Installers

The core functionality of dist is to build your binaries and produce tarballs / zips containing them. Basically every other kind of output it produces is considered an "installer" that helps download/install/run those binaries.

Note that we use the term "installer" very loosely -- if it's fancier than a tarball, it's an installer to us!

Supported Installers

Currently supported installers include:

• shell: a shell script that fetches and installs executables (for curl | sh)
• powershell: a powershell script that fetches and installs executables (for irm | iex)
• npm: an npm project that fetches and runs executables (for npx)
• homebrew: a Homebrew formula that fetches and installs executables
• msi: a Windows msi that bundles and installs executables

These keys can be specified via installer in your dist config. The dist init command provides an interactive UI for enabling/disabling them.

The above installers can have one of two strategies: fetching and bundling (defined below). Currently each installer is hardcoded to one particular strategy, but in the future we may make it configurable.

Future Installers

The following installers have been requested, and we're open to supporting them, but we have no specific timeline for when they will be implemented. Providing additional info/feedback on them helps us prioritize the work:

• linux docker image containing binaries
• linux flatpak
• macOS cask
• macOS dmg / app
• pypi package
• windows winget package

Fetching Installers

Fetching installers are thin wrappers which detect the user's current platform and download and unpack the appropriate archive from a server.

In exchange for requiring a well-defined Artifact URL and an internet connection at install-time, this strategy gives you a simple and efficient way to host prebuilt binaries and make sure that all users get the same binaries regardless of how the installed your application.

Fetching installers are also easy to make "universal" (cross-platform), so your installing users don't need to care about the OS or CPU they're using -- the installer will handle that for them.

Installers which support fetching:

• shell: a shell script that fetches and installs executables (for curl | sh)
• powershell: a powershell script that fetches and installs executables (for irm | iex)
• npm: an npm project that fetches and runs executables (for npx)
• homebrew: a Homebrew formula that fetches and installs executables

Bundling Installers

Bundling installers contain the actual binaries they will install on the user's system.

These installers can work without any internet connection, which some users will demand or appreciate.

Bundling requires a fundamental compromise when it comes to "universal" (cross-platform) installers, as any installer that wants to support e.g. Intel macOS and Apple Silicon macOS will need to include both binaries, even if only one will ever be used.

For this reason all bundling installers are currently single-platform, requiring the installing user to know what platform they're on.

Installers which support bundling:

• msi: a Windows msi that bundles and installs executables

Usage

Our installers are meant to be usable as-is, without requiring any special options or configuration from the user. We do offer some optional configuration options for end users; see the usage documentation for a description of all supported options.