Installation script directing users to doc site

[jthegedus]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Homebrew users expect the brew install asdf process to complete the installation of asdf. As we require shell config changes this obviously doesn't happen and we subsequently get Issues about asdf not working after a Homebrew install.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like the documentation site logged during the 'install' process with a link and message to the docs to complete the setup process.

My suggestion is a minimal bash script that users can run using curl/wget that performs 2 things:

• git clone (as our current install method)
• log a link to our docs site to complete the Shell setup process

This would be like the nvm install script: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm#install--update-script IE:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asdf-vm/asdf/v0.7.8/install.sh | bash
# or
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asdf-vm/asdf/v0.7.8/install.sh | bash

Installing would be:

• Regular users run this script, logging out the doc site and warning.
• Advanced users can still just git clone as before.
• Homebrew would run this script, logging out the doc site and warning.

IMPORTANTLY, I am not suggesting we do what nvm does with this script and editing peoples .<shell>rc files

Describe similar asdf features and why they are not sufficient

Git Clone doesn't allow us to output anything during the Homebrew installation.

Describe workarounds you've considered

An attempt was made to use Homebrew's built-in "caveats" logging to do this, but this apparently doesn't align with intended Homebrew usage - see Homebrew/homebrew-core#54315

Additional context

Reducing erroneous bug reports would allow us to focus elsewhere and improve the Developer Experience.

[jthegedus]

Feedback from @asdf-vm/core would be great.

This shouldn't break any existing automated scripts people may have created for their own dotfiles.

Introduces the burden on allowing people to configure this step (as they naturally will want to)

Introduces the ability to improve our Security warnings around plugin usage.

[Stratus3D]

I have a couple concerns about this:

1. If I understand correctly, this would be another way of installing asdf. Currently we have installation via package managers (e.g. brew) or manually via Git clone. I don't really want us to have to support a third installation method.
2. Does this installation method offer any benefits over the manual git clone approach? It doesn't appear to automate anything. I'd rather see users standardize on installation via package manager than on running a script.

I guess I'd rather see us focus on improving installation via OS package managers. If I'm not mistaken we could just put the installation instruction code in the Homebrew formula, and then we wouldn't have to have conditional logic in the script as we would know already that it is a Homebrew installation.

[jthegedus]

If I understand correctly, this would be another way of installing asdf. Currently we have installation via package managers (e.g. brew) or manually via Git clone

The purpose of this script would be to change Homebrew and co to use this to point users towards the docs to finish the setup. It would:

• ideally be used by all installation methods
• point people to the docs to finish setup instead of including this same information manually in each individual install method.

Does this installation method offer any benefits over the manual git clone approach? It doesn't appear to automate anything

It would point users to the docs to finish the setup.

If I'm not mistaken we could just put the installation instruction code in the Homebrew formula

This idea was discussed and denied by the Homebrew team. See Homebrew/homebrew-core#54315

[jthegedus]

I think the discussion in the Homebrew issue show that I don't think this is ideal either, though I prefer it to having Homebrew users creating/commenting on closed issues because they expect brew install asdf to completely setup asdf.

[jthegedus]

I'm happy to reverse the pipe install and just include this script to be used by Homebrew and co instead.

EDIT: my many comments here and in the PR make it seem like I care about this much more than I do. Happy to close if the rest of the team do not see the value. A pinned GitHub Issue about installation requiring further steps would also help catch people before they post a new Issue or comment on an existing, especially if we include "Homebrew" in the description.

[jthegedus]

Closing in favour of a pinned GitHub issue which will hopefully be more Google-able