Packaging (.deb / .rpm / .msi)

Netdocs provides a workflow that builds native Linux packages of the netdocs CLI for Debian/Ubuntu (.deb) and RHEL/Fedora (.rpm), so users can install it with their system package manager, plus a Windows Installer package (.msi).

Installing

sudo dpkg -i netdocs_<version>_amd64.deb
# or
sudo apt install ./netdocs_<version>_amd64.deb
netdocs --help

sudo rpm -i netdocs-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm
# or
sudo dnf install ./netdocs-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm
netdocs --help

# per-user, no admin rights (adds netdocs to the user PATH)
msiexec /i netdocs-<version>-win-x64.msi
# machine-wide (elevated; adds netdocs to the system PATH)
msiexec /i netdocs-<version>-win-x64.msi ALLUSERS=1

The package installs the self-contained CLI (binary plus its theme/ templates and assets) under /opt/netdocs and symlinks /usr/bin/netdocs; no .NET runtime is required on the target machine.

How it's built

The workflow publishes a self-contained linux-x64 single-file binary and uses nfpm to produce both package formats from a single packaging/nfpm.yaml manifest:

name: netdocs
arch: amd64
platform: linux
version: ${VERSION}
maintainer: Netdocs contributors
description: A fast, flexible static site generator in .NET (Material for MkDocs derivative).
license: MIT
contents:
  # The self-contained publish folder (binary + theme).
  - src: ./dist
    dst: /opt/netdocs
  - src: /opt/netdocs/netdocs
    dst: /usr/bin/netdocs
    type: symlink

Releasing

.github/workflows/packages.yml runs on version tags (v*) and on manual dispatch. It builds the binary, runs nfpm for deb and rpm, and attaches the packages to the GitHub Release (and as workflow artifacts).

The msi job then builds the Windows installer on a Windows runner from the published win-x64 binary with WiX Toolset, using packaging/msi/Netdocs.wxs. The package is dual-purpose (Scope="perUserOrMachine"): a per-user install goes to %LOCALAPPDATA% and appends to the user PATH, a per-machine install goes to Program Files and appends to the system PATH. The job installs and uninstalls the MSI in both modes as a smoke test before attaching it to the release. Upgrades replace the previous version within the same scope; switching scope means uninstalling the old one first.