App crashes on mach version input and doesn't support installing different nightly version

[akhildevelops]

zig verm crashes/errors out for below inputs

tarrot on  main [?]
❯ zigverm install 2024.11.0-mach
info: Fetching the latest index
thread 6063 panic: attempt to use null value
Unable to dump stack trace: debug info stripped
Aborted (core dumped)

tarrot on  main [?] 
❯ zigverm install 0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22 
error: Overflow

tarrot on  main [?]
❯ zigverm install 0.14.0-dev.2577
error: InvalidVersionSpec

[AMythicDev]

I don't think you can get dated releases from zigverm since Zig itself does not publish about this information in their JSON release file or on their GitHub.

Secondly I didn't get the point on why you want to install Zig for a specific architecture. Your OS native Zig compiler can compile code for all architectures with the same standard library.

[akhildevelops]

That's not mac but mach. Mach is a popular gaming engine in zig. They will try to pick the best nightly version that's not buggy and keep their codebase in compatible with it.

zvm, vscode-zig plugin, mlugg/setup-zig (github actions) support installing mach nominated zig version. Refer to this link: https://machengine.org/docs/nominated-zig/

While zigverm doesn't support installing a mach nominated zig version. I thought of installing by it's actual nightly version. i.e, for the current mach-latest the zig nightly version is 0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22. zig's json release file might not contain tarball paths to old nighlies but they're present. Refer to this file https://machengine.org/zig/index.json

The benefit is you can setup same less buggy nightly across different environments even though zig overrides nightlies daily. Like I've a local environment with mach-latest and I want an action runner to run with same nightly version everyday.

[akhildevelops]

Lemme know if you are ok to let users install mach nominated versions. I'll raise a PR.

The UX will be similar

zigverm install mach-latest
zigverm override mach-latest

[AMythicDev]

I am good with this, however I have a few things to comment on:

1. I took a look at the index file from mach and they contain some form of CalVer. Zig versions strictly follow semver and zigverm currently relies a lot on this very fact. Not to mention that the Zig stdlib also provides first class support for handling semver. So do we may need to write a separate handler for this calver type versions?
2. We should also do put a fallback mechanism. If a user wants a non-mach version, first we get the index from mach and if that fails we would fallback to the Zig index. For mach versions, we can just error out.

[akhildevelops]

I took a look at the index file from mach and they contain some form of CalVer. Zig versions strictly follow semver and zigverm currently relies a lot on this very fact. Not to mention that the Zig stdlib also provides first class support for handling semver. So do we may need to write a separate handler for this calver type versions?

Yup there should be a separate handler for parsing mach version (there are two types of mach version formats: 0.4.0-mach / 2024.10.0-mach).

We should also do put a fallback mechanism. If a user wants a non-mach version, first we get the index from mach and if that fails we would fallback to the Zig index. For mach versions, we can just error out.

Yup but need not depend on mach-file but directly generate a dynamic zig download url: https://ziglang.org/builds/zig-bootstrap-0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22.tar.xz for installing 0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22.tar.xz nightly version. If it fails then tell to user it doesn't exist. For non compatible mach version zigverm can error out.

I'm thinking to add extra param --from to explicitly define the source.

Install mach-latest (tagged to zig's 0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22)
zigverm install --from mach mach-latest

To use the installed version globally
zigverm override --from mach mach-latest

In the background i.e in ~/.zigverm location we will have exact zig version installs i.e, the installed zig binary folder will be ~/.zigverm/installs/zig-x86_64-linux-0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22 and a separate registry file to map mach and zig versions.

What do you think ?

[AMythicDev]

but need not depend on mach-file but directly generate a dynamic zig download url: https://ziglang.org/builds/zig-bootstrap-0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22.tar.xz for installing 0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22.tar.xz nightly version.

We need the index file not only to check if a version exist but also to get its size info and hash for verifying the tarball.

I'm thinking to add extra param --from to explicitly define the source.

I believe it might introduce unnecessary confusion for end-user. It would be better if this logic is dealt internally.

In the background i.e in ~/.zigverm location we will have exact zig version installs i.e, the installed zig binary folder will be ~/.zigverm/installs/zig-x86_64-linux-0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22 and a separate registry file to map mach and zig versions.

Again, this might cause confusion for the end-user. It is better if we keep installation names as it is with mach- prefix. The fact that keeping installation names similar to actual release names is exploited heavily in zigverm to keep it simple.

[akhildevelops]

We need the index file not only to check if a version exist but also to get its size info and hash for verifying the tarball.

Ok

I believe it might introduce unnecessary confusion for end-user. It would be better if this logic is dealt internally.

Ok

In the background i.e in ~/.zigverm location we will have exact zig version installs i.e, the installed zig binary folder will be ~/.zigverm/installs/zig-x86_64-linux-0.14.0-dev.2577+271452d22 and a separate registry file to map mach and zig versions.

This is an internal implementation and why user gets affected ? The problem in keeping mach-* folders is the zig binary folders get duplicated. Anyways to start with we can have mach-* folder that doesn't complicate the implementation.

I'll give a PR and let's see how it spans out.

[akhildevelops]

Do you want zigverm source code to be compatible with mach-latest or keep it for 0.12.0

[AMythicDev]

mach-latest which follows Zig 0.14 has several API changes which might cause build failures. I would prefer to keep zigverm on 0 <= 0.14 for now.

BTW #2 follows changes required to make zigverm comparable for 0.14 and above.

[AMythicDev]

I'll give a PR and let's see how it spans out.

Sure. Feel free to ping me if you need any help.