What is Meta Package Manager?

• snapshots every package on your machine to one file, and restores it on a new one
• provides the mpm CLI, a wrapper around all package managers
• mpm is like yt-dlp, but for package managers instead of videos
• mpm solves XKCD #1654 - Universal Install Script

Features

• Snapshot installed packages to a TOML manifest or a Brewfile, across every manager at once, with mpm dump packages.toml:
• Restore that manifest on the next machine with mpm restore packages.toml, and get the same set of packages back.
• Inventory and list all package managers available on the system:
• Runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, illumos and Solaris, with standalone executables for the first three.
• List installed packages:
• List duplicate installed packages.
• Search for packages.
• Install a package.
• Remove a package.
• List outdated packages, with the differing part of each version picked out in color, so a patch bump reads apart from a major one at a glance:
• List orphaned packages.
• Sync local package infos.
• Diagnose the health of package managers.
• Upgrade all outdated packages from every manager at once, the primary use case of mpm and the main reason I built it, since 70% of vulnerabilities lie in outdated libraries. A manager that fails is marked ✘ and named in a closing summary, while the others carry on:
• Get a report of what each command changed at the end of install, remove, upgrade, restore and cleanup --orphans: every package upgraded, downgraded, installed, removed, held back by the cooldown or still outdated, with its versions.
• Mitigate supply-chain attacks with a release-age cooldown that refuses any version published more recently than a threshold. A manager that cannot enforce the window is skipped, rather than run unguarded:
• Software Bill of Materials: export installed packages to SPDX and CycloneDX SBOM files.
• Pin-point commands to a subset of package managers (include/exclude selectors).
• Support plain, versioned and purl package specifiers.
• Export output to JSON or user-friendly tables.
• Shell auto-completion for Bash, Zsh and Fish.
• A SwiftBar/Xbar plugin in the macOS menu bar, and a GNOME Shell extension on Linux: both list the outdated packages of every manager on the system, and upgrade them from the menu.
• Because mpm tries to wrap all other package managers, it became another pathological case of XKCD #927: Standards

Supported package managers

One CLI to rule them all.

mpm runs them concurrently unless they share the same backend.

am · antidote · antigen · antigravity-cli-plugins · apk · apm · app-manager · apt · apt-cyg · apt-mint · aptitude · asdf · aura · basalt · bin · bob · bpkg · brew · bun · cargo · cask · cave · choco · choosenim · chromebrew · claude-code-plugins · clib · composer · conda · cpan · deb-get · dkp-pacman · dnf · dnf5 · dotnet · elan · emacs · emerge · eopkg · fink · fisher · flatpak · fwupd · gcloud · gem · getnf · gext · gh-ext · ghcup · go · guix · gup · haxelib · hyprpm · ips · jpm · julia · juliaup · krew · lazy · luarocks · lure · macports · mamba · mas · mason · micro · microdnf · micromamba · miktex · mise · nala · nimble · nix · npm · oh-my-fish · ollama · opam · opkg · pacaur · pacman · pacstall · pamac · paru · pear · pearl · pi · pikaur · pip · pipx · pipxu · pixi · pkcon · pkg · pkg-tools · pkgin · pkgit · pkgm · platformio-core · pnpm · ports · protonplus · prt-get · pwsh-gallery · pyenv · raco · roswell · rustup · scoop · sdkman · sfsu · sheldon · shelly · skills · slapt-get · snap · soar · sorcery · spack · steamcmd · stew · sun-tools · swupd · tazpkg · tlmgr · topgrade · trizen · urpmi · uv · uvx · vagrant · vcpkg · vim-pack · volta · vscode · vscodium · whalebrew · winget · xbps · xcodes · yarn · yarn-berry · yay · yazi · yum · zef · zerobrew · zeroinstall · zim · zinit · zplug · zvm · zypper

mpm also reuses topgrade when present on the system to extend its mpm upgrade --all operation to extra runtimes, shell plugins and OS updaters. Other unsupported managers are catalogued in the docs.

Installation

All installation methods are available in the documentation.

uv

mpm is distributed on PyPI, so uv installs it on Linux, macOS and Windows alike:

$ uv tool install meta-package-manager

To try mpm without installing anything, run uvx meta-package-manager instead.

Homebrew

mpm is part of the official Homebrew default tap, bottled for macOS and Linux, so you can install it with:

$ brew install meta-package-manager

MacPorts

mpm is also available on MacPorts:

$ sudo port install meta-package-manager

Scoop

mpm is available in the main repository of Scoop, so on Windows you just need to:

> scoop install main/meta-package-manager

Executables

Standalone binaries of mpm latest version are available as direct downloads for several platforms and architectures:

Useful for CI/CD pipelines running on minimal images, or old platforms where dependency management is painful.

Used in

Check these projects to get real-life examples of mpm usage:

• Dotfiles - macOS dotfiles for Python developers, using mpm to manage system packages.

Feel free to send a PR to add your project in this list if you are relying on mpm in any way.

Usage

Other subcommands and options are documented in:

• the detailed help screens
• the manager augmentations where you’ll find inspiration on how to leverage mpm power