readme.md

July 1, 2026 · View on GitHub

Meta Package Manager

Last release Python versions Downloads Unittests status Coverage status Documentation status DOI

What is Meta Package Manager?

Quick start

Thanks to uv, you can run mpm on any platform in one command, without installation or venv:

$ uvx meta-package-manager

Features

Supported package managers

One CLI to rule them all:

---
config: {"sankey": {"showValues": false, "width": 800, "height": 400}}
---
sankey-beta

Meta Package Manager,apk,1
Meta Package Manager,apm,1
Meta Package Manager,apt,1
Meta Package Manager,apt-mint,1
Meta Package Manager,asdf,1
Meta Package Manager,brew,1
Meta Package Manager,cargo,1
Meta Package Manager,cask,1
Meta Package Manager,choco,1
Meta Package Manager,composer,1
Meta Package Manager,conda,1
Meta Package Manager,cpan,1
Meta Package Manager,deb-get,1
Meta Package Manager,dnf,1
Meta Package Manager,dnf5,1
Meta Package Manager,emerge,1
Meta Package Manager,eopkg,1
Meta Package Manager,flatpak,1
Meta Package Manager,fwupd,1
Meta Package Manager,gem,1
Meta Package Manager,guix,1
Meta Package Manager,macports,1
Meta Package Manager,mas,1
Meta Package Manager,mise,1
Meta Package Manager,nix,1
Meta Package Manager,npm,1
Meta Package Manager,opkg,1
Meta Package Manager,pacaur,1
Meta Package Manager,pacman,1
Meta Package Manager,pacstall,1
Meta Package Manager,paru,1
Meta Package Manager,pip,1
Meta Package Manager,pipx,1
Meta Package Manager,pkg,1
Meta Package Manager,pnpm,1
Meta Package Manager,ports,1
Meta Package Manager,pwsh-gallery,1
Meta Package Manager,scoop,1
Meta Package Manager,sdkman,1
Meta Package Manager,sfsu,1
Meta Package Manager,snap,1
Meta Package Manager,steamcmd,1
Meta Package Manager,stew,1
Meta Package Manager,topgrade,1
Meta Package Manager,uv,1
Meta Package Manager,uvx,1
Meta Package Manager,vscode,1
Meta Package Manager,vscodium,1
Meta Package Manager,winget,1
Meta Package Manager,xbps,1
Meta Package Manager,yarn,1
Meta Package Manager,yarn-berry,1
Meta Package Manager,yay,1
Meta Package Manager,yum,1
Meta Package Manager,zerobrew,1
Meta Package Manager,zypper,1

Metadata and operations

Package managerVersionCooldownBSD1Linux2macOSUnix3Windowsinstalledoutdatedsearchinstallupgradeupgrade_allremovesynccleanup
apk>=2.10.0🐧✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
apm ⚠️>=1.0.0🅱️🐧🍎🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
apt>=1.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
apt-mint>=1.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
asdf>=0.16.0🐧🍎✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
brew>=6.0.0🐧🍎✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
cargo>=1.0.0🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓
cask>=6.0.0🍎✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
choco>=2.0.0🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
composer>=1.4.0🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
conda>=4.6.0🐧🍎🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
cpan>=1.64🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓
deb-get🐧✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
dnf>=4.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
dnf5>=5.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
emerge>=3.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
eopkg>=3.2.0🐧✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
flatpak>=1.2.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
fwupd>=1.9.5🐧✓✓✓✓✓✓
gem>=2.5.0🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
guix🐧✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
macports>=2.0.0🍎✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
mas>=7.0.0🍎✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
mise>=2025.5.10🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
nix>=2.0.0🐧🍎✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
npm>=11.10.0✓🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
opkg>=0.2.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
pacaur>=4.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
pacman>=5.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
pacstall>=6.0.0🐧✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
paru>=1.9.3🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
pip>=26.1.0✓🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
pipx>=1.0.0✓🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓
pkg>=1.11✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
pnpm>=11.0.0✓🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
ports✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
pwsh-gallery>=7.4.0🐧🍎🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
scoop>=0.2.4🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
sdkman>=5.0.0🐧🍎✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
sfsu>=1.16.0🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
snap>=2.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
steamcmd🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓
stew>=0.3.0🐧🍎🪟✓✓✓✓✓
topgrade>=17.0.0🅱️🐧🍎🪟✓
uv>=0.5.0✓🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
uvx>=0.10.10✓🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓
vscode>=1.60.0🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓
vscodium>=1.60.0🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓
winget>=1.28.190🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
xbps>=0.59🐧✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
yarn>=1.20.0,<2.0.0🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
yarn-berry>=2.0.0🅱️🐧🍎⨂🪟✓✓
yay>=11.0.0✓🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
yum>=4.0.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
zerobrew>=0.3.0🐧🍎✓✓✓✓✓✓
zypper>=1.14.0🅱️🐧⨂✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓

Note

If your favorite manager is missing or does not support an operation, you can influence its implementation: open a ticket to document its output or read the contribution guide and submit a pull request.

You can help if you purchase business support 🤝 or sponsor the project 🫶.

Installation

All installation methods are available in the documentation. Below are the most popular ones:

macOS

mpm is part of the official Homebrew default tap, so you can install it with:

$ brew install meta-package-manager

Windows

mpm is available in the main repository of Scoop, so you just need to:

> scoop install main/meta-package-manager

Executables

Standalone binaries of mpm latest version are available as direct downloads for several platforms and architectures:

Platformarm64x86_64
LinuxDownload mpm-linux-arm64.binDownload mpm-linux-x64.bin
macOSDownload mpm-macos-arm64.binDownload mpm-macos-x64.bin
WindowsDownload mpm-windows-arm64.exeDownload mpm-windows-x64.exe

No need to install Python or uv. Useful for CI/CD pipelines running on minimal images, or old platforms where dependency management is painful.

Quickstart

List installed packages

List all packages installed on current system:

$ mpm installed
╭─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┬─────────┬────────────────────╮
│ Package name                │ ID                          │ Manager │ Installed version  │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
│ github                      │ github                      │ apm     │ 0.36.9             │
│ update-package-dependencies │ update-package-dependencies │ apm     │ 0.13.1             │
│ rust                        │ rust                        │ brew    │ 1.55.0             │
│ x264                        │ x264                        │ brew    │ r3060              │
│ atom                        │ atom                        │ cask    │ 1.58.0             │
│ visual-studio-code          │ visual-studio-code          │ cask    │ 1.52.0             │
│ nokogiri                    │ nokogiri                    │ gem     │ x86_64-darwin      │
│ rake                        │ rake                        │ gem     │ 13.0.3             │
│ iMovie                      │ 408981434                   │ mas     │ 10.2.5             │
│ Telegram                    │ 747648890                   │ mas     │ 8.1                │
│ npm                         │ npm                         │ npm     │ 7.24.0             │
│ raven                       │ raven                       │ npm     │ 2.6.4              │
│ jupyterlab                  │ jupyterlab                  │ pip     │ 3.1.14             │
│ Sphinx                      │ Sphinx                      │ pip     │ 4.2.0              │
│ ms-python.python            │ ms-python.python            │ vscode  │ 2021.10.1317843341 │
│ ms-toolsai.jupyter          │ ms-toolsai.jupyter          │ vscode  │ 2021.9.1001312534  │
╰─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┴─────────┴────────────────────╯
16 packages total (brew: 2, pip: 2, apm: 2, gem: 2, cask: 2, mas: 2, vscode: 2, npm: 2, composer: 0).

Narrow the listing to packages whose ID or name matches a query by passing it as an argument. The match is fuzzy by default (case-insensitive and tokenized); add --exact to require a verbatim match on the package ID or name:

$ mpm installed sphinx
$ mpm installed --exact Sphinx

List outdated packages

List all packages installed for which an upgrade is available:

$ mpm outdated
╭──────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬───────────────────┬────────────────╮
│ Package name │ ID          │ Manager │ Installed version │ Latest version │
├──────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼───────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ curl         │ curl        │ brew    │ 7.79.1            │ 7.79.1_1       │
│ git          │ git         │ brew    │ 2.33.0            │ 2.33.0_1       │
│ openssl@1.1  │ openssl@1.1 │ brew    │ 1.1.1l            │ 1.1.1l_1       │
│ rake         │ rake        │ gem     │ 13.0.3            │ 13.0.6         │
│ Telegram     │ 747648890   │ mas     │ 8.1               │ 8.1.3          │
│ npm          │ npm@8.0.0   │ npm     │ 7.24.0            │ 8.0.0          │
│ pip          │ pip         │ pip     │ 21.2.4            │ 21.3           │
│ regex        │ regex       │ pip     │ 2021.9.30         │ 2021.10.8      │
╰──────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴───────────────────┴────────────────╯
8 packages total (brew: 3, pip: 2, gem: 1, mas: 1, npm: 1, apm: 0, cask: 0, composer: 0).

The same query argument restricts the listing to outdated packages whose ID or name matches, again fuzzy by default and exact with --exact:

$ mpm outdated git

Upgrade outdated packages

A recent study shows that 70% of vulnerabilities lie in outdated libraries, so keeping every piece of software up to date is one of the key habits of security professionals. mpm upgrades all packages from all managers with a one-liner:

$ mpm upgrade --all
Updating all outdated packages from brew...
==> Upgrading 4 outdated packages:
gnu-getopt 2.35.1 -> 2.35.2
rclone 1.51.0 -> 1.52.0
fd 8.1.0 -> 8.1.1
youtube-dl 2020.05.08 -> 2020.05.29
(...)
Updating all outdated packages from cask...
==> Upgrading 4 outdated packages:
balenaetcher 1.5.89 -> 1.5.94, libreoffice 6.4.3 -> 6.4.4
(...)
Updating all outdated packages from gem...
Updating openssl
(...)
Updating all outdated packages from npm...
+ npm@6.14.5
(...)
Updating all outdated packages from pip...
Successfully installed dephell-argparse-0.1.3
Successfully installed dephell-pythons-0.1.15

This is the primary use case of mpm, and the main reason I built it.

Upgrade with a supply-chain cooldown

There is a counter-argument to the advice above. Chasing the newest release the moment it ships is exactly how supply-chain attacks reach you: a compromised version is usually detected and pulled within days of publication, but an immediate upgrade installs it before that happens. Blindly staying on the bleeding edge trades one risk (outdated, vulnerable libraries) for another (freshly poisoned releases).

mpm reconciles the two with a release-age cooldown, refusing any version published more recently than a threshold:

$ mpm --cooldown "7 days" upgrade --all

You still pick up older security fixes promptly, while sitting out the risky first days of a brand-new release. See the cooldown guide for the full mechanism and which managers enforce it natively.

List managers

If you wonder why your package manager doesn't seems to be identified, you can list all those recognized by mpm with:

$ mpm --all-managers managers
╭────────────┬────────────────────┬────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬────────────┬───────────╮
│ Manager ID │ Name               │ Supported      │ CLI                          │ Executable │ Version   │
├────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────┤
│ apm        │ Atom apm           │ ✓              │ ✘ apm not found              │            │           │
│ apt        │ Debian apt         │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✓ /usr/bin/apt               │ ✓          │ ✘         │
│ apt-mint   │ Linux Mint apt     │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✓ /usr/bin/apt               │ ✓          │ ✘         │
│ brew       │ Homebrew Formulae  │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/brew     │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.6.3   │
│ cargo      │ Rust cargo         │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/cargo    │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.64.0  │
│ cask       │ Homebrew Cask      │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/brew     │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.6.3   │
│ choco      │ Chocolatey         │ ✘ Windows only │ ✘ choco not found            │            │           │
│ composer   │ PHP Composer       │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/composer │ ✓          │ ✓ 2.4.2   │
│ dnf        │ Fedora DNF         │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ dnf not found              │            │           │
│ emerge     │ Gentoo emerge      │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ emerge not found           │            │           │
│ flatpak    │ Flatpak            │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ flatpak not found          │            │           │
│ gem        │ RubyGems           │ ✓              │ ✓ /usr/bin/gem               │ ✓          │ ✓ 3.0.3.1 │
│ mas        │ Mac App Store      │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/mas      │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.8.6   │
│ npm        │ Node npm           │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/npm      │ ✓          │ ✓ 8.19.2  │
│ opkg       │ opkg               │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ opkg not found             │            │           │
│ pacman     │ Arch Linux pacman  │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ pacman not found           │            │           │
│ pacstall   │ Pacstall           │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ pacstall not found         │            │           │
│ paru       │ Arch Linux paru    │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ paru not found             │            │           │
│ pip        │ Python pip         │ ✓              │ ✓ ~/.pyenv/shims/python3     │ ✓          │ ✓ 22.2.2  │
│ pipx       │ Python pipx        │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/pipx     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.1.0   │
│ scoop      │ Scoop              │ ✘ Windows only │ ✘ scoop not found            │            │           │
│ sdkman     │ SDKMAN             │ ✓              │ ✘ sdkman-init.sh not found   │            │           │
│ snap       │ Snap               │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ snap not found             │            │           │
│ steamcmd   │ Valve SteamCMD     │ ✓              │ ✘ steamcmd not found         │            │           │
│ vscode     │ Visual Studio Code │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/code     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.71.2  │
│ yarn       │ Yarn Classic       │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/yarn     │ ✓          │ ✓ 1.22.19 │
│ yarn-berry │ Yarn Berry         │ ✓              │ ✓ /opt/homebrew/bin/yarn     │ ✓          │ ✗ 1.22.19 │
│ yay        │ Arch Linux yay     │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ yay not found              │            │           │
│ yum        │ Fedora YUM         │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ yum not found              │            │           │
│ zypper     │ openSUSE Zypper    │ ✘ Linux only   │ ✘ zypper not found           │            │           │
╰────────────┴────────────────────┴────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴────────────┴───────────╯

If your favorite manager is not supported yet, you can help! See the contribution guide.

Used in

Check these projects to get real-life examples of mpm usage:

  • GitHub stars Dotfiles - macOS dotfiles for Python developers, using mpm to manage system packages.

Feel free to send a PR to add your project in this list if you are relying on mpm in any way.

Usage

Other subcommands and options are documented in:

Footnotes

  1. BSD: DragonFly BSD, FreeBSD, MidnightBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, SunOS. ↩

  2. Linux: Alpine Linux, ALT Linux, Amazon Linux, Android, Arch Linux, Buildroot, CachyOS, CentOS, CloudLinux OS, Debian, Exherbo Linux, Fedora, Generic Linux, Gentoo Linux, Guix System, IBM PowerKVM, Kali Linux, KVM for IBM z Systems, Linux Mint, Mageia, Mandriva Linux, Manjaro Linux, NixOS, Nobara, openSUSE, openSUSE Tumbleweed, OpenWrt, Oracle Linux, Parallels, Pidora, Raspbian, RedHat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux, Scientific Linux, Slackware, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Tuxedo OS, Ubuntu, Ultramarine, Void Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux v1, Windows Subsystem for Linux v2, XenServer. ↩

  3. Unix: Cygwin, GNU/Hurd, Haiku, IBM AIX, IBM i, illumos, Solaris. ↩