upkg

Ever tried to document how to install your own program?

You end up writing 47 pages just to say "install the dev headers for libfoo" — because on Debian it's libfoo-dev, on Fedora it's libfoo-devel, on Arch it's libfoo, on Alpine it's libfoo-dev (different one), on FreeBSD it's foo, and on macOS it's "fook yu" — because the dev didn't pay $199 to sign the package.

upkg lets you speak civilized. It speaks the dialect of 87 other package managers for you.

upkg install git curl ripgrep

That's it. Same command on Debian, Fedora, Arch, openSUSE, OpenWrt, Termux, FreeBSD, and macOS.

What it actually does

• One command surface: upkg install, upkg uninstall, upkg upgrade.
• Routes to the native package manager underneath.
• Keeps the names people already know — no new catalog, no parallel universe.
• Stays out of your way for anything advanced. Use apt, dnf, pacman, pkg directly when you need to.

What it is not

• Not a new global package ecosystem.
• Not a replacement for native tooling when you need flags, repos, or version pinning.
• Not a daemon, not a sync service, not a wrapper that "knows better."

Backends

Platform	Backend
Debian/Ubuntu	apt
Fedora/RHEL	dnf / yum
Arch	pacman
openSUSE	zypper
OpenWrt	opkg
Android (Termux)	pkg (fallback apt)
FreeBSD	pkg
macOS	built-in engine (Homebrew-compatible names + prefixes)

macOS

No runtime switch, no shelling out to brew. The engine is built in and keeps the prefixes people expect:

• Apple Silicon: /opt/homebrew
• Intel: /usr/local

Same formula and cask names. Different engine.

Usage

upkg install git curl
upkg install --dry-run ripgrep
upkg uninstall htop
upkg upgrade
upkg help

Build

cargo build -p upkg
just qq