pkgit¶

ID: pkgit
Links: Documentation · Repository
Version requirement: >= 1.2
Platforms: 🐧 Linux
Operations: installed · search · install · upgrade_all
purl types: pkg:pkgit/
CLI name: pkgit
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: pkgit
Source: pkgit.py

pkgit, which compiles and installs packages straight from git repositories.

A package is a git repository the user declares in ~/.config/pkgit/init.lua, which pkgit clones and builds through the repository’s own bldit.lua recipe. That configuration is the registry: pkgit reaches no catalog of its own and fronts no other package manager, so it is wrapped on its own terms rather than declined as a translation layer.

Note

The configuration is mandatory, and its absence is what makes an unconfigured pkgit correctly undetectable: every subcommand, --version included, exits 1 with cannot run configuration script, so the version probe finds nothing and mpm reports the manager unavailable until make defconfig has run.

What `mpm` adds to `pkgit`¶

Through mpm, pkgit gains --exact and --extended search, to narrow to exact names or match descriptions.

Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover pkgit alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `pkgit` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know pkgit: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `pkgit`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`pkgit --list`	`mpm --pkgit installed`
Search for a package	`pkgit --search pkgit`	`mpm --pkgit search <pkg>`
Install a package	`pkgit --install pkgit`	`mpm install pkg:pkgit/<pkg>`
Upgrade everything	`pkgit --update`	`mpm --pkgit upgrade --all`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	✅	A package is whatever `HEAD` points at, so listings carry no version; build dependencies appear alongside what was asked for.
`outdated`
`orphans`
`search`	✅	Exact and extended search backfilled by `mpm`.
`install`	✅
`upgrade`
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	❌	The `--remove` command aborts on a package declared in the configuration and panics, leaving the package installed.
`sync`
`cleanup`
`doctor`

Configuration¶

Ignore pkgit on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-pkgit option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
pkgit = false
```
Raise the timeout of all pkgit calls:
```
[mpm.overrides.pkgit]
timeout = 900
```

Run mpm config-template pkgit to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.pkgit]
cli_names = [
    "pkgit",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = []
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=1.2.0"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "(?P<version>\\d+\\S*)",
]

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around pkgit, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --pkgit dump pkgit.toml, then mpm restore pkgit.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --pkgit sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation¶

mpm runs this manager as the current user and never prepends sudo by default. Flip the policy for its privileged operations with --sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

None of its operations is privileged.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown¶

State of pkgit’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None (a package is a git checkout, carrying no version or date)

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: pkgit repositories
Retraction: Repository deletion: a package is a git repository named in the user’s own init.lua, so it is withdrawn by that repository disappearing or dropping its bldit.lua recipe
Publish date: ❌ a checkout is identified by HEAD alone, so there is nothing to date

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Reference traces¶

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the manager source. If you know pkgit well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ pkgit --list
git
pkgit
luajit.git

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ pkgit --version
1.2.0

and extracted with:

r"(?P<version>\d+\S*)"

Changelog¶

8.0.0 (2026-09-20)
- Add the pkgit package manager with inventory, search, install and full upgrade of the packages it compiles from git repositories.