Ship a binary per platform, and tell people to curl it

.github/workflows/release-assets.yml

@@ -29,6 +29,92 @@ permissions:
   contents: read
 
 jobs:
+  daemon:
+    # A binary per platform, so installing the daemon is a download rather than a Rust
+    # toolchain and a C compiler. The extension is on the store now, which means people arrive
+    # without either.
+    #
+    # Unsigned, deliberately. Gatekeeper and SmartScreen act on a flag the *downloading
+    # application* attaches — `com.apple.quarantine`, Mark-of-the-Web — and `curl` and `scp` do
+    # not attach one. A command-line tool installed the way command-line tools are installed
+    # meets neither. Signing would cost a few hundred a year to remove a warning on the one
+    # route the README does not recommend.
+    name: ${{ matrix.target }}
+    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+    strategy:
+      # Every platform that can build should, even when one cannot. A macOS runner out of
+      # capacity is not a reason to leave Linux users with nothing.
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        include:
+          - target: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
+            os: windows-latest
+            exe: .exe
+          - target: aarch64-apple-darwin
+            os: macos-latest
+            exe: ""
+          - target: x86_64-apple-darwin
+            os: macos-latest
+            exe: ""
+          # Built on the older runner on purpose: a binary linked against a newer glibc will
+          # not start on an older one, and the people this is for are on login nodes somebody
+          # else administers. `musl` would remove the floor entirely and is not here yet,
+          # because `ring` wants a C toolchain targeting musl and an untested build inside a
+          # release job fails at the worst possible moment.
+          - target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
+            exe: ""
+    env:
+      TAG: ${{ inputs.tag }}
+      TARGET: ${{ matrix.target }}
+      EXE: ${{ matrix.exe }}
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
+        with:
+          ref: ${{ inputs.tag }}
+          persist-credentials: false
+      - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@29eef336d9b2848a0b548edc03f92a220660cdb8
+        with:
+          toolchain: stable
+          targets: ${{ matrix.target }}
+
+      # `--locked` so the binary somebody downloads was built from the dependency versions in
+      # the tag rather than from whatever resolved on the day.
+      - name: build
+        run: cargo build --release --locked --bin ssh-browser --target ${{ matrix.target }}
+
+      # Named for the target rather than the runner: that is the string a reader matches
+      # against their own machine, and it is what `cargo-binstall` looks for.
+      - name: name it after the platform
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          # No version in the name, and that is what makes
+          # `releases/latest/download/ssh-browser-<target>` work -- the URL that never goes
+          # stale cannot interpolate one. Named with the version, it 404s, which is how this
+          # was found: by running the command the README gives rather than reading it.
+          #
+          # The version is still in the path of a pinned download,
+          # `releases/download/v0.5.1/...`, which is where it belongs.
+          out="ssh-browser-$TARGET$EXE"
+          cp "target/$TARGET/release/ssh-browser$EXE" "$out"
+          # Published so somebody can check what they downloaded against what this built,
+          # which is what an unsigned binary can offer instead of a signature.
+          #
+          # `sha256sum`, not `shasum`: the Git Bash on the Windows runner has the first and
+          # not the second, and this job was dispatched against an existing tag precisely so
+          # that finding out cost a failed test run rather than a failed release.
+          sha256sum "$out" > "$out.sha256"
+          cat "$out.sha256"
+          echo "ASSET=$out" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+
+      - name: upload
+        shell: bash
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+        run: gh release upload "$TAG" "$ASSET" "$ASSET.sha256" --clobber
+
   extension:
     name: attach the extension
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest

README.md

@@ -157,15 +157,40 @@ that is most of them, and all of what `file://` breaks.
 
 ## Usage
 
+Every release carries a binary per platform. One file, nothing to unpack:
+
+```
+curl -L https://github.com/QAtlasHub/ssh-browser/releases/latest/download/ssh-browser-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu -o ssh-browser
+chmod +x ssh-browser
+./ssh-browser serve docs=myhost:/srv/docs cluster=login-node
+```
+
+Swap the target for `aarch64-apple-darwin`, `x86_64-apple-darwin` or
+`x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe`. Each has a `.sha256` beside it.
+
+**`curl`, not your browser — and that is why it is the first thing on this page.** These
+binaries are unsigned, and macOS and Windows both refuse an unsigned executable: but only one
+the *browser* downloaded. Gatekeeper reads a `com.apple.quarantine` flag and SmartScreen a
+Mark-of-the-Web, and both are attached by the downloading application. `curl` and `scp` attach
+neither. A signature would cost a few hundred a year to remove a warning on the one route this
+page does not recommend.
+
+With cargo, the same binary without the URL:
+
+```
+cargo binstall ssh-browser
+```
+
+Or build it, which is also what to do for a platform not in that list:
+
 ```
 cargo install ssh-browser
-ssh-browser serve docs=myhost:/srv/docs cluster=login-node
 ```
 
-**What that needs on your machine:** a Rust toolchain and a C compiler. The C compiler is for
-`ring`, which the TLS stack compiles — `cc` on Linux and macOS, the MSVC build tools or a MinGW
-toolchain on Windows. Nothing else: no OpenSSL, no system TLS library, no daemon, no service.
-Everything TLS is inside the binary, and `deny.toml` bans the OpenSSL crates so it stays that way.
+**That last one needs a Rust toolchain and a C compiler.** The C compiler is for `ring`, which
+the TLS stack compiles — `cc` on Linux and macOS, the MSVC build tools or a MinGW toolchain on
+Windows. Nothing else: no OpenSSL, no system TLS library, no daemon, no service. Everything TLS
+is inside the binary, and `deny.toml` bans the OpenSSL crates so it stays that way.
 
 At runtime it needs `ssh` on your `PATH` and nothing more. Trusting the https certificate uses a
 command your OS already has — `certutil`, `security`, or `update-ca-certificates` — and

crates/ssh-browser/Cargo.toml

@@ -12,6 +12,18 @@ keywords = ["ssh", "sftp", "browser", "proxy", "origin"]
 # from a shell would be neither.
 categories = ["network-programming", "command-line-utilities"]
 
+# Where the built binaries are, so `cargo binstall ssh-browser` takes one instead of
+# compiling. Nothing but `cargo-binstall` reads this table; cargo ignores `package.metadata`.
+#
+# Spelled out rather than left to its defaults, because it tries several shapes and a
+# near-miss falls back to building from source — which is the C compiler this exists to avoid,
+# arrived at silently. The names come from `release-assets.yml`; if one moves, both move.
+[package.metadata.binstall]
+pkg-url = "{ repo }/releases/download/v{ version }/ssh-browser-{ target }{ binary-ext }"
+# Not an archive. One file is the whole program, and unpacking a tarball that contains a
+# single binary is a step which exists only because most projects have more than one.
+pkg-fmt = "bin"
+
 [lints]
 workspace = true
 

e2e/run.mjs

@@ -978,8 +978,17 @@ async function main() {
     }));
     check("with no daemon, the first run says what this is and what to run", () => {
       assert.match(firstRun.view, /daemon is not running/);
-      assert.match(firstRun.cmd, /cargo install ssh-browser/);
-      assert.match(firstRun.cmd, /ssh-browser serve/);
+      // A download rather than a build. Somebody arriving from the store has neither a Rust
+      // toolchain nor a C compiler, and `cargo install` was a wall dressed as an instruction.
+      assert.match(firstRun.cmd, /curl -L -o ssh-browser/);
+      assert.match(firstRun.cmd, /releases\/latest\/download\/ssh-browser-/);
+      // `.exe` on Windows, none elsewhere, so the check is about the instruction rather
+      // than the filename. This runs on whichever platform is running it -- souta's
+      // Windows and CI's Linux take different branches of the same function.
+      assert.match(firstRun.cmd, /ssh-browser(\.exe)? serve/);
+      // Not a link to the releases page: a browser download is the one thing that attaches
+      // the quarantine flag these unsigned binaries would then be refused for.
+      assert.doesNotMatch(firstRun.cmd, /^https/m);
       assert.ok(firstRun.repo.includes("QAtlasHub/ssh-browser"), `no source link: ${firstRun.repo}`);
     });
     // Two versions of the same bad news, one of them in red, reads as two problems.

extension/src/dashboard.ts

@@ -301,6 +301,38 @@ function renderList(): void {
 /// extension for the store, who will install it with no daemon anywhere. One red line
 /// naming a command they have never heard of is not enough to act on, and "does not
 /// function" is a fair reading of it.
+/// What to run to get the daemon, for the platform reading this.
+///
+/// `curl`, not a link to the releases page, and the difference is not convenience. These
+/// binaries are unsigned; macOS and Windows refuse an unsigned executable, but only one the
+/// *browser* downloaded — Gatekeeper reads a `com.apple.quarantine` flag and SmartScreen a
+/// Mark-of-the-Web, and both are attached by whatever did the downloading. `curl` attaches
+/// neither. Putting a download link here would walk somebody into the one warning the whole
+/// arrangement avoids.
+///
+/// The platform is a guess and says so by naming the file: somebody on an Intel Mac can see
+/// `aarch64` and change it. Guessing wrong is a wrong filename, which is visible; asking would
+/// be a question before the first useful thing has happened.
+function installCommand(): string {
+  const url = (target: string) =>
+    `https://github.com/QAtlasHub/ssh-browser/releases/latest/download/ssh-browser-${target}`;
+  const agent = navigator.userAgent;
+  if (agent.includes("Windows")) {
+    return [
+      `curl -L -o ssh-browser.exe ${url("x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe")}`,
+      ".\\ssh-browser.exe serve",
+    ].join("\n");
+  }
+  // Apple Silicon by default, because it is most Macs now and the alternative is named in the
+  // line above it either way.
+  const target = agent.includes("Mac OS X")
+    ? "aarch64-apple-darwin"
+    : "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu";
+  return [`curl -L -o ssh-browser ${url(target)}`, "chmod +x ssh-browser", "./ssh-browser serve"].join(
+    "\n",
+  );
+}
+
 function renderOffline(firstRun: boolean): void {
   const view = clear();
   if (!firstRun) {
@@ -318,9 +350,15 @@ function renderOffline(firstRun: boolean): void {
         "half; the daemon runs on your own machine and does the SSH.",
     ),
   );
-  view.append(node("pre", "cmd", "cargo install ssh-browser\nssh-browser serve"));
+  view.append(node("pre", "cmd", installCommand()));
   view.append(
-    node("p", "note", "Then reload this page. It talks to 127.0.0.1 and to nothing else."),
+    node(
+      "p",
+      "note",
+      "Then reload this page. It talks to 127.0.0.1 and to nothing else. With cargo, " +
+        "cargo binstall ssh-browser fetches the same binary; cargo install ssh-browser " +
+        "builds it, which needs a C compiler.",
+    ),
   );
 
   const repo = document.createElement("a");