pkg_mgr: a package browser for OpenBSD

What is it ?

pkg_mgr is a user-friendly graphical tool which allows you to manage installed packages, browse available packages by categories, and finally install/uninstall/update packages.

It has its roots in pkg_select, and takes some ideas too from FreeBSD's sysinstall. And as pkg_* tools, it's written in OO-ish perl (at least i tried..)

History:

• 2008-01-26: git log says 'initial import of pkg_mgr', but i had the idea in mind since months :)
• 2008-03-10: abandon DBIx::Class in favor of DBD::SQLite
• 2008-04-15: announce first release on ports@, pkg_mgr is featured on undeadly!
• 2008-04-17: imported in ports-tree!
• 2010-12-26: Release 0.2, finally. Mostly rewritten, and properly integrates with pkg_* tools. Likely to have bugs, as it heavily depends on underlying pkg_* code..
• 2011-01-07: Release 0.2.1, fixes a bug when simulating updates/installs as user and files in the system can't be accessed.

Features:

• Browse available packages, sorted by categories.



• See package details.


• Search for a keyword in package names and comments.



• Show installed package list.


• Install/uninstall packages through standard OpenBSD tools pkg_add/pkg_delete (simulations are possible).
• Simulate removal.


• Simulate installation.


• Show post-installation messages.


• Make a choice between alternatives.


• Update a package (and its dependencies first).



• Confirm an action.

Various notes and ideas:

• At the moment, only the curses GUI is available, but a menu-driven and a GTK2 interfaces are in the TODO-list. If someone unfucks p5-Gtk2.
• It is in no way a drop-in replacement for existing working tools, and it uses them.
• It doesn't need to be run as root, though it will only perform simulations if running as user.
• The ports-tree is not needed, but in the future it could be used to permit to build packages and select flavors.
• It uses sqlports as data-provider backend, and a plain DBD::SQLite model layer.
• I've tried using an higher-level model like DBIx::Class and Rose::DB, but it was far slower than plain SQL.
• It doesn't do a lot of things, and bugs are probably lying around, but i have lots of plans for it (and i suppose users will have some too..)
• It should normally work for OpenBSD 4.3 and higher. Version 0.2 requires at least 4.8-current as of its release date.

Ah, and btw the mandatory download link, or you can just grab it in sysutils/pkg_mgr.

Feedback, ideas and critics are welcomed at landry at openbsd dot org.