staxup

staxup is a cross‑platform binary updater and version manager designed for the Stax ecosystem — but flexible enough for any standalone CLI tool.

It provides a consistent, reliable, and secure way to distribute, update, and rollback self‑contained binaries across Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Tools like StaxPing, StaxSpec, and future Stax utilities all use staxup as their update engine.

staxup is written in Rust, licensed under Apache 2.0, and built to be simple, predictable, and ecosystem‑friendly.

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✨ Features

• Cross‑platform binary updates
  Linux, macOS, Windows — no installers required.

• Manifest‑driven
  Tools define their metadata in a simple TOML file (e.g. staxping.toml).

• Rollback support
  Every update keeps the previous version for instant recovery.

• Channels
  Stable, beta, nightly — fully supported.

• Checksums & integrity verification
  SHA‑256 validation for all downloaded binaries.

• Self‑contained folder structure
  Tools install into:

  ~/.local/share/stax/<tool>/
  

• Library + CLI
  Use staxup as a Rust crate or as a standalone command.

• Registry‑optional
  Works with GitHub Releases, custom URLs, or a Stax registry.

• Ecosystem‑ready
  Designed for multi‑tool suites like Stax, but generic enough for external use.

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📦 Installation

staxup is distributed as a standalone binary and as a Rust crate.

As a CLI tool

staxup update <tool>
staxup check <tool>
staxup rollback <tool>

As a Rust library

use stax_up::Updater;

fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    Updater::new("staxping")
        .with_manifest_path("staxping.toml")
        .with_remote_manifest("https://example.com/staxping.toml")
        .check_and_apply()?;

    Ok(())
}

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🗂 Folder Structure

staxup installs tools into a predictable, isolated directory:

~/.local/share/stax/<tool>/
    latest/       # active version
    old/          # rollback version
    <tool>.toml   # installed manifest

This structure is shared across all Stax tools.

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📝 Tool Manifest Format

Each tool ships with a simple TOML manifest:

version = "2.0.0"
channel = "stable"
min_updater = "1.0.0"

[downloads]
linux_amd64 = "https://example.com/tool-linux-amd64"
windows_x64 = "https://example.com/tool-windows-x64.exe"

[checksums]
linux_amd64 = "sha256-..."
windows_x64 = "sha256-..."

[meta]
name = "StaxPing"
description = "Network diagnostics tool"
license = "Apache-2.0"

staxup reads this file to determine how to update the tool.

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🔧 CLI Usage

staxup check <tool>     # Show current version and info
staxup update <tool>    # Update to latest version
staxup rollback <tool>  # Rollback to previous version

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🏗 Building

cargo build --release

The binary will be in target/release/staxup.

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🧩 Why staxup?

Most updaters fall into one of these categories:

• language‑specific package managers
• GUI app updaters
• OS‑level package managers
• single‑tool self‑updaters

staxup fills a different niche:

A unified, cross‑tool updater for standalone CLI binaries.

It is:

• language‑agnostic
• ecosystem‑friendly
• manifest‑driven
• rollback‑capable
• cross‑platform
• simple to embed

This makes it ideal for multi‑tool suites like Stax — and equally useful for independent CLI tools that want a clean, reliable update story.

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🛠 Roadmap

• Initial crate + CLI scaffolding
• Manifest parser
• Version comparison
• Download + checksum verification
• Install + rollback logic
• Self‑update support
• Global registry integration
• StaxDash GUI integration

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📄 License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
See the LICENSE file for details.