gvm - Global Version Manager

A version manager for all binaries.

Install

Distribution is only available via cargo at the moment, but this project will be released as a single binary in the future.

cargo install gvm

Why?

I couldn't find a solution like this that also worked on Windows.

Setup

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

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

4. Run gvm install

Commands

gvm install

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

gvm use <binary name> <version>

Uses the specified binary name and version globally.

The binary and version must have been previously installed.

gvm run [binary-name] [...args]

Runs the specified binary using the provided arguments based on the current configuration file.

Will download & install the binary if it hasn't been installed.

This is what [binary-name] [...args] internally uses to run the correct binary.

Future improvements

1. Ability to specify a range of supported versions in .gvmrc.json:

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

2. Support for file paths in addition to urls.
3. gvm install <url> - To install a binary at the specified url.
4. gvm use <url> - To use a specific version of a binary globally via a url.
5. Ability to specify pre & post install commands in the configuration file.
6. Something similar to npm run <script-name>.
7. Ability to purge any binaries that haven't been run for X days.
8. Some way for binaries to specify all their version numbers and the ability to get their latest.
9. gvm uninstall <binary name> <version> or gvm uninstall <url>
10. Ability for plugins to run some setup commands.
11. Checksums on paths to ensure downstream binaries stay constant.