Quick install of the btop binary

[tliron]

Here's an example for installing the latest version on Linux x86_64 (run as root):

VERSION=$(curl --silent https://api.github.com/repos/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest | grep '"tag_name":' | sed -E 's/.*"([^"]+)".*/\1/')
URL=https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/download/$VERSION/btop-${VERSION:1}-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz
wget "$URL" -O - | tar --extract --bzip2 --directory=/usr/bin --strip=1 bin/btop

Maybe it's worth putting something like this in the README?

[userdocs]

If the release did not have version information in the asset you could just do this and it would always get the latest release for that asset.

https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-aarch64-linux-musl.tbz

Currently it is like this - a working example but not latest release friendly since the version 1.1.2 is hardcoded to the URL.

https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-1.1.2-aarch64-linux-musl.tbz

I think this is the best and most modern way to do this

Using the api is ok but it has rate limits for unauthorised calls of 60 per IP hour. So not 100% Reliable in some settings.

Since you are setting a VERSION var then reusing the var i suggest you use git ls-remote and awk to refine the search since this is not limited by api quota.

git ls-remote -q -t --refs https://github.com/aristocratos/btop.git | awk '/v/{sub("refs/tags/", ""); print $2 }' | awk '!/^$/' | sort -rV | head -n 1

Giving

v1.1.2

[tliron]

Thanks, the ls-remote is a neat trick!

[aristocratos]

@tliron
I would not recommend installing this way since you're ignoring the included Makefile installer and only extracting the binary, consequently not getting any updates to the themes or documentation (or future included files). And if installing first time you would not have any themes or documentation at all.

[tliron]

Well then, a better installation script is in order until RPM/DEB/etc. packaging is available.

[aristocratos]

Thank you for sharing your ideas, I'm sure the code snippet you shared will come to use for people who for example want to set up their own btop update script.

There will eventually be more distro packages and from indications I've gotten, for debian and ubuntu at least. But wanna make sure btop is without a doubt stable before I encourage distribution packagers for big distros that won't be that fast in updating the releases.

[userdocs]

@aristocratos I do think that providing release assets without version information in them will provide a consistent and easy method to get the latest archive that uses a github built in feature. This is how I do it and I will always get the latest release.

wget https://github.com/userdocs/btop-crossbuilds/releases/latest/download/x86_64-linux-musl.tar.gz

By having version Info hardcoded into the archive name it is not taking advantage if the latest release URL redirection Github does.

So I still think this part of my comment is a valid idea that works for both parties.

[userdocs]

And just to provide an example in action, this is what it looked like for me to update my installation using my repo.

note: in the example my archive structure is different to yours so the unpack command is relevant to demonstrate the example but it's not required that you also change your archive structure as part of the URL format change.

btop -v
btop version: 1.1.1

wget -q "https://github.com/userdocs/btop-crossbuilds/releases/latest/download/x86_64-linux-musl.tar.gz" -O ~/btop.tar.gz
tar xf "btop.tar.gz" --strip-components=1 -C ~/

btop -v
btop version: 1.1.2

[aristocratos]

@userdocs
Sure, I see no issue in removing the version number from the release files. Will make the changes to my release script and next release will be in the format of btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz.

[userdocs]

I'll try this again,

We can now do this

Extract relative to where we are in the shell

wget -q -O- "https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz" | tar -xjf -

Extract to a pre existing path.

wget -q -O- "https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz" | tar -xjf - -C ~/some_dir

Extract a specific file and path from the archive and ignore the rest.

wget -q -O- "https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz" | tar -xjf - -C ~/some_dir bin/btop

[alexdelprete]

Sorry to bump this, I'm trying to integrate btop installation in my dotfiles config.

If I use

https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz

or

https://github.com/userdocs/btop-crossbuilds/releases/latest/download/x86_64-linux-musl.tar.gz

I always get v1.2.7, while latest is v1.2.9. Is there an URL that can provide the latest version?

Thanks for creating btop, @aristocratos. :)

[userdocs]

How are you determining the version?

If I do this

wget -q -O- "https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz" | tar -xjf - -C ~/
~/bin/btop --version

I will see:

btop version: 1.2.9

I guess if version is giving you the wrong result, you have 1.2.7 somewhere else in your path.

[aristocratos]

https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz gets me the latest version v1.2.9.

Sounds like an caching issue on your end. You got any custom caching settings setup for your system or network?

[alexdelprete]

Sorry @userdocs & @aristocratos, found the problem: on the system I was testing with, btop was installed some months ago through apt, and it's 1.2.7. :)

The url https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz is correct.

One question: for a full installation, the advice is to extract the archive and execute the install script, right? extracting only the binary I would lose some functionality if I understood correctly.

Thanks for the help.

[aristocratos]

Running the install script or make install would be recommended otherwise you wouldn't get potential theme updates. If you had previously set the SUID bit for btop (always starting with admin rights) you will also need to again run make setuid.

[alexdelprete]

Done, works beautifully and silently. Thanks a lot for the help. Love the interface, you made an amazing job.

echo "Installing/Upgrading btop++"
mkdir ./btopinst &> /dev/null
pushd ./btopinst &> /dev/null
wget -q https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz -O btop.tbz
tar -xjvf btop.tbz &>/dev/null
make -s install &>/dev/null
popd  &> /dev/null
rm -rf ./btopinst

[MatteoGauthier]

Another version of an installation script

mkdir -p btop-install/output
wget -qO - https://github.com/aristocratos/btop/releases/latest/download/btop-x86_64-linux-musl.tbz | tar -xj -C btop-install/output
(cd btop-install/output/btop && sudo make install && sudo make setuid)
rm -rf btop-install