This is a list of notable software package management systems, categorized first by package format (binary, source code, hybrid) and then by operating system family.[1]
Binary packages
The following package management systems distribute apps in
binarypackage form; i.e., all apps are
compiled and ready to be installed and use.
Unix-like
Linux
dpkg: Originally used by
Debian and now by
Ubuntu. Uses the
.deb format and was the first to have a widely known dependency resolution tool,
APT. The
ncurses-based front-end for APT,
aptitude, is also a popular package manager for Debian-based systems;
Entropy: Used by and created for
Sabayon Linux. It works with binary packages that are bzip2-compressed tar archives (file extension: .tbz2), that are created using Entropy itself, from tbz2 binaries produced by
Portage: From ebuilds, a type of specialized shell script;
Flatpak: A containerized/sandboxed packaging format previously known as xdg-app;
GNU Guix: Used by the GNU System. It is based on the Nix package manager with Guile Scheme APIs and specializes in providing exclusively free software;
Homebrew: a port of the MacOS package manager of the same name (see below), formerly referred to as 'Linuxbrew';
ipkg: A
dpkg-inspired, very lightweight system targeted at storage-constrained Linux systems such as embedded devices and handheld computers. Used on
HP's webOS;
netpkg: The package manager used by
Zenwalk. Compatible with
Slackware package management tools;
Nix Package Manager: Nix is a package manager for Linux and other Unix systems that makes package management reliable and reproducible. It provides atomic upgrades and rollbacks, side-by-side installation of multiple versions of a package, multi-user package management and easy setup of build environments;
opkg: Fork of
ipkg lightweight package management intended for use on embedded Linux devices;
Pacman: Used in
Arch Linux,
Frugalware and
DeLi Linux. Its binary package format is a compressed tar archive (default file extension: .pkg.tar.zst) built using the makepkg utility (which comes bundled with pacman) and a specialized type of shell script called a PKGBUILD;
PISI: Pisi stands for "Packages Installed Successfully as Intended". Pisi package manager is used by Pisi Linux.[2]Pardus used to use Pisi, but migrated to APT in 2013;[3]
pkgsrc: A cross-platform package manager, with binary packages provided for Enterprise Linux, macOS and SmartOS by
Joyent and other vendors;
slapt-get: Which is used by Slackware and works with a binary package format that is essentially a xz-compressed tar archive with the file extension .txz;
Aptoide: application for installing mobile applications which runs on the Android operating system. In Aptoide there is not a unique and centralized store; instead, each user manages their own store.
OpenPKG: Cross-platform package management system based on
rpm;
PC-BSD: Up to and including version 8.2[5] uses files with the
.pbi (Push Button Installer) filename extension which, when double-clicked, bring up an installation wizard program. Each PBI is self-contained and uses de-duplicated private dependencies to avoid version conflicts. An autobuild system tracks the
FreeBSD ports collection and generates new PBIs daily. PC-BSD also uses the
FreeBSD pkg binary package system; new packages are built approximately every two weeks from both a stable and rolling release branch of the
FreeBSD ports tree.
The following package management systems distribute the
source code of their apps. Either the user must know how to compile the packages, or they come with a script that automates the compilation process. For example, in
GoboLinux a recipe file contains information on how to download, unpack, compile and install a package using its
Compile tool. In both cases, the user must provide the computing power and time needed to compile the app, and is legally responsible for the consequences of compiling the package.
BSD
FreeBSD Ports is an original implementation of source based software management system commonly referred to as
Ports collection. It gave way and inspired many others systems;
OpenBSD ports is a Perl based reimplementation of ports collection;
Linux
ABS is used by
Arch Linux to automate binary packages building from source or even other binary archives, with automatic download and dependency checking;
apt-build is used by distributions which use
deb packages, allowing automatic compiling and installation of software in a deb source repository;
Sorcery is
Sourcemage GNU/Linux's
bash based package management program that automatically downloads software from their original site and compiles and installs it on the local machine;
macOS (OS X)
Fink, for
OS X, derives partially from dpkg/apt and partially from ports;
MacPorts, formerly called DarwinPorts, originated from the
OpenDarwin project;
Nix package manager: Package manager that manages software in a
purely functional way, featuring multi-user support, atomic upgrades and rollbacks. Allows multiple versions or variants of a software to be installed at the same time. It has support for
macOS and is cross-distribution in its
Linux support;
Portage and
emerge are used by
Gentoo Linux,
Funtoo Linux, and
Sabayon Linux. It is inspired by the
BSD ports system and uses text based "ebuilds" to automatically download, customize, build, and update packages from source code. It has automatic dependency checking and allows multiple versions of a software package to be installed into different "slots" on the same system. Portage also employs "use flags" to allow the user to fully customize a software build to suit the needs of their platform in an automated fashion. While source code distribution and customization is the preferred methodology, some larger packages that would take many hours to compile on a typical desktop computer are also offered as pre-compiled binaries in order to ease installation;
Upkg: Package management and build system based on
Mono and XML specifications. Used by
paldo and previously by ExTiX Linux;
NetBSD's
pkgsrc works on several
Unix-like operating systems, with regular binary packages for
macOS and Linux provided by multiple independent vendors;
The following unify package management for several or all
Linux and sometimes
Unix variants. These, too, are based on the concept of a recipe file.
AppImage (previously klik and PortableLinuxApps) aims to provide an easy way to get software packages for most major distributions without the dependency problems so common in many other package formats.
PackageKit is a set of utilities and libraries for creating applications that can manage packages across multiple package managers using back-ends to call the correct program.
Game package managers
Package management systems geared toward developing and distributing video games.
Steam: A cross-platform video game distribution, licensing and social gameplay platform, developed and maintained by
Valve. Used to shop for, download, install, update, uninstall and back up video games. Works on Windows NT, OS X and Linux;
A wide variety of package management systems are in common use today by
proprietary software operating systems, handling the installation of both proprietary and free packages.
This is a list of notable software package management systems, categorized first by package format (binary, source code, hybrid) and then by operating system family.[1]
Binary packages
The following package management systems distribute apps in
binarypackage form; i.e., all apps are
compiled and ready to be installed and use.
Unix-like
Linux
dpkg: Originally used by
Debian and now by
Ubuntu. Uses the
.deb format and was the first to have a widely known dependency resolution tool,
APT. The
ncurses-based front-end for APT,
aptitude, is also a popular package manager for Debian-based systems;
Entropy: Used by and created for
Sabayon Linux. It works with binary packages that are bzip2-compressed tar archives (file extension: .tbz2), that are created using Entropy itself, from tbz2 binaries produced by
Portage: From ebuilds, a type of specialized shell script;
Flatpak: A containerized/sandboxed packaging format previously known as xdg-app;
GNU Guix: Used by the GNU System. It is based on the Nix package manager with Guile Scheme APIs and specializes in providing exclusively free software;
Homebrew: a port of the MacOS package manager of the same name (see below), formerly referred to as 'Linuxbrew';
ipkg: A
dpkg-inspired, very lightweight system targeted at storage-constrained Linux systems such as embedded devices and handheld computers. Used on
HP's webOS;
netpkg: The package manager used by
Zenwalk. Compatible with
Slackware package management tools;
Nix Package Manager: Nix is a package manager for Linux and other Unix systems that makes package management reliable and reproducible. It provides atomic upgrades and rollbacks, side-by-side installation of multiple versions of a package, multi-user package management and easy setup of build environments;
opkg: Fork of
ipkg lightweight package management intended for use on embedded Linux devices;
Pacman: Used in
Arch Linux,
Frugalware and
DeLi Linux. Its binary package format is a compressed tar archive (default file extension: .pkg.tar.zst) built using the makepkg utility (which comes bundled with pacman) and a specialized type of shell script called a PKGBUILD;
PISI: Pisi stands for "Packages Installed Successfully as Intended". Pisi package manager is used by Pisi Linux.[2]Pardus used to use Pisi, but migrated to APT in 2013;[3]
pkgsrc: A cross-platform package manager, with binary packages provided for Enterprise Linux, macOS and SmartOS by
Joyent and other vendors;
slapt-get: Which is used by Slackware and works with a binary package format that is essentially a xz-compressed tar archive with the file extension .txz;
Aptoide: application for installing mobile applications which runs on the Android operating system. In Aptoide there is not a unique and centralized store; instead, each user manages their own store.
OpenPKG: Cross-platform package management system based on
rpm;
PC-BSD: Up to and including version 8.2[5] uses files with the
.pbi (Push Button Installer) filename extension which, when double-clicked, bring up an installation wizard program. Each PBI is self-contained and uses de-duplicated private dependencies to avoid version conflicts. An autobuild system tracks the
FreeBSD ports collection and generates new PBIs daily. PC-BSD also uses the
FreeBSD pkg binary package system; new packages are built approximately every two weeks from both a stable and rolling release branch of the
FreeBSD ports tree.
The following package management systems distribute the
source code of their apps. Either the user must know how to compile the packages, or they come with a script that automates the compilation process. For example, in
GoboLinux a recipe file contains information on how to download, unpack, compile and install a package using its
Compile tool. In both cases, the user must provide the computing power and time needed to compile the app, and is legally responsible for the consequences of compiling the package.
BSD
FreeBSD Ports is an original implementation of source based software management system commonly referred to as
Ports collection. It gave way and inspired many others systems;
OpenBSD ports is a Perl based reimplementation of ports collection;
Linux
ABS is used by
Arch Linux to automate binary packages building from source or even other binary archives, with automatic download and dependency checking;
apt-build is used by distributions which use
deb packages, allowing automatic compiling and installation of software in a deb source repository;
Sorcery is
Sourcemage GNU/Linux's
bash based package management program that automatically downloads software from their original site and compiles and installs it on the local machine;
macOS (OS X)
Fink, for
OS X, derives partially from dpkg/apt and partially from ports;
MacPorts, formerly called DarwinPorts, originated from the
OpenDarwin project;
Nix package manager: Package manager that manages software in a
purely functional way, featuring multi-user support, atomic upgrades and rollbacks. Allows multiple versions or variants of a software to be installed at the same time. It has support for
macOS and is cross-distribution in its
Linux support;
Portage and
emerge are used by
Gentoo Linux,
Funtoo Linux, and
Sabayon Linux. It is inspired by the
BSD ports system and uses text based "ebuilds" to automatically download, customize, build, and update packages from source code. It has automatic dependency checking and allows multiple versions of a software package to be installed into different "slots" on the same system. Portage also employs "use flags" to allow the user to fully customize a software build to suit the needs of their platform in an automated fashion. While source code distribution and customization is the preferred methodology, some larger packages that would take many hours to compile on a typical desktop computer are also offered as pre-compiled binaries in order to ease installation;
Upkg: Package management and build system based on
Mono and XML specifications. Used by
paldo and previously by ExTiX Linux;
NetBSD's
pkgsrc works on several
Unix-like operating systems, with regular binary packages for
macOS and Linux provided by multiple independent vendors;
The following unify package management for several or all
Linux and sometimes
Unix variants. These, too, are based on the concept of a recipe file.
AppImage (previously klik and PortableLinuxApps) aims to provide an easy way to get software packages for most major distributions without the dependency problems so common in many other package formats.
PackageKit is a set of utilities and libraries for creating applications that can manage packages across multiple package managers using back-ends to call the correct program.
Game package managers
Package management systems geared toward developing and distributing video games.
Steam: A cross-platform video game distribution, licensing and social gameplay platform, developed and maintained by
Valve. Used to shop for, download, install, update, uninstall and back up video games. Works on Windows NT, OS X and Linux;
A wide variety of package management systems are in common use today by
proprietary software operating systems, handling the installation of both proprietary and free packages.