mindl

mindl

mindl is a no-dependency downloader for release artifacts like pre-built binaries.

Usage

mindl is intended to be used as a Go tool dependency to bootstrap development tools without a lot of boilerplate or requiring additional tools.

Add it as a tool dependency:

go get -tool codeberg.org/ntnn/mindl@latest

Then use it e.g. in a Makefile:

GOLANGCI_LINT_VER := 2.10.0
GOLANGCI_LINT := hack/tools/golangci-lint-$(GOLANGCI_LINT_VER)

$(GOLANGCI_LINT):
	mkdir -p hack/tools
	go tool codeberg.org/ntnn/mindl download -common -out $@ \
		-url 'https://github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/releases/download/v{{.Version}}/golangci-lint-{{.Version}}-{{.OS}}-{{.Arch}}.{{.OSArchive}}' \
		-inarchive 'golangci-lint-{{.Version}}-{{.OS}}-{{.Arch}}/golangci-lint{{.Exe}}' \
		-version $(GOLANGCI_LINT_VER)

lint: $(GOLANGCI_LINT)
	$(GOLANGCI_LINT) run ./...

mindl uses a sum file mindl.sum to track the hash of the used binaries.

To update these hashes run the tool with MINDL_UPDATE=true, e.g.:

make lint MINDL_UPDATE=true

This will download the tool and write the hashes to mindl.sum - this file is meant to be tracked in version control. The -common flag for the download subcommand lets mindl automatically add hashes for common OS/arch combinations.

The full list of these is recorded in mindl.CommonTargets.

To update simply update the version of the tool being used and rerun the command with MINDL_UPDATE=true. mindl will automatically update all OS/arch combinations for this tool registered in the sum file.

-tool

mindl also records the URL and InArchive templates of commonly used tools. The full list of these tools is available in mindl.CommonTools.

When passed to the download subcommand as the -tool flag both -url and -inarchive default to these values, but can still be overriden if specified.

GOLANGCI_LINT_VER := 2.10.0
GOLANGCI_LINT := hack/tools/golangci-lint-$(GOLANGCI_LINT_VER)

$(GOLANGCI_LINT):
	mkdir -p hack/tools
	go run codeberg.org/ntnn/mindl download -tool golangci-lint -common -out $@ -version $(GOLANGCI_LINT_VER)

lint: $(GOLANGCI_LINT)
	$(GOLANGCI_LINT) run ./...

updating

To update just update the version passed to mindl and run the with MINDL_UPDATE=true. This will automatically update all previously recorded OS/arch combinations for the new version.

GOLANGCI_LINT_VER := 2.10.1 # from 2.10.0 to 20.10.1
GOLANGCI_LINT := hack/tools/golangci-lint-$(GOLANGCI_LINT_VER)

$(GOLANGCI_LINT):
	mkdir -p hack/tools
	go run codeberg.org/ntnn/mindl download -tool golangci-lint -common -out $@ -version $(GOLANGCI_LINT_VER)

lint: $(GOLANGCI_LINT)
	$(GOLANGCI_LINT) run ./...

make lint MINDL_UPDATE=true

mindl.sum

mindl.sum is a CSV file that stores the SHA-512 hash for each URL, in-archive path, OS and architecture combination. Similarly to go.sum and similar files it is intended be committed to version control. mindl verifies future downloads against the hashes recorded in this file.

Commands

download

For the targets added with -common check mindl.CommonTargets. For the tools available for -tool check mindl.CommonTools.

Templating

-url and -inarchive are templated. The templates get mindl.TemplateData as context. Additionally convenience functions from mindl.FuncMap are available in the templates.

Downloading for specific OS/Arch

When updating the hash for a specific OS/Arch combination the OS and Arch can be overridden by setting MINDL_OS and MINDL_ARCH to the desired values.

Similar projects

There are several similar projects that inspired writing this one:

• uget
• aqua
• bin
• bingo

My goal was to be able to use pre-built binaries from release artifacts with a tool that needs no big setup on the client side.

By mindl only using stdlib it can easily be used as go tool without polluting the dependencies and doesn't incur a maintenance debt (until the libs used from stdlib are deprecated).