spam-util 0.56

A Software PAckage Manager interface utility for Unixen.

SPAM - A Software PAckage Manager

Ok let's be honest, it's not really a package manager, but merely a wrapper that presents a uniform command-line interface to them. Across Linux distros and other Unixy things.

Usage & Features

👉 Easy to use every day, There's less to type due to built-in aliases. For example, to operate on the foo package:

⏵ spam -h               # note usage and cmd list

⏵ spam up               # short for `spam update; spam upgrade`
⏵ spam in foo           # or install
⏵ spam rm foo           # or uninstall
⏵ spam clean            # clean up downloads, autoremove

# Moar!
⏵ spam add foo://bar    # add repo
⏵ spam info foo         # or show
⏵ spam lsf foo          # or listfiles of pkg
⏵ spam pr /bin/foo      # or provides, what or who-owns file
⏵ spam pu foo           # or purge
⏵ spam se foo           # or search

⏵ spam up --refresh     # passes moar args to the first command

👉 Spam knows when to invoke sudo, so you rarely need to worry about it. Even less to type for commands you may be running often across distros.

👉 It also can smooth over annoyances.

For example, by default it often passes --cacheonly to dnf subcommands so it doesn't make you wait to download the index before searching for a package. (The odds of a brand-new package being indexed in the last day is exceedingly small.) For apt it makes the … update && dist-upgrade dance as simple as "up".

👉 It prints each command it runs, so you can learn how to do it on a package manager you may not be as familiar with. Also, if it wasn't able to do what you want, it is easier to tweak the next command. Ctrl+C is always available.

👉 Finally, if spam doesn't recognize a given sub-command, it will just pass it along unmodified. Muscle memory is not derailed in that case.

Support

Currently supports:

• apt - Linux/Debian/Ubuntu/Mint
• dnf - Linux/Fedora
• opkg - Linux/OpenWRT (though may be phased out)
• port - MacOS/MacPorts

With hopefully more to come as time allows. Probably works on the Linux Subsystem for Windows (LSW).

Install

This is the Python version. The name "spam" was taken on PyPi, so the package is called spam-util there instead.

pip install --user spam-util

There are no dependencies so faffing about with virtual-envs is unnecessary. It can then be run (as at the top of the page), though you may need to put ~/.local/bin into your path.

Perhaps you'd prefer a small binary? I've also ported this to Rust for fun.

Customization

This is done from a config.ini file in your $XDG_CONFIG_HOME folder. A default is placed there on first run, if it does not exist already:

⏵ edit ~/.config/spam/config.ini

May be useful to check it into a "dotfiles" repo.

Sections

Note: the sections and keys that are used specifically by spam are given a spam_ prefix. All others will be used to configure local commands. "Package manager" is abbreviated as PM below.

The important sections are these:

[spam_needs_sudo]
# where sub-commands that require sudo are listed
…

[spam_aliases]
# lists shortcuts, such as in for install, rm for remove
…

# sections, named to match the platform_ids from the
# /etc/os-release file, ID=… value are described below:

[fedora]
# The value of the spam_exec key sets the PM for the platform:
spam_exec = dnf
…

# sub-commands of the PM are listed below the section.
# If there are multiple commands to run; use semicolons:

clean = clean packages; autoremove


[debian]
# A "!" at the front of the command signifies it as stand-alone,
# meaning it is *not* a sub-command of the PM.
# Instead, spam will run the command as is:
…
add = !add-apt-repository

[ubuntu]
# A spam_extends allows a section to inherit from another:
spam_extends = debian

# Yet overrides may be placed into the child section as well:
foo = bar; baz

Hope you enjoy.