installable binaries for Windows and macOS

[jans23]

I believe it would be convenient for users who don't want to compile the sources themselves, to provide pre-compiled binaries in the form of an installable software package. Would you be interested in distributing such? I assume it would require an appropriate packaging, perhaps an installation wizard. If you could prepare such, we (Nitrokey UG) would be happy to sign the packages with our software signature certificate.

[robinkrahl]

My opinion is that we encourage people to package nitrocli and that we are happy to assist in any possible way, but we can only directly support platforms we have access to – in my case, Arch Linux and Debian.

For macOS, I think using Homebrew would be the best approach. As far as I know, they distribute both sources and binaries. We just need a macOS user who wants to maintain the Homebrew formula.

For Windows, we would first have to test whether nitrocli even works (hidapi issues, finding gpg-connect-agent, etc.). Also, do you think there are Windows users who’d prefer nitrocli over nitrokey-app?

[d-e-s-o]

I can only second what Robin already mentioned. I have neither access to a Windows nor a macOS system, making maintenance of a binary package for those platforms fairly hard; not even speaking of an installer. I would hope that if the need is big enough then someone may step up to take this part on :)

[jans23]

I think sooner or later there will be some Windows users who prefer nitrocli over GUI. I see your point. So let's wait until such demand emerges and perhaps a maintainer too.