An asdf plugin that manages TigerVNC Java Viewer versions

This plugin extends asdf with the ability to manage versions of the TigerVNC Java Viewer, released upstream as jar files.

Usage

For each jar version, the plugin will download it, then create a bin folder with a shell script named vncviewer (this was named tigervnc in v0.1.x) that wraps a call to the jar file, passing it any additional parameters. This wrapper will be automatically picked by asdf and added to the shims.

Installing a version requires common POSIX tools like sed, grep, tr. Running a version will additionally require a JRE to run java. The wrapper scripts picks java from the PATH, so it may well be an asdf shim and thus the Java version can be controlled via asdf environment variables.

Desktop integration

Since the viewer is a GUI app, it may be useful to integrate it with the DE via a menu entry. Two additional, optional commands, can do this:

• integrate creates a .desktop file for every installed viewer version. Each version also gets its own copy of the icon, to avoid having to track the last user before deleting it. Since v0.1.2, it is also possible to specify a version to integrate:

  # Integrate all installed versions
  asdf tigervnc-java-viewer integrate
  # Integrate just 1.2.3
  asdf tigervnc-java-viewer integrate 1.2.3

  Desktop integration is idemptotent: calling the command multiple times simply recreates identical files.

• unintegrate deletes all icons and desktop files belonging to the viewers. The deletion is done by name matching, so it will also clear entries for versions that have been uninstalled. Since v0.1.2, it is also possible to specify a version to unintegrate:

  # Unintegrate all versions and clean potential leftovers
  asdf tigervnc-java-viewer unintegrate
  # Unintegrate just 1.2.3
  asdf tigervnc-java-viewer unintegrate 1.2.3

Since v0.1.2, uninstalling a version, or removing the plugin, will automatically remove the corresponding desktop entries.

TigerVNC hosting vs plugin versions

v0.1.x

All TigerVNC Java Viewer versions are grabbed from BinTray. This service has been deprecated and will be shut down, with the deadline being May 1st 2021. After that date you must upgrade to at least v0.2.0 to be able to download files.

v0.2.x

After BinTray retirement, but before the TigerVNC developers decided where to store releases, GitHub user accetto stepped up and created a distribution mirror to host a subset of the TigerVNC binaries, The v0.2.x branch of this plugin uses this repository to fetch the viewer.

This will limit the available versions to what is available in that repo. Currently, this means v1.8.0 and above.

v0.3.x

SourceForge is the new official home of TigerVNC artifacts, and it includes all versions that were available at BinTray.

TL;DR

asdf plugin add tigervnc-java-viewer https://github.com/binary-manu/asdf-tigervnc-java-viewer.git
asdf install tigervnc-java-viewer latest
# Optional, for desktop integration
asdf tigervnc-java-viewer integrate