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GitHub - devmatteini/dra: A command line tool to download release assets from GitHub

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A command line tool to download release assets from GitHub.

Why should I use dra? • Installation • Usage • Contributing • License

dra demo

Why should I use dra?

You can do everything dra does with the official GitHub cli.

dra helps you download release assets more easily:

Installation

dra is available on Linux (x86_64, armv6, arm64), macOS (x86_64, arm64) and Windows.

Prebuilt binaries

Download the prebuilt versions of dra for all supported platforms from the latest release.

You can use this bash script to automatically download the latest release across all supported platforms. Replace <DESTINATION> with the path where you want to place dra (e.g ~/.local/bin). If you omit --to option, the default value is the current working directory.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devmatteini/dra/refs/heads/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --to <DESTINATION>

Debian-based distributions

Download the latest .deb package from the release page and install it via:

sudo dpkg -i dra_x.y.z_amd64.deb # adapt version number

Arch Linux

dra can be installed from the community repository:

macOS/Linux with Homebrew

dra can be installed from Homebrew:

From source

git clone https://github.com/devmatteini/dra && cd dra
make release
./target/release/dra --version

Update dra

The method to update dra depends on how you initially installed it.

If you used a package manager (e.g Homebrew or pacman), use the corresponding package manager commands to update dra.

If you downloaded a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases, you have two options:

Option 1: Use dra to update itself

  • Linux (Note that you can't replace a binary while it's executing) 
    dra download -a -i -o dra-new devmatteini/dra && mv dra-new /path/to/dra
  • macOS 
    dra download -a -i -o /path/to/dra devmatteini/dra
  • Windows (Note that you can't replace a binary while it's executing) 
    dra download -a -i -o dra-new.exe devmatteini/dra && mv dra-new.exe /path/to/dra.exe

Option 2: Use the automated bash script

Follow the installation instructions on how to use the automated bash script

Usage

Interactive download

Manually select and download an asset from a repository

dra download devmatteini/dra-tests

Non-Interactive download

This mode is useful to be used in automated scripts.

There are two modes to download assets: automatic and selection.

Automatic

Automatically select and download an asset based on your operating system and architecture

# you can use -a or --automatic
dra download -a devmatteini/dra-tests

Important

Since there is no naming convention for release assets, be aware that this mode may fail if no asset matches your system based on dra rules for recognizing an asset.

Selection

Select and download the first asset that matches a given pattern

dra download --select <PATTERN> devmatteini/dra-tests

You can pass one of the following patterns:

Literal

The exact name of the asset.

dra download --select helloworld.tar.gz devmatteini/dra-tests

Untagged

A version-free pattern of your asset. Most of the time, this is the pattern you will use.

It's useful when release assets contain the release tag in their name, and you want a stable pattern to download across different releases.

First, you need to generate an untagged asset name:

dra untag devmatteini/dra-tests
# Output: helloworld_{tag}.tar.gz

Copy the output and run:

dra download --select "helloworld_{tag}.tar.gz" devmatteini/dra-tests

Wildcard

A wildcard pattern, using * and/or ? special characters.

It's useful when release assets contain sections that change for each release (e.g. a build number or timestamp).

dra download --select 'helloworld*_amd64.deb' devmatteini/dra-tests

Download options

All dra-download options works with both interactive and non-interactive modes.

Select and download an asset to custom path

dra download --output /tmp/dra-example devmatteini/dra-tests

# or save to custom directory path
dra download --output ~/Downloads devmatteini/dra-tests

Select and download an asset from a specific release

dra download --tag 0.1.1 devmatteini/dra-tests

Select and download source code archives

dra download devmatteini/dra-tests
Release tag is 0.1.5
? Pick the asset to download ›
  helloworld_0.1.5.tar.gz
❯ Source code (tar.gz)
  Source code (zip)

Install assets

Download and install an asset (on both interactive and non-interactive modes)

dra download --install devmatteini/dra-tests

Supported assets that can be installed are:

  • Debian packages (requires elevated privileges)
  • RPM packages (requires elevated privileges)
  • Tar archives with executable(s)
  • Zip files with executable(s)
  • 7-Zip files with executable(s) (requires 7z cli to be installed and in your PATH)
  • Compressed executable files
  • Executable files
  • AppImage files

You can use -I/--install-file <INSTALL_FILE> option when a tar/zip archive contains many executables or when dra can't automatically detect which one to install:

dra download -s helloworld-many-executables-unix.tar.gz -I helloworld-v2 devmatteini/dra-tests

You can also specify this option multiple times to install multiples executables

dra download -s helloworld-many-executables-unix.tar.gz -I helloworld-v2 -I random-script devmatteini/dra-tests

Authentication

In order to download assets from private repositories and avoid rate limit issues (60 requests per hour is the default for unauthenticated users), dra must make authenticated requests to GitHub.

You can create a personal access token and then export one of the following environment variables:

  1. DRA_GITHUB_TOKEN
  2. GITHUB_TOKEN
  3. GH_TOKEN

If none of the above environment variables are set, the GitHub cli token (if available) will be used as default value. You need to install GitHub cli and then run gh auth login.

Disable authentication

If you would like to disable GitHub authentication, you can export the environment variable DRA_DISABLE_GITHUB_AUTHENTICATION=true

Shell completion

Generate shell completion

dra completion bash > dra-completion
source dra-completion

See all supported shell with dra completion -h

Examples

Install an executable from a tar archive

dra download -s helloworld.tar.gz -i devmatteini/dra-tests
./helloworld

Install and move the executable to a custom directory

dra download -a -i -o ~/.local/bin/ devmatteini/dra-tests
~/.local/bin/helloworld

Install an executable file

dra download -s helloworld-unix -i devmatteini/dra-tests
./helloworld-unix

Install an executable from a compressed file

dra download -s helloworld-compressed-unix.bz2 -i devmatteini/dra-tests
./helloworld-compressed-unix

Install and rename the executable (useful when downloading an executable or compressed file)

dra download -s helloworld-unix -i -o helloworld devmatteini/dra-tests
./helloworld

Install a specific executable when many are available

dra download -s helloworld-many-executables-unix.tar.gz -I helloworld-v2 devmatteini/dra-tests
./helloworld-v2

Install multiple executables from a tar/zip archive

dra download -s helloworld-many-executables-unix.tar.gz -I helloworld-v2 -I random-script devmatteini/dra-tests
./helloworld-v2
./random-script

For more information on args/flags/options/commands run:

dra --help
dra <command> --help

Contributing

Take a look at the CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines.

Found a Bug?

If you find a bug in the source code, you can help us by submitting an issue to our GitHub Repository. Even better, you can submit a Pull Request with a fix.

Missing a Feature?

You can request a new feature by submitting a discussion to our GitHub Repository. If you would like to implement a new feature, please consider the size of the change and reach out to better coordinate our efforts and prevent duplication of work.

License

dra is made available under the terms of the MIT License.

See the LICENSE file for license details.