Godot Package Manager (GDPM)

Demo

GDPM is an attempt to make a simple, front-end, command-line, package manager designed to handle assets from the Godot Game Engine's official asset library. It is written in C++ to be lightwight and fast with a few common dependencies found in most Linux distributions and can be used completely independent of Godot. It is designed to add more functionality not included with the official AssetLib with the ability to automate downloads for different platforms. So far, the package manager is capable of searching, downloading, installing, and removing packages and makes managing Godot assets across multiple projects much easier. It stores "packages" in a global directories and is capable of linking or copying global packages to local projects.

*GDPM has not been tested for Windows or Mac.

• Quick Start
• Rational
• How It Works
• Features
• Building from Source
  • Prerequisites
  • Macro Definitions
  • API Documentation
• How to use the CLI
  • Installing, Removing, Updating, and Listing
  • Searching
  • Linking and Cloning
  • Cleaning Temporary Files
  • Managing Remote Sources
  • Managing Configuration Properties
• Planned Features
• Known Issues
• License

Quick Start

Common commands for searching, installing, listing, and removing assets.

gdpm search demo
gdpm install "Third Person Controller" --skip-prompt
gdpm list --style=table
gdpm remove "Third Person Controller" --clean

Use gdpm help to see full list of commands.

$ gdpm help
Usage: gdpm [--help] [--verbose] {get,clean,clone,config,export,fetch,help,install,link,list,remote,remove,search,ui,update,version}

Manage Godot engine assets from CLI

Optional arguments:
  -h, --help    shows help message and exits 
  -v, --verbose set verbosity level 

Subcommands:
  get           add package to project
  clean         clean package(s) temporary files
  clone         clone package(s) to path
  config        manage config properties
  export        export install package(s) list
  fetch         fetch and sync asset data
  help          show help message and exit
  install       install package(s)
  link          link package(s) to path
  list          show install package(s) and remotes
  remote        manage remote(s)
  remove        remove package(s)
  search        search for package(s)
  ui            show user interface (WIP)
  update        update package(s)
  version       show version and exit

Rationale

The AssetLib actually works well enough for most use cases. However, it's fairly common to download the same asset multiple times for different projects. If there isn't a need to modify the asset itself, it makes more sense to download the asset once and only once. That way, there will only be one global, read-only copy of the asset that is accessable and it can be linked to more than one project. The AssetLib does not have a built-in way to manage assets like this, and therefore requires redownloading assets for each new project. Additionally, the AssetLib is integrated into the engine itself with no command-line interface to manage assets. When downloading multiple assets, it is much more convenient to be able to automate the downloads using a list from a text file. If the user knows, which assets to download, they can make a list and point to it.

Some assets are more common such as the "First Person Controller" are likely to be reused with little to no modification. Therefore, it made sense to provide some method to download and install the assets once and then provide a symbolic link back to the stored packages. GDPM attempts to fix this by storing the assets in a single location and creating symlinks/shortcuts to each project. By having a separate, simple binary executable, the package manager can be used in shell scripts to download assets more quickly.

Currently, there is no dependency management as it is not needed yet. There are future plans to implement a system to handle dependencies, but the implementation is still being fleshed out.

How It Works

GDPM is built to work with an instance of Godot's Asset API. When installing packages, GDPM will first make HTTP requests to retrieve required asset data to download the asset and sync it in with a local database. Then, it will make another API request to retrieve the rest of an asset's data, update it in the database, then download it from the remote repository. Unfortunately, the package manager requires at least 2 request for a single asset. Therefore, there's an intentional 200 ms delay by default between each request to not bombard the API server, but is configurable at compile time (see "Building from Source" section below).

When removing a package, the unzip files are remove but the temporary files are keep in the specified .tmp directory unless using the --clean option. This allows the user to remove the uncompressed files, but easily reinstall the package without having to download it remotely again.

The local database stores all the information sent by the Asset API with additional information like "install_path" and "remote_source" for the API used to gather information.

Features

• Download and install packages from Godot's official AssetLib or from custom repositories. (Note: Multithread download support planned.)

• Stores downloads in single global location to use across multiple Godot projects using symlinks, thus reducing space and bandwidth.

• Copy packages into a Godot project to make modifications when needed.

• Automate installing packages in scripts.

• Export list of installed packages to reinstall later.

Building from Source

The project uses the CMake or Meson build system and has been tested with GCC and Clang on Arch/Manjaro Linux. CMake is preferred, but a meson.build script is provided and should work with some tweaking. Building on Windows or Mac has not been tested yet so it's not guaranteed to work. Compiling with CMake will build 2 executables, 3 shared libraries, and an archive library to link, while compiling with Meson only builds an executable that links with a shared library.

Prerequisites

• Meson or CMake (version 3.12 or later)

• C++20 compiler (GCC/Clang/MSVC??)

• libcurl (or curlpp)

• libzip

• RapidJson

• fmt (may be removed later in favor of C++20 std::format)

• SQLite 3

• doctest (optional; for tests, but still WIP)

• Doxygen (optional; to generate API docs)

After installing all necessary dependencies, build the project::

# Start by cloning the repo, then...
git clone https://github.com/davidallendj/gdpm
cd gdpm
export project_root=${pwd}

# ...if using Meson with Clang on Linux...
meson build
meson configure build # only needed if reconfiguring build
meson compile -C build -j$(nproc)
CXX=clang++ meson compile -C build -j$(npoc)

# ...if using CMake on Linux (needs work!)...
cd build
cmake .. 
make -j$(nproc)

# Easy build using predefined `compile` script
${project_root}/bin/compile.sh --all


# ...build using MinGW on Windows ???
# ...build using MSVC on Windows ??? 
# ...build using Clang on MacOS ???

Alternatively, run the compile.sh script to build with CMake:

${project_root}/bin/compile.sh \
	--all \			# compiles all executables and libraries
	--exe \			# compiles executables with shared library
	--libs \		# compiles shared and static libraries
	--docs \		# generate the API documentation
	--link \		# create symlinks from executables to the `bin` directory
	--strip \		# strip symbols from binaries (same as running `strip` command)

Some macros can be set to enable/disable features or configure defaults by setting the C++ arguments in Meson. These values are used at compile time and a description of each value is provided below.

if(MSVC)
	add_compile_defintions(
		# Add flags specific to MSVC here...
	)
else()
	add_compile_definitions(
		-DGDPM_LOG_LEVEL=2
		-DGDPM_REQUEST_DELAY=200ms
		-DGDPM_ENABLE_COLOR=1
		-DGDPM_ENABLE_TIMESTAMP=1
	)
endif()

Similarly, this can be done in Meson:

cpp_args = [
	...
	'-DGDPM_LOG_LEVEL=2',
	'-DGDPM_REQUEST_DELAY=200ms',
	'-DGDPM_ENABLE_COLORS=1',
	'-DGDPM_ENABLE_TIMESTAMPS=1'
	...
]

Macro Definitions

Macro	Values	Description
GDPM_LOG_LEVEL	0-5	Sets the logging level to show when the program runs. Setting GDPM_LOG_LEVEL=0 will completely disable logging information being displayed.
GDPM_REQUEST_DELAY	200 ms	Sets the delay time (in ms) between each API request. The delay is meant to reduce the load on the API.
GDPM_ENABLE_COLOR	0 or 1 (true/false)	Enable/disable color output to stdout for errors and debugging. Disable if your system or console does not support ANSI colors. (default: true)
GDPM_ENABLE_TIMESTAMP	0 or 1 (true/false)	Enable/disable timestamp output to stdout. (default: true)
GDPM_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT	strftime formated string (default: ":%I:%M:%S %p; %Y-%m-%d")	Set the time format to use in logging via strftime(). Uses ISO 8601 date and time standard as default.

API Documentation

There is support for generating API documentation with doxygen for the project. Simply run the command in the root directory of the project or with the compile.sh script and documentation will be generated in the docs/doxygen/ directory. View it by opening the html/index.html file in a browser.

NOTE: The API documentation is still a work-in-progress. Over time, the code base will be updated to generate the important parts of the source code.

How to use the CLI

The gdpm command takes a single subcommand argument such as install, remove, search, remote, update list, or help followed by other arguments. See the gdpm help command for usage and full list of subcommands.

Installing, Removing, Updating, and Listing

Packages can be installed using the install command with a list of package names or by providing a one-package-name-per-line file using the -f/--file option. The -f/--file option is compatible with the package list using the export command.

Installation behavior can be adjusted using other flags like --disable-sync, --disable-cache, -y/--skip-prompt, or --clean.

gdpm install "Flappy Godot" "GodotNetworking" -y
gdpm install -f packages.txt --config config.json --disable-sync --skip-prompt --verbose

gdpm export path/to/packages.txt
gdpm install -f path/to/packages.txt --disable-sync --skip-prompt

# Future work for multithreading support...
# gdpm install -f path/to/packages.txt -j$(nproc) --disable-sync --skip-prompt --verbose

Packages can be removed similiarly to installing.

gdpm remove "Flappy Godot" GodotNetworking -y
gdpm remove -f packages.txt --config config.json --disable-sync --skip-prompt

Update packages by either specific packages or update everything installed at once. The local asset data with automatically be updated as well.

gdpm update GodotNetworking
gdpm update -f packages.txt
gdpm update						# Updates everything installed
gdpm fetch						# Updates local asset data

Print a list installed packages using the list command. This also provides some other extra information like the Godot version and license. You can also list the remote sources using the 'remote' option. Alternatively, a list of remotes can be printed using the remote command alone.

gdpm list --style=table
gdpm list packages				# Equivalent to `gdpm list`
gdpm list remote				# Equivalent to `gdpm remote`
gdpm remote list --style=table	# Equivalent to `gdpm list`

Searching

Search for available packages using the search command. The results can be tweaked using a variety of options like --sort or --support as supported parameters by the Asset Library API. See the '--help' command for more details.

Use the search command to find a list of available packages. (Note: This currently will only search remotely for package information! This will be changed later to only search the local metadata instead.)

gdpm --verbose search "GodotNetworking" \ 
	--sort updated \
	--type project \
	--max-results 50 \
	--godot-version 3.4 \
	--author godot \
	--support official

Linking and Cloning

Link an installed package using the link command or make copy of it using clone.

gdpm link GodotNetworking tests/test-godot-project
gdpm clone GodotNetworking tests/tests-godot-project/addons

# Future work
# gdpm link --all    # links all installed packages to current directory
# gdpm clone --all   # similar to the command above

Cleaning Temporary Files

Temporary files downloaded from remote repositories can be cleaned by using the gdpm clean command or the --clean flag after installing or removing packages. Cleaning is recommended if space is limited, but keeping the files stored reduces the number of remote requests needed to synchronize the local asset database with the Asset library.

gdpm install -f packages.txt --clean -y		# install and discard temps
gdpm remove -f packages.txt --clean -y		# remove and delete temps
gdpm clean "GodotNetworking"				# clean for one package
gdpm clean									# clean all packages

Managing Remote Sources

Remote repositories can be added and removed similar to using git. Be aware that this API is still being changed and may not always work as expected.

gdpm remote add official https://custom-assetlib/asset-library/api
gdpm remote remove official

To try gdpm without installing it to your system, create a symlink to the built executable and add the bin directory to your PATH variable.

ln -s path/to/build/gdpm path/to/bin/gdpm
export PATH=$PATH:path/to/bin/gdpm

Managing Configuration Properties

Configuration properties can be viewed and set using the gdpm config command.

gdpm config get						# shows all config properties
gdpm config get --style=table		# shows all config properties in table
gdpm config get skip-prompt jobs	# shows config properties listed
gdpm config set timeout 30			# set config property value
gdpm config set username towk

Planned Features

• Godot 4 Asset Library compatibility.

• Multithreaded support.

• Dependency management. There is no way of handling dependencies using the Godot Asset API. This is a hot topic and might change in the near future.

• Proper updating mechanism.

• Plugin integration into the editor.

• Complete integration with the Asset API including moderation tools.

• Login and register for access to repositories.

• Support for paid assets.

Known Issues

• The code is currently changing so new issues will pop up often.

• Searching is broken.

• Logging doesn't write to file.

License

See the LICENSE.md file.