|
Instead of running many pkg_add or pkg_delete commands to manage my
packages, now I can use a configuration file (allowing includes) to
define which package should be installed, and the installed but not
listed packages should be removed.
After using NixOS too long, it's a must have for me to manage packages
this way.
# How does it work?
pkgset works by marking extra packages as "auto installed" (the
opposite is manually installed, see pkg_info -m), and by installing
missing packages. After those steps, pkgset runs "pkg_delete -a" to
remove unused packages (the one marked as auto installed) if they are
not a dependency of another required package.
# How to install?
The installation is easy, download the sources and run make install as
root, it will install pkgset and its man page on your system.
```shell commands
$ git clone https://tildegit.org/solene/pkgset.git
$ cd pkgset
$ doas make install
```
# Configuration file example
Here is the /etc/pkgset.conf file on my laptop.
```configuration file
borgbackup--%1.2
bwm-ng
fish
fzf
git
git-annex
gnupg
godot
kakoune
musikcube
ncdu
rlwrap
sbcl
vim--no_x11
vlc
xclip
xfce
xfce-extras
yacreader
```
# Limitations
The only "issue" with pkgset is that for some packages that "pkg_add"
may find ambiguous due to multiples versions or favors available
without a default one, you must define the exact package version/flavor
you want to install.
# Risks
If you use it incorrectly, running pkgset doesn't have more risks than
losing some or all installed packages.
# Why not use pkg_add -l ?
I know pkg_add as an option to install packages from a list, but it
won't remove the extra packages. I may look at adding the "pkgset"
feature to pkg_add one day maybe. |