bvm - Binary Version Manager

A version manager for all binaries.

NOTICE: This is a proof of concept. It is not recommended to use it yet as there will likely be many breaking changes.

Goals

1. Seamless version selection based on current working directory.
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 completely different application binaries with the same command name.
5. Backwards compatibility loading project configuration files (once hitting 1.0)
6. Works on Windows without needing WSL.
7. Allows working with binaries already on the path (ex. bvm use deno path).

Setup

1. For now, install bvm via cargo—cargo install bvm.
2. Manually add the shims folder as the first item on the path:
   • Windows: C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Local\bvm\bvm\shims
   • Mac/Linux: ~/.local/share/bvm/shims
3. Add a .bvmrc.json file to your project and specify the paths to the binary manifest files. jsonc { "postInstall": "", // optional post install commands "binaries": [ "https://bvm.land/deno/1.3.1.json", "https://bvm.land/dprint/0.9.1.json" ] } Or specify with checksums to ensure the remote files don't change: jsonc { "binaries": [ "https://bvm.land/deno/1.3.1.json@c6fc34cc8a48a6b7c0b9bf12af51f07edb3f33cd295582a6b52632abf5e5c09e", "https://bvm.land/dprint/0.9.1.json@d667c18b9c78d18a991602bdb180b8fbc4e17e68c12e3a49bebdd0a17c2f4ad2" ] }
4. Run bvm install

Commands

bvm init

Creates an empty .bvmrc.json file in the current directory.

bvm install

Downloads & installs the binaries in the current .bvmrc.json configuration file and associates them on the path with bvm if not previously done.

• Provide the --use flag to also use all the binaries in the configuration file on the path when outside this directory.
• Provide the --force flag to force an install of everything even if already installed.

bvm install [url]

Installs a binary at the specified manifest file.

```

Examples

bvm install https://bvm.land/deno/1.3.1.json

optionally specify a checksum

bvm install https://bvm.land/deno/1.3.1.json@c6fc34cc8a48a6b7c0b9bf12af51f07edb3f33cd295582a6b52632abf5e5c09e

if a previous installation is on the path, use this one instead

bvm install --use https://bvm.land/deno/1.3.1.json ```

• Provide the --use flag to force using this binary on the path (happens automatically if nothing is on the path).
• Provide the --force flag to force an install even if already installed.

bvm use [binary-name or owner-name/binary-name] [version]

Uses the specified binary name and version globally.

The binary and version must have been previously installed.

```

Examples

bvm use deno 1.3.1 bvm use denoland/deno 1.3.1 bvm use name-stealer/deno 2.0.0 ```

bvm use [binary-name or owner-name/binary-name] path

Use the version of the binary that's installed on the path if it exists.

```

Example

bvm use deno path ```

bvm use

Use all the binaries in the current configuration files globally on the path.

Generally it's not necessary to ever use this command as this happens automatically being in the current directory.

bvm resolve [binary name]

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

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

```

Example

bvm resolve deno

on windows, outputs: C:\Users\\AppData\Local\bvm\bvm\binaries\denoland\deno\1.3.1\deno.exe

```

bvm uninstall [binary-name or owner-name/binary-name] [version]

Uninstalls the specified binary version.

```

Examples

bvm uninstall deno 1.2.0 bvm uninstall denoland/deno 1.3.1 bvm uninstall name-stealer/deno 2.0.0 ```

bvm list

Displays the installed binaries.

Example output:

denoland/deno 1.2.0 denoland/deno 1.3.1 dprint/dprint 9.0.1

Redirect Service

The website https://bvm.land is a redirect service. If you publish a bvm.json file as a GitHub release asset (not recommended yet, due to this being a proof of concept) then you can use https://bvm.land to redirect to your release:

1. https://bvm.land/<owner>/<name>/<release-tag>.json -> https://github.com/<owner>/<name>/releases/download/<release-tag>/bvm.json
2. https://bvm.land/<name>/<release-tag>.json -> https://github.com/<name>/<name>/releases/download/<release-tag>/bvm.json

Example: https://bvm.land/dprint/0.9.1.json

Binary manifest file

At the moment, it looks like this:

json { "schemaVersion": 1, "name": "deno", "owner": "denoland", "version": "1.3.1", "windows-x86_64": { "url": "https://github.com/denoland/deno/releases/download/v1.3.1/deno-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip", "type": "zip", "checksum": "6ba068e517a55dd33abd60e74c38aa61ef8f45a0774578761be0107fafc3758b", "commands": [{ "name": "deno", "path": "deno.exe" }], "postInstall": "# this is where you can run some commands if necessary to cause additional setup" }, "linux-x86_64": { "url": "https://github.com/denoland/deno/releases/download/v1.3.1/deno-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.zip", "type": "zip", "checksum": "ef3a8740bdceab105808c91cfb918c883a23defb6719b9c511e2be30d5bfdc01", "commands": [{ "name": "deno", "path": "deno" }] }, "darwin-x86_64": { "url": "https://github.com/denoland/deno/releases/download/v1.3.1/deno-x86_64-apple-darwin.zip", "type": "zip", "checksum": "b1bc5de79b71c3f33d0151486249d088f5f5604126812dc55b1dd21b28704d8a", "commands": [{ "name": "deno", "path": "deno" }] } }

Supported types: zip, exe, tar.gz (will add more later)

Other examples:

• Multiple commands: https://bvm.land/node/14.9.0.json

Future improvements

Low effort:

1. bvm clear-url-cache - Clear the url caches, but not the binary caches.
2. Progress bars everywhere!!

Medium effort:

1. Ability to specify a range of supported versions in .bvmrc.json to reduce the number of downloaded binaries: jsonc { "binaries": [{ "manifest": "https://bvm.land/deno/1.3.1.json", "version": "^1.3.0" }] }
2. Support for file paths everywhere in addition to urls.
3. 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.
4. Command aliases in the configuration file. jsonc { "binaries": [{ "manifest": "https://bvm.land/deno/1.3.1.json", "alias": "deno-1.3.1" }] }
5. 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.
6. Add bvm lock to update the configuration file urls with checksums.

Large effort:

1. 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.~~ I think this should be explicit as people will have to trust the source. They could add registry file to their individual CLI tools then install via bvm install [binary name] [version] or just bvm install [binary name].
2. bvm upgrade <binary name> - Upgrade to the latest version (requires a registry file to be set—not implemented)
3. Support downstream binary dependencies (should also support a range of dependencies).

Probably unnecessary complexity:

1. bvm use <url> - To use a specific version of a binary globally via a url.
2. ~~Something similar to npm run <script-name>? Or is that out of scope?~~ Yes. I think there should be another tool people can install with bvm that does this. This tool should be very simple. There should definitely be pre and post install scripts though.
3. bvm use <binary name> <executable file path> for using the executable at the specified file path.
4. Ability to purge any binaries that haven't been run for X days.
5. Ability to get a specific version of a binary when using bvm resolve (ex. bvm resolve deno 1.3.1)