Powershell: Support more distributions in installpsh-debian.sh script

[pawamoy]

This is a follow-up of #6314 (and #5700).

I would like to know if you want to support more Debian distributions in the installation script, and if so, how you would like to support them (and if this would be tested or not).

We could simply add a message in the script that says to open a PR (with a link to this repo) to add support for the current distribution (if it's not already supported), and let people open PRs one by one.

If you are ok with more distributions support, I can immediately add BunsenLabs to the list :wink:

The diff is basically:

- debian)
+ debian|bunsenlabs)

I tried it and it works fine!

[iSazonov]

I wonder - how many Debian distributions exist?
I would prefer to add references to community-supported scripts to our documentation.

[pawamoy]

There are a lot indeed! Here is the Debian family tree.

Would these community-supported scripts reside in the powershell repository itself? Or another, dedicated repository? Or would the references just point to random repositories, like https://github.com/some-user/some-repo/blob/master/installpsh-some-distro.sh, and people would open PRs to add them in the docs?

[iSazonov]

I believe we can not test and support all such scripts in the repo.

/cc @joeyaiello @SteveL-MSFT

[SteveL-MSFT]

@Pawamoy are you aware of any existing precedent set by other projects when the community extends distro support? If there's already a well defined pattern, would prefer to use that unless there's a big reason not to follow it.

[pawamoy]

@SteveL-MSFT unfortunately no, but I will dig a bit and see if I can find some useful examples or patterns.

[iSazonov]

@pawamoy Have you any updates?

[pawamoy]

@iSazonov No :confused: I was not able to find similar examples. I guess it's usually up to the package repositories managers to make a package available for the distro he's in charge of. Or to project developers to give a generic installation script.

Maybe if powershell's installation scripts relied on something else than /etc/lsb-release, like /etc/os-release (which includes a ID_LIKE="debian" line for example) or /proc/version, it would handle more cases.

Or maybe the simplest solution would be to duplicate installpsh-debian.sh in installpsh-ubuntu.sh. The Ubuntu script would always use ubuntu as distribution ID, and the Debian script would always use debian as distribution ID. Then the DISTRIB_VERSION would be read from the environment variable, and if it's not set, from the /etc/lsb-release or /etc/os-release files. I could then install powershell on BunsenLabs or any other distribution based on Debian 8 with DISTRIB_VERSION=8 ./installpsh-debian.sh.

[iSazonov]

@pawamoy In the repo we can support only distributives which CoreFX supports. Other ones can be only community driven.

[pawamoy]

Seeing that LinuxMint was added, would you agree to add BunsenLabs to the list? I know it's not a widespread distribution but I'm still interested in it being supported. Besides, as written in the first comment, it's simply a matter of adding bunsenlabs in the debian) case. I can open a new issue for it if you prefer.

[iSazonov]

I see that Linux Mint will added in .Net Core 3.0 https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/de2f7eaab2bb652b246c322827bda42a05e2fbb3/release-notes/3.0/3.0-supported-os.md#linux

@pawamoy We will move to 3.0 in weeks. Please wait and then you can make PR to update the install script and docs.

/cc @TravisEz13

[TravisEz13]

We have two paths, PowerShell can support it. Or this script can unofficially support it. If we want the former, we should file an issue that specifically asks that linux mint be added to the list of supported distributions.

[pawamoy]

About LinuxMint, I myself have no preferences. About BunsenLabs, I don't mind it being unofficially supported in the script. Afterall, I just want to be able to run ./installpsh-debian.sh.

[TravisEz13]

BunsenLabs would have to be unofficial as it's not supported by DotNet.

[SteveL-MSFT]

@pawamoy perhaps an option is to update ./installpsh-debian.sh to have a -force type switch so that we aren't preventing attempts to use it but it wouldn't be something we would support

[pawamoy]

@SteveL-MSFT I think it would complicate the script too much. I understand it's preferable to only add officially supported distributions in the script (by the way, debian 8 still appears in the script but is out of support, right?), so I won't push for BunsenLabs. For people who really want to install it on a distro based on debian 9, it's very easy anyway:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | sudo apt-key add -
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/debian/9/prod.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install powershell

Thanks for your feedback everyone :slightly_smiling_face:

[iSazonov]

10773 now we use /etc/os-release

[msftbot[bot]]

This issue has been marked as fixed and has not had any activity for 1 day. It has been closed for housekeeping purposes.