kinstall is an easy way to install gradle-based command-line kotlin projects that use the application plugin.

kinstall

kinstall is an easy way to install gradle-based command-line kotlin projects that use the application plugin.

use

First, install kinstall itself by doing gradle build run. This will create a symlink at ~/bin/kinstall.

Run kinstall in the root project folder of a project on which you've already run distTar (build runs it).

You can add and remove multiple versions of a project, and list the projects you have installed (the version in current use will be marked with an asterisk).

Here's the usage for the kinstall command:

Usage:
    kinstall [options]
    kinstall --version
    kinstall -h | --help

Options:
    -l --list                                   list installs
    -r 
   
     --remove=
    
        remove an install
    -u 
     
       --use=
      
             use a specific version of an install

      
     
    
   

what it does

kinstall looks for tar files in build/distributions and extracts them to ~/.kinstall/{project}/{version}. The current version of a project that's in use is symlinked to ~/.kinstall/{project}/_current. When making a particular version current, kinstall looks for scripts in ~/.kinstall/{project}/_current/bin and symlinks them to ~/bin. It reports the symlinks it creates.

It gets the project's name and version by capturing and parsing the output of gradle properties --console=plain -q.

what it doesn't do

• Handle parent/sub-project projects (it expects a single project).
• Make sure your build is current.
• Handle non-gradle ways of creating tarballs (it expects a tar file in build/distributions that has a bin subdirectory).
• Attempt to correct for any manual changes to the files/symlinks in ~/.kinstall or ~/bin.
• Handle maven projects.