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I'm a little annoyed that for a Rust based tool the recommended installation command is to use npm. Why? Is Cargo not good enough? Cargo seems exceptionally wel

I'm a little annoyed that for a Rust based tool the recommended installation command is to use npm. Why? Is Cargo not good enough? Cargo seems exceptionally well to me.

_sinelaw_ 11mo ago
I did it because not everybody has cargo installed. I'm using cargo-dist to create this npm package.
- alienpingu 11mo ago
  i just used npx to try on my working machine where i do not have cargo
- giancarlostoro 11mo ago
  I've been wanting a generic package manager for a while that is cross-platform. I wonder how one could find funding for such a project. Thinking about users from various OS' installing tools and software from your niche package manager, yeah that bad boy is going to grind to a halt if you have no key funding.
  - venturecruelty 11mo ago
    Artifactory exists. It's not hard to store packages and metadata somewhere.
  - freeopinion 11mo ago
    By cross-platform, do you really mean Linux/BSD/Mac/Win/ChromeOS/Android? Or do you just mean something like Guix?
  - apatheticonion 11mo ago
    Same. I started writing one as a weekend project and got as far as having a GH repo with releases that mirror the binaries of the tools that I use, normalizing the archives so they can be installed in the same way. It auto-generates a release whenever the project authors update their projects. https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases?q=nodejs&expanded=true https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases?q=node... https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases All of the binaries here are expected to be standalone/portable installations, so you can download/extract the archive and just run the binary. curl -L --url https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases/download/terraform-1.14.1/terraform-1.14.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz | tar -xvzf - -C $HOME/.local/bin $HOME/.local/bin/terraform --help I haven't yet written a package manager yet, but I was planning for it to just do the same thing as above but figure out your OS/ARCH, handle extraction and also offer a PATH update system so you can run `eval $(xpkg env)` and PATH is updated automatically.
  - craftkiller 11mo ago
    > generic package manager for a while that is cross-platform That would be Nix. Runs on any Linux distro and OSX. Also particularly useful for NixOS and NixBSD. https://nixos.org/download/ https://nixos.org/download/
- baq 11mo ago
  consider wget or curl if possible (why not if npm was...)
- LoganDark 11mo ago
  Is there a way to install it with cargo instead? I won't install npm on my machine just to install a Rust package
  - _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
    Sure, cargo install fresh-editor
- ulbu 11mo ago
  i don’t (and won’t) have npm installed. i do have cargo. strange thinking!
  - junon 11mo ago
    I would bet 100 Euro there is at least an order of magnitude, if not two or three, more installs of NPM clients than Cargo right now.
  - _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
    Then use: cargo install fresh-editor I've documented that as well it just isn't the first option listed
Barathkanna 11mo ago
I get the frustration, but I think the npm option actually makes sense here. A lot of users who’d benefit from a fast Rust tool aren’t Rust developers and won’t have Cargo installed. Shipping it through npm lowers the barrier while still giving everyone the performance benefits. It’s not a knock on Cargo, just a way to make the tool more accessible.
- ljm 11mo ago
  Given the fairly shoddy security story with NPM, I genuinely don't understand the hesitation to publish a binary and have a README instruction to curl/wget it into `/usr/local/bin` or `~/.local/bin`. If it's going through NPM that publishing step has to be done already, unless the NPM build is pulling down rust to compile it all as a native extension. Eventually it'd wangle it's way into homebrew or the unstable branch of another package registry. But that's me, because I really dislike installing binaries via a language's package manager, because they don't get updated unless I frequently run the upgrade commands for each package manager.
  - _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
    That (security ) is something I also worry about. I'd like to get off npm if only for this reason. It's a hack to get started. The other thing it gives you is the ability to easily upgrade and uninstall so just a script to copy stuff is not on par.
    - ljm 11mo ago
      Thing is… who is regularly running `npm update` or `cargo update` to keep local software up to date? I wouldn’t, because I might be in a repo and it starts upgrading all my local dependencies, and I’m not gonna add a text editor as a dev dependency. I’ll happily take the binary, or a tar.gz with the binary in it, though. (Btw I love how it’s following the old DOS aesthetic)
      - _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
        The npm distribution here is just the binary, you run npm install again and it upgrades to the latest binary. That's convenient
port11 11mo ago
Can't it be packaged as a binary/whatever that would install without either cargo or npm?
- _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
  You can use: cargo install fresh-editor Or you can use npm Or you can download release binary packages from Github releases. The problem is which option to make more prominent / first
  - port11 11mo ago
    Okay, in my case I like the binary from GitHub, and it's also more likely to end up in Homebrew.
_sinelaw_ 11mo ago
I took the feedback and now you can install binaries in any of these methods: - Homebrew (MacOS) - Arch Linux AUR - Debian/Ubuntu .deb - Fedora/RHEL .rpm as well as cargo install (which builds from source), npm, npx or building from source by cloning
- psvn 11mo ago
  Can you add to cargo binstall to install directly binary?

I'm a little annoyed that for a Rust based tool the recommended installation command is to use npm. Why? Is Cargo not good enough? Cargo seems exceptionally well to me.

_sinelaw_ 11mo ago

I did it because not everybody has cargo installed. I'm using cargo-dist to create this npm package.

alienpingu 11mo ago
i just used npx to try on my working machine where i do not have cargo
giancarlostoro 11mo ago
I've been wanting a generic package manager for a while that is cross-platform. I wonder how one could find funding for such a project. Thinking about users from various OS' installing tools and software from your niche package manager, yeah that bad boy is going to grind to a halt if you have no key funding.
- venturecruelty 11mo ago
  Artifactory exists. It's not hard to store packages and metadata somewhere.
- freeopinion 11mo ago
  By cross-platform, do you really mean Linux/BSD/Mac/Win/ChromeOS/Android? Or do you just mean something like Guix?
- apatheticonion 11mo ago
  Same. I started writing one as a weekend project and got as far as having a GH repo with releases that mirror the binaries of the tools that I use, normalizing the archives so they can be installed in the same way. It auto-generates a release whenever the project authors update their projects. https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases?q=nodejs&expanded=true https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases?q=node... https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases All of the binaries here are expected to be standalone/portable installations, so you can download/extract the archive and just run the binary. curl -L --url https://github.com/alshdavid/install-scripts/releases/download/terraform-1.14.1/terraform-1.14.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz | tar -xvzf - -C $HOME/.local/bin $HOME/.local/bin/terraform --help I haven't yet written a package manager yet, but I was planning for it to just do the same thing as above but figure out your OS/ARCH, handle extraction and also offer a PATH update system so you can run `eval $(xpkg env)` and PATH is updated automatically.
- craftkiller 11mo ago
  > generic package manager for a while that is cross-platform That would be Nix. Runs on any Linux distro and OSX. Also particularly useful for NixOS and NixBSD. https://nixos.org/download/ https://nixos.org/download/
baq 11mo ago
consider wget or curl if possible (why not if npm was...)
LoganDark 11mo ago
Is there a way to install it with cargo instead? I won't install npm on my machine just to install a Rust package
- _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
  Sure, cargo install fresh-editor
ulbu 11mo ago
i don’t (and won’t) have npm installed. i do have cargo. strange thinking!
- junon 11mo ago
  I would bet 100 Euro there is at least an order of magnitude, if not two or three, more installs of NPM clients than Cargo right now.
- _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
  Then use: cargo install fresh-editor I've documented that as well it just isn't the first option listed

Barathkanna 11mo ago

I get the frustration, but I think the npm option actually makes sense here. A lot of users who’d benefit from a fast Rust tool aren’t Rust developers and won’t have Cargo installed. Shipping it through npm lowers the barrier while still giving everyone the performance benefits. It’s not a knock on Cargo, just a way to make the tool more accessible.

ljm 11mo ago
Given the fairly shoddy security story with NPM, I genuinely don't understand the hesitation to publish a binary and have a README instruction to curl/wget it into `/usr/local/bin` or `~/.local/bin`. If it's going through NPM that publishing step has to be done already, unless the NPM build is pulling down rust to compile it all as a native extension. Eventually it'd wangle it's way into homebrew or the unstable branch of another package registry. But that's me, because I really dislike installing binaries via a language's package manager, because they don't get updated unless I frequently run the upgrade commands for each package manager.
- _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
  That (security ) is something I also worry about. I'd like to get off npm if only for this reason. It's a hack to get started. The other thing it gives you is the ability to easily upgrade and uninstall so just a script to copy stuff is not on par.
  - ljm 11mo ago
    Thing is… who is regularly running `npm update` or `cargo update` to keep local software up to date? I wouldn’t, because I might be in a repo and it starts upgrading all my local dependencies, and I’m not gonna add a text editor as a dev dependency. I’ll happily take the binary, or a tar.gz with the binary in it, though. (Btw I love how it’s following the old DOS aesthetic)
    - _sinelaw_ 11mo ago
      The npm distribution here is just the binary, you run npm install again and it upgrades to the latest binary. That's convenient

port11 11mo ago

Can't it be packaged as a binary/whatever that would install without either cargo or npm?

_sinelaw_ 11mo ago
You can use: cargo install fresh-editor Or you can use npm Or you can download release binary packages from Github releases. The problem is which option to make more prominent / first
- port11 11mo ago
  Okay, in my case I like the binary from GitHub, and it's also more likely to end up in Homebrew.

_sinelaw_ 11mo ago

I took the feedback and now you can install binaries in any of these methods: - Homebrew (MacOS) - Arch Linux AUR - Debian/Ubuntu .deb - Fedora/RHEL .rpm as well as cargo install (which builds from source), npm, npx or building from source by cloning

psvn 11mo ago
Can you add to cargo binstall to install directly binary?