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Both packages install a command named apostate. The Python package’s runs as apostate or python3 -m apostate. The Node package’s runs as npx apostate, or apostate when the package is installed globally. With both installed, apostate runs whichever comes first on PATH. They share the browser install in the cache directory, so installing with one serves the other.

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Global options

In the Python CLI, global options go before the command, as in apostate --cache-dir ./cache install. The Node CLI reads them anywhere on the line before a --.

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install

Downloads the browser archive for the target, checks its SHA-256 against the release manifest before opening it, extracts it into the cache, and prints the executable’s path. It then gives the browser a Widevine CDM, from a local Google Chrome or from Google’s component update service. When a browser is already installed or found in a well-known location, it downloads nothing and prints that path.

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path

Prints the path of the browser executable a launch would use, and installs it first when none is found. It does not install the Widevine CDM. A browser the package installed sits at <cache>/152.0.7977.83/<target>/install/, as chrome on Linux, chrome.exe on Windows and Chromium.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromium on macOS.

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info

Prints the install, discovery and manifest state as JSON, and never fails for a missing release. Run it when a launch downloads a browser you thought was installed. discovery.rejected says why each browser it found was passed over. The keys are the ones binary_info() and binaryInfo() return. The two CLIs differ in a few keys:

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clear

Deletes the install cache. In the Python CLI it deletes the whole cache directory, including the stored Widevine CDM. In the Node CLI, --target limits it to that target’s install.

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run

Runs the browser with the switches that follow --, installing it first when none is found and giving it a Widevine CDM when it has none. The browser owns the terminal, and its exit status is the command’s.
run passes the switches through unchanged. It adds no seed, locale, timezone, proxy handling or --no-first-run, which the packages’ launch functions add. Switches lists what to pass.
  • Python. The published 0.4.3 CLI needs the --. Without it, 0.4.3 prints its usage and exits with status 2. From 0.4.4 everything after run goes to the browser, with or without --. Every -- on the line is dropped in both versions.
  • Node. Everything after run goes to the browser, except the CLI’s own options (--cache-dir, --manifest, --target, --from, --force, --keep-archive, --version, -v, --help, -h), which the CLI reads wherever they are before a --. The first -- is dropped. apostate run --version prints the package version, and apostate run -- --version prints the browser’s.
With --user-data-dir=DIR among the switches, run also writes the Widevine CDM’s location into DIR on Linux.

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fonts install windows

Installs the families of the Windows persona’s core font pack into this user’s font directory, ~/.local/share/fonts/apostate-windows on Linux and ~/Library/Fonts/apostate-windows on macOS. Fonts explains why a Windows persona needs them.
  • Without --from, it clones github.com/MauCariApa-com/windows-11-fonts with git, so git must be installed.
  • --from DIR takes the fonts from a Windows Fonts folder instead.
  • It installs only files whose family is in the core pack, and removes other files an earlier version put in the directory.
  • On Linux it runs fc-cache -f, so fontconfig must be installed.
  • It then lists the core families the host still lacks.
  • On a Windows host it does nothing, because the fonts are already there.
From 0.4.4, it also downloads the Windows 11 Marlett, which the repository lacks, from the liblaf/fonts Win11 release. It reads only that file out of the release zip, about 80 KB, and installs it only when its SHA-256 matches. When that fails, it says so and installs the rest.

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fonts install macos

Installs the fonts that fonts export-macos wrote on a Mac into ~/.local/share/fonts/apostate-macos on a Linux host, and runs fc-cache -f. --from is required. On a Mac it does nothing. On Windows it fails.

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fonts export-macos

On a Mac, copies the system’s font files into DIR, one file per name. Copy DIR to the Linux host and run fonts install macos --from DIR there. It fails on any other OS.

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provision-drm

Python only.
Installs a Widevine CDM into this package’s browser now, replacing any it has, and prints the result as JSON. A launch does the same on its own when the browser has none. Unlike a launch, it fails when no CDM can be had. Widevine explains when to run it. On windows-x64 it also prints warning: Widevine has not been verified on windows-x64 yet on stderr. In Node, call provisionWidevine().

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Exit status

For run, the status is the browser’s. The Python CLI replaces its own process with the browser on Linux and macOS. The Node CLI exits with the browser’s status, or 1 when a signal ended it.

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Differences between the two CLIs