Visit Homebrew, Rustup, Oh My Zsh, nvm and few other popular open source projects website and you realise that quietly `curl -fsSL` has become the most popular package manager for Linux and Unix users 😂 How did we get here ?

[thatdnaguy@genomic.social]

@nixCraft the first time I saw some of those instructions, I thought it was the hack way of doing it without a package manager. Then I realized it was THE way and was completely shocked.

[levrden@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft wouldn't it be even better to explain clearly instead of making fun of people?

[jbaert@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft i hate it when that's the only option. I often try to read the script itself and it's an obtuse mess.

[squaloujenkins@fosstodon.org]

@nixCraft now add a sudo-allowed ai agent to the mix

[cogitocomrade@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft curl is nice. Im already running some arbitrary code I haven’t read when using any of these packages, so running a script by them doesn’t seem that much less safe

[chris1776@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@nixCraft cargo install is just as bad

[uecker@mastodon.social]

@cogitocomrade @nixCraft It is far less safe. If the first step is secure, then it may be ok to put some trust in the code you run later. But with curl | this is unfounded.

[nullpotential@fedia.social]

@nixCraft yeah! we should be using aria2c. it's 2026 people come on.

[chipbarm@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft it brings some excitement into my otherwise dull life

[gabe@mendeddrum.org]

@nixCraft tired: curl | sudo bash

wired: yes | sudo bash <(curl)

[sj_zero@social.fbxl.net]

I can't say nothing, deb.fbxl.net has repos for many many operating systems, but there's exactly one command listed with a universal installer for setting up repos on many of them.

In my case it's because freebasic is a basic compiler, and the goal was to make it easy to install damn near everywhere. The problem is, there's a lot of everywhere. Just on Linux you have debian-based, RPM based, arch-based, slackware based, and within those categories you have a number of different distributions and distribution versions. And then you have Solaris and open solaris, the various bsds, haiku, windows via cygwin or mingw, not to mention MacOS, and that's just the OSes that apply to package managers and she'll scripts. Just making the machinery to produce packages for all those is tough enough, but then you're trying to figure out how to make it easy for OSes to actually just install and be capable of staying up to date afterwards.

More ideal would be getting the packages added to every distro, but that really isn't in the cards, so you're stuck playing the hand you've got.

[haerench@mastodon.social]

@jbaert @nixCraft It has become indeed quite common that I often don't want to read / check the script once again. Instead I run the curl in a pod and then copy the artifact to my system.

Where did we go wrong? Probably too many different package managers out there and/or too little time to maintain them. Even if they make an rpm /deb pkg, what guarantee you have nothing fishy happens in the postinstall?

[mikalai@privacysafe.social]

@moelassus @nixCraft
Novice users are too novice to weep 🫣

[mikalai@privacysafe.social]

@thatdnaguy @nixCraft
But isn't it convenient in one's CI pipeline? Inside of some container.
.... looking for dictionary definition of supply chain attack...

[mikalai@privacysafe.social]

@levrden @nixCraft
Jo. These folks have been talking soooo many times about it. This is their professional, slightly nervous fun.
On practical note, they really don't know how else to pass this ... trivial info, for practical end.
As a member of normal group, may be you can volunteer persvasive words.
Persvaisive for your locale at least.

[mikalai@privacysafe.social]

@Chris1776 @nixCraft
Does it check signatures ... at least

[taffer@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@nixCraft It’s as safe as using npm…

[slaine@mastodon.ie]

@nixCraft

[marcialm32@mastodon.social]

Their trying to say, or just saying what's up to NixCraft. Can't really just say anything on a page, others sees them comments. But I guess there's issue unmentioned, not just what's up all the time.

[pelle@veganism.social]

@levrden
you go to the furniture shop to buy a sofa. the sales assistant tells you that the recommended way to install the sofa in your home is if you make a copy of your door key and give that to her. ️

everyone does this, and soon you've given out a dozen copies of your front door key to everyone including the pizza delivery driver. one morning you wake up your socks and your credit card are missing. 🧦

yes, no one should make fun the victim of such theft. but isn't it okay to mock the businesses who put their customers at risk by asking all of them for their door keys?
@nixCraft