chore: Release the binary to the package manager for different Platform​

[Zheaoli]

Description

For now, We release the binary file by using the GitHub release page. And the people may need to download the binary manually.

So I propose here to release the binary file to the package manager for different platform.

The following is the design detail

Pre Step

• Release the checksum file with the binary (Done after chore: add sha512sum for the released files #5242)
• Publish the gpg key which is used by signing the package

Release Interval

We will release two different binary

1. Stable release
2. Daily Nightly release automatically.

Platform release

MacOS

The arch we will release binary for are

1. x86_64
2. Apple Silicon

Or maybe we can release a universal binary?

We will choose the homebrew as our target package manager.

We may need to maintain a tap repo on our own, like https://github.com/wez/homebrew-wezterm. So we just need to patch the version and checksum field in the file in the release workflow and commit it. All the processes would be automatic.

Linux

Linux release is a little bit different. There are too many distributions, so we need to decide to choose the distribution we will take care of. I think the following distribution would be great.

1. Ubuntu
2. Arch Linux based.

The arch we will release binary for are:

1. X86_64
2. aarch64?(not sure about it)

For ubuntu, the electron has supported the official Snapcraft release plugin. FYI: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/snapcraft , I will investigate it if it works or not

For Arch Linux, we need to maintain a git repo like https://github.com/Zheaoli/linux-xanmod-manjusaka.So we just need to patch the version and checksum field in the file in the release workflow, commit it, and push it to the aur repo. All the processes would be automatic.

I think the package name should be:

1. affine-official
2. affine-nightly-official

Windows

I'm not sure we need to support windows package manager.

Use case

No response

Anything else?

No response

Are you willing to submit a PR?

• Yes I'd like to help by submitting a PR!

[Zheaoli]

@Brooooooklyn Would mind taking a look at this proposal when you get time?

We can discuss about the detail in the issue

[STRRL]

I used affine beta with Appimage on linux, basically it works well.

[SteveLauC]

For Linux, I recommend releasing it to FlatHub

[Brooooooklyn]

We have Homebrew cask for our stable version, so I think we only need to consider the Linux distibutions https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/affine

[Pkcarreno]

On Windows exist Chocolatey and Scoop

I'm familiar with Scoop, this project meets the criteria to be accepted on the extra bucket (buckets are repos with apps, and the extra bucket is for GUI apps). I can make a manifest and then add a PR to Scoop's extra repo so Affine can be on Scoop

[Pkcarreno]

Sorry for the delay
I have some updates:

There is already a PR for Affine in the Scoop Extras repo, but this one was for version 0.7.2 and that one installed Affine from the .zip file.... Well, that .zip file no longer exists since version 0.7.3.

This "new" installer has a strange behavior (for me) in the installation. normally what scoop does is to take a portable version of an app or the executable and place it inside the scoop directory, this way scoop can manipulate the app (to update or remove it, etc...) but I don't know how to adapt this installer to what scoop expects.

It reminds me of the chrome installer (somehow) so I checked the chrome manifest in scoop (the file with the installation steps) and discovered that using an argument it is possible to manipulate the behavior of the installer, in this case to place the app data inside the scoop directory. Does the Affine installer have some arguments to manipulate the data? or where can I learn about how the Affine installer works in order to understand the behavior to see what I can do?

[affine-issue-bot]

Issue Status: 🙋 Upvoting

🙋 Upvoting

We are currently evaluating demand for the issue and checking whether it requires complicated or risky changes. Please leave a vote or comment if you think it should be prioritized.

^{_{This is an automatic reply by the bot.}}

[aliesbelik]

Added to scoop's Extras bucket (ScoopInstaller/Extras#11734):

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install affine

[pengx17]

@aliesbelik thank you :)

[XotEmBotZ]

For linux I also do suggest flathub over any distribution specific packaging format.
This allows to allocate more resources in development of the project than maintaining different packaging format.

(For context I am currently replying you from a microsoft Edge which in available in flathub)

Also it would be beneficial to get a rough deadline on the release.
I noticed that there is a flatpak build already present. So in my understanding pushing that to flathub shouldn't be a huge issue.