git install

A custom git subcommand to install custom git subcommands

Installation

# After cloning this repo

gem build -o git-install.gem

# This is to prevent the executable from installing to a place not in the PATH,
# which git would then be unable to discover as a subcommand
gem install --no-user-install git-install.gem

Usage

Installing a Subcommand

Pass the clone URL to git install to install the subcommand.

git install https://repo-host.example.com/user/git-example-subcommand.git

By default this will attempt to install to /usr/local/bin/, which will likely require sudo. To install to a different location, set the environment variable GIT_INSTALL_PATH (make sure that path is also on PATH!).

Uninstalling a Subcommand

Pass the subcommand name to uninstall the subcommand.

git uninstall example-subcommand

Like git install, this subcommand can use the GIT_INSTALL_PATH environment variable.

How it Works

git-install will perform a shallow clone of the repository. It will then look for a file with the same name as the repository, and make a link of that file. git-release is an example of how an installable repository could look.

However, this only works when the subcommand is tracked in the repository. What if the subcommand needs to be built with make, or downloaded from another URL (like GitHub release assets)?

Planned Features

• Support a config file (potentially .git-config.yaml) that would allow setting custom build instructions and/or download URLs
• Support upgrading installed subcommands
  • git install upgrade to upgrade all
  • git install upgrade git-example-subcommand to upgrade specific one
  • git install self upgrade to upgrade self