pacapt - An ArchLinux's pacman-like wrapper for many package managers

pacapt is a 56KB shell wrapper for many package managers. Simply install package with pacapt -S htop or pacapt install htop on any Linux, BSD, OpenWrt or Mac OS machines. It supports the following package managers:

• pacman from Arch Linux-based systems, ArchBang, Manjaro, etc.
• apt-cyg from Cygwin (via apt-cyg)
• apt-get from Debian, Ubuntu, etc.
• homebrew from Mac OS X
• macports from Mac OS X
• yum/rpm from Redhat, CentOS, Fedora, Oracle Linux, etc.
• portage from Gentoo
• zypper from OpenSUSE
• pkgng from FreeBSD
• cave from Exherbo Linux
• pkg_tools from OpenBSD
• sun_tools from Solaris(SunOS)
• apk from Alpine Linux
• opkg from OpenWrt
• tazpkg from SliTaz Linux
• swupd from Clear Linux
• xbps from Void Linux
• tlmgr from TeX Live
• conda from Conda

TOC

• Description
• Installation
  • Install the stable script from Github
• Usage
  • Basic operations
  • Basic options
  • Implemented operations
• Related projects
• Similar projects
• Development
  • General steps
• License
• Authors and Contributors

Installation

This script shouldn't be installed on an Arch-based system. On cave-based system, bash is required.

Install the stable script from Github

You can download the stable script and make it executable. On non-Arch-based system, you may use pacman as script name instead of pacapt.

$ sudo wget -O /usr/local/bin/pacapt https://github.com/icy/pacapt/raw/ng/pacapt
$ sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/pacapt
$ sudo ln -sv /usr/local/bin/pacapt /usr/local/bin/pacman || true

If you have curl and want some interesting output:

# WARNING: Don't do this on Arch-based system!
$ curl -Lo /usr/bin/pacman https://github.com/icy/pacapt/raw/ng/pacapt
$ chmod 755 /usr/bin/pacman

For non-system package manager, you need to create symbolic links

$ ln -s /usr/local/bin/pacapt /usr/local/bin/pacapt-tlmgr
$ ln -s /usr/local/bin/pacapt /usr/local/bin/pacapt-conda

You can also use shorter links:

$ ln -s /usr/local/bin/pacapt /usr/local/bin/p-tlmgr
$ ln -s /usr/local/bin/pacapt /usr/local/bin/p-conda

noting the suffix (e.g., -tlmgr, -conda) is mandatory.

Usage

Basic operations

For system package manager

• Update package database: pacapt -Sy, or pacapt update
• Install a package: pacapt -S foo, or pacapt install foo
• Search a package: pacapt -Ss foo, or pacapt search foo
• Remove a package: pacapt -R foo, or pacapt remove foo
• Upgrade system: pacapt -Su, or pacapt upgrade
• Remove orphans: pacapt -Sc, or pacapt autoremove foo
• Clean up: pacapt -Scc or pacapt -Sccc, or pacapt clean

For non-system package manager: Similar as above, however you need to call correct script name, e.g.,

• Install a Conda package: pacapt-conda -S foo
• Remove a Conda package: pacapt-conda -R foo

Basic options

See also https://github.com/icy/pacapt/blob/ng/lib/help.txt.

Some basic command line options

• -h (--help): Print help message;
• -P: Print list of supported operations;
• -V: Print script version

Some popular options of the original ArchLinux's pacman program are supported and listed in the table in the next section.

A long list of options and operations can be found from ArchLinux's wiki.

Implemented operations

           Q Qc Qe Qi Qk Ql Qm Qo Qp Qs Qu R Rn Rns Rs S Sc Scc Sccc Sg Si Sii Sl Ss Su Suy Sy U
      apk  ~     *  *     *     *     *  * *  *   *  * *  *   *    *     *   *  *  *  *   *  * *
  apt_cyg  *        *     *                *           *                           *         *
     cave  *        *     *     *  *  *  * *  *   *  * *  *   *    x     *         *  *   *  * x
    conda  *                    *          *           *  *              *         *      *
      dnf  ~  *  *  *     *  *  *  *  *  * *           *  *   *    *  *  *   *  *  *  *   *  * *
     dpkg  ~  *  *  *  *  *     *  *  *  * *  *   *  ~ *  *   *    *  *  *   *     *  *   *  * *
 homebrew  *  *     *     *           *  * *           *  *   *    *     *         *  *   *  *
 macports     *           *     *        * *         ~ *  *   *          *         *  *   *  *
     opkg  *        *     *     *     *  * *           *                 *   *     *  *      * *
    pkgng  *        *     *     *  *     * *         * *  *   *          *         *  *   *  *
pkg_tools  ~        *     *     *  *     * *  *   *  ~ *  *   x          *      *  ~  *   *  x
  portage  *  *     *     *     *        * *         * *  *   *    *     *         *  *   *  *
sun_tools  *        *     *     *     *    *                                                   *
    swupd  *        *  *        *     *    *           *  *   *                    *  *   *  *
   tazpkg  *        *     *     *          *           *  *   *                    *  *   *  * *
    tlmgr           *  *  *                *           *                 *      *  *      *    *
     xbps  *     *  *     *     *     *    *           *      *                    *  *   *  *
      yum  *  *  *  *     *  *  *  *  *  * *         * *  *   *    *  *  *   *     *  *   *  * *
   zypper  *  *     *     *  *  *  *  *  * *  *   *  * *  *   *    *  *  *   *  *  *  *   *  * *

Notes:

• *: Implemented;
• ~: Implemented. Some options may not supported/implemented;
• x: Operation is not supported by Operating system;
• The table is generated from source. Please don't update it manually.

Related projects

• batch-pacapt: An Arch's pacman-like package manager for Windows
• node-pacapt: A node.js wrapper of pacapt + batch-pacapt
• pacapt's nd branch: A rewrite in Dlang, now deprecated.
• pacapt-py: A proof of concept in Python to provide pacapt-like experience to Homebrew.
• pacapt-go: A more complete rewrite in Go, now lives in the go-dev branch of pacaptr as legacy code.

Similar projects

• sysget is a front-end for every package manager, written in C++. It provides some basic features to manipulate packages on your system.
• pacaptr was originally started as a Rust port of this project (pacapt) (See also #126), now it's growing with their own new features and support.

Development

General steps

Make sure you read some instructions in CONTRIBUTING.md.

A development script can be compiled from the source code.

$ git clone https://github.com/icy/pacapt.git
$ cd pacapt

# switch to development branch
$ git checkout ng

# compile the script
$ ./bin/compile.sh > pacapt.dev

# check if syntax is good
$ bash -n pacapt.dev

$ sudo install -m755 ./pacapt.dev /usr/local/bin/pacapt

Please read the sample Makefile for some details.

License

This work is released under the terms of Fair license (http://opensource.org/licenses/fair).

AUTHORS. CONTRIBUTORS

Many people have contributed to the project by sending pull requests and/or reporting on the ticket system. Here is an incomplete list of authors and contributors.

• 10sr (@10sr)
• Alexander Dupuy (@dupuy)
• Anh K. Huynh (@icy)
• Antony Lee (@anntzer)
• Alex Lyon (@Arcterus)
• Álvaro Mondéjar (@mondeja)
• Carl X. Su (@bcbcarl)
• Cuong Manh Le (@Gnouc)
• Daniel YC Lin (@dlintw)
• Danny George (@dangets)
• Darshit Shah (@darnir)
• Dmitry Kudriavtsev (@dkudriavtsev)
• Eric Crosson (@EricCrosson)
• Evan Relf (@evanrelf)
• GijsTimmers (@GijsTimmers)
• Hà-Dương Nguyễn (@cmpitg)
• Huy Ngô (@NgoHuy)
• James Pearson (@xiongchiamiov)
• Janne Heß (@dasJ)
• Jiawei Zhou (@4679)
• Karol Blazewicz
• Kevin Brubeck (@unhammer)
• Konrad Borowski (@xfix)
• Kylie McClain (@somasis)
• Gen Li (@Rami3L)
• Valerio Pizzi (@Pival81)
• Siôn Le Roux (@sinisterstuf)
• Tabulate (@TabulateJarl8)
• Thiago Perrotta (@thiagowfx)
• Vojtech Letal (@letalvoj)