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https://github.com/dom96/choosenim

Tool for easily installing and managing multiple versions of the Nim programming language.
https://github.com/dom96/choosenim

hacktoberfest installer nim toolchains

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Tool for easily installing and managing multiple versions of the Nim programming language.

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/dom96/choosenim
Owner: dom96
License: bsd-3-clause
Created: 2017-02-15T20:43:58.000Z (over 7 years ago)
Default Branch: master
Last Pushed: 2024-04-03T18:41:11.000Z (6 months ago)
Last Synced: 2024-05-12T10:35:13.837Z (4 months ago)
Topics: hacktoberfest, installer, nim, toolchains
Language: Nim
Homepage:
Size: 285 KB
Stars: 674
Watchers: 19
Forks: 67
Open Issues: 61
Metadata Files:
- Readme: readme.md
- Changelog: changelog.markdown
- License: LICENSE

Awesome Lists containing this project

awesome-nim - ChooseNim - Installing and switching between Nim versions (à la rustup, pyenv). (Development Tools / Build Systems / Package Management)

README

# choosenim

choosenim installs the [Nim programming language](https://nim-lang.org) from
official downloads and sources, enabling you to easily switch between stable
and development compilers.

The aim of this tool is two-fold:

* Provide an easy way to install the Nim compiler and tools.
* Manage multiple Nim installations and allow them to be selected on-demand.

## Typical usage

To select the current `stable` release of Nim:

```bash
$ choosenim stable
Installed component 'nim'
Installed component 'nimble'
Installed component 'nimgrep'
Installed component 'nimpretty'
Installed component 'nimsuggest'
Installed component 'testament'
Switched to Nim 1.0.0
$ nim -v
Nim Compiler Version 1.0.0 [Linux: amd64]
```

To update to the latest `stable` release of Nim:

```bash
$ choosenim update stable
```

To display which versions are currently installed:

```bash
$ choosenim show
Selected: 1.6.6
Channel: stable
Path: /home/dom/.choosenim/toolchains/nim-1.6.6

Versions:
#devel
* 1.6.6
1.0.0
#v1.0.0
```

Versions can be selected via `choosenim 1.6.6` or by branch/tag name via `choosenim #devel` (note that selecting branches is likely to require Nim to be bootstrapped which may be slow).

## Installation

### Windows

Download the latest Windows version from the
[releases](https://github.com/dom96/choosenim/releases) page (the .zip file, for example here is [``v0.7.4``](https://github.com/dom96/choosenim/releases/download/v0.7.4/choosenim-0.7.4_windows_amd64.zip)).

Extract the zip archive and run the ``runme.bat`` script. Follow any on screen
prompts and enjoy your new Nim and choosenim installation.

----

There is also a third-party project to provide an installer for choosenim,
you can find it [here](https://gitlab.com/ArMour85/choosenim-setup) (note that
this isn't vetted by the Nim team so you do so at your own risk).

### Unix

```
curl https://nim-lang.org/choosenim/init.sh -sSf | sh
```
```
wget -qO - https://nim-lang.org/choosenim/init.sh | sh
```

**Optional:** You can specify the initial version you would like the `init.sh`
script to install by specifying the ``CHOOSENIM_CHOOSE_VERSION``
environment variable.

## How choosenim works

Similar to the likes of ``rustup`` and ``pyenv``, ``choosenim`` is a
_toolchain multiplexer_. It installs and manages multiple Nim toolchains and
presents them all through a single set of tools installed in ``~/.nimble/bin``.

The ``nim``, ``nimble`` and other tools installed in ``~/.nimble/bin`` are
proxies that delegate to the real toolchain. ``choosenim`` then allows you
to change the active toolchain by reconfiguring the behaviour of the proxies.

The toolchains themselves are installed into ``~/.choosenim/toolchains``. For
example running ``nim`` will execute the proxy in ``~/.nimble/bin/nim``, which
in turn will run the compiler in ``~/.choosenim/toolchains/nim-1.0.0/bin/nim``,
assuming that 1.0.0 was selected.

### How toolchains are installed

``choosenim`` downloads and installs the official release
[binaries](https://nim-lang.org/install.html) on Windows and Linux. On other
platforms, the official source [release](https://nim-lang.org/install_unix.html)
is downloaded and built. This operation is only performed once when a new
version is selected.

As official binaries are made available for more platforms, ``choosenim`` will
install them accordingly.

## Dependencies

| | Windows | Linux | macOS (*) |
|------------|:-----------------------------:|:-----------------------:|:---------------------:|
| C compiler | *Downloaded automatically* | gcc/clang | gcc/clang |
| OpenSSL | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| curl | N/A | Any recent version (※) | Any recent version |

\* Many macOS dependencies should already be installed. You may need to install
a C compiler however. More information on dependencies is available
[here](https://nim-lang.org/install_unix.html).

※ Some users needed to install `libcurl4-gnutls-dev` (see [here](https://github.com/dom96/choosenim/issues/303))

Git is required when installing #HEAD or a specific commit of Nim. The `unxz`
binary is optional but will allow choosenim to download the smallest tarballs.

## Usage

```
> choosenim -h
choosenim: The Nim toolchain installer.

Choose a job. Choose a mortgage. Choose life. Choose Nim.

Usage:
choosenim

Example:
choosenim 1.0.0
Installs (if necessary) and selects version 0.16.0 of Nim.
choosenim stable
Installs (if necessary) Nim from the stable channel (latest stable release)
and then selects it.
choosenim #head
Installs (if necessary) and selects the latest current commit of Nim.
Warning: Your shell may need quotes around `#head`: choosenim "#head".
choosenim ~/projects/nim
Selects the specified Nim installation.
choosenim update stable
Updates the version installed on the stable release channel.
choosenim versions [--installed]
Lists the available versions of Nim that choosenim has access to.

Channels:
stable
Describes the latest stable release of Nim.
devel
Describes the latest development (or nightly) release of Nim taken from
the devel branch.

Commands:
update Installs the latest release of the specified
version or channel.
show Displays the selected version and channel.
show path Prints only the path of the current Nim version.
update self Updates choosenim itself.
versions [--installed] Lists available versions of Nim, passing
`--installed` only displays versions that
are installed locally (no network requests).

Options:
-h --help Show this output.
-y --yes Agree to every question.
--version Show version.
--verbose Show low (and higher) priority output.
--debug Show debug (and higher) priority output.
--noColor Don't colorise output.

--choosenimDir: Specify the directory where toolchains should be
installed. Default: ~/.choosenim.
--nimbleDir: Specify the Nimble directory where binaries will be
placed. Default: ~/.nimble.
--firstInstall Used by install script.
```

## Analytics

Check out the
[analytics](https://github.com/dom96/choosenim/blob/master/analytics.md)
document for details.

## License

MIT