More package management systems and tools

• Build packages that will install on many different distros
• Packages can be interactive
• Multiple front ends: best is automatically chosen so GUI users get a graphical front end, and command line users get a text based interface
• Multiple language support (both in tools and for your own packages)
• Automatically verifies and resolves dependancies no matter how the software was installed. This means you don't have to use autopackage for all your software, or even any of it, for packages to succesfully install.

Autopackage is currently in development. Version 0.2.1 has the basic architecture in place, with a basic terminal front end. It can build, install, verify and uninstall simple packages.
Here at OSnews is an introduction to Autopackage.

The Smart Package Manager project has the ambitious objective of creating smart and portable algorithms for solving adequately the problem of managing software upgrading and installation. This tool works in all major distributions, and will bring notable advantages over native tools currently in use (APT, APT-RPM, YUM, URPMI, etc).

Notice that this project is not a magical bridge between every distribution in the planet. Instead, this is a software offering better package management for these distributions, even when working with their own packages. Using multiple package managers at the same time (like rpm and dpkg) is possible, even though not the software goal at this moment. 

Here is an EWeek article about it.

GNUpdate provides its own package database, composed of B+Trees, hashtables, and index files for the various methods of searching. It is constructed with expandability in mind. In several cases, the GNUpdate database is faster than even the RPM database.

Users may still use their existing package database for any operation, though some future features of GNUpdate will only work with its own package database. An existing package database can be converted to a GNUpdate package database by using gpkg.

EPM is a free UNIX software/file packaging program that generates distribution archives from a list of files. EPM can:

• Generate portable script-based distribution packages complete with installation and removal scripts and standard install/uninstall GUIs.
• Generate "native" distributions in AIX, BSD, Debian, HP-UX, IRIX, MacOS X, Red Hat, Slackware, Solaris, and Tru64 UNIX formats.
• Provide a complete, cross-platform software distribution solution for your applications.

EPM is a product of "Easy Software Products.

The Zero Install system makes software installation not merely easy but unnecessary. Users run their applications directly from the Internet from the software author's pages. Caching makes this as fast as running a normal application after the first time and allows off-line use.

Zero Install is a network filesystem from which you run applications. It makes aggressive use of a cache, meaning that once software is downloaded, it runs from the cache just as quickly as if you had installed it normally. Since everything is fetched on demand, you'll never be told that you're missing some library; it will be fetched automatically. Since the system is only a cache, you don't need root privileges to run software, making it more secure too.

OpenPKG ! ...the world of cross-platform RPM-based Unix software packaging.

OpenPKG is a project of the Development Team from Cable & Wireless Deutschland's Internet Services division. The goal is the creation and maintainance of portable and easy to install software packages for use on the major Unix server platforms. Currently Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD are officially and fully supported. Additionally, Additionally, core functions are known to work on NetBSD, OpenBSD, Tru64 and HP-UX.

The unique OpenPKG architecture leverages proven technologies like Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) and OSSP and GNU components to establish a unified administration environment, independent of the underlying operating system. OpenPKG is completely self-contained and does not even need a preinstallation of RPM.

Packages are installed in self contained directory trees and symbolic links from a common area are made to the package files.

Stow was inspired by Carnegie Mellon's Depot program, but is substantially simpler. Whereas Depot requires database files to keep things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs, so there's no danger (as there is in Depot) of mangling directories when file hierarchies don't match the database. Also unlike Depot, Stow will never delete any files, directories, or links that appear in a Stow directory (e.g., /usr/local/stow/emacs), so it's always possible to rebuild the target tree (e.g., /usr/local).

This web page is about GNU Source Installer (sourceinstall), a graphical tool which provides configuration, compilation, installation, tracking and removal of source packages. It works best with packages prepared by the developers using a recent version of the autotools.

For an experienced user, this sofware provides a way to centralize source installation, keep track of already installed packages and their relevant files, check installations for consistency, and have enhanced uninstallation.

For the novice but interested user, this software also offers a way to gain confidence with the command line (yes really), the file system, the traditional UNIX commands, and of course with common source configuration and installation procedures and options.

For GNU/Linux systems, this is also an alternative, distribution-independent way to install desired additional functionality.

Also see this article on Newsforge.

Portage is completely written in Python and Bash and therefore fully visible to the users as both are scripting languages.