ksamuel
commented
2 months ago Ok, I made some experiments, but there is a blocker: on some linux distros, including Ubuntu, you might get errors relating to run-detectors due to binfmt_misc registrations.
Now each user can fix that by adding an additional registration for the APE file format but it requires an incantation of 4 arcanes commands, which, while easy to just copy-paste, are not an improvement compared to curl installation. Especially since it would be more trivial to just tell people:
- download the script
- chmox +x
- sh it
If they don't have curl.
So I don't think that's a good solution.
I'm closing this, you have enough tickets as it is.
Being easy to install is key for uv usage to spread.
The installation story is simple, yet still have a few gotchas:
While this will not trip a developer, it will likely at the very least slow down a student or a biologist.
Having an .exe for windows, a dev/rpm for linux and a dmg for Mac would be ideal, but a lot of work. Maybe there is an alternative.
In the last few years, Justine Tunney made APE (https://justine.lol/ape.html), a format that creates an executable that works universally on Windows, Mac and Linux.
It could be worth exploring to provide a single executable as an installer for all major platforms.
It's not guaranteed that it would be the perfect streamlined solution, as it could come with other challenges such as signing and security policies. Indeed, scripts have less restrictions than executable on most platforms.
What's more, because the rust story for API is incomplete (https://github.com/ahgamut/rust-ape-example), that would mean writing it in C, which I understand can be a big blocker.
This is not a feature request as much as it is way to open the discussion around that topic.