What is Meta Package Manager?

• 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

• Inventory and list all package managers available on the system.
• Supports macOS, Linux and Windows.
• Standalone executables for Linux, macOS and Windows.
• List installed packages.
• List duplicate installed packages.
• Search for packages.
• Install a package.
• Remove a package.
• List outdated packages.
• Sync local package infos.
• Upgrade all outdated packages.
• Backup list of installed packages to TOML file.
• Restore/install list of packages from TOML 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 print user-friendly tables.
• Shell auto-completion for Bash, Zsh and Fish.
• Provides a Xbar/SwiftBar plugin for friendly macOS integration.
• Because mpm try to wrap all other package managers, it became another pathological case of XKCD #927: Standards

Supported package managers and operations

[^bsd_without_macos]: BSD: FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, SunOS.

[^linux]: Linux: Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux v2.

[^unix]: Unix: AIX, Cygwin, GNU/Hurd, Solaris, Windows Subsystem for Linux v1.

Note: Missing manager

If your favorite manager is missing or does not support an operation, you can influence its implementation: open a ticket to document its output or read the contribution guide and submit a pull request.

I can do that work for you if you purchase business support 🤝 or sponsor the project 🫶.

Installation

All installation methods are available in the documentation.

Below are the most popular ones:

macOS

mpm is part of the official Homebrew default tap, so you can install it with:

$ brew install meta-package-manager

Windows

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

> scoop install main/meta-package-manager

From sources

pipx is the cleanest way to install mpm from sources on any platform:

$ pipx install meta-package-manager

Executables

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

Quickstart

List installed packages

List all packages installed on current system:

$ mpm installed
╭─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┬─────────┬────────────────────╮
│ Package name                │ ID                          │ Manager │ Installed version  │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
│ github                      │ github                      │ apm     │ 0.36.9             │
│ update-package-dependencies │ update-package-dependencies │ apm     │ 0.13.1             │
│ rust                        │ rust                        │ brew    │ 1.55.0             │
│ x264                        │ x264                        │ brew    │ r3060              │
│ atom                        │ atom                        │ cask    │ 1.58.0             │
│ visual-studio-code          │ visual-studio-code          │ cask    │ 1.52.0             │
│ nokogiri                    │ nokogiri                    │ gem     │ x86_64-darwin      │
│ rake                        │ rake                        │ gem     │ 13.0.3             │
│ iMovie                      │ 408981434                   │ mas     │ 10.2.5             │
│ Telegram                    │ 747648890                   │ mas     │ 8.1                │
│ npm                         │ npm                         │ npm     │ 7.24.0             │
│ raven                       │ raven                       │ npm     │ 2.6.4              │
│ jupyterlab                  │ jupyterlab                  │ pip     │ 3.1.14             │
│ Sphinx                      │ Sphinx                      │ pip     │ 4.2.0              │
│ ms-python.python            │ ms-python.python            │ vscode  │ 2021.10.1317843341 │
│ ms-toolsai.jupyter          │ ms-toolsai.jupyter          │ vscode  │ 2021.9.1001312534  │
╰─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┴─────────┴────────────────────╯
16 packages total (brew: 2, pip: 2, apm: 2, gem: 2, cask: 2, mas: 2, vscode: 2, npm: 2, composer: 0).

List outdated packages

List all packages installed for which an upgrade is available:

$ mpm outdated
╭──────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬───────────────────┬────────────────╮
│ Package name │ ID          │ Manager │ Installed version │ Latest version │
├──────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼───────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ curl         │ curl        │ brew    │ 7.79.1            │ 7.79.1_1       │
│ git          │ git         │ brew    │ 2.33.0            │ 2.33.0_1       │
│ openssl@1.1  │ openssl@1.1 │ brew    │ 1.1.1l            │ 1.1.1l_1       │
│ rake         │ rake        │ gem     │ 13.0.3            │ 13.0.6         │
│ Telegram     │ 747648890   │ mas     │ 8.1               │ 8.1.3          │
│ npm          │ npm@8.0.0   │ npm     │ 7.24.0            │ 8.0.0          │
│ pip          │ pip         │ pip     │ 21.2.4            │ 21.3           │
│ regex        │ regex       │ pip     │ 2021.9.30         │ 2021.10.8      │
╰──────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴───────────────────┴────────────────╯
8 packages total (brew: 3, pip: 2, gem: 1, mas: 1, npm: 1, apm: 0, cask: 0, composer: 0).

List managers

If you wonder why your package manager doesn't seems to be identified, you can list all those recognized by mpm with:

$ mpm --all-managers managers
╭────────────┬────────────────────┬────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬────────────┬───────────╮
│ Manager ID │ Name               │ Supported      │ CLI                          │ Executable │ Version   │
├────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────┤
│ apm        │ Atom's apm         │ ✓              │ ✘ apm not found              │            │           │
│ apt        │ APT                │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✓ /usr/bin/apt               │ ✓          │ ✘         │
│ apt-mint   │ Linux Mint's apt   │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✓ /usr/bin/apt               │ ✓          │ ✘         │
│ brew       │ Homebrew Formulae  │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/brew     │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.6.3   │
│ cargo      │ Rust's cargo       │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/cargo    │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.64.0  │
│ cask       │ Homebrew Cask      │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/brew     │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.6.3   │
│ choco      │ Chocolatey         │ ✘ Windows only │ ✘ choco not found            │            │           │
│ composer   │ PHP's Composer     │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/composer │ ✓          │ ✓ 2.4.2   │
│ dnf        │ DNF                │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ dnf not found              │            │           │
│ emerge     │ Emerge             │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ emerge not found           │            │           │
│ flatpak    │ Flatpak            │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ flatpak not found          │            │           │
│ gem        │ Ruby Gems          │ ✓              │ ✓ /usr/bin/gem               │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.0.3.1 │
│ mas        │ Mac AppStore       │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/mas      │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.8.6   │
│ npm        │ Node's npm         │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/npm      │ ✓          │ ✓ 8.19.2  │
│ opkg       │ OPKG               │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ opkg not found             │            │           │
│ pacman     │ Pacman             │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ pacman not found           │            │           │
│ paru       │ Paru               │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ paru not found             │            │           │
│ pip        │ Pip                │ ✓              │ ✓ ~/.pyenv/shims/python3     │ ✓          │ ✓ 22.2.2  │
│ pipx       │ Pipx               │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/pipx     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.1.0   │
│ scoop      │ Scoop              │ ✘ Windows only │ ✘ scoop not found            │            │           │
│ snap       │ Snap               │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ snap not found             │            │           │
│ steamcmd   │ Valve Steam        │ ✓              │ ✘ steamcmd not found         │            │           │
│ vscode     │ Visual Studio Code │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/code     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.71.2  │
│ yarn       │ Node's yarn        │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/yarn     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.22.19 │
│ yay        │ Yay                │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ yay not found              │            │           │
│ yum        │ YUM                │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ yum not found              │            │           │
│ zypper     │ Zypper             │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ zypper not found           │            │           │
╰────────────┴────────────────────┴────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴────────────┴───────────╯

If your favorite manager is not supported yet, you can help! See the contribution guide.

Usage

Other subcommands and options are documented in:

• the detailed help screens
• the list of use-cases where you’ll find inspiration on how to leverage mpm power

[^bsd_without_macos]: BSD: FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, SunOS.

[^linux]: Linux: Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux v2.

[^unix]: Unix: AIX, Cygwin, GNU/Hurd, Solaris, Windows Subsystem for Linux v1.