm clear-url-cache - Clear the url caches, but not the binary caches.
15. Ability to execute a specific version of an executable one time. bvm exec deno 1.2.0 -V or perhaps at the shim level deno -V --bvm-use-version 1.2.0... or maybe this should use bvm resolve somehow.

Probably unnecessary complexity:

1. bvm use <url> - To use a specific version of a binary globally via a url.

Goals

1. Seamless version selection.
2. Replace binary specific version manager tools.
3. No centralization—all urls and paths.
   • Allows for easily distributing approved binaries within an organization.
   • Easy for binary authors to distribute their applications.
4. Support different binaries with the same name.
5. Backwards compatibility (once hitting 1.0)