📦 pkgwrap

One command. Every package manager.

---

Remembering the exact syntax to install a package across different operating systems (apt, pacman, brew, apk) is a frustrating and error-prone chore. pkgwrap solves this context-switching fatigue by giving you one universal command that automatically detects your OS and translates standard operations into native syntax.

---

Why pkgwrap?

• Zero Configuration: Automatically detects your OS and native package manager out of the box—no setup required.
• Muscle Memory Saver: Stop pausing to remember if it's pacman -S, apt install, or dnf install. Just type pkw install.
• Smart Permissions: Automatically prefixes commands with sudo when required and prompts for confirmation, gracefully skipping if you're already running as root.
• Ultra Lightweight: No heavy dependencies, network API calls, or bloated background services. It simply wraps your local package manager safely.

Why not just memorize apt/pkg/pacman? If you only ever use a single operating system, you probably should! But if you are a developer, sysadmin, or homelabber who frequently jumps between a Debian VPS, a macOS workstation, an Alpine Docker container, or a Termux shell on your phone, you know the pain of typing apt install on an Arch machine. pkgwrap eliminates that friction entirely

Architecture

pkgwrap operates on a clean, layered design. Input is processed at the CLI layer and passed to a detector that intelligently identifies the host system. The detector requests the appropriate backend from a registry, and the selected backend implementation handles the translation. Finally, the base class manages root privileges and user confirmation before executing the native process safely.

User runs `pkgwrap install nmap`
       |
       v
  [cli.py] -- argparse, flags (-y, --backend)
       |
       v
[detector.py] -- checks PREFIX/TERMUX_VERSION, platform.system(),
                 then shutil.which() in priority order
       |
       v
[backends/__init__.py registry] -- maps backend name to class
       |
       v
[Backend subclass] (apt/pkg/pacman/dnf/apk/brew/zypper/xbps/nix/
                    eopkg/freebsd)
       |
       v
[base.py _run_command()] -- sudo/root detection, confirmation,
                            subprocess.run(shell=False)
       |
       v
Native package manager executes

Supported Platforms

OS/Distro	Backend	Package Manager Command	Status
Debian/Ubuntu	apt	apt	✅ Supported
Termux/Android	pkg	pkg	✅ Supported
Arch Linux	pacman	pacman	✅ Supported
Fedora	dnf	dnf	✅ Supported
Alpine	apk	apk	✅ Supported
macOS	brew	brew	✅ Supported
openSUSE	zypper	zypper	✅ Supported
Void Linux	xbps	xbps	✅ Supported
NixOS	nix	nix	✅ Supported
Solus	eopkg	eopkg	✅ Supported
FreeBSD	pkg	pkg	✅ Supported

• Note: FreeBSD and Termux are automatically distinguished even though both can expose a pkg command, via strict OS/environment detection.

Installation

Via pip

pip install pkgwrap-lokesh

Via install script (no pip needed)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trmxvibs/pkgwrap/main/install.sh | bash

From source (for contributors)

git clone https://github.com/trmxvibs/pkgwrap.git
cd pkgwrap
bash install.sh --source

Usage

pkgwrap install <package>
pkgwrap remove <package>
pkgwrap update
pkgwrap search <package>
pkw install <package>         # short alias, identical behavior
pkgwrap install <package> -y  # skip confirmation

Note: If you are already running as root (or use sudo directly), confirmation prompts are skipped automatically. Use the --backend flag to see which package manager pkgwrap has detected for your system.

Example

\$ pkgwrap install cowsay
ℹ The command 'sudo apt install -y cowsay' requires administrative privileges (sudo).
? Do you want to proceed with sudo? (y/N) y
→ Running: sudo apt install -y cowsay
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  cowsay
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
...
✔ Successfully finished installation process for 'cowsay'.

Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are always welcome! Adding support for a new package manager is as simple as creating a new file in the backends/ directory that implements the Backend interface. Feel free to open a ticket or submit a PR on our issues page.

Roadmap

• Core universal wrapper (11 backends)
• Automatic sudo/root detection
• Termux-aware detection
• Windows support (winget/choco)
• Package name mapping across backends
• Shell completion (bash/zsh)

License

MIT — see LICENSE file for details.

Made with ❤️ for the terminal by trmxvibs