meta_package_manager.managers.pacstall module

class meta_package_manager.managers.pacstall.Pacstall

Bases: PackageManager

AUR-inspired, source-based package manager for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.

Pacstall builds packages from “pacscripts” and installs the results as .deb archives through dpkg. mpm forces NO_COLOR and DISABLE_PROMPTS so output is uncolored and every call stays non-interactive.

pacstall self-escalates: every privileged subcommand re-execs the script through sudo pacstall (its elevate() function), and its documented invocation is unprefixed (pacstall -I foo). mpm therefore never wraps it and marks it internal_sudo instead: a warm sudo credential cache is kept alive for its mid-run re-exec, and the hidden-prompt watchdog covers the cold-cache case.

Initialize cli_errors list.

operation_notes: ClassVar = {'installed': 'Each listed package costs a follow-up `--cache-info` call to recover its version.', 'search': 'Matches names only and reports no versions.', 'upgrade': 'There is no per-package upgrade verb, so upgrading one package reinstalls it through `--install`.'}

Per-operation hints rendered in the Notes column of the manager page’s Operations table.

Keyed by the Operations member name, each value is a single short sentence explaining why the manager lacks the operation, or what makes its implementation partial: the pointer a reader needs to judge whether the gap is one they could help close. Each sentence starts with a capital and closes with a period, and starts on a word rather than a code span, so the cell reads standalone beside its row. A blank cell stays silent: a manager documenting nothing documents no gap.

The full rationale never lives here: it belongs in a comment beside the implementing method (or beside this declaration, for an operation with no method to hang it on), so the sentence on the page stays a hint and the code keeps the story. The class docstring follows the same split: it keeps only what a user needs to run the tool day to day, never how mpm wraps it.

Validated by test_operation_notes, which also checks every key matches a real operation: a key outside the enum’s vocabulary would never reach a page.

homepage_url: str | None = 'https://pacstall.dev'

Home page of the project, only used in documentation for reference.

Left unset when the home page is the project’s repository, which repository_url names on its own, and when it is the project’s manual, which documentation_url names. Never inherited, like the other links.

documentation_url: str | None = 'https://pacstall.dev/docs/'

Entry point of the project’s own documentation, or None when it has none.

The manual, the documentation site, or the man page of the CLI mpm drives: whichever page a user reads to learn the commands this manager wraps. Listed between homepage_url and repository_url in the links of the manager’s page, so a reader reaching for the tool’s reference finds it in the box of facts rather than in the prose below it.

Left unset where a link would state a fact twice or invent one: a tool documenting itself in its repository alone, whose README repository_url already reaches. A page about the ecosystem rather than the tool does not qualify either.

Where a project’s only site is its manual, that address belongs here and homepage_url stays unset: the slot names what the page is, and a reader reaching for the reference looks under the documentation link.

Never inherited, like every other link: the AUR helpers extending pacman each document themselves.

repository_url: str | None = 'https://github.com/pacstall/pacstall'

Repository holding the project’s code, or None when it has no public one.

Linked from the manager’s documentation page. Also what the weekly metrics sample reads: docs/docs_update.py writes it into the [tool.repomatic.metrics] subjects of pyproject.toml when its forge answers the sampler, through a mirror for a forge that does not.

Never inherited, for the same reason as wikipedia_url: the AUR helpers extending pacman each live in a repository of their own.

platforms: frozenset[Platform] | Group | Platform | Iterable[Platform | Group] = frozenset({Platform(id='almalinux', name='AlmaLinux'), Platform(id='alpine', name='Alpine Linux'), Platform(id='altlinux', name='ALT Linux'), Platform(id='amzn', name='Amazon Linux'), Platform(id='android', name='Android'), Platform(id='arch', name='Arch Linux'), Platform(id='buildroot', name='Buildroot'), Platform(id='cachyos', name='CachyOS'), Platform(id='centos', name='CentOS'), Platform(id='chromeos', name='ChromeOS'), Platform(id='clearlinux', name='Clear Linux OS'), Platform(id='cloudlinux', name='CloudLinux OS'), Platform(id='crux', name='CRUX'), Platform(id='debian', name='Debian'), Platform(id='endeavouros', name='EndeavourOS'), Platform(id='exherbo', name='Exherbo Linux'), Platform(id='fedora', name='Fedora'), Platform(id='generic_linux', name='Generic Linux'), Platform(id='gentoo', name='Gentoo Linux'), Platform(id='guix', name='Guix System'), Platform(id='ibm_powerkvm', name='IBM PowerKVM'), Platform(id='kali', name='Kali Linux'), Platform(id='kvmibm', name='KVM for IBM z Systems'), Platform(id='linuxmint', name='Linux Mint'), Platform(id='mageia', name='Mageia'), Platform(id='mandriva', name='Mandriva Linux'), Platform(id='manjaro', name='Manjaro Linux'), Platform(id='nixos', name='NixOS'), Platform(id='nobara', name='Nobara'), Platform(id='nutyx', name='NuTyX'), Platform(id='opensuse', name='openSUSE'), Platform(id='openwrt', name='OpenWrt'), Platform(id='oracle', name='Oracle Linux'), Platform(id='parallels', name='Parallels'), Platform(id='pidora', name='Pidora'), Platform(id='pikaos', name='PikaOS'), Platform(id='raspbian', name='Raspbian'), Platform(id='rhel', name='RedHat Enterprise Linux'), Platform(id='rocky', name='Rocky Linux'), Platform(id='scientific', name='Scientific Linux'), Platform(id='slackware', name='Slackware'), Platform(id='sles', name='SUSE Linux Enterprise Server'), Platform(id='slitaz', name='SliTaz GNU/Linux'), Platform(id='solus', name='Solus'), Platform(id='sourcemage', name='Source Mage GNU/Linux'), Platform(id='tuxedo', name='Tuxedo OS'), Platform(id='ubuntu', name='Ubuntu'), Platform(id='ultramarine', name='Ultramarine'), Platform(id='void', name='Void Linux'), Platform(id='wsl1', name='Windows Subsystem for Linux v1'), Platform(id='wsl2', name='Windows Subsystem for Linux v2'), Platform(id='xenserver', name='XenServer')})

List of platforms supported by the manager.

Allows for a mishmash of platforms and groups of platforms. Will be normalized into a frozenset of Platform instances at instantiation.

internal_sudo: bool = True

Marks a manager whose CLI invokes sudo itself mid-run.

Homebrew cask runs it from installer artifacts, fink re-execs its root commands through it, and the AUR helpers call sudo pacman for their install steps. mpm never wraps such a manager’s commands: either none of its operations carry a build_cli(..., sudo=True) marker (cask, fink), or its default_sudo = False policy leaves the markers it inherits unescalated (the AUR helpers). Running the tool under sudo is often forbidden outright (brew refuses root, makepkg refuses to build). Consumed by prime_sudo(), whose opportunistic probe keeps an already-warm credential cache alive for these internal escalations, and by the silent-call notice in run(), which flags a possibly-hidden password prompt on a cold cache.

Forcing sudo = true on such a manager (config key or --sudo) still never wraps its commands, but does promote it into the up-front prompt path of prime_sudo(), unless the tool drops the cached credentials itself (resets_sudo_timestamp).

requirement: str | None = '>=6.0.0'

Version requirement specifier.

Supports a comma-separated range of constraints (e.g. ">=1.20.0,<2.0.0"). A bare version string like "1.20.0" is treated as >=1.20.0.

Parsed by meta_package_manager.version.VersionRange.

Defaults to None, which deactivates version check entirely.

extra_env: ClassVar = {'DISABLE_PROMPTS': '1', 'NO_COLOR': '1'}

Suppress ANSI colors and disable interactive prompts.

version_regexes: tuple[str, ...] = ('(?P<version>\\d+\\.\\d+\\.\\d+)',)

$ pacstall --version
6.3.7 Vanilla

property installed: Iterator[Package]

Fetch installed packages.

$ pacstall --list
neofetch
neovim

Note

When piped, pacstall --list outputs bare package names without versions. A follow-up pacstall --cache-info <pkg> version call retrieves the installed version per package.

property outdated: Iterator[Package]

Fetch outdated packages.

$ pacstall --list-upgrades
Upgradable: 2
    neofetch @ pacstall-programs#master ( 7.1.0-2 -> 7.2.0-1 )
    neovim @ pacstall-programs#master ( 0.9.4-1 -> 0.10.0-1 )

search(query, extended, exact)

Fetch matching packages.

Caution

Search does not support extended or exact matching, and does not provide version information. Returns the best subset of results and lets meta_package_manager.manager.PackageManager.refiltered_search() refine them.

$ pacstall --search neovim
neovim @ pacstall-programs
neovim-git @ pacstall-programs

Return type:

Iterator[Package]

install(package_id, version=None)

Install one package.

$ pacstall --install neofetch

Return type:

str

upgrade_all_cli()

Generates the CLI to upgrade all packages.

$ pacstall --upgrade

Return type:

tuple[str, ...]

upgrade_one_cli(package_id, version=None)

Generates the CLI to upgrade one package by reinstalling it.

$ pacstall --install neofetch

Return type:

tuple[str, ...]

cli_names: tuple[str, ...] = ('pacstall',)

List of CLI names the package manager is known as.

This list of recognized CLI names is ordered by priority. That way we can influence the search of the right binary.

..hint::

This was helpful in the case of the Python transition from 2.x to 3.x, where multiple versions of the same executable were named python or python3.

By default, this property’s value is derived from the manager’s ID (see the MetaPackageManager.__init__ method above).

id: str = 'pacstall'

Package manager’s ID.

Derived by defaults from the lower-cased class name in which underscores _ are replaced by dashes -.

This ID must be unique among all package manager definitions and lower-case, as they’re used as feature flags for the mpm CLI.

name: str = 'Pacstall'

Return package manager’s common name.

Default value is based on class name.

remove(package_id)

Remove one package.

$ pacstall --remove neofetch

Return type:

str

virtual: bool = False

Should we expose the package manager to the user?

Virtual package manager are just skeleton classes used to factorize code among managers of the same family.

wikipedia_url: str | None = None

English Wikipedia article about the project, or None when it has none.

Listed last in the links of the manager’s documentation page. The article covers the project that home page names, or is a redirect Wikipedia keeps under the project’s name, landing on the part of a broader article that describes it: Cargo_(software) opens the Cargo section of the Rust article. An article that merely mentions the project does not count, nor does one about a related subject: lazy is a Neovim plugin manager, and the Neovim article is not about it.

Never inherited: the metaclass resets it to None on any class not declaring its own. A subclass often wraps a distinct project, like the six AUR helpers extending pacman, and would otherwise present pacman’s article as its own. Documentation-only, like homepage_url.

sync()

Sync package metadata from remote repositories.

$ pacstall --update

Return type:

None