Packaging & Distribution¶

How Nemo is built, packaged, and distributed. See README.md for the end-user installation instructions.

Release artifacts¶

The Release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) runs on v* tags (and manual workflow_dispatch). It first gates on the full CI workflow, then builds a matrix of targets and uploads to a GitHub Release:

A checksums.txt (SHA-256 of every archive, .deb, .rpm, and .dmg) is uploaded alongside.

The tarball layout is:

nemo               # the binary
share/nemo/        # bundled examples

Distribution channels¶

Install script¶

scripts/install.sh detects OS/arch, downloads the matching tar.gz, verifies it against checksums.txt, and installs the binary. It is served from main, so it always reflects the latest release. No crates.io publish is involved.

Homebrew tap¶

The nemo binary cannot be published to crates.io (it depends on a git build of GPUI), so distribution is via a binary tap (geoffjay/homebrew-tap) rather than brew install --HEAD:

brew install geoffjay/tap/nemo

Automated on release. The homebrew job in release.yml renders the formula from the release's checksums.txt and pushes it to Formula/nemo.rb in the tap. It is gated on a HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN repository secret (a PAT with contents:write on geoffjay/homebrew-tap); if the secret is absent the job logs a notice and skips, so releases still succeed.

Manual regeneration (e.g. to seed or fix the formula):

# Renders to stdout from packaging/homebrew/nemo.rb.tpl using the
# checksums.txt attached to the v<version> release.
scripts/gen-homebrew-formula.sh v0.6.0 > Formula/nemo.rb

packaging/homebrew/nemo.rb.tpl is the source of truth; the generator only fills in the version and the four tar.gz checksums. It never writes back over the template, so it is safe to run repeatedly.

Debian / RPM packages¶

cargo-deb metadata ([package.metadata.deb]) builds the .deb: binary at /usr/bin/nemo, examples under /usr/share/nemo/examples, and the GPUI runtime libraries as Depends: so apt resolves them. cargo-generate-rpm metadata ([package.metadata.generate-rpm]) builds the .rpm, auto-detecting runtime library requirements from the binary's ELF. Both are built per Linux target in the release matrix.

cargo-binstall¶

[package.metadata.binstall] in crates/nemo/Cargo.toml maps the crate to the release archives. Because nemo is not on crates.io, use the git form:

cargo binstall --git https://github.com/geoffjay/nemo nemo

Known gaps / future work¶

• macOS signing & notarization. Artifacts are unsigned; users must clear the quarantine flag (xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ...). Notarization needs an Apple Developer certificate in secrets and a codesign + notarytool step.
• Linux AppImage. .deb and .rpm cover the two major package managers; an AppImage would additionally serve distros without either. Bundling GPUI's Vulkan/font libraries is the fiddly part and needs a clean-distro test.
• Windows .msi. Ships as a portable .zip only. A cargo-wix installer and Authenticode signing (needs a cert) remain.