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tea install

To install node:
$ tea install node
installed: ~/.local/bin/node
Installations are just stubs that precisely specify what version of tools you want:
$ cat ~/.local/bin/node
#!/bin/sh
exec tea +nodejs.org=20.5.1 node "$@"
Indeed, we only install one file to the system environment. Packages cache to ~/.tea, if you were to delete ~/.tea the installed shim would still work.
Because tea install operates via a tea shim, only the tools you install become available to the system environment. Open source is complex and tools can have hundreds of dependencies. With tea you don’t pollute your system with these unwanted tools (thus avoiding a myriad of unexpected consequences).
All your tools have minimal surface area.

sudo tea install

If you invoke tea install with sudo we install to /usr/local/bin.
It would be insecure to store the package caches in userland (~/.tea) and tools would not work for multiple users anyway; so if you install with root we also cache the packages (root-owned ofc) in /usr/local/opt.

Installing the active environment

As a convenience tea install (unadorned) installs the active environment.
$ tea +node
(+node) $ tea install
installed: ~/.local/bin/node
$ tea -node
error: node is installed # installed items are removed from the environment
$ tea +node
error: node is installed
$ tea +node@20
error: node@20 is installed
$ tea +node@18
# ^^ this is ok since you didn’t install this version
(+node@18) $ node --version
v18.17.0

Controlling Installed Package Versions

tea install ruff@latest
Similarly:
tea install node@16

tea uninstall

$ tea install node
$ tea uninstall node
Last modified 20d ago