What is this?

pkgit is an unconventional package manager designed to compile & install packages directly from their git repository.

[DISCLAIMER]

Due to the nature of pkgit, you are solely responsible for vetting the repos that you add to your system.

Use at your own risk.

Compile pkgit

Enter the project directory, and follow one of the following procedures.

Using Make

make

Using pkgit

pkgit --build

Both methods will create an executable in the root directory of the project.

You'll probably also want to generate a base configuration file if you don't already have one. Run this as a user to generate the config in ~/.config/pkgit:

make defconfig

You can also run this with root using sudo/doas to genereate the config in /etc/pkgit

sudo make defconfig

Install pkgit

After compiling, run the following with root privilages:

make install

Don't have root?

You can specify any install location with PREFIX=<path>. A popular option is ~/.local:

make install PREFIX="~/.local"

Usage

Command Syntax

The structure in which you type commands into pkgit is very standard:

pkgit [--flag|-f] <package>

Flags have two types; long, and short. The short type of each command uses the first letter of its long counterpart. For example: Long: pkgit --install Short: pkgit -i

If you use the short version of commands, you can chain them together into one argument:

pkgit -qif <package>

This example uses the --quiet, --install, and --force flags to: --quiet: minimize logs to stdout --install: install a package --force: even if already installed, will force the package to be installed

Installing Packages

Pre-installation

Before you use any programs that you installed with pkgit, you need to specify the path of the binaries in your shell's configuration.

For most users, this is the command:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

or for fish users:

fish_add_path $HOME/.local/bin

or for csh users:

setenv PATH $HOME/.local/bin:$PATH

Basic install

Assuming you have already added its respective repo, you can install a package by specifying its name:

pkgit --install [pkg_name]

Or you can use the short command:

pkgit -i [pkg_name]

Specific version install

You can specify a version of any package based on its tags with '@' separating the name from the version:

pkgit --install [pkg_name]@[version]

Specific target install

You can specify a target of any package based on its configuration in bldit.lua or init.lua with ',' separating the name from the target:

pkgit --install [pkg_name],[target]

Combined target and version install

You can specify both the target and the version of any package you install in the same command (order does not matter as long as the package name is first):

pkgit --install [pkg_name],[target]@[version]

pkgit --install [pkg_name]@[version],[target]

Repo install

If you haven't added the package's repository yet, or you just want to be specific, you can install the package using its git URL:

pkgit --install [url.git]

This also works with the target and version syntax.

Local install

If you want to install a package from a local code repository, and want to take advantage of pkgit's build system autodetection, you can enter that repository's root directory and install it from there:

pkgit --install .

Building packages

FOR DEVELOPERS You can also use pkgit as a sort of meta-build-system to automatically compile any supported project with the build command:

pkgit --build [/path/to/project]

This can also be done without specifying the path (pkgit --build) if you're in the project's root directory

Removing Packages

Removing (uninstalling) a package is as simple as it seems:

pkgit --remove [pkg_name]

Or the short command:

pkgit -r [pkg_name]

Updating Packages

You can easily update your installed packages by running:

pkgit --update

Or the short command:

pkgit -u

Declaring Packages

If you prefer a declarative approach, you can use the config file (read below) as a package declaration file. When you're ready, you can declare all your packages at once with:

pkgit --declare

Or the short command:

pkgit -d

Dependency Management

As it is, pkgit is capable of dependency management, but you will likely have to specify the dependency URLs for each package you install in <config_directory>/pkgit/init.lua. There's not a universal way to check for dependencies without using an existing package manager (unless the package you're installing has a bldit.lua).

Configuring pkgit

Thankfully, this is a very simple process.

To configure pkgit, you have one centralized configuration file: <config_directory>/pkgit/init.lua Thanks to liblua, pkgit pushes a package.path variable directly to your configuration file. This means that you can require any sub-file/directory, without wrestling with require().

The overall structure of the configuration file is explained in detail in config/init.lua

[DEVELOPER]: bldit.lua

If you want your own package's dependencies, version, compilation, and other aspects to be properly resolved in pkgit, you can create a bldit.lua file in the root directory of your project's git repo.

Do not name it anything other than bldit.lua, otherwise pkgit will not find the file.

A great example for bldit.lua is right here in the pkgit repository! Check it out if you want to know how it's structured.

Contributing to pkgit

If you want to contribute to pkgit, please refer to CONTRIBUTING.md