Discussion: Cortex.cpp installation & uninstallation

[namchuai]

Motivation
Couple of options:

1. via Package managers (brew, winget, launchpad, etc.)

• Pros:
  • Easy to update (maybe?) just provide package manager team
  • Easy for acquire user? (like just running brew install cortexcpp or something like that)
• Cons:
  • Take long time for new version come out
  • Hard (or impossible) to choose a place to install binary/files (not entirely sure. Open for discussion)

2. self hosted

• Pros:
  • Not being constrained by Package managers
  • Shorter time to market
  • Easy to have multiple variants (stable, beta, nightly)
  • Let user decide where to store files. More managable?
• Cons:
  • Have to handle upgrade ourselves
  • User acquisition is more difficult?

3. Hmm, both?

Related Issues

• feat: Jan has a portable / non install version jan#2643
• Discussion: Cortex.cpp Uninstallation #775
• feat: Jan support Steam Deck jan#3360

[hiento09]

Installer:

• Windows
  • Format: .exe
  • Binary location:
    • Stable: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\cortex\cortex.exe
    • Beta: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\cortex-beta\cortex-beta.exe
    • Nighty: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\cortex-nightly\cortex-nightly.exe
  • Configuration file:
    • Stable: C:\Users\<username>\.cortexrc
    • Beta: C:\Users\<username>\.cortexrc-beta
    • Nighty: C:\Users\<username>\.cortexrc-nightly
  • Data folder (contains engines, models, logs)
    • Stable: C:\Users\<username>\.cortexcpp
    • Beta: C:\Users\<username>\.cortexcpp-beta
    • Nighty: C:\Users\<username>\.cortexcpp-nightly
• Linux:
  • Format: .deb
  • Binary location:
    • Stable: /usr/bin/cortex
    • Beta: /usr/bin/cortex-beta
    • Nighty: /usr/bin/cortex-nightly
  • Configuration file:
    • Stable: /home/<username>/.cortexrc
    • Beta: /home/<username>/.cortexrc-beta
    • Nighty: /home/<username>/.cortexrc-nightly
  • Data folder (contains engines, models, logs)
    • Stable: /home/<username>/.cortex
    • Beta: /home/<username>/.cortexcpp-beta
    • Nighty: /home/<username>/.cortexcpp-nightly
• Macos:
  • Format: .pkg
  • Binary location:
    • Stable: /usr/local/bin/cortex
    • Beta: /usr/local/bin/cortex-beta
    • Nighty: /usr/local/bin/cortex-nightly
  • Configuration file:
    • Stable: /Users/<username>/.cortexrc
    • Beta: /Users/<username>/.cortexrc-beta
    • Nighty: /Users/<username>/.cortexrc-nightly
  • Data folder (contains engines, models, logs)
    • Stable: /Users/<username>/.cortexcpp
    • Beta: /Users/<username>/.cortexcpp-beta
    • Nighty: /Users/<username>/.cortexcpp-nightly

[freelerobot]

@hiento09 I spot some inconsistencies in your folder/file naming vs #1040

[hiento09]

@hiento09 I spot some inconsistencies in your folder/file naming vs #1040

I just edited my comment base on this comment https://github.com/janhq/cortex/issues/1040#issuecomment-2327938276 from @dan-homebrew