Provide devenv binary install for other package managers

[pksunkara]

In some setups, we would want to install devenv directly from existing package managers. Therefore, please support:

• https://aur.archlinux.org (devenv, devenv-bin)
• https://brew.sh (it allows distributing binary)

Especially a binary install would be very helpful to quickly get started.

[domenkozar]

Could you open package requests in repos?

[pksunkara]

Could you open package requests in repos?

I am sorry, what do you mean by that?

[thenonameguy]

@pksunkara this doesn't make much sense as the devenv binary has a runtime dependency on the presence on the Nix package manager. You will always to have to install Nix as well, at which point you might as well use it for getting the binary.

[pksunkara]

@thenonameguy Your argument is talking about extremes. Please don't force people, especially programmers.

1. In some CI setups, you will have to configure your bin paths to point to nix profile before using devenv. We should allow people to skip that step by supporting this.
2. What about the people who want to use devenv for projects but do not want to completely move their entire system over to the Nix ecosystem? They would still want to install their system tools using their preferred package managers.

IMHO, adding this support is not costly and is a good middle ground to allow the end users a variety of options.

FWIW, https://www.jetify.com/devbox support this.

[thenonameguy]

The Devbox binary supports installing Nix when invoked. Devenv does not have this feature at the moment. If it gets added, then we could achieve feature parity and complete this task, which I support by the way :)

Adding devenv to package managers as-is would just lead to users getting nix not found on $PATH errors, which goes against the original intent of providing a seamless experience for users who are not familiar with the Nix ecosystem.

[pksunkara]

Adding devenv to package managers as-is would just lead to users getting nix not found on $PATH errors

• In aur, the package should depend on arch linux's nix.
• In homebrew, the install step can check for nix and fail to install if not present.

This kind of issue is already solved in package managers.

[pksunkara]

Could you open package requests in repos?

@domenkozar Can I please get more information on what you mean by this?