---
title: pm
related:
  - "[pm-user-repository](pm-user-repository.md)"
  - "[conf.h](conf.h.md)"
  - "[dotfiles](dotfiles.md)"
categories:
  - Tools and applications
  - Package management
---

**pm** is a package manager that reads a Lua configuration file and
coordinates the download, build and installation of packages from remote
URLs. Packages are processed in parallel using POSIX threads.

Why another package manager? I don't know either. Unlike the previous
attempts, this one works.

## Installation

pm needs `lua`, `libcurl` and `libcrypto` (OpenSSL).

```
$ git clone https://github.com/hugoocoto/pm
$ cd pm
$ make          # release build
$ make debug    # debug build with sanitizers
```

The Makefile also installs the man page to `~/.local/share/man/man1/pm.1`.

## Usage

```
pm [option]...
```

| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| `pm` | Fetch, build and install all packages from the config |
| `pm init`, `pm i` | Create a template config (default: `~/.config/pm/init.lua`) |
| `pm list`, `pm l` | List all packages defined in the config |
| `pm system`, `pm s` | Print system configuration paths and settings |
| `pm threads N`, `pm t N` | Use at most N threads (default: CPU count) |
| `pm config FILE`, `pm c FILE` | Use a different config file |
| `pm --color` | Enable colored output |
| `pm --help`, `pm -h` | Show help and exit |
| `pm --version`, `pm -v` | Show version and exit |

## Configuration

The config file lives at `~/.config/pm/init.lua`:

```
System = {
    build = { path = os.getenv("HOME") .. "/.local/share/pm/cache/" },
    bin   = { path = os.getenv("HOME") .. "/.local/share/pm/bin/" },
}

Packages = {
    {
        url = "...",
        build = "...",
        artifact = "...",
    },
}
```

> [!TIP]
> It is plain Lua, so you can use `require`, helper functions, and split
> packages across multiple files.

Instead of writing every package by hand you can pull definitions from the
[user repository](pm-user-repository.md).

## See also

- [Source code](https://github.com/hugoocoto/pm) (MIT)
- [Example configuration](https://github.com/hugoocoto/pm/tree/main/example/config/pm)