Where to install folder of a command-line app in macOS, to be available by default in my shell? [duplicate]

Question

tl;dr

Goal: Easily download zip file with a console app (and other files), execute it, and later replace it with updated version.

Details

When I want to download a console app, with a command-line interface, into what appropriate folder should I place it? I want the tool to be automatically present on the PATH.

I am not referring to the Apple developer tools from Xcode. I am asking about third-party tools such as Microsoft Kiota.

From what little I know about other Unix-oriented operating systems such as FreeBSD, /opt is the usual place for added third-party apps not controlled by the OS. I added a /opt to my macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 machine. I can explicitly run the console app from there. But that location does not seem to be on the PATH automatically.

I tried /usr/local and /usr/local/bin. But no go. Executing kiota --version results in "kiota not found".

I found /usr/local/bin existing on my Mac. Several exiting items are found there, all related to Docker (presumably from my install of Docker Desktop app). All of those items are reported by the Finder.app as being "Alias", though I suspect they are actually symlinks. Using "Show original" in the Finder for those Docker items takes me to a folder nested within the GUI Mac app Docker.app. Placing my Kiota folder hierarchy within usr/local/bin does not result in putting kiota on the default PATH in Terminal.app, even after a system restart.

Workarounds

One workaround is to give up on the convenience of PATH. Drag and drop the kiota from any folder into the Terminal.app window. The tool then executes successfully:

/usr/local/Kiota/osx-arm64/kiota --version

1.14.0+fc4b39c65d89f7bfc8c7f1813c197e95e206da09

(1.14.0 is indeed expected, and correct.)

Another workaround is to manually add to the values within the PATH environment variable. But… the entire point of my Question is to avoid manipulating the PATH explicitly. As far as I know, all other Unix-oriented OSes such as BSD & Linux offer a default place for third-party console apps. I would expect the same in macOS.

Non-workarounds

Putting an alias (File > Make Alias in the Finder) of the kiota executable into /usr/local/bin does not work, even after system restart. which kiota results in "kiota not found".

Answer 1

macOS doesn‘t automagically organize /usr/local for you.

You can do one of the following, depending on the actual need:

• Put the binaries or scripts directly into /usr/local/bin,
• Put the package into its own directory (under /opt, /usr/local/opt or wherever you prefer), and run cd /usr/local/bin; sudo ln -s /path/to/package/bin/* . (Finder aliases are not symlinks and can't be used here). This only works if the binaries introduced by the package have unique names,
• Add the whole package to /opt and the additional bin directories to /etc/paths.d/name-of-package.

Unless the package name/directory includes a version number, symlinking (option 2) or editing /etc/paths.d/name-of-package (option 3) need to be done only once.

PS: The second option is basically what Homebrew does.

Answer 2

Kiota is available as a Homebrew package. This is documented on the Microsoft product page you linked. All of the decisions you are trying to get to grips with are handled for you, all taking into account the differences required by whatever Mac architecture you are using.

Path manipulation is inevitable, but brew will provide a standardised location that it can manage for you, once installed properly. Note that brew will require a one-off change to ~/.zprofile to set the paths.

With brew installed:

brew install kiota

Answer 3

Kiota contains four files including the command line program Kiota

To install just copy all of the programs into /usr/local/bin - with no Kiota directory.

What is needed here is to get the Kiota command line executable info /usr/local/bin

Answer 4

Another possibility is to put the binary wherever and define an alias to it in your shell. The latter part would need to be done for every user/shell combination. However, unless the binary is placed in a directory already covered by PATH, one has to iterate over all users, anyway.

Caveat: if the binary in question calls other binaries, they typically would need to be in PATH. Aliases will not work in that case, because they are shell only.

Answer 5

The usual place is inside /usr/local/

But you can of course add extra locations to $PATH.

The Kiota download comes with four files: one executable and 3 support files. You should put all of them in a folder anywhere, and then create a symlink to the executable inside /usr/local/bin/, so that the executable can be called from standard $PATH.