Ansible playbook install script for Rust, Rust Analyzer and Helix with Kitty desktop integration

[David-Else]

I have created this script, it may help other people. Now you can install Rust and Helix master branch at the press of a button :)

Please suggest any improvements. At the moment you can pin it to any commit in master, but you could easily remove that feature. Would this be useful in the documentation or maybe in the repo?

NOTE: The official desktop file doesn't seem to work any more on Debian 12 (although I can find nothing wrong with it), so I made my own that works with Kitty out of the box.

NOTE: It skips installing Helix if you have Rust installed. The script could probably be made more logical if it were to be made more general purpose. It is currently designed to be ran once when setting up your computer for the first time and then skip steps that have been done already if ran again.

- name: Install Rust and Helix with desktop integration
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    helix_src_folder: "{{ ansible_facts['user_dir'] }}/src/helix"
    helix_config_folder: "{{ ansible_facts['user_dir'] }}/.config/helix"
    helix_git_version: "4229583631e0aedf6571e0479f574b5efd2eb98a"
  tasks:
    - name: Clone Helix editor from GitHub
      ansible.builtin.git:
        repo: https://github.com/helix-editor/helix
        dest: "{{ helix_src_folder }}"
        version: "{{ helix_git_version }}"
        clone: true
        update: false
      register: helix_cloned

    - name: Install the latest stable rust, rust-analyzer and helix
      ansible.builtin.shell: >
        curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y
        && . "{{ ansible_facts['user_dir'] }}/.cargo/env"
        && rustup component add rust-analyzer
        && cargo install --locked --path "{{ helix_src_folder }}/helix-term"
      args:
        creates: "{{ ansible_facts['user_dir'] }}/.cargo/env"

    - name: Setup Helix
      when: helix_cloned.changed
      block:
        - name: Create Helix editor config symlink
          ansible.builtin.file:
            src: "{{ helix_src_folder }}/runtime"
            dest: "{{ helix_config_folder }}/runtime"
            state: link

        - name: Ensure the icons directory exists
          ansible.builtin.file:
            path: "{{ ansible_facts['user_dir'] }}/.icons"
            state: directory
            mode: "0755"

        - name: Copy Helix editor icons
          ansible.builtin.copy:
            src: "{{ helix_src_folder }}/contrib/helix.png"
            dest: "{{ ansible_facts['user_dir'] }}/.icons/helix.png"

        - name: Create Helix .desktop file
          ansible.builtin.copy:
            dest: "{{ ansible_facts['user_dir'] }}/.local/share/applications/helix.desktop"
            content: |
              [Desktop Entry]
              Version=1.0
              Type=Application
              Terminal=false
              Exec=kitty hx %F
              Name=Helix
              Comment=Open in Helix using the Kitty terminal
              Icon=helix
              Categories=Utility;TerminalEmulator;
              MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;

        - name: Update the desktop database
          ansible.builtin.command: update-desktop-database "{{ ansible_facts['user_dir'] }}/.local/share/applications"
          changed_when: false

[David-Else]

UPDATE! The reason the previous one did not always work was that the .desktop file needs an absolute link, this is the solution:

            content: |
              [Desktop Entry]
              Version=1.0
              Type=Application
              Terminal=false
              Exec={{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.local/kitty.app/bin/kitty {{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.cargo/bin/hx %F
              Name=Helix
              Comment=Open in Helix using the Kitty terminal
              Icon={{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.icons/helix.png
              Categories=Utility;TerminalEmulator;
              MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;text/html;application/toml;text/x-python;application/json;application/javascript;

This will likely be the case for any method of installing it, but I have not seen any error reports. Maybe nobody actually creates a .desktop file for themselves?

[markstos]

Thanks for this. One day I may automate installing Helix on servers I manage using Ansible, although that would just be downloading the the release binaries.