# Cargo B(inary)Install
`cargo binstall` provides a low-complexity mechanism for installing rust binaries as an alternative to building from source (via `cargo install`) or manually downloading packages. This is intended to work with existing CI artifacts and infrastructure, and with minimal overhead for package maintainers.
To support `binstall` maintainers must add configuration values to `Cargo.toml` to allow the tool to locate the appropriate binary package for a given version and target. See [Supporting Binary Installation](#Supporting-Binary-Installation) for instructions on how to support `binstall` in your projects.
## Installing
To get started _using_ `cargo-binstall`, first install the binary (either via `cargo install cargo-binstall` or by downloading a pre-compiled [release](https://github.com/ryankurte/cargo-binstall/releases).
linux x86_64:
```
wget https://github.com/ryankurte/cargo-binstall/releases/latest/download/cargo-binstall-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tgz
```
linux armv7:
```
wget https://github.com/ryankurte/cargo-binstall/releases/latest/download/cargo-binstall-armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf.tgz
```
macos x86_64:
```
wget https://github.com/ryankurte/cargo-binstall/releases/latest/download/cargo-binstall-x86_64-apple-darwin.zip
```
windows x86_64:
```
wget https://github.com/ryankurte/cargo-binstall/releases/latest/download/cargo-binstall-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip
```
## Usage
Supported packages can be installed using `cargo binstall NAME` where `NAME` is the crate.io package name.
Package versions and targets may be specified using the `--version` and `--target` arguments respectively, and install directory with `--install-dir` (this defaults to `$HOME/.cargo/bin`, with fall-backs to `$HOME/.bin` if unavailable). For additional options please see `cargo binstall --help`.
```
[garry] ➜ ~ cargo binstall radio-sx128x --version 0.14.1-alpha.5
21:14:09 [INFO] Installing package: 'radio-sx128x'
21:14:13 [INFO] Downloading package from: 'https://github.com/rust-iot/rust-radio-sx128x/releases/download/v0.14.1-alpha.5/sx128x-util-x86_64-apple-darwin.tgz'
21:14:18 [INFO] This will install the following binaries:
21:14:18 [INFO] - sx128x-util (sx128x-util-x86_64-apple-darwin -> /Users/ryankurte/.cargo/bin/sx128x-util-v0.14.1-alpha.5)
21:14:18 [INFO] And create (or update) the following symlinks:
21:14:18 [INFO] - sx128x-util (/Users/ryankurte/.cargo/bin/sx128x-util-v0.14.1-alpha.5 -> /Users/ryankurte/.cargo/bin/sx128x-util)
21:14:18 [INFO] Do you wish to continue? yes/no
yes
21:15:30 [INFO] Installing binaries...
21:15:30 [INFO] Installation complete!
```
## Status
[](https://github.com/ryankurte/cargo-binstall)
[](https://crates.io/crates/cargo-binstall)
[](https://docs.rs/cargo-binstall)
### Features
- Manifest discovery
- [x] Fetch crate / manifest via crates.io
- [ ] Fetch crate / manifest via git (/ github / gitlab)
- [x] Use local crate / manifest (`--manifest-path`)
- [x] Fetch build from the [quickinstall](https://github.com/alsuren/cargo-quickinstall) repository
- [ ] Unofficial packaging
- Package formats
- [x] Tgz
- [x] Txz
- [x] Tar
- [x] Zip
- [x] Bin
- Extraction / Transformation
- [x] Extract from subdirectory in archive (ie. support archives with platform or target subdirectories)
- [x] Extract specific files from archive (ie. support single archive with multiple platform binaries)
- Security
- [ ] Package signing
- [ ] Package verification
## Supporting Binary Installation
`binstall` works with existing CI-built binary outputs, with configuration via `[package.metadata.binstall]` keys in the relevant crate manifest.
When configuring `binstall` you can test against a local manifest with `--manifest-path=PATH` argument to use the crate and manifest at the provided `PATH`, skipping crate discovery and download.
To get started, add a `[package.metadata.binstall]` section to your `Cargo.toml`. As an example, the default configuration would be:
```toml
[package.metadata.binstall]
pkg-url = "{ repo }/releases/download/v{ version }/{ name }-{ target }-v{ version }.{ archive-format }"
bin-dir = "{ name }-{ target }-v{ version }/{ bin }{ binary-ext }"
pkg-fmt = "tgz"
```
With the following configuration keys:
- `pkg-url` specifies the package download URL for a given target/version, templated
- `bin-dir` specifies the binary path within the package, templated (with an `.exe` suffix on windows)
- `pkg-fmt` overrides the package format for download/extraction (defaults to: `tgz`)
`pkg-url` and `bin-dir` are templated to support different names for different versions / architectures / etc.
Template variables use the format `{ VAR }` where `VAR` is the name of the variable, with the following variables available:
- `name` is the name of the crate / package
- `version` is the crate version (per `--version` and the crate manifest)
- `repo` is the repository linked in `Cargo.toml`
- `bin` is the name of a specific binary, inferred from the crate configuration
- `target` is the rust target name (defaults to your architecture, but can be overridden using the `--target` command line option if required()
- `archive-format` is the filename extension of the package archive format
- `binary-ext` is the string `.exe` if the `target` is for Windows, or the empty string otherwise
- `format` is a soft-deprecated alias for `archive-format` in `pkg-url`, and for `binary-ext` in `bin-dir`; in the future this may warn at install time.
`pkg-url`, `pkg-fmt` and `bin-dir` can be overridden on a per-target basis if required, for example, if your `x86_64-pc-windows-msvc` builds use `zip` archives this could be set via:
```
[package.metadata.binstall.overrides.x86_64-pc-windows-msvc]
pkg-fmt = "zip"
```
### Defaults
By default `binstall` is setup to work with github releases, and expects to find:
- an archive named `{ name }-{ target }-v{ version }.{ archive-format }`
- so that this does not overwrite different targets or versions when manually downloaded
- located at `{ repo }/releases/download/v{ version }/`
- compatible with github tags / releases
- containing a folder named `{ name }-{ target }-v{ version }`
- so that prior binary files are not overwritten when manually executing `tar -xvf ...`
- containing binary files in the form `{ bin }{ binary-ext }` (where `bin` is the cargo binary name and `binary-ext` is `.exe` on windows and empty on other platforms)
If your package already uses this approach, you shouldn't need to set anything.
### QuickInstall
[QuickInstall](https://github.com/alsuren/cargo-quickinstall) is an unofficial repository of prebuilt binaries for Crates, and `binstall` has built-in support for it! If your crate is built by QuickInstall, it will already work with `binstall`. However, binaries as configured above take precedence when they exist.
### Examples
For example, the default configuration (as shown above) for a crate called `radio-sx128x` (version: `v0.14.1-alpha.5` on x86_64 linux) would be interpolated to:
- A download URL of `https://github.com/rust-iot/rust-radio-sx128x/releases/download/v0.14.1-alpha.5/rust-radio-sx128x-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-v0.14.1-alpha.5.tgz`
- Containing a single binary file `rust-radio-sx128x-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-v0.14.1-alpha.5/rust-radio-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`
- Installed to`$HOME/.cargo/bin/rust-radio-sx128x-v0.14.1-alpha.5`
- With a symlink from `$HOME/.cargo/bin/rust-radio-sx128x`
#### If the package name does not match the crate name
As is common with libraries / utilities (and the `radio-sx128x` example), this can be overridden by specifying the `pkg-url`:
```toml
[package.metadata.binstall]
pkg-url = "{ repo }/releases/download/v{ version }/sx128x-util-{ target }-v{ version }.{ archive-format }"
```
Which provides a download URL of: `https://github.com/rust-iot/rust-radio-sx128x/releases/download/v0.14.1-alpha.5/sx128x-util-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-v0.14.1-alpha.5.tgz`
#### If the package structure differs from the default
Were the package to contain binaries in the form `name-target[.exe]`, this could be overridden using the `bin-dir` key:
```toml
[package.metadata.binstall]
bin-dir = "{ bin }-{ target }{ binary-ext }"
```
Which provides a binary path of: `sx128x-util-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu[.exe]`. It is worth noting that binary names are inferred from the crate, so long as cargo builds them this _should_ just work.
## FAQ
- Why use this?
- Because `wget`-ing releases is frustrating, `cargo install` takes a not inconsequential portion of forever on constrained devices,
and often putting together actual _packages_ is overkill.
- Why use the cargo manifest?
- Crates already have these, and they already contain a significant portion of the required information.
Also there's this great and woefully underused (imo) `[package.metadata]` field.
- Is this secure?
- Yes and also no? We're not (yet? #1) doing anything to verify the CI binaries are produced by the right person / organisation.
However, we're pulling data from crates.io and the cargo manifest, both of which are _already_ trusted entities, and this is
functionally a replacement for `curl ... | bash` or `wget`-ing the same files, so, things can be improved but it's also sorta moot
---
If you have ideas / contributions or anything is not working the way you expect (in which case, please include an output with `--log-level debug`) and feel free to open an issue or PR.