metapac

multi-backend declarative package manager

metapac allows you to maintain a consistent set of packages across multiple machines. It also makes setting up a new system with your preferred packages from your preferred package managers much easier.

Installation

Cargo

cargo install metapac

Arch User Repository

paru -S metapac

Meta

metapac is a meta package manager, that means it does not directly implement the functionality to install packages on your system, instead it provides a standardised interface for installing packages from other package managers. See the Supported Backends section for a list of the currently supported backend package managers.

Declarative

metapac is also 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 metapac 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 (metapac sync), or remove packages present on your system but not in your group files (metapac clean).

The group files are then stored with your other system configuration files and so can be tracked with version control.

Getting Started

Migrating a default system into metapac

Run metapac unmanaged and save the output into a group file in metapac's groups/ folder, see the Group Files section for the exact location of this folder on your operating system.

For example, on linux this would mean:

mkdir -p ~/.config/metapac/groups
metapac unmanaged > ~/.config/metapac/groups/all.toml

Now metapac won't try to remove any of your explicitly installed packages when you run metapac clean.

Caution

If you run metapac clean without first configuring your group files with the packages you want installed then metapac will attempt to remove all of your packages.

metapac clean will always show you which packages it intends to remove and ask for confirmation, so make sure to double check that the expected packages are being removed before confirming.

Adding a new package

1. Edit your group files with a text editor to add the package to an existing group file or create a new group file and add the package to it. See the Group Files section for the group file syntax
2. Run the metapac add command, see metapac add --help for arguments
3. Run the metapac install command, see metapac install --help for arguments

After the first two options you will then need to run metapac sync for the newly added package to be installed, whereas for metapac install it also installs the package while adding it to a group file.

Tip

The first option is recommended since then you can group or organize the order of packages in your group files in a way that is meaningful to you and even add comments using the toml format.

Removing a package

Do the opposite of Adding a new package. The opposite of metapac add is metapac remove, the opposite of metapac install is metapac uninstall and the opposite of metapac sync is metapac clean.

Advanced usage

For more advanced usage read through the remaining sections, especially the Config section. You can also run metapac --help to get a list of all of the available commands.

Supported Backends

At the moment, these are the supported backends. Pull Requests for adding support for additional backends are welcome!

Backend	Group Name	Notes
pacman/pamac/paru/pikaur/yay	[arch]	see the arch_package_manager config
apt	[apt]
brew	[brew]
cargo	[cargo]
dnf	[dnf]
flatpak	[flatpak]
pipx	[pipx]
snap	[snap]
uv	[uv]
vscode	[vscode]	see the vscode_variant config
winget	[winget]
xbps	[xbps]

Config

# metapac's config.toml file (like this one) should be placed in the following location
# dependent on the operating system as specified in the `dirs` crate:
# | Platform | Value                                                 | Example                                                      |
# | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
# | Linux    | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config/metapac/config.toml | /home/alice/.config/metapac/config.toml                      |
# | macOS    | $HOME/Library/Application Support/metapac/config.toml | /Users/Alice/Library/Application Support/metapac/config.toml |
# | Windows  | {FOLDERID_RoamingAppData}\metapac\config.toml         | C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Roaming\metapac\config.toml           |

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

# Since pacman, pamac, paru, pikaur and yay all operate on the same package database
# they are mutually exclusive and so you must pick which one you want
# metapac to use.
# Must be one of: ["pacman", "pamac", "paru", "pikaur", "yay"]
# Default: "pacman"
arch_package_manager = "paru"

# Since VSCode and VSCodium both operate on the same package database
# they are mutually exclusive and so you must pick which one you want
# metapac to use.
# Must be one of: ["code", "codium"]
# Default: "code"
vscode_variant = "code"

# Whether to default to installing flatpak packages systemwide or for the
# current user. This setting can be overridden on a per-package basis using
# { systemwide = false|true }.
# Default: true
flatpak_default_systemwide = true

# 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

# metapac's group files (like this one) should be placed in the following location
# dependent on the operating system as specified in the `dirs` crate:
# | Platform | Value                                     | Example                                                  |
# | -------- | ----------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- |
# | Linux    | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config/groups/ | /home/alice/.config/metapac/groups/                      |
# | macOS    | $HOME/Library/Application Support/groups/ | /Users/Alice/Library/Application Support/metapac/groups/ |
# | Windows  | {FOLDERID_RoamingAppData}\groups\         | C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Roaming\metapac\groups\           |
#
# 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 = [
#  "metapac",
#  { package = "metapac" }
# ]

arch = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" }
]
apt = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" }
]
brew = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" }
]
cargo = [
 "metapac",
 # see cargo docs for info on the options
 { package = "metapac", git = "https://github.com/ripytide/metapac", all_features = true, no_default_features = false, features = [ "feature1", ] },
]
dnf = [
 "metapac",
 # see dnf docs for more info on these options
 { package = "metapac", repo = "/etc/yum.repos.d/fedora_extras.repo" },
]
flatpak = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac", remote = "flathub", systemwide = false }
]
pipx = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" }
]
snap = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" },
 # see https://snapcraft.io/docs/snap-confinement for more info on confinement
 { package = "metapac", confinement = "strict" },
 { package = "metapac", confinement = "classic" },
 { package = "metapac", confinement = "dangerous" },
 { package = "metapac", confinement = "devmode" },
 { package = "metapac", confinement = "jailmode" }
]
uv = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" }
]
vscode = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" }
]
winget = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" }
]
xbps = [
 "metapac",
 { package = "metapac" }
]

Credits

This project was forked from https://github.com/steven-omaha/pacdef so credits to the author(s) of that project for all their prior work.