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https://github.com/lunarwatcher/upm

Package manager for people who need up-to-date packages
https://github.com/lunarwatcher/upm

hacktoberfest linux macos package-manager package-manager-manager package-updater sdk-manager

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Package manager for people who need up-to-date packages

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README 

        
# Upstream Package Manager (upm)



Package manager manager and SDK manager, because someone had to make the 15th standard.



[![xkcd: standards][1]][1]



## Requirements



A C++17 compiler, and Linux or MacOS, and access to `tar` with a few specs (see the tar section). 



Note that MacOS will have weaker support, because I don't have access to any Mac machines. Please consider contributing to the project if you have access to a Mac and want to use upm.



General UNIXes beyond Linux and MacOS will have varying support, for the same reason MacOS doesn't have full support: I don't have those operating systems, and testing them is a slow and annoying process that I don't want to spend my time on.



### Additional libraries (Linux)



* `libssl-dev`



### Tar



* Supports `--strip-components`

* Supports automatic tar type detection



### Package dependencies



Certain packages may have other dependencies. If such a dependency is required, and the build doesn't self-manage dependencies, it'll trigger an error if it isn't found. 



## How does it work?



Packages are installed to `/opt/upm`. Packages are then activated via symlinks in `/usr/local/`, similar to how a normal manual installation would work. 



To make a painfully long and already well-documented story short, installing third party packages in "non-standard" formats on Linux fucking sucks. "Non-standard" in this context really just means anything that doesn't fit the format of the system-wide package manager. And yes, this includes binary tars.



upm has gone through several iterations of different package locations, only to return to the starting point: `/usr/local`.



There are a few reasons for this, and there are probably many more than the reasons I'm aware of. Let's assume we want a non-standard install directory. This affects:



1. **Binary path**: new additions require amendments to the PATH variable. This isn't too bad, but there isn't an automated way to do this. For package managers, this is fine; you add one directory, and you're good to go. If you want to install individual packages though, it isn't as convenient.

2. **Include and library path**: this does not apply to all packages (by a long shot), but any packages that come with a development component need a discoverable include and library path. This is now two more variables.

3. **`.desktop` files**: not all packages are terminal tools. Some need desktop entries, or other metadata additions. In the case of desktop files in particular, there's two more categories:

    1. Relative bin path: #1 has to be set beyond the shell, complicating installation

    2. Absolute bin path: The desktop file has to be modified, either by the install process or the user to function, at least if the install location is unexpected.

4. **man pages**: Many packages include man pages, and these also require a variable addition.



## Installing upm



### Using a utility script



Upm provides an installer utlity that runs all the required compile commands automatically. Also note that the script does **not** handle dependency install. You need to manually get the dependencies before running.



**Note:** it's always recommended to read through scripts before running them.



```bash

sh -c "$(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LunarWatcher/upm/master/tools/install.sh)"

```



### Manually



```bash

# Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/LunarWatcher/upm

# cd and and build the bootstrap

cd upm

mkdir build

cd build

cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release 

make -j $(nproc)

# Have the upm bootstrap install itself

sudo ./bin/upm install upm@nightly --install_self=true

```



After this, you can delete the cloned repo. When upm later updates itself, the repo will be automatically re-cloned under /tmp for building.



### Updating upm



When upm has been installed, upm can update itself. Simply run `sudo upm upgrade upm@nightly` (or another tag if you prefer), and it'll fetch itself.



[1]: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/standards.png