Overview

Concepts¶

The purpose of bring is to copy files and file-sets onto the local system, in a reliable, replicable way. The three main concepts to understand in regards to bring are:

package

A package is a specific file or file-set, usually versioned in some way (via git, releases, etc.). In most cases, a package is uniquely identified by an index name (see below) and the package name as the right-most part of the string: [index.name.space].[package_name], e.g. gitlab.tingistries.binaries.

indexes

An index is a list that contains metadata for one or several packages, usually of one category (single-file binaries, templates, etc...) or otherwise belonging together.
Indexes can be of different types, the most common ones will be pointing to git repositories on GitLab/GitHub/etc in the form of [service_name.user_name.repo_name], e.g. gitlab.tingistries.binaries. In addition, the indexes that are included in bring usually have single-name aliases (e.g. binaries).

contexts

Sets of indexes and other configuration values are managed within so-called contexts; by default bring uses a pre-defined default context that comes with a set of indexes which are deemed of interest for a general audience. Like for example the binaries index, which lets you install single-file executables.