Getting/Installing bpt

bpt ships as a single statically linked executable. It does not have any installer or distribution package. It has no prerequesites or dependencies that need to be installed

Downloading

Downloads are available on the main bpt website as well as the GitHub Releases page. Select the executable appropriate for your platform.

Alternatively, the appropriate executable can be downloaded directly from the command-line with an easy-to-remember URL. Using curl:

# For Linux, writes a file in the working directory called "bpt"
curl dds.pizza/get/linux -Lo bpt

# For macOS, writes a file in the working directory called "bpt"
curl dds.pizza/get/macos -Lo bpt

Or using PowerShell:

# Writes a file in the working directory called "bpt.exe"
Invoke-WebRequest dds.pizza/get/windows -OutFile bpt.exe

Note

On Linux, macOS, or other Unix-like systems, you may need to mark the downloaded file as executable:

# Add the executable bit to the file mode for the file named "bpt"
chmod a+x bpt

Installing

Note that it is not necessary to “install” bpt before it can be used. bpt is a single standalone executable that can be executed in whatever directory it is placed. If you are running a CI process and need bpt, it is viable to simply download the executable and place it in your source tree and execute it from that directory.

However: If you want to be able to execute bpt with an unqualified command name from any shell interpreter, you will need to place bpt on a directory on your shell’s PATH environment variable.

Easy Mode: install-yourself

bpt includes a subcommand “install-yourself” (See: bpt install-yourself) that will move its own executable to a predetermined directory and ensure that it exists on your PATH environment variable. It is simple enough to run the command:

$ ./bpt install-yourself

This will copy the executable ./bpt into a user-local directory designated for containing user-local executable binaries. On Unix-like systems, this is ~/.local/bin, and on Windows this is %LocalAppData%/bin. bpt will also ensure that the destination directory is available on the PATH environment variable for your user profile.

Note

If bpt reports that is has modified your PATH, you will need to restart your command line and any other applications that wish to see bpt on your PATH.

Note

The install-yourself command accepts some other options. Pass --help for more information, or see here: bpt install-yourself

Manually: On Unix-like Systems

For an unprivileged, user-specific installation (preferred), it is recommended to place bpt in ~/.local/bin (Where ~ represents the $HOME directory of the current user).

Although not officially standardized, the XDG Base Directory specification recommends several related directories to live within ~/.local (and bpt itself follows those recommendations for the most part). The systemd file heirarchy also recommends placing user-local binaries in ~/.local/bin, and several Linux distribution’s shell packages add ~/.local/bin to the startup $PATH.

Placing a file in ~/.local/bin requires no privileges beyond what the current user can execute, and gives a good isolation to other users on the system. Other tools (e.g. pip) will also use ~/.local/bin for the installation of user-local scripts and commands.

Note

On some shells, ~/.local/bin is not an entry on $PATH by default. Check if your shell’s default $PATH environment variable contains .local/bin. If it does not, refer to your shell’s documentation on how to add this directory to the startup $PATH.

For a system-wide installation, place the downloaded bpt executable within the /usr/local/bin/ directory. This will be a directory on the PATH for any Unix-like system.

Warning

DO NOT place bpt in /usr/bin or /bin: These are reserved for your system’s package management utilities.

Manually: On Windows

Unlike Unix-like systems, Windows does not have a directory designated for user-installed binaries that lives on the PATH. If you have a directory that you use for custom binaries, simply place bpt.exe in that directory.

If you are unfamiliar with placing binaries and modifying your PATH, read on:

For an unprivileged, user-specific installation, bpt should be placed in a user-local directory, and that directory should be added to the user PATH.

To emulate what bpt install-yourself does, follow the following steps:

  1. Create a directory %LocalAppData%\bin\ if it does not exist.

    For cmd.exe

    md %LocalAppData%\bin

    Or for PowerShell:

    md $env:LocalAppData\bin

  2. Copy bpt.exe into the %LocalAppData%\bin directory.

  3. Go to the Start Menu, and run “Edit environment variables for your account”

  4. In the upper area, find and open the entry for the “Path” variable.

  5. Add an entry in “Path” for %LocalAppData%\bin.

  6. Confirm your edits.

  7. Restart any applications that require the modified environment, including command-lines.

If the above steps are performed successfully, you should be able to open a new command window and execute bpt --help to get the help output.