What is Meta Package Manager?

provides the mpm CLI, a wrapper around all package managers
mpm is like yt-dlp, but for package managers instead of videos
mpm solves XKCD #1654 - Universal Install Script

Features#

Inventory and list all package managers available on the system.
Supports macOS, Linux and Windows.
Standalone executables for Linux, macOS and Windows.
List installed packages.
List duplicate installed packages.
Search for packages.
Install a package.
Remove a package.
List outdated packages.
Sync local package infos.
Upgrade all outdated packages.
Backup list of installed packages to TOML file.
Restore/install list of packages from TOML files.
Pin-point commands to a subset of package managers (include/exclude selectors).
Support plain, versioned and purl package specifiers.
Export output to JSON or print user-friendly tables.
Shell auto-completion for Bash, Zsh and Fish.
Provides a Xbar/SwiftBar plugin for friendly macOS integration.
Because mpm try to wrap all other package managers, it became another pathological case of XKCD #927: Standards

Supported package managers and operations#

Package manager	Min. version	BSD[1]	Linux[2]	macOS	Unix[3]	Windows	`installed`	`outdated`	`search`	`install`	`upgrade`	`upgrade_all`	`remove`	`sync`	`cleanup`
`apm` ⚠️	1.0.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎		🪟	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`apt`	1.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
`apt-mint`	1.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
`brew`	2.7.0		🐧	🍎			✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`cargo`	1.0.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟	✓		✓	✓			✓
`cask`	2.7.0			🍎			✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`choco`	2.0.0					🪟	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`composer`	1.4.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓			✓
`dnf`	4.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
`emerge`	3.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
`flatpak`	1.2.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓			✓
`gem`	2.5.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓
`mas`	1.6.1			🍎			✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`npm`	4.0.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`opkg`	0.2.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓
`pacaur`	4.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`pacman`	5.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`paru`	1.9.3	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`pip`	10.0.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓
`pipx`	1.0.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓
`pkg`	1.11	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`scoop`	0.2.4					🪟	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`snap`	2.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`steamcmd`	None	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟				✓
`vscode`	1.60.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟	✓			✓
`yarn`	1.20.0	🅱️	🐧	🍎	`>_`	🪟	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓
`yay`	11.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
`yum`	4.0.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
`zypper`	1.14.0	🅱️	🐧		`>_`		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓

Note: Missing manager

If your favorite manager is missing or does not support an operation, you can influence its implementation: open a ticket to document its output or read the contribution guide and submit a pull request.

I can do that work for you if you purchase business support 🤝 or sponsor the project 🫶.

Installation#

All installation methods are available in the documentation.

Below are the most popular ones:

On macOS#

mpm is part of the official Homebrew default tap, so you can install it with:

$ brew install meta-package-manager

From sources#

pipx is the cleanest way to install mpm from sources on any platform:

$ pipx install meta-package-manager

Executables#

Standalone executables of mpm’s latest version are available as direct downloads for several platforms and architectures:

Platform	`x86_64`	`arm64`
Linux[2]	Download `mpm-linux-x64.bin`
macOS	Download `mpm-macos-x64.bin`	Download `mpm-macos-arm64.bin`
Windows	Download `mpm-windows-x64.exe`

Quickstart#

List installed packages#

List all packages installed on current system:

$ mpm installed
╭─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┬─────────┬────────────────────╮
│ Package name                │ ID                          │ Manager │ Installed version  │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
│ github                      │ github                      │ apm     │ 0.36.9             │
│ update-package-dependencies │ update-package-dependencies │ apm     │ 0.13.1             │
│ rust                        │ rust                        │ brew    │ 1.55.0             │
│ x264                        │ x264                        │ brew    │ r3060              │
│ atom                        │ atom                        │ cask    │ 1.58.0             │
│ visual-studio-code          │ visual-studio-code          │ cask    │ 1.52.0             │
│ nokogiri                    │ nokogiri                    │ gem     │ x86_64-darwin      │
│ rake                        │ rake                        │ gem     │ 13.0.3             │
│ iMovie                      │ 408981434                   │ mas     │ 10.2.5             │
│ Telegram                    │ 747648890                   │ mas     │ 8.1                │
│ npm                         │ npm                         │ npm     │ 7.24.0             │
│ raven                       │ raven                       │ npm     │ 2.6.4              │
│ jupyterlab                  │ jupyterlab                  │ pip     │ 3.1.14             │
│ Sphinx                      │ Sphinx                      │ pip     │ 4.2.0              │
│ ms-python.python            │ ms-python.python            │ vscode  │ 2021.10.1317843341 │
│ ms-toolsai.jupyter          │ ms-toolsai.jupyter          │ vscode  │ 2021.9.1001312534  │
╰─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┴─────────┴────────────────────╯
16 packages total (brew: 2, pip: 2, apm: 2, gem: 2, cask: 2, mas: 2, vscode: 2, npm: 2, composer: 0).

List outdated packages#

List all packages installed for which an upgrade is available:

$ mpm outdated
╭──────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬───────────────────┬────────────────╮
│ Package name │ ID          │ Manager │ Installed version │ Latest version │
├──────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼───────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ curl         │ curl        │ brew    │ 7.79.1            │ 7.79.1_1       │
│ git          │ git         │ brew    │ 2.33.0            │ 2.33.0_1       │
│ openssl@1.1  │ openssl@1.1 │ brew    │ 1.1.1l            │ 1.1.1l_1       │
│ rake         │ rake        │ gem     │ 13.0.3            │ 13.0.6         │
│ Telegram     │ 747648890   │ mas     │ 8.1               │ 8.1.3          │
│ npm          │ npm@8.0.0   │ npm     │ 7.24.0            │ 8.0.0          │
│ pip          │ pip         │ pip     │ 21.2.4            │ 21.3           │
│ regex        │ regex       │ pip     │ 2021.9.30         │ 2021.10.8      │
╰──────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴───────────────────┴────────────────╯
8 packages total (brew: 3, pip: 2, gem: 1, mas: 1, npm: 1, apm: 0, cask: 0, composer: 0).

List managers#

If you wonder why your package manager doesn’t seems to be identified, you can list all those recognized by mpm with:

$ mpm --all-managers managers
╭────────────┬────────────────────┬────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬────────────┬───────────╮
│ Manager ID │ Name               │ Supported      │ CLI                          │ Executable │ Version   │
├────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────┤
│ apm        │ Atom's apm         │ ✓              │ ✘ apm not found              │            │           │
│ apt        │ APT                │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✓ /usr/bin/apt               │ ✓          │ ✘         │
│ apt-mint   │ Linux Mint's apt   │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✓ /usr/bin/apt               │ ✓          │ ✘         │
│ brew       │ Homebrew Formulae  │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/brew     │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.6.3   │
│ cargo      │ Rust's cargo       │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/cargo    │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.64.0  │
│ cask       │ Homebrew Cask      │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/brew     │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.6.3   │
│ choco      │ Chocolatey         │ ✘ Windows only │ ✘ choco not found            │            │           │
│ composer   │ PHP's Composer     │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/composer │ ✓          │ ✓ 2.4.2   │
│ dnf        │ DNF                │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ dnf not found              │            │           │
│ emerge     │ Emerge             │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ emerge not found           │            │           │
│ flatpak    │ Flatpak            │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ flatpak not found          │            │           │
│ gem        │ Ruby Gems          │ ✓              │ ✓ /usr/bin/gem               │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.0.3.1 │
│ mas        │ Mac AppStore       │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/mas      │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.8.6   │
│ npm        │ Node's npm         │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/npm      │ ✓          │ ✓ 8.19.2  │
│ opkg       │ OPKG               │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ opkg not found             │            │           │
│ pacman     │ Pacman             │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ pacman not found           │            │           │
│ paru       │ Paru               │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ paru not found             │            │           │
│ pip        │ Pip                │ ✓              │ ✓ ~/.pyenv/shims/python3     │ ✓          │ ✓ 22.2.2  │
│ pipx       │ Pipx               │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/pipx     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.1.0   │
│ scoop      │ Scoop              │ ✘ Windows only │ ✘ scoop not found            │            │           │
│ snap       │ Snap               │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ snap not found             │            │           │
│ steamcmd   │ Valve Steam        │ ✓              │ ✘ steamcmd not found         │            │           │
│ vscode     │ Visual Studio Code │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/code     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.71.2  │
│ yarn       │ Node's yarn        │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/yarn     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.22.19 │
│ yay        │ Yay                │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ yay not found              │            │           │
│ yum        │ YUM                │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ yum not found              │            │           │
│ zypper     │ Zypper             │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ zypper not found           │            │           │
╰────────────┴────────────────────┴────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴────────────┴───────────╯

If your favorite manager is not supported yet, you can help! See the contribution guide.

Usage#

Other subcommands and options are documented in:

the detailed help screens
the list of use-cases where you’ll find inspiration on how to leverage mpm power