feat: automatically add ~/.fvm_flutter/bin to the PATH var in install.sh and introduce update.sh

[Nidal-Bakir]

This will fix: #699

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Name	Status	Preview	Comments	Updated (UTC)
fvm	✅ Ready (Inspect)	Visit Preview	💬 Add feedback	Jun 27, 2024 6:45pm

[SSebigo]

Is it good ? This is the only problem I have with FVM right now.

[Nidal-Bakir]

@SSebigo
Yes, you can use this updated script to install FVM on Linux.
This will probably not get merged now, so you can copy and paste the updated script to your machine, make it executable, and run it.

[leoafarias]

@Nidal-Bakir Sorry for the delay on this, but can we maybe move the directory to ~/.fvm/bin/fvm instead of local, and make both mac and linux consistent?

[vicenterusso]

That script did work for me, fresh fedora40 install

ln: failed to create symbolic link '/home/vicente/.local/bin/fvm': No such file or directory
error: Failed to create symlink.

There is no .local/bin/ yet. should the script handle this, maybe?

Edit: the script auto assumes that $HOME/.local/bin is already in PATH, which might not be true in a fresh linux install

After manually creating local/bin folder and adding it to the PATH, the script worked

[toddtail]

@SSebigo Yes, you can use this updated script to install FVM on Linux. This will probably not get merged now, so you can copy and paste the updated script to your machine, make it executable, and run it.

The Script worked for me but still got 2 things needs to be done manually:

1. create bin folder in ~/.local
2. add export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin/" to .bashrc file

[Nidal-Bakir]

@leoafarias

can we maybe move the directory to ~/.fvm/bin/fvm instead of local, and make both mac and linux consistent?

I cannot speak for the Mac because I do not have a Mac, and I do not know if Mac has a ./local/bin folder or if this folder is a standard thing in the Mac world. The ./local/bin is a conventional thing in the Linux world, and it is fair to assume that the developer who is bashing a script of the internet already has ./local/bin in his PATH variable.

Nonetheless, we can add some extra comments to note that the ./local/bin needs to be in the PATH variable, and you need to create such a folder if none exists.

[vicenterusso]

it is fair to assume that the developer who is bashing a script of the internet already has ./local/bin in his PATH variable.

Lets agree to disagree. You are correct. Most users should already have ./local/bin in his PATH variable. In my specific case, FVM was my first install after a fresh fedora install. I quickly fixed adding to the PATH and creating the ./local/bin folder.

But it shouldn't hurt having these small checks inside the script, makes it more reliable.

[Nidal-Bakir]

We can make the script create the ./local/bin folder mkdir -p $HOME/local/bin, but how can we add the PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin/ to .bashrc or .zshrc ... ETC. I'm not aware of a solution for that :/

[vicenterusso]

We can make the script create the ./local/bin folder mkdir -p $HOME/local/bin, but how can we add the PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin/ to .bashrc or .zshrc ... ETC. I'm not aware of a solution for that :/

That's trivial to add to PATH but personally I would just echo the instructions to the user add manually

[Nidal-Bakir]

That's trivial to add to PATH but personally I would just echo the instructions to the user add manually

No, it's not trivial!

• We can not use echo in this situation we do not know where the .bashrc/.zshrc.... files are!
• Each time the user runs the script, the script will echo the instructions to the user .bashrc/.zshrc assuming we know the path of these files.

[Nidal-Bakir]

So as for now, it turns out that some distros do not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification

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.

We need to do the following:

1. Create the $HOME/.local/bin folder if it does not exist. We can easily do that using mkdir -p $HOME/.local/bin.
2. Instruct the user to add $HOME/.local/bin/ to their PATH variable if it does not already exist.

[vicenterusso]

That's trivial to add to PATH but personally I would just echo the instructions to the user add manually

No, it's not trivial!

• We can not use echo in this situation we do not know where the .bashrc/.zshrc.... files are!
• Each time the user runs the script, the script will echo the instructions to the user .bashrc/.zshrc assuming we know the path of these files.

Jesus, man. when I say "echo" I mean display it to terminal to the user add it manually. But yes, its trivial to automatically add to correct shell file and still check if ts already set.

[Nidal-Bakir]

Jesus, man. when I say "echo" I mean display it to terminal to the user add it manually. But yes, its trivial to automatically add to correct shell file and still check if ts already set.

Apologies for my mistake. I misinterpreted your comment. If you are confident about it, then please guide me in the right way.

[Nidal-Bakir]

So we have two options I think:

1. Instruct the user to add $HOME/.local/bin/ to their PATH variable if it does not already exist using echo as an output of running the script. And I would add this to the website also just to be more clear for all the users
2. if @vicenterusso has a script to add this to the user PATH var

[leoafarias]

@Nidal-Bakir When looking at similar .sh scripts to install, I found the use of .packagename over .local. For example, if you look at the install.sh for Bun on https://bun.sh, which you can find here: https://bun.sh/install, it seems the same behavior is for Mac and Linux and does use local.

Can you take a brief look at this, as it would be more straightforward to just set this?

[leoafarias]

@Nidal-Bakir, can you confirm my message above with the example from Bun? It seems they are not using local. I would prefer this approach if it works without manual intervention.

[Nidal-Bakir]

Hi @leoafarias sorry for the delay. I am currently only available during weekends (Friday for me) I will get this done by tomorrow.
I can make it seamless for the user.

Yes, the Bun team does not use the .local/bin convention. They are using the .packageName and adding it to the PATH var

[Nidal-Bakir]

@leoafarias

I appreciate your feedback and I believe everything is in good shape. However, I wanted to note one thing: I have added an update script. Users should use this update script to update FVM. Otherwise, the install script may repeatedly add the FVM bin path to the PATH variable. While this isn't harmful, it's not ideal.

There’s no way to be certain that FVM is fully added to the PATH, because we are checking the local PATH per the SHELL variable. This means that FVM might be in the PATH for zsh or fish, but not for bash. Since we are piping the script to bash, we can only see the PATH for the bash scope. This is why I have included the update.sh script.

[BriceCroix]

Hi. I encountered the same problem trying to install fvm on ubuntu. I can use the script provided in this PR, but is there any update about it ? Is there a reason not to merge it for now ?
Thanks !

[leoafarias]

I am bringing this in, but most likely will have to do a full review across all the platforms.