Package Manager 🤖📦

Kevin's Package Manager (PKGMGR) is a multi-distro package manager and workflow orchestrator. It helps you develop, package, release and manage projects across multiple Linux-based operating systems (Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, …).

PKGMGR is implemented in Python and uses Nix (flakes) as a foundation for distribution-independent builds and tooling. On top of that it provides a rich CLI that proxies common developer tools (Git, Docker, Make, …) and glues them together into repeatable development workflows.

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Why PKGMGR? 🧠

Traditional distro package managers like apt, pacman or dnf focus on a single operating system. PKGMGR instead focuses on your repositories and development lifecycle:

• one configuration for all your repos,
• one CLI to interact with them,
• one Nix-based layer to keep tooling reproducible across distros.

You keep using your native package manager where it makes sense – PKGMGR coordinates the development and release flow around it.

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Features 🚀

Multi-distro development & packaging

• Manage many repositories at once from a single config/config.yaml.

• Drive full release pipelines across Linux distributions using:

  • Nix flakes (flake.nix)
  • PyPI style builds (pyproject.toml)
  • OS packages (PKGBUILD, Debian control/changelog, RPM spec)
  • Ansible Galaxy metadata and more.

Rich CLI for daily work

All commands are exposed via the pkgmgr CLI and are available on every distro:

• Repository management

  • clone, update, install, delete, deinstall, path, list, config

• Git proxies

  • pull, push, status, diff, add, show, checkout, reset, revert, rebase, commit, branch

• Docker & Compose orchestration

  • build, up, down, exec, ps, start, stop, restart

• Release toolchain

  • version, release, changelog, make

• Mirror & workflow helpers

  • mirror (list/diff/merge/setup), shell, terminal, code, explore

Many of these commands support --preview mode so you can inspect the underlying Git or Docker calls without executing them.

Full development workflows

PKGMGR is not just a helper around Git commands. Combined with its release and versioning features it can drive end-to-end workflows:

1. Clone and mirror repositories.
2. Run tests and builds through make or Nix.
3. Bump versions, update changelogs and tags.
4. Build distro-specific packages.
5. Keep all mirrors and working copies in sync.

The extensive E2E tests (tests/e2e/) and GitHub Actions workflows (including “virgin user” and “virgin root” Arch tests) validate these flows across different Linux environments.

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Architecture & Setup Map 🗺️

The following diagram gives a full overview of:

• PKGMGR’s package structure,
• the layered installers (OS, foundation, Python, Makefile),
• and the setup controller that decides which layer to use on a given system.

Diagram status: 12 December 2025 Always-up-to-date version: https://s.veen.world/pkgmgrmp

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Perfekt, dann hier die noch kompaktere und korrekt differenzierte Version, die nur zwischen make setup und make setup-venv unterscheidet und exakt deinem Verhalten entspricht.

README-ready, ohne Over-Engineering.

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Installation ⚙️

PKGMGR can be installed using make. The setup mode defines which runtime layers are prepared.

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Dependency installation (optional)

System dependencies required before running any make commands are installed via:

scripts/installation/dependencies.sh

The script detects and normalizes the OS and installs the required system-level dependencies accordingly.

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Setup modes

Command	Prepares	Use case
make setup	Python venv and Nix	Full development & CI
make setup-venv	Python venv only	Local user setup

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Install & setup

git clone https://github.com/kevinveenbirkenbach/package-manager.git
cd package-manager
make install

Full setup (venv + Nix)

make setup

Use this for CI, servers, containers and full development workflows.

Venv-only setup

make setup-venv
source ~/.venvs/pkgmgr/bin/activate

Use this if you want PKGMGR isolated without Nix integration.

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Run without installation (Nix)

Run PKGMGR directly via Nix Flakes.

nix run github:kevinveenbirkenbach/package-manager#pkgmgr -- --help

Example:

nix run github:kevinveenbirkenbach/package-manager#pkgmgr -- version pkgmgr

Notes:

• full flake URL required
• -- separates Nix and PKGMGR arguments
• can be used alongside any setup mode

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Usage 🧰

After installation, the main entry point is:

pkgmgr --help

This prints a list of all available subcommands. The help for each command is available via:

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License 📄

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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Author 👤

Kevin Veen-Birkenbach https://www.veen.world