feat: install to $HOME/.local/bin if writes to /usr/local/bin fail by zimeg · Pull Request #188 · slackapi/slack-cli

zimeg · 2025-08-12T05:05:10Z

Changelog

The macOS and Linux installation scripts now install to $HOME/.local/bin if /usr/local/bin errors. Additional $PATH setup might be required and is output as needed. The $HOME/.local/bin path follows the emerging XDG specification.

Summary

This PR adds a fallback path - $HOME/.local/bin - for the installation symlink if writes fail for /usr/local/bin.

Fixes #147 as a workaround, although this might not be a standard everywhere. It is part of the XDG spec FWIW 📚

Related reference: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/#variables

User-specific executable files may be stored in $HOME/.local/bin. Distributions should ensure this directory shows up in the UNIX $PATH environment variable, at an appropriate place.

Preview

install.mov

Reviewers

These changes can be tested using the following commands:

$ ./scripts/install.sh lack-dev  # Attempt an before changing settings
$ lack-dev                       # Attempt a command
$ rm /usr/local/bin/lack-dev     # Remove an installation
$ chmod -w /usr/local/bin        # Lock the default install
$ ./scripts/install.sh lack-dev  # Attempt an installation without error! Yay!
$ lack-dev                       # Find the command is installed

Notes

Lots of formatting changes follow, but the install.sh and install-dev.sh scripts should match in outputs. I hope to follow up with an editor config matching these changes 🤖

Requirements

I've read and understood the Contributing Guidelines and have done my best effort to follow them.
I've read and agree to the Code of Conduct.

codecov · 2025-08-12T05:07:06Z

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 62.93%. Comparing base (ff22405) to head (025a4df).
⚠️ Report is 1 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #188      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   62.96%   62.93%   -0.04%     
==========================================
  Files         212      212              
  Lines       21782    21782              
==========================================
- Hits        13715    13708       -7     
- Misses       7004     7009       +5     
- Partials     1063     1065       +2

☔ View full report in Codecov by Sentry.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.

…stall

zimeg

📫 Notes on changes for the kind reviewers!

zimeg · 2025-08-12T05:29:31Z

scripts/install-dev.sh

-                slack_cli_url="https://downloads.slack-edge.com/slack-cli/slack_cli_${SLACK_CLI_DEV_VERSION}_macOS_64-bit.tar.gz"
-            else
-                case "$(uname -m)" in
-                    x86_64)
-                        slack_cli_url="https://downloads.slack-edge.com/slack-cli/slack_cli_${SLACK_CLI_DEV_VERSION}_macOS_amd64.tar.gz"
-                        ;;
-                    arm64 | aarch64)
-                        slack_cli_url="https://downloads.slack-edge.com/slack-cli/slack_cli_${SLACK_CLI_DEV_VERSION}_macOS_arm64.tar.gz"
-                        ;;
-                    *)


👁️‍🗨️ note: This is a strange diff that indents lines to 8 spaces but also unindents cases within a switch statement!

zimeg · 2025-08-12T05:30:46Z

scripts/install-dev.sh

        fi

-        delay 0.3 "📦 Extracting the Slack CLI command binary to $(home_path $slack_cli_bin_path)"
+        delay 0.3 "📦 Extracting the Slack CLI command binary to $(home_path "$slack_cli_bin_path")"


🐢 note: Variables are surrounded to avoid multiple word escapings

zimeg · 2025-08-12T05:32:04Z

scripts/install-dev.sh

+        delay 0.1 "📠 Removing packaged download files from $(home_path "$slack_cli_install_dir/slack-cli.tar.gz")"
+        rm "$slack_cli_install_dir/slack-cli.tar.gz"


⛰️ note: Outputs to clean up the rm printed above!

zimeg · 2025-08-12T05:33:54Z

scripts/install-dev.sh

-        if [ $(command -v $SLACK_CLI_NAME) ]; then
-                echo -e ""
-                echo -e "✨ Success! The Slack CLI (build: $SLACK_CLI_DEV_VERSION) is now installed!"
-                echo -e ""
-                sleep 0.4
+        if [ -d "/usr/local/bin" ] && [ -w "/usr/local/bin" ]; then
+                local_bin_path="/usr/local/bin"
        else
-                echo "📁 Manually add the Slack CLI command directory to your shell profile"
-                echo "   export PATH=\"$slack_cli_install_bin_dir:\$PATH\""
+                local_bin_path="$HOME/.local/bin"
+                mkdir -p "$local_bin_path"
        fi
+        delay 0.1 "🔗 Adding a symbolic link from $(home_path "$local_bin_path/$SLACK_CLI_NAME") to $(home_path "$slack_cli_bin_path")"
+        ln -sf "$slack_cli_bin_path" "$local_bin_path/$SLACK_CLI_NAME"


🗣️ note: The big change of this PR moves output checks of a configured CLI to later but not this install_slack_cli function. This is to change if statements that follow-

zimeg · 2025-08-12T05:46:18Z

scripts/install-dev.sh

+                case "$(basename "$SHELL")" in
+                bash)
+                        echo -e "   echo 'export PATH=\"\$HOME/.local/bin:\$PATH\"' >> ~/.bashrc"
+                        echo -e "   source ~/.bashrc"
+                        ;;
+                fish)
+                        echo -e "   mkdir -p \$HOME/.config/fish"
+                        echo -e "   echo 'fish_add_path \$HOME/.local/bin' >> \$HOME/.config/fish/config.fish"
+                        echo -e "   source \$HOME/.config/fish/config.fish"
+                        ;;
+                zsh)
+                        echo -e "   echo 'export PATH=\"\$HOME/.local/bin:\$PATH\"' >> ~/.zshrc"
+                        echo -e "   source ~/.zshrc"
+                        ;;
+                *)
+                        echo "   export PATH=\"$local_bin_path:\$PATH\""
+                        ;;
+                esac


🔍 note: Here's a combined output of successful install from above, and next steps per shell!

Love that you went the extra mile with fish support!

zimeg · 2025-08-12T05:47:10Z

scripts/install-windows-dev.ps1

📣 note: The ordering of output sections matches across scripts.

zimeg · 2025-08-12T05:47:45Z

scripts/install.sh

📣 note: Changes of this file should match the dev script above but review is of course so appreciated.

zimeg

💌 A few more notes on changes for the wonderful reviewers! The installation page found a few updates:

🔗 https://docs.slack.dev/tools/slack-cli/guides/installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux

zimeg · 2025-08-12T20:27:06Z

docs/guides/installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux.md


 <details>
-<summary>Troubleshooting</summary>
+<summary>Troubleshooting: Command not found</summary>


📚 note: These steps match the common cases included in the script output but might still be useful to include in documentation! I will admit to skimming similar outputs sometimes. To the great err in troubleshooting...

lukegalbraithrussell · 2025-08-14T23:20:43Z

docs/guides/installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux.md


 <details>
-<summary>Optional: customize installation using flags</summary>
+<summary>Optional: Customize installation using flags</summary>


Suggested change

<summary>Optional: Customize installation using flags</summary>

<summary>Optional: customize installation using flags</summary>

i agree with u but technically this is lower case

🪓 Gone be the capitals: 003514a

🍁 ramble: The "troubleshooting" section for Windows might soon be revisited with a similar change. I'm making note to investigate these error messages more soon for such a change!

docs/guides/installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux.md

lukegalbraithrussell

tiny docs suggestions but docs looks good otherwise!

zimeg

📝 Note to self in rebasings and reverts around!

zimeg · 2025-08-20T19:44:45Z

scripts/install.sh

🧪 todo: Tests were added to CircleCI in #189 but removed in 6001989. These should be added back with these changes.

mwbrooks

✅ I'm happy with this as-is and throwing an approval on it! Love it, thanks @zimeg for taking an idea to reality!

📝 I tweaked your CHANGELOG to use ~~MacOS~~ macOS and added the XDG specification reference.

😱 Minor typo in the test steps where $ rm /usr/local/bin should be $ rm /usr/local/bin/lack-dev (I updated it in case a community member tries to follow the PR test steps)

🧠 I left a question on whether we can make the manual setup more obvious. My suggestion is quite weak, but maybe @lukegalbraithrussell or @zimeg have better ideas?

mwbrooks · 2025-09-03T03:25:05Z

scripts/install-dev.sh

+        if command -v "$SLACK_CLI_NAME" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+                echo -e "📺 Success! The Slack CLI (build: $SLACK_CLI_DEV_VERSION) is now installed!"
+        else
+                echo -e "📝 To get started, manually add the Slack CLI to your shell path:"


question: Is there anything that we can do to make it more clear that there are required next steps to finalize the installation? For example, 📝 Required Manual Setup: copy and paste the follow to add the Slack CLI to your path:" and bold the commands?

@mwbrooks Thanks for calling this out! I found that in a rerun these don't stand out as much as I was hoping... aa4a27d might address this for the following result?

mwbrooks · 2025-09-03T03:25:35Z

scripts/install-dev.sh

+                case "$(basename "$SHELL")" in
+                bash)
+                        echo -e "   echo 'export PATH=\"\$HOME/.local/bin:\$PATH\"' >> ~/.bashrc"
+                        echo -e "   source ~/.bashrc"
+                        ;;
+                fish)
+                        echo -e "   mkdir -p \$HOME/.config/fish"
+                        echo -e "   echo 'fish_add_path \$HOME/.local/bin' >> \$HOME/.config/fish/config.fish"
+                        echo -e "   source \$HOME/.config/fish/config.fish"
+                        ;;
+                zsh)
+                        echo -e "   echo 'export PATH=\"\$HOME/.local/bin:\$PATH\"' >> ~/.zshrc"
+                        echo -e "   source ~/.zshrc"
+                        ;;
+                *)
+                        echo "   export PATH=\"$local_bin_path:\$PATH\""
+                        ;;
+                esac


Love that you went the extra mile with fish support!

Co-authored-by: lukegalbraithrussell <31357343+lukegalbraithrussell@users.noreply.github.com>

zimeg · 2025-09-05T07:51:39Z

docs/guides/installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux.md

📚 Preview

Co-authored-by: Michael Brooks <mbrooks@slack-corp.com>

zimeg · 2025-09-05T18:48:18Z

@lukegalbraithrussell @mwbrooks Thank y'all both for the reviews and suggestions in improved wording, as always 📚 ✨

I'm going to merge this now for next release but I remain open to follow ups of outputs and documentation! For now I think this is change is alright to close #147.

feat: install to $HOME/.local/bin if writes to /usr/local/bin fail

d1ebca2

zimeg added this to the Next Release milestone Aug 12, 2025

zimeg added enhancement M-T: A feature request for new functionality changelog Use on updates to be included in the release notes semver:patch Use on pull requests to describe the release version increment build M-T: Changes to compilation and CI processes labels Aug 12, 2025

zimeg and others added 3 commits August 11, 2025 22:20

feat: swap order of feedback message in windows installation scripts

02ccf54

fix: return newline before warning

3d6f561

refactor: match order of install outputs and functions for windows in…

5d66226

…stall

zimeg commented Aug 12, 2025

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zimeg self-assigned this Aug 12, 2025

docs: troublshooting steps with local bin symbolic link setups

ea69a4a

zimeg commented Aug 12, 2025

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zimeg added the docs M-T: Documentation work only label Aug 12, 2025

zimeg marked this pull request as ready for review August 12, 2025 20:32

zimeg requested review from a team as code owners August 12, 2025 20:32

lukegalbraithrussell reviewed Aug 14, 2025

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lukegalbraithrussell reviewed Aug 14, 2025

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lukegalbraithrussell approved these changes Aug 14, 2025

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zimeg commented Aug 20, 2025

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zimeg mentioned this pull request Aug 21, 2025

feat: remove deno from installation scripts #189

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zimeg modified the milestones: v3.6.1, Next Release Aug 22, 2025

mwbrooks approved these changes Sep 3, 2025

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chore: merge w main

7ba0e4f

Co-authored-by: lukegalbraithrussell <31357343+lukegalbraithrussell@users.noreply.github.com>

zimeg commented Sep 5, 2025

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docs/guides/installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux.md

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📚 Preview

chore: merge w main

e98d787

zimeg and others added 3 commits September 5, 2025 11:22

docs: emphasize commands required to add cli to shell path

aa4a27d

Co-authored-by: Michael Brooks <mbrooks@slack-corp.com>

docs: use lowercase for dropdown titles

003514a

revert: return a newline after introduction

025a4df

zimeg merged commit 4f4d779 into main Sep 5, 2025
6 checks passed

zimeg deleted the zimeg-feat-install-local-bin branch September 5, 2025 18:52

zimeg mentioned this pull request Sep 9, 2025

test(ci): run the installation tests on circleci #225

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2 tasks

		delay 0.1 "📠 Removing packaged download files from $(home_path "$slack_cli_install_dir/slack-cli.tar.gz")"
		rm "$slack_cli_install_dir/slack-cli.tar.gz"

	<summary>Optional: Customize installation using flags</summary>
	<summary>Optional: customize installation using flags</summary>

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zimeg commented Aug 12, 2025 •

edited by mwbrooks

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