Chicory is a supplemental software package management scheme for Unix and Unix-like systems. It works alongside the primary package manager of the system without interfering. In plainest terms, you can use Chicory on systems for which the formal package manager is RPM or apt or pkg or so forth.
The first goal of Chicory is to require very little infrastructure. Many Chicory packages can be installed and run with no additional support.
Chicory is intended to promote the use of open source software.
Chicory is the key ingredient in a special blend, traditionally of coffee.
Chicory works well for just a single package, not necessarily a whole system. Nothing technically prevents someone from using it for a whole system, but Chicory works best when blended with other methods.
Chicory allows that packages can reside locally, remotely, or on removable media. It does not require that software packages be shrink-wrapped for delivery (e.g., RPM, MSI). It supports point-and-shoot.
To date, more than 130 open source packages have been built with Chicory and deployed on more than a dozen different systems (operating system and hardware combinations). See the current list of packages for the latest successful builds.
With Chicory, we can ...
- Deploy Instantly
- Leave the operating system pristine
- Install or upgrade (or downgrade) without disrupting users
- Have protected copies (R/O to each client, container, or virtual machine)
- Have less content to be backed up
- Install mixed releases if needed
- Recognize multi-platform storage savings (preemptive de-duplication)
- (conditionally) Install without admin privileges
Historically, the only script was the setup script which might
accompany any single package. The script runs stand-alone without
particular dependencies beyond the environment found on most Unix systems.
Similarly, individual makefile wrappers for Chicory packages
have no special requirements or infrastructure dependencies.
Chicory's main goal is to require as little infrastructure as possible.
For years, Chicory was used with only the master prefix and a setup script,
the only requirement being that the package of interest be available
(either on removable media or shared storage or traditional local storage).
One can use NFS, for example, and run the setup script in the package
to create symbolic links referencing the package.
It is often better to copy a package to local storage. One goal of this project is to deliver a set of scripts which facilitate simplified operation with Chicory: build, search, install, etc. That is, we should have tools pull the correct platform build of a package and then establish local reference links.