Tadman - Some Package Manager Written in Python

Note

The you wish to submit and issue or are looking to fork the repo for a pull please do so via the Gitlab repo. The GitHub repo is only a mirror.

What It Does

Tadman acts as a graphical wrapper for common build systems and makes configuring and building source code easily. It then (by default) installs the built package in /usr/local/tadman/PACKAGE-NAME and symlinks the files to your root directory where they belong, similiar to GNU Stow. Uninstalling an old program is as easy as running a single command:

$ sudo tadman-curses uninstall PACKAGE

What It Does Not Do

A flaw that one may note is Tadman's lack of dependency tracking; This is an intentional design choice. While it may not be the fastest approach, Tadman does not wish to make choices for the user like a majority of other package managers.

With Tadman, there are no package maintainers or unnecessary dependencies. Rather, it gives the user direct access to the world's largest and most up-to-date software library: the internet. It allows users to install software from a Git repo and uninstall it easily. All you need to do is find some source code, and install it using a single command:

$ sudo tadman-curses build PATH

Dependencies

The only necessary dependencies for Tadman are:

• python3 (built with curses support)
• Setuptools module for python3

Though, there are several optional dependencies:

• asciidoctor (to generate the manual page)
• CMake (to build CMake-based projects)
• pygobject and GTK+3 (to use the GTK+ 3 interface)
• pytest (to run some tests)

Installation

Tadman can be installed using Git and Setuptools using the following commands on a GNU/Linux system:

$ git clone https://github.com/KeepPositive/Tadman.git
$ cd Tadman
$ python3 setup.py install

Note

Currently, use of the --user flag does not work since Tadman requires root access for its installation.

You should now have an executable named tadman-curses in your path.

Usage

Tadman should make building source code packages easier. Try it out by downloading some source code that uses autotools or CMake, and then run the following:

$ python3 tadman-curses build [PATH]

A curses-based GUI will open, and prompt you for the package name and version (necessary for better book-keeping of the installation). Next, an options list will appear, where you can check off the options you want, or leave the ones you don't blank. Once you are ready, hit 'e', and assuming you have all of the dependencies your program requires, the program will be installed.

For a complete list of available arguments, check out the manpage.

Licensing

Copyright © 2016 Ted Moseley. Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the MIT Open Source License.