sofmani

sofmani stands for [Sof]tware [Mani]fest. It is a robust and flexible provisioning tool written in Go, designed to simplify software installations, configuration syncing, and system provisioning for both personal and work computers. With a single config file, sofmani automates locating, installing, or updating software and configurations, making system setup quick and reproducible.

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🚀 Features

• Install and provision software using a declarative YAML/JSON configuration.
• Multi-platform support: macOS, Linux, or Windows.
• Modular and extendable installer types: shell scripts, rsync, Homebrew taps, and more.
• Configurable platform-specific behaviors.
• Automatic software updates using custom logic.
• Group software installations into logical “steps” with sophisticated orchestration.

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🎯 Installation

Download Precompiled Binaries

Precompiled binaries for sofmani are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows:

• Visit the Releases Page to download the latest version for your platform.

Homebrew (macOS/Linux only)

Install from a custom tap:

brew install chenasraf/tap/sofmani

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Linux

You can install sofmani by downloading the release tar, and extracting it to your preferred location.

• You can see an example script for install here: install.sh

• The example script can be used for actual install, use this command to download and execute the file (use at your own discretion):

  curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chenasraf/sofmani/master/install.sh | sh

  To change the install location, provide an env variable $INSTALL_DIR to the script:

  # below is the default value, change as needed:
  curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chenasraf/sofmani/master/install.sh | INSTALL_DIR=~/.local/bin sh

✨ Getting Started

sofmani works based on a configuration file written in YAML or JSON. Below is an annotated example configuration to demonstrate most of its options.

debug: true # Global debug mode (optional).
check_updates: true # Enable update checking (optional).
defaults: # Define default behaviors for installer types.
  type:
    brew:
      platforms:
        only: ['macos'] # Only run this installer type on macOS.

install: # Declare installation steps:
  - name: nvim # Identifier for this step.
    type: rsync
    opts:
      source: ~/.dotfiles/.config/nvim/
      destination: ~/.config/nvim/
      flags: --delete --exclude .git --exclude .DS_Store

  - name: lazygit
    type: group # Logical group of steps.
    steps:
      - name: lazygit
        type: brew
        opts:
          tap: jesseduffield/lazygit
      - name: lazygit # Additional step for Linux systems only.
        type: shell
        platforms:
          only: ['linux']
        opts:
          command: |
            cd $(mktemp -d)
            latest_version=$(curl -s https://... )
            ...

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🔧 Usage

Run sofmani with an optional configuration file or flags. Example:

sofmani my-config.yaml

See the documentation for more information and examples.

Command-Line Flags

The following flags are supported to customize behavior:

Flag	Description
-d, --debug	Enable debug mode.
-D, --no-debug	Disable debug mode (default).
-u, --update	Enable update checking.
-U, --no-update	Disable update checking (default).
-f, --filter	Filter by installer name (can be used multiple times)
-h, --help	Display help information and exit.
-v, --version	Display version information and exit.

If a configuration file is not explicitly provided, sofmani attempts to locate a sofmani.yaml, sofmani.yml or sofmani.json in the following directories, in this order (first match is used):

1. Current directory
2. $HOME/.config directory
3. Home directory

If no file is found or provided, sofmani will fail to start.

For more information, see Configuration Reference

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📚 Configuration Reference

Here is a quick breakdown of all configuration options.

For a full breakdown with all the supported options, see the docs.

Global Options

Field	Type	Description
debug	Boolean	Enable or disable debug mode. Default: false.
check_updates	Boolean	Enable or disable checking for updates before running operations. Default: false.
defaults	Object	Defaults to apply to all installer types, such as specifying supported platforms or commonly used flags.
env	Object	Environment variables that will be set for the context of the installer. OS env vars are passed, and may be overridden for this config and all of its installers here.
install	Array	Installation steps to execute.

install Node

The install field describes the steps to execute. Each step represents an action or group of actions. Steps can be of several types, such as brew, rsync, shell, and more.

Field	Type	Description
name	String (required)	Identifier for the step. It does not have to be unique, but is usually used to check for the app’s existence, if applicable (can be overridden using bin_name)
type	String (required)	Type of the step. See supported types for a comprehensive list of supported values.
platforms	Object (optional)	Platform-specific execution controls. See platforms subfields below.
platforms.only	Array of Strings	Platforms where the step should execute (e.g., ['macos', 'linux']). Supercedes platforms.except.
platforms.except	Array of Strings	Platforms where the step should not execute; replaces platforms.only.
steps	Array of Installers	Sub-steps for group type. Allows nesting multiple steps together.
opts	Object (optional)	Step-specific options and configurations. Content varies depending on the type. See supported types for a comprehensive list of supported values.
bin_name	String (optional)	Binary name for the installed software, used instead of name when checking for app’s existence.
check_has_update	String (shell script)	Shell command to check whether an update is available for the installed software. This will override the default check provided by the corresponding type. The check must succeed (return exit code 0) if the app has an update, or fail (other status codes) if the app is up to date.
check_installed	String (shell script)	Shell command to check if the step has already been installed. If the check succeeds (exits with status 0), it means the app is already installed and can be skipped if not checking for updates.
pre_install	String (shell script)	Shell script to execute before the step is installed.
post_install	String (shell script)	Shell script to execute after the step is installed.
pre_update	String (shell script)	Shell script to execute before the step is updated (if applicable).
post_update	String (shell script)	Shell script to execute after the step is updated (if applicable).
env_shell	Object (optional)	Shell to use for command executions. See env_shell subfields below.
env_shell.macos	String (optional)	Shell to use for macOS command executions. If not specified, the default shell will be used.
env_shell.linux	String (optional)	Shell to use for Linux command executions. If not specified, the default shell will be used.

Supported type of Installers

For a full list with all the supported options, see the docs.

• shell

  • Executes arbitrary shell commands.

• group

  • Executes a logical group of steps in sequence.
  • Allows nesting multiple steps together.

• git

  • Clones a git repository to a local directory.
  • If name is a full git URL (https or SSH), the repository is cloned directly. If it is a repository path, e.g. chenasraf/sofmani, GitHub is assumed.

• github-release

  • Downloads a GitHub release asset. Optionally untar/unzip the downloaded file.

• manifest

  • Installs an entire manifest from a local or remote file.
  • Every entry in the install array will be run, similar to how steps are run for group installers.
  • debug and check_updates will be inherited by the loaded config.
  • env and defaults will be merged into the loaded config, overriding any existing values.

• rsync

  • Copy files from source to destination using rsync.

• brew

  • Installs packages using Homebrew.

• npm/pnpm/yarn

  • Installs packages using npm/pnpm/yarn.
  • Use type: npm for npm install, type: pnpm for pnpm install, and type: yarn for yarn install.

• apt/apk

  • Installs packages using apt/apk install.
  • Use type: apt for apt install, and type: apk for apk add.

• pipx

  • Installs packages using pipx.

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📂 Example Workflow

Here’s how you might configure sofmani to provision a new system:

1. Create the YAML configuration file sofmani.yaml:

   debug: true
   check_updates: true
   install:
     - name: jq
       type: brew
     - name: yq
       type: shell
       opts:
         command: pipx install yq

2. Run sofmani with your config file:

   sofmani sofmani.yaml

3. Let sofmani handle the installation, configuration syncing, and software updates automatically! 🎉

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💡 Tips and Tricks

1. Use platforms.only and platforms.except to fine-tune actions for platform-specific environments.
2. Use check_installed to skip steps if a specific condition or software is already installed, if the check is not a simple binary existence check on name or bin_name.
3. You can use groups to group together a set of installation steps to run in order (for example, for using different installers per-OS), or to simply exclude several steps together if an app is already installed with a single check.

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🛠️ Contributing

I am developing this package on my free time, so any support, whether code, issues, or just stars is very helpful to sustaining its life. If you are feeling incredibly generous and would like to donate just a small amount to help sustain this project, I would be very very thankful!

I welcome any issues or pull requests on GitHub. If you find a bug, or would like a new feature, don’t hesitate to open an appropriate issue and I will do my best to reply promptly.

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📜 License

sofmani is licensed under the CC0-1.0 License.

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Happy provisioning! 🎉