Nifty

nifty is a decentralized (pseudo) package manager and script runner written in Nim.

Main features

In a nutshell, nifty is a program that executes user-defined scripts on a set of folders or files within a user-define package folder. It doesn’t do (almost) anything by itself, it just relies on other programs and utilities that are typically already available on your system like git and curl to do all the heavy-lifting.

Run side-by-side your existing package manager

nifty doesn’t claim to replace your existing package manager, therefore it tries not to get too much in the way of your existing project structure. All it needs to work resides in a humble nifty.json file that is used to:

• keep track of what packages are part of the current project
• provide the full definition of all the available commands and how to execute them on specific packages

The folder where packages will be stored is by default set to a packages subfolder within the current project directory, but even this can be configured in the nifty.json file.

→ For an example of nifty.json file, see the one used by HastyScribe.

Define your own packages

For nifty, a package can be a folder containing files, or even a single files. Through the nifty.json file, you can define:

• The source of a package (typically a git repository or event just a URL).
• Whether the package supports git, curl or any other command that will be used to retrieve its contents.

Define your own commands

You can use your nifty.json to teach nifty new tricks, i.e. how to execute new commands on packages. Your commands look like… well, CLI commands, except that you can use placeholders like {{name}} and {{src}} in them for your package name, source, etc.

Run on many different platforms and regardless of the type of project

nifty is a self-contained executable program written in Nim and runs on all platforms where Nim compiles. Also, unlike other package managers that are typically used within the context of one specific programming language (like NPM for Javascript or RubyGems for Ruby), nifty can be used in virtually any project, regardless of the programming language used.

Usage

• nifty help [<command>] · Display help on the specified command (or all commands).
• nifty info <package> · Displays information on
• nifty init [<storage-dir>] · Initializes a project in the current directory (using as storage directory).
• nifty list · Lists all dependencies (recursively) of the current project.
• nifty map <package> · Configures a new or existing package .
• nifty remove [<package>] · Removes the specified package (or all packages) from the storage directory.
• nifty unmap <package> · Unmaps the previously-mapped package .
• nifty update · Updates the command definitions for the current project and migrate nifty.json file (if necessary).
• nifty install [<package>] · Installs the specified package (or all mapped packages) to the storage directory.
• nifty upgrade [<package>] · Upgrades the specified previously-installed package (or all packages).

→ For more information, see the Nifty User Guide.