Would love to be able to just Install-Module directly from e.g. GitHub

[jazzdelightsme]

Summary of the new feature / enhancement

Some modules are super simple. Even "complex" modules don't necessarily really need to have a NuGet package. I would love to be able to do something like Install-Module https://github.com/jazzdelightsme/ConsoleBouncer. Why bother setting up all the infrastructure necessary to distribute a versioned thing (PSGallery/NuGet), when we already have all the infrastructure necessary to distribute a versioned thing (GitHub)?

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

No response

[ThomasNieto]

How would you see this implemented? There is no standard for repository layout. Then there is the issue with module dependencies.

For your example, I think it could be accomplished as a simple script outside of the module to download the repository and copy it to the PSModulePath.

[jazzdelightsme]

Thanks for asking, Thomas! I have not gone so far as to come up with a design. But:

There is no standard for repository layout.

Correct, but I don't know that one is needed. If you look at that repository, you will see that it is just a PowerShell module, complete with .psd1--that should be everything that is needed.

(Now, that URL is actually a web page, not a module; but GH is a common-enough place, it should probably just be recognized for what it is. As for other possible "raw URL" sources... maybe you don't point people at the repo; maybe you point at a specific release/.zip/download url. Like I said: I have not designed this; I am just suggesting that "Install-Module https://some/url" would be a nice reduction of work for module authors (deal with just one set of infrastructure instead of two), and should be doable (the information is there).)

I can see how module dependencies would be a problem: if the module declares a dependency on module "Foo", how to know where to get it? I can imagine several ways of dealing with that: 1) sorry; "raw URL" modules can't auto-install dependencies for you; or 2) we could allow dependencies on modules that can be looked up by name (so that simple "leaf-level" modules that live purely on GH can depend on established, "well-known" published packages); or 3) define a way for module dependencies to actually say where they should come from (like in the PSData). We could start with option 1, and move on from there if the feature is popular.

[SydneyhSmith]

We support GitHub packages as an option so if you publish your package to your GH feed you can use PSResourceGet to install it, today we need some sort of API to install against, additionally we typically only install built/published packages