pkgm

This is a fork of the original pkgm package manager with added support for custom installation directories.

Key Differences from Original

• Custom Installation Directory: The fork adds support for the PKGM_PREFIX environment variable, allowing users to specify a custom directory for package installations instead of the default /usr/local.
• Enhanced Flexibility: Users can now install packages to any desired location by setting the PKGM_PREFIX variable, providing more control over the installation process.
• Backward Compatibility: Maintains full compatibility with the original behavior when PKGM_PREFIX is not set, ensuring existing workflows continue to function.

Install pkgx packages to /usr/local or a custom directory specified by the PKGM_PREFIX environment variable.

Caution

pkgm is new software. Please report any issues you encounter and try it out in parallel with your current package manager.

Usage

$ pkgm install node
# ^^ installs latest node to ~/.local. ie. you get ~/.local/bin/node

$ pkgm install node@20.1
# ^^ installs node^20.1 or switches out the installed node to 20.1

$ pkgm uninstall node

$ sudo pkgm install node
# ^^ installs node to /usr/local. ie. you get /usr/local/bin/node

$ PKGM_PREFIX=/opt/pkgm sudo pkgm install node
# ^^ installs node to /opt/pkgm. ie. you get /opt/pkgm/bin/node

$ pkgm shim node
# ^^ creates a shim for node at ~/.local/bin/node
# see the docs below for details about shims

$ pkgm list
# ^^ lists what’s installed

$ pkgm outdated
# ^^ lists outdated installations

$ pkgm update
# ^^ updates ~/.local packages to latest versions

$ sudo pkgm update
# ^^ updates /usr/local packages to latest versions

Tip

• pkgm i is an alias for pkgm install
• pkgm rm is an alias for pkgm uninstall
• pkgm ls is an alias for pkgm list
• pkgm up is an alias for pkgm update

Warning

You should probably sudo pkgm install rather than install to ~/.local. This is because many other tools will not look in ~/.local for packages even if it’s in PATH. Having said this—by all means—see how it goes!

Shims

Shims are files with a single line, eg #!/usr/bin/env -S pkgx -q! node@22.

Thus using the shell to invoke the program via pkgx. You get all the benefits of an installed package—but only installed on-demand. Useful for self-healing setups, devops, containers and plenty more one-off or ephemeral tasks.

Shims are pretty great—but have caveats. Some software might be surprised that a package is not fully “installed” which can lead to unexpected errors. In practice we have seen issues only rarely and for more complex package combinations.

Installation

brew install pkgxdev/made/pkgm || curl https://pkgx.sh | sh

Uninstallation

brew rm pkgm || sudo rm /usr/local/bin/pkgm

Intricacies

1. Packages are installed via pkgx to ~/.pkgx
2. We then sudo hard-link them to $PKGM_PREFIX/pkgs (defaults to /usr/local/pkgs)
3. We then symlink the hard-links to $PKGM_PREFIX (defaults to /usr/local)

Advantages Over Homebrew

• Blazingly fast
• Install specific versions of any pkg
• You install by executable name—thus you don’t have to do a search first
• Installed packages can be installed as root
• dev-aware installations
• Optional self-healing shims