A cross-platform package manager for the web!

Add, remove, and manage different versions of web-distributed software binaries. No elevated permissions required!

Package recipes are located in the webman-pkgs repo. Recipes are simple YAML files that make it easy to submit a new package. Webman locates version numbers online and installs packages from the web, so you'll always have the most up-to-date software available!

Windows (Powershell), Linux, and MacOS are supported!

Install webman by running the following command in MacOS, Linux, or Git Bash for Windows :

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/candrewlee14/webman/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

NOTE: Never blindly run a shell script from the internet. Please check the source shell file scripts/install.sh Alternatively, download the latest release manually.

Philosophy

I wanted a cross-platform package manager like webi with no dependencies, a nice CLI, and a simple package configuration format. I wanted a generalized version of nvm, nvm-windows, and gvm for easily switching between package versions. I wanted an easy way to install groups of packages, like the tools in modern-unix.

That's why I built webman.

All of webman's resources are located in ~/.webman. The only directory that needs to go on your system PATH is ~/.webman/bin. Simply remove the ~/.webman directory and all of webman's packages and resources will be removed.

Security is an important priority to me here. Package recipes cannot specify commands to be run, only endpoints to access. Everything is implemented in Go.

Examples

Below are examples of adding, removing, and switching with webman.

Add Software

webman add go will install the latest version of Go.

webman add zig@0.9.1 will install a specific version (0.9.1) of Zig.

webman add rg lsd zig node go rg@12.0.0 will install each of the package versions listed.

webman group add modern-unix will allow checkbox selections for adding packages in the modern-unix group.

Run Software

webman run go will run the in-use version of Go (if installed).

webman run zig@0.9.1 --version will run a specific version (0.9.1) of Zig with the argument --version.

webman run node:npm --version will run npm --version using the in-use version of node.

Remove Software

webman remove go will allow you to select an installed version of the Go package to uninstall/

webman group remove modern-unix will allow checkbox selections for removing packages in the modern-unix group.

Switch to Other Versions of Software

webman switch go will allow you to select an installed version of the go package to switch to use. If rg --version previously showed 13.0.0, try running webman switch rg and selecting version 12.0.0 (after it has been installed). Running rg --version again will say 12.0.0.

Webman does version management.

Check Packages & Test Locally

You can create new package recipes by adding a simple [PKG_NAME].yaml file in a cloned webman-pkgs directory. Check if it is in a valid format with webman check [WEBMAN-PKGS-DIR].

Next, you can test installing your local recipes with the --local-recipes flag on the add command, like webman add [PKG_NAME] -l [WEBMAN-PKGS-DIR].

The package recipe format was built around making it easy to contribute new packages to webman, so if you're missing a package, go ahead and create it!

Setup

Run the script above or download the binary for your OS and architecture here.

Alternatively, if you have Go installed, run:

git clone https://github.com/candrewlee14/webman.git
cd webman
go install .

Next, add ~/.webman/bin to your system PATH. If you are on Windows, use %USERPROFILE% instead of ~.

Now you're ready to use webman! Hope you enjoy :)

Updating

You can update webman at any time using webman add webman --switch.

jolheiser/webman