pacdef

multi-backend declarative package manager

Installation

Cargo

To install pacdef using cargo:

cargo install pacdef --git https://github.com/ripytide/pacdef

Use-case

pacdef allows the user to have consistent packages among multiple Linux machines and different backends by managing packages in group files. The idea is that (1) any package in the group files ("managed packages") will be installed explicitly, and (2) explicitly installed packages not found in any of the group files ("unmanaged packages") will be removed. The group files are maintained outside of pacdef by any VCS, like git.

If you work with multiple Linux machines and have asked yourself "Why do I have the program that I use every day on my other machine not installed here?", then pacdef is the tool for you.

Multi-Backend

pacdef is a sort of meta package manager in that it does not directly possess the functionality to install packages on your system, instead it provides a single standardised interface for a whole bunch of other non-meta package managers. See the Supported Backends section for a list of the currently supported backend package managers.

Declarative

pacdef is a declarative package manager, that means that you declare in .toml group files the packages you would like installed on your system and then run one of the pacdef commands which read these group files and then operate on your system to do some function such as install packages in your group files that are not present on your system yet (pacdef sync), or remove packages present on your system but not in your group files (pacdef clean).

Supported Backends

At the moment, supported backends are the following. Pull Requests for additional backends are welcome!

Config

# The pacdef config.toml file is expected in the
# XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pacdef directory (usually ~/.config/pacdef/config.toml)
# unless using the --config-dir cli option.

# To decide which group files are relevant for the current machine
# pacdef uses the machine's hostname in the hostname_groups table in
# the config file to get a list of group file names.

# Since pacman, yay and paru all operate on the same package database
# they are mutally exclusive and so you must pick which one you want
# pacdef to use.
# Examples include: "pacman", "paru", "yay"
# Default: "pacman"
arch_package_manager = "paru"

# Extra arguments passed to pacman when removing an arch package.
# Default: []
arch_rm_args = ["-ns"]

# Whether to install flatpak packages systemwide or for the current user.
# Default: true
flatpak_systemwide = true

# Backends to disable from all pacdef behavior. See the README.md for
# the list of backend names
# Default: []
disabled_backends = ["apt"]

# Whether to use the [hostname_groups] config table to decide which
# group files to use or to use all files in the groups folder.
# Default: false
hostname_groups_enabled = true

# Which group files apply for which hostnames
# paths starting without a / are relative to the groups folder
# Default: None
[hostname_groups]
pc = ["example_group"]
laptop = ["example_group"]
server = ["example_group"]

Group Files

# Group files (like this one) should be placed in the
# XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pacdef directory (usually ~/.config/pacdef/config.toml)
# unless using the --config-dir cli option.
#
# The packages for each backend in group files can come in two formats, short-form
# and long-form:
#
# short-form syntax is simply a string of the name of the package.
#
# long-form syntax is a table which contains several fields which can
# optionally be set to specify install options on a per-package basis.
# The "package" field in the table specifies the name of the package.
#
# For example, the following two packages are equivalent:
# arch = [
#   "pacdef",
#   { package = "pacdef" }
# ]

arch = [
    "pacdef",
    # optional_deps: additional packages to install with this package, short-form syntax only
    { package = "pacdef",  optional_deps = ["git"] }
]
cargo = [
    "pacdef",
    # see cargo docs for info on the options
    { package = "pacdef", git = "https://github.com/ripytide/pacdef", all_features = true, no_default_features = false, features = [ "feature1", ] },
]
pipx = [
    "pacdef",
    { package = "pacdef" }
]
apt = [
    "pacdef",
    { package = "pacdef" }
]
xbps = [
    "pacdef",
    { package = "pacdef" }
]
flatpak = [
    "pacdef",
    { package = "pacdef" }
]
dnf = [
    "pacdef",
    # see dnf docs for more info on these options
    { package = "pacdef", repo = "/etc/yum.repos.d/fedora_extras.repo" },
]
rustup = [
    "stable",
    # components: extra non-default components to install with this toolchain
    { package = "stable", components = ["rust-analyzer"] }
]

Commands

Run pacdef -h to see an overview of the commands available with pacdef.

Naming

pacdef combines the words "package" and "define".

Backend Pitfalls

Pipx

Some packages like mdformat-myst do not provide an executable themselves but rather act as a plugin to their dependency, which is mdformat in this case. Please install such packages explicitly by running: pipx install <package-name> --include-deps.