Archer

Archer is a framework for managing developing environment setup scripts.

Install

cd /path/to/archer
bash install.bash /path/to/install # eg. /usr/local

`.archer.d` directory structure

While invoking archer. It will load user settings init.bash that is contained in subdirectory .archer.d whin the context of current working directory.

- .archer.d
  - init.bash
  - layer
    - [maybe-subdir]
      - <layer>
        - layer.bash

A example init.bash

dotarcher_init() {
    if is_msys2
    then
        ARCHER_LAYER_PREFIX=/msys2
    elif is_ubuntu
    then
        ARCHER_LAYER_PREFIX=/ubuntu
    elif is_archlinux
    then
        ARCHER_LAYER_PREFIX=/archlinux
    else
        ARCHER_LAYER_PREFIX=/default
    fi
}

Layer concept

A configuration layer contains necessery instructions, steps, and commands to setup the environment and install configurations according to its role. Layer can depend on other layers, when layer is installed using command archer install <layer-reference-representation>..., the depencencies will be resolved and sorted, dependent layers will be installed first.

A directory is consider as layer, if following condition is met.

directory match regex / [a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9-+.]* /
directory has layer.bash, and with following functions defined

layer_metadata()
for loading variables, variables are listed below

LAYER_DEPENDENCIES
array variable for holding layer depencencies

layer_install()
for installing configration layer

layer_is_install()
for checking layer is installed or not

layer_help()
for help message of this layer

layer_run()
run this layer

A example app/spacemacs/layer.bash

layer_help() {
    echo "app/spacemacs"
}

layer_metadata() {
    LAYER_DEPENDENCIES=(
      app/git
    )
}

layer_is_installed() {
    test -f '~/.emacs.d/spacemacs.mk'
}

layer_install() {
    pushd ~
    git clone https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs .emacs.d
    popd
}

layer_run() {
    echo "hello"
}

Layer reference representation

Layer reference is used to specifiy which layer should be processed by archer. There are two kinds of representations.

Absolute reference representation

Absolute reference representation is string, and with first character being slash /, e.g. /absolute/ref/to/layer, is referenceing to the directory .archer.d/layer/absolute/ref/to/layer relative to current working directory.

Relative reference representation

Relative reference representation is string, and with first character not begin with slash /, e.g. relative/ref/to/layer, all relative-reference-representation will be transformed into absolute representation in the end, by prepend with the prefix ARCHER_LAYER_PREFIX, this variable can be customized in file .archer.d/init.bash in function dotarcher_init(), default value is /.

Example Usage

Given current working directory has valid ./.archer.d directory structure.

archer install app/spacemacs /ubuntu/app/git

cy20lin/archer