Have you ever considered just how boring entering your options manually into an interactive installer is? And what if you forget something? What if you change your mind about a single, perhaps small, thing? You're most likely going to have to start from scratch again.

The alternative is to write your own shell script, which is often long and confusing. Plus, if you aren't really tidy, you're going to have a hard time changing things.

Enter: jimmy, an Arch installer unlike any other. The idea is simple: store all preferences/settings in a YAML file and generate a shell script from it. Both problems are solved: your configuration is now very concise. If you want to change something, simply edit the file and re-run jimmy.

There's one clear drawback: that it's not as customisable as writing your own shell script. Sure, it might seem limiting. But 1) it can generate shell script for most things you'd need in a minimal Arch installation and 2) if you want customisation, you can edit the output shell script anyways

What it can do:

• print a template YAML file that you can then edit and feed it
• partition disks (this includes creating the partitions, formatting, mounting them, and creating the fstab file)
• install the packages you tell it to
• set timezone and generate locales
• set up NetworkManager
• prompt you for a root password
• install and configure GRUB or EFISTUB
• create users (usernames, groups, etc.). Note that the wheel group is always capable of using sudo.
• set a default shell for a user

What it can't do:

• connect to the internet (you must do that youself)
• set up mirrors and gpg keys (you must also do that)
• set up graphical environments

• cargo, rust's package manager

Install from crates.io directly:

cargo install jimmy

Synopsis:

jimmy [-f | --file | -s | --sample] [<ARGS>]

jimmy will then proceed to generate a shell script and print it to stdout, warning you of missing properties, and error if some vital ones (such as hostname) aren't specified. It's up to you to redirect the output to a file and execute it with a shell.

Here's an example using concrete commands:

jimmy --sample >input.yaml
vim input.yaml
jimmy --file input.yaml >script.sh
chmod +x script.sh

WARNING: Do NOT run it, except in an Arch live system! You can lose data!

• provide example YAML file
• parse YAML file (with serde)
• check if the input file is valid
  • error if e.g. username isn't specified
  • panic if zoneinfo isn't valid
• prepare installation
  • update system clock
  • partitions
    • create with fdisk
    • format
    • mount filesystems
  • install all specified packages
• configure the system
  • generate an fstab file
  • set timezone
  • set locales
  • configure network
  • configure users
  • set root's password
  • configure bootloader
    • GRUB
    • efistub
• generate template YAML file on the spot
• print status messages while installing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.