Make istio installer suitable for use in scripts

[ebullient]

Helm's install script uses environment variables to tweak its behavior (install directory, desired version), and it copies the binary into a known location. This allows the script to be used repeatably in scripted installs (Vagrantfile, etc).

As it stands now, you have to run the script and manually add the binary to the path (either by updating the PATH, or copying the binary). This is made a little more difficult due to the version in the path name:

Add /home/vagrant/istio-0.1.6/bin to your path; e.g copy paste in your shell and/or ~/.profile:
export PATH="$PATH:/home/vagrant/istio-0.1.6/bin"

Is there interest in changing that behavior? I can propose an update to the script (not immediately, but I'm happy to do it) if there are no objections to making it work that way.

[ldemailly]

it's very important for the distribution tar directory to include the version, so you can go back and forth between versions and not accidentally clobber one version's file with another.

I don't see why whoever consumes the .tar.gz can't move the binary ? the

Add /home/vagrant/istio-0.1.6/bin to your path; e.g copy paste in your shell and/or ~/.profile:

is just a suggestion, you can also just copy it in your path

going to close this but do reopen if I misunderstood your point
(and / or open a PR to make the installer text more clear)

[ebullient]

I can't reopen this issue. Comparison: https://docs.helm.sh/using_helm/#from-script

Includes this if I want to pin the version:

# checkDesiredVersion checks if the desired version is available.
checkDesiredVersion() {
  # Use the GitHub releases webpage for the project to find the desired version for this project.
  local release_url="https://github.com/kubernetes/helm/releases/${DESIRED_VERSION:-latest}"
  if type "curl" > /dev/null; then
    TAG=$(curl -SsL $release_url | awk '/\/tag\//' | cut -d '"' -f 2 | awk '{n=split($NF,a,"/");print a[n]}' | awk 'a !~ $0{print}; {a=$0}')
  elif type "wget" > /dev/null; then
    TAG=$(wget -q -O - $release_url | awk '/\/tag\//' | cut -d '"' -f 2 | awk '{n=split($NF,a,"/");print a[n]}' | awk 'a !~ $0{print}; {a=$0}')
  fi
  if [ "x$TAG" == "x" ]; then
    echo "Cannot determine ${DESIRED_VERSION} tag."
    exit 1
  fi
}

checks that against installed version, etc. I can include/use that file in provisioning scripts (Vagrant and/or other custom launch scripts) with minimum fuss.

I have worked around in my scripts this way:

    curl -L https://git.io/getIstio | sh -
    mv istio-*/bin/istioctl /home/vagrant/bin/
    rm -r istio-*

(because I don't want to spend a lot of time in a Vagrant config updating the .bashrc to contain version numbers).

Helm's script fits right in here without my having to do anything. I can set an environment variable to tell it where the binary should go, and another to pin the version to fetch. The rest is handled.

[ldemailly]

maybe we'll switch to a package (and/or someone can contribute brew and other packages) that actually "installs" instead of just downloads like it does today. but for now I don't see a concrete proposal of what you'd like/need ?

your workaround seems fine to me?