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 gnome-packagekit, a front-end for PackageKit, running on Fedora |
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| Developed by | Richard Hughes |
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| Stable release | 0.4 (09 December 2008) [+/−] |
| Written in | C, C++, Python |
| OS | Linux |
| Development status | Active |
| Type | Package management system |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | http://www.packagekit.org/ |
PackageKit is a suite of software applications designed to provide a consistent and high-level front end for a number of different package management systems. PackageKit was created by Richard Hughes.
The suite is ostensibly cross-platform, though it is primarily targeted at Linux distributions which follow the interoperability standards set out by the freedesktop.org group. It uses the software libraries provided by the D-Bus and PolicyKit projects to handle inter-process communication and computer privilege negotiation.
Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, PackageKit is free software.
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[edit] History
PackageKit was created by Richard Hughes and first proposed in a series of blog posts in 2007, and is now developed by a small team of developers. Fedora 9 is the first operating system to use it as default front end for yum. It has undergone many updates in the new Fedora 10.
[edit] Design
PackageKit itself is a system activated daemon called packagekitd, that abstracts out differences between the different systems. A library called libpackagekit also allows other programs to trivially interact with PackageKit.[1]
Features include:
- Installing local files, ServicePack media and from remote sources.
- Authentication using PolicyKit
- Does not replace existing packaging tools
- Multi-user system aware – will not allow shutdown in critical parts of the transaction
- A system activated daemon so exits when not in use
[edit] Backends
A number of different package management systems (known as backends) support different abstract methods and signals that are used by the front-end tools.[2] Backends supported include Advanced Packaging Tool, alpm, box, Conary, opkg, PiSi, poldek, Smart Package Manager, Yellow dog Updater, Modified and zypp.
[edit] Frontends
There are already three collection of software application front ends for PackageKit:
- console to be used without graphical environment.
- gnome-packagekit to be used in the GNOME desktop.
- kpackagekit to be used in the KDE desktop.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "PackageKit Reference Manual". packagekit.org. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
- ^ "Frequently asked questions". packagekit.org. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
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