• This repository provides the pkgx GitHub Action.
• It also hosts installer.sh; the result of curl pkgx.sh.

- uses: pkgxdev/setup@v4

Installs the latest version of pkgx.

See action.yml for all inputs and outputs, but here’s the usual ones:

- uses: pkgxdev/setup@v4
  with:
    +: deno@1.30
       rust@1.60   # we understand colloquial names, generally just type what you know
       clang       # versions aren’t necessary if you don’t care

The easiest way to know if it will work in the action is to try it locally on your computer:

$ pkgx +rust
# if there’s output, we got it

See @pkgxdev/dev to run the dev command in a GitHub Actions compatible manner

No. pkgx packages are just tarballs. Caching is just a tarball. You’ll likely just slow things down.

• v4 defaults to pkgx^2, uses node^20 and doesn’t install any pre-reqs on Linux†
• v3 defaults to pkgx^2 and uses node^20
• v2 defaults to pkgx^1 and uses node^20
• v1 defaults to pkgx@latest and uses node^16
• v0 should not be used

† pkgx requires glibc>=2.28, libgcc, libstdc++ and libatomic. Generally images come installed with these. If you are building binaries you may need the -dev versions of these packages also.

To install pkgx:

$ curl https://pkgx.sh | sh

# - installs `pkgx` & `pkgm` to `/usr/local/bin`
# - if both are already installed, does an update check

Or on Windows:

$ irm https://pkgx.sh | iex
# - installs `pkgx.exe` to `$env:ProgramFiles/pkgx`
# - adds it to your system PATH

To use pkgx to run a command in a temporary sandbox:

$ curl -Ssf https://pkgx.sh | sh -s -- gum spin -- sleep 5

# - if pkgx is installed, uses that installation to run gum
# - if pkgx *isn’t* installed, downloads pkgx to a temporary location
# - if pkgx *isn’t* installed, packages are also cached to a temporary location

This usage of our installer can be useful for demonstrative purposes in READMEs and gists.

This syntax is easier to remember:

sh <(curl -L pkgx.sh) gum spin -- sleep 5

There is the notable caveat that the above easier syntax will not work with bash <4 which is the bash that comes with macOS. Even though macOS has defaulted to zsh for years it is still relatively easy for users to end up in a situation where bash is the shell interpreting your commands. Your call.

Additionally, use of -L is subject to man-in-the-middle attacks. Again your call.