Installation¶

Meta Package Manager is distributed on PyPi.

So you can install the latest stable release with your favorite package manager like pip:

$ pip install meta-package-manager

Danger

Danger: Misleading package name

There is a mpm Python module on PyPi that has nothing to do with this project. Avoid it!

The real package is named meta-package-manager. Only the latter provides the mpm CLI you’re looking for.

Try it now¶

You can try Meta Package Manager right now in your terminal, without installing any dependency or virtual env thanks to uvx:

Latest version

$ uvx --from meta-package-manager -- mpm

Specific version

$ uvx --from meta-package-manager@5.21.0 -- mpm

Development version

$ uvx --from git+https://github.com/kdeldycke/meta-package-manager -- mpm

This will download meta-package-manager (the package), and run mpm, the CLI included in the package.

Installation methods¶

mpm is available on several popular package managers:

Yo dawg, I herd you like package managers...

uvx

Easiest way is to install uv, then install meta-package-manager system-wide, with the uv tool command:

$ uv tool install meta-package-manager

Then you can run mpm directly:

$ mpm --version

pipx

pipx is a great way to install Python applications globally:

$ pipx install meta-package-manager

pip

You can install the latest stable release and its dependencies with a simple pip call:

$ python -m pip install meta-package-manager

Other variations includes:

$ pip install meta-package-manager

$ pip3 install meta-package-manager

If you have difficulties to use pip, see pip’s own installation instructions.

brew

Meta Package Manager is available as an Homebrew formula, so you just need to:

$ brew install meta-package-manager

Scoop

Meta Package Manager is available in the main repository of Scoop, so you just need to:

> scoop install main/meta-package-manager

Arch Linux

An mpm package is available on AUR and can be installed with any AUR helper:

$ pacaur -S meta-package-manager

$ pacman -S meta-package-manager

$ paru -S meta-package-manager

$ yay -S meta-package-manager

Binaries¶

Binaries are compiled at each release, so you can skip the installation process above and download the standalone executables directly.

This is the preferred way of testing mpm without polluting your machine. They also offer the possibility of running the CLI on older systems not supporting the minimal Python version required by mpm.

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

All links above points to the latest released version of mpm.

Self-bootstrapping¶

In a funny twist, mpm can be installed with itself.

Which means there is a way to bootstrap its deployment on an unknown system. Just download the binary corresponding to your platform and architecture:

$ curl --fail --remote-name https://github.com/kdeldycke/meta-package-manager/releases/latest/download/mpm-macos-x64.bin
################################################### 100.0%

$ file ./mpm-macos-x64.bin
./mpm-macos-x64.bin: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

$ chmod +x ./mpm-macos-x64.bin

$ ./mpm-macos-x64.bin --version
mpm, version 5.7.0

Then let mpm discovers which package managers are available on your machine and choose the one providing a path to mpm installation:

$ ./mpm-macos-x64.bin install meta-package-manager
warning: Skip unavailable cargo manager.
warning: Skip unavailable steamcmd manager.
Installation priority: brew > cask > composer > gem > mas > npm > pip > pipx > vscode > yarn
warning: No meta-package-manager package found on brew.
warning: No meta-package-manager package found on cask.
warning: No meta-package-manager package found on composer.
warning: No meta-package-manager package found on gem.
warning: No meta-package-manager package found on mas.
warning: No meta-package-manager package found on npm.
warning: pip does not implement search operation.
meta-package-manager existence unconfirmed, try to directly install it...
Install meta-package-manager package with pip...
Collecting meta-package-manager
  Downloading meta_package_manager-5.11.1-py3-none-any.whl (161 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 161.5/161.5 kB 494.7 kB/s eta 0:00:00
(...)
Installing collected packages: (...) meta-package-manager
Successfully installed (...) meta-package-manager-5.11.1

And now you can remove the local binary and enjoy the system-wide mpm that was installed by itself:

$ rm -f ./mpm-macos-x64.bin

$ which mpm
/opt/homebrew/bin/mpm

$ mpm --version
mpm, version 5.11.1

Tip

At this moment, mpm can be installed with itself via these managers:

$ mpm --brew install meta-package-manager

$ mpm --pacaur install meta-package-manager

$ mpm --pacman install meta-package-manager

$ mpm --paru install meta-package-manager

$ mpm --pip  install meta-package-manager

$ mpm --pipx install meta-package-manager

$ mpm --yay  install meta-package-manager

Python module usage¶

Meta package manager should now be available system-wide:

$ mpm --version
mpm, version 4.13.0
(...)

If not, you can directly execute the module from Python:

$ python -m meta_package_manager --version
mpm, version 4.13.0
(...)

Password prompts and `sudo`¶

The majority of package managers on Linux requires sudo to perform system-wide operations.

On other OSes you’ll be prompted to enter your password to install kernel extensions:

$ brew install --cask macfuse
==> Caveats
macfuse requires a kernel extension to work.
If the installation fails, retry after you enable it in:
  System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General

For more information, refer to vendor documentation or this Apple Technical Note:
  https://developer.apple.com/library/content/technotes/tn2459/_index.html

==> Downloading https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/releases/download/macfuse-4.2.5/macfuse-4.2.5.dmg
Already downloaded: /Users/kde/Library/Caches/Homebrew/downloads/d7961d772f16bad95962f1a780b545a5dbb4788ec6e1ec757994bb5296397b1c--macfuse-4.2.5.dmg
==> Installing Cask macfuse
==> Running installer for macfuse; your password may be necessary.
Package installers may write to any location; options such as `--appdir` are ignored.
Password:

Both cases are not handled gracefully by mpm, which doesn’t support (yet) interactive password management and capture.

A workaround on Linux is to install mpm with sudo, so you’ll be able to invoke it with sudo too:

$ sudo python -m pip install meta-package-manager
(...)
$ sudo python -m meta_package_manager upgrade
(...)

Shell completion¶

Completion for popular shell rely on Click feature.

Bash

Add this to ~/.bashrc:

eval "$(_MPM_COMPLETE=bash_source mpm)"

Zsh

Add this to ~/.zshrc:

eval "$(_MPM_COMPLETE=zsh_source mpm)"

Fish

Add this to ~/.config/fish/completions/mpm.fish:

eval (env _MPM_COMPLETE=fish_source mpm)

Alternatively, export the generated completion code as a static script to be executed:

Bash

$ _MPM_COMPLETE=bash_source mpm > ~/.mpm-complete.bash

Then source it from ~/.bashrc:

. ~/.mpm-complete.bash

Zsh

$ _MPM_COMPLETE=zsh_source mpm > ~/.mpm-complete.zsh

Then source it from ~/.zshrc:

. ~/.mpm.zsh