Packs: the whole stick in one file

Like MediCat’s download, a pack is one file with every tool in it, ready to extract onto a stick. It’s made from your cache, so it includes your bring-your-own tools and the Ventoy installer, and a new stick needs no internet:

./helix fetch                                 # bring everything up to date
./helix pack                                  # → helix-boot-<version>-<date>.zip
./install.sh --from helix-boot-<version>-<date>.zip # new stick
./refresh.sh --from helix-boot-<version>-<date>.zip # update a stick

./helix pack --public makes a pack you can share: only the tools anyone can download, without your own files, your additions in local.toml, or your icons and splash. --split also cuts a pack into 2 GiB pieces in a folder beside it, with a checksum and a script that joins them, checks the result and starts the installer: for uploading or sending one.

The pack carries its own installer, so on another Linux PC the zip is all you need:

unzip helix-boot-<version>-<date>.zip 'installer/*'   # a few MB
installer/install.sh                               # finds the zip beside it

On Windows, take installer\HelixBoot.exe out of the zip, keep it next to the zip and run it: the window picks the pack up on its own (Tools from: a pack), and Install or Update copy everything from it, Ventoy included, with no downloads. A pack holds both Ventoy packages (Linux and Windows) and the latest released HelixBoot.exe, each checked against its published checksum.

Inside is the stick exactly as helix sync lays it out, with boot images stored uncompressed and each one’s sha256 recorded: the boot images, the apps, the Mac tools, every theme preset and your own icons and splash. Extracting streams files straight onto the stick and checks every image, so a damaged pack is caught, not booted. A stick filled from a pack refreshes normally afterwards, keeps the look it had, and keeps tools the pack doesn’t have (why).