Shell scripts as a package manager

October 30, 2020 One-minute read

Sometimes code is not available from package managers, just like in the stone age. Until those maintainers wake up to the basic modern programming practices of our glorious present, you can do this:

Create a scripts/sspm.sh file with the code from this repository:

https://gitlab.com/sdwolfz/sspm/-/blob/master/sspm.sh

Create a package specific file scripts/download/footool.sh and use one of those functions:

#!/usr/bin/env sh

set -ex

. ./scripts/sspm.sh

download_from_git                          \
  footool                                  \
  master                                   \
  6f6944bee215d391d7c80c529028003ba3b838da \
  https://gitlab.com/sdwolfz/footool.git

Create an equivalent build file scripts/build/footool.sh to compile it:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
set -ex

APPDIR="$PWD"/lib

cd vendor/footool

./autogen.sh
./configure \
  --prefix="$APPDIR" \
  --enable-bar=yes

make -j`nproc`
make install -j`nproc`

Create a Makefile for easy execution:

.DEFAULT_GOAL = all

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Package Management

.PHONY: all
all: download clean build

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Build

.PHONY: build
build: \
	build/footool

.PHONY: build/footool
build/footool:
	@sh scripts/build/footool.sh

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Clean

.PHONY: clean
clean: \
	clean/footool

.PHONY: clean/footool
clean/footool:
	@rm -f lib/footool

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Download

.PHONY: download
download: \
	download/footool

.PHONY: download/footool
download/footool:
	@sh scripts/download/footool.sh

Add as many other files and make goals as you want, each for every independent package you need.
Run it with make all and enjoy the benefits of the modern package manager you were forced to write yourself just now.