ALPS

Advanced Linux Package System

The customizable package manager frontend (Linux, macOS, Termux, WSL)

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ALPS is a Go-based frontend for apt, apt-get, dnf, pacman, zypper, and apk with built-in AUR, Snap, Flatpak, and Winget support, a custom cross-distro script repo (alps-more), fully customizable output styling, and a unified command interface across distros — including Linux, macOS, Termux on Android and WSL on Windows.

One tool. Every distro. Your style.

Features

Feature	Description
Multi-distro	Auto-detects apt, apt-get, dnf, pacman, zypper, or apk
Termux support	Full support on Android — no sudo, native $PREFIX paths
macOS support	Full support with Homebrew integration; macOS-specific paths and behaviors
WSL support	Works on WSL; alps-more entries can target os = wsl
Built-in AUR	Full recursive dep resolution, PKGBUILD review, yay fallback
Extra packages	Unified Snap, Flatpak, and Winget support with consistent interface
alps-more	Cross-distro script repo with version tracking, mirror failover, and remote installs from GitHub/GitLab
Customizable	Colors, symbols, header, aliases — all via config file
Smart completion	fish, bash, zsh — distro-aware, AUR name cache, live package completion
Build isolation	Per-package build directories (~/.cache/alps/more/<pkg>/)

Installation

One-line install

Curl

curl -fsSL https://alps-project.pages.dev/install.sh | sh

Wget

wget -qO- https://alps-project.pages.dev/install.sh | sh

Auto-detects Termux, Debian/Ubuntu (.deb), Arch Linux (PKGBUILD), Alpine Linux (APKBUILD) or generic Linux (binary). Handles upgrades too — safe to re-run.

From source

git clone https://github.com/adrianpriza-ai/alps
cd alps && make install

Requires Go 1.22+

Pre-built binaries

Download alps-linux-amd64, alps-linux-arm64, or alps-linux-armv7 from Releases.

Shell Completion

Fish

mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions
alps completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/alps.fish

Bash

# Linux
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/bash-completion/completions
alps completion bash | sudo tee /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/alps > /dev/null

# macOS
mkdir -p $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d
alps completion bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/alps

Zsh

# Linux
alps completion zsh | sudo tee "${fpath[1]}/_alps" > /dev/null

# macOS
mkdir -p $(brew --prefix)/share/zsh/site-functions
alps completion zsh > $(brew --prefix)/share/zsh/site-functions/_alps

Note: For Zsh, run autoload -U compinit && compinit in your shell (or add it to ~/.zshrc) to enable completions.

Completion is environment-aware — AUR subcommands only appear on Arch, snap only on Debian/Ubuntu, neither on Termux. Tab-completing alps aur install draws from a local AUR name cache populated by every search. alps repo install [TAB] completes live from the alps-more cache.

Global Flags

Flag	Description	Supported Subsystems
-n, --dry-run	Preview actions without making changes	All (repo, aur, extra, apt, pacman, dnf, zypper, apk)
-y, --noconfirm	Skip confirmation prompts	Main package managers only (apt, pacman, dnf, zypper, apk)

Important: For safety, -y is intentionally NOT supported for secondary package managers (aur, repo, extra) and fallback paths. These operations always require explicit user confirmation.

Usage

alps <command> [args]

Command	Description
install <pkg>	Install from repo or fallback (auto-detected)
remove <pkg>	Remove package
purge <pkg>	Remove package and config/data
search <query>	Search repo + AUR simultaneously (AUR only for Arch Linux)
show <pkg>	Show package information
list	List installed packages
update	Update package database
upgrade	Upgrade system + AUR packages
full-upgrade	Sync repos and upgrade all packages
autoremove	Remove orphaned dependencies
autoclean	Clean package cache
clean	Clean all cached packages
repo <subcommand>	Manage alps-more packages
aur <subcommand>	AUR management (Arch only)
extra <subcommand>	Extra package management (snap/flatpak/winget)
completion <shell>	Generate shell completion
config-show	Show active config and paths
aliases	Show active aliases
version	Show version
help	Show help

Unknown commands produce a clear error instead of being passed silently to the backend.

Default Aliases

Top-level:

Alias	Command	Alias	Command
ins	install	se	search
rm	remove	sh	show
pu	purge	ls	list
up	update	au	autoremove
ug	upgrade	ac	autoclean
fug	full-upgrade	cl	clean
fp	flatpak	sk	snap
ex	extra	wg	winget

Subcommand-only (work inside any subsystem that has a matching subcommand):

Alias	Command	Context
bl	build-local	aur only
fa	fetch-abs	aur only
abs	fetch-abs	aur only

alps ex ins firefox       # extra install firefox (auto-detects backend)
alps fp ins firefox       # flatpak install firefox
alps sk ins firefox       # snap install firefox
alps aur se neovim-git    # aur search neovim-git
alps repo ins ollama      # alps-more install ollama
alps aur bl ./mypkg       # aur build-local ./mypkg

Arch Linux Specific: Run alps aliases on Arch to see specialized AUR subcommand aliases.

Configuration

Path	Scope
/etc/alps/config	Global
~/.config/alps/config	Per-user (overrides global)

Config file format (INI-style):

# Colors
color_primary = "\e[36m"    # cyan
color_success = "\e[32m"    # green
color_warning = "\e[33m"    # yellow
color_error   = "\e[31m"    # red
color_info    = "\e[34m"    # blue
color_dim     = "\e[2;37m"  # dim white
color_bold    = "\e[1m"     # bold
color_reset   = "\e[0m"     # reset

# Symbols
sym_ok   = "✓"
sym_err  = "✗"
sym_warn = "⚠"
sym_info = "◆"
sym_arrow = "→"
sym_bullet = "•"

# Header
show_header  = true
title_style  = "default"   # or "custom"
title_line1  = "\e[1;97m  ╔═════════════╗"
title_line2  = "\e[1;97m  ║ ALPS  /\/\/ ║"
title_line3  = "\e[1;97m  ╚═════════════╝"

# Aliases
alias_i   = "install"
alias_-S  = "install"
alias_-R  = "remove"

AUR (Arch Linux)

alps install <pkg> on Arch tries pacman -S first, then falls through to AUR automatically. Uses yay if available, otherwise the built-in makepkg path.

Requirements

sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel

Built-in AUR features

• Full recursive dep resolution — AUR deps are resolved and built in topological order
• PKGBUILD review — All PKGBUILDs shown up-front for review before any build starts
• Single confirm prompt — Covers the entire build plan
• Provider selection — Unknown dep with no exact match → presents up to 5 candidates to pick a provider
• Accurate dep checking — Uses pacman -T for virtual packages and provides handling
• Makedep cleanup — Removal offered once at the very end

alps aur install <pkg>          # install with full dep resolution
alps aur search <query>         # multi-word narrowing search
alps aur list                   # list installed AUR packages
alps aur remove <pkg>           # remove via pacman -R
alps aur clean                  # remove build cache (~/.cache/alps/aur/)
alps aur build-local [dir]      # build from a local PKGBUILD directory
alps aur fetch-abs <pkg>        # fetch official PKGBUILD (asp or Arch GitLab)

Extra Packages (Snap, Flatpak, Winget)

# Use unified extra command (auto-detects available backend)
alps extra install <pkg>
alps extra search <query>
alps extra update
alps extra remove <pkg>
alps extra list
alps extra show <pkg>
alps extra purge <pkg>
alps extra clean
alps extra autoremove

# Or use specific backend directly
alps snap install <pkg>     # Snap (Ubuntu/Debian)
alps flatpak install <pkg>  # Flatpak
alps winget install <pkg>   # Winget (WSL)

Snap is available on Debian/Ubuntu and auto-offered as a fallback when apt can't find a package. Winget is available on WSL for Windows package management.

alps-more

Cross-distro script repo for tools

Requirements

Common requirements (all platforms):

• bash – For running installation scripts.
• tar & unzip – For extracting archives (.tar.gz, .tar.xz, .tar.bz2, .zip).
• GNU Coreutils – Standard file utilities (mkdir, cp, chmod, gzip, ln).

Linux-specific:

• fakeroot – Handles sandboxed file ownership (not needed on macOS/Termux).
• systemctl – Manages systemd service macros (not needed on macOS/Termux).
• useradd / userdel – Handles user account management macros (not needed on macOS/Termux).

macOS: Most requirements are already included with macOS. Additional tools can be installed via Homebrew if needed.

Install dependencies:

Linux:

alps install fakeroot coreutils tar unzip bash

macOS (most tools already included):

# Only if you need additional tools via Homebrew
brew install coreutils

Quick User Guide

alps repo update                          # refresh cache from fastest mirror
alps repo list                            # list available packages for your distro
alps repo list install                    # list installed packages (alps-more + remote)
alps repo list remove                     # list stale packages no longer in repo
alps repo search <query>                  # search by name or description
alps repo install <pkg>                   # install with preview and validation
alps repo install github.com/user/repo    # install from a GitHub ALPSMORE file
alps repo install gitlab.com/user/repo    # install from a GitLab ALPSMORE file
alps repo install codeberg.org/user/repo  # install from a Codeberg ALPSMORE file
alps repo upgrade [pkg]                   # upgrade one or all installed packages
alps repo remove <pkg>                    # remove package
alps repo purge <pkg>                     # remove package and delete config/data
alps repo clean                           # remove build cache (~/.cache/alps/more)

Runtime Details & Requirements

• Build dir: ~/.cache/alps/more/<package>/
• State file: /var/lib/alps/installed.json (Termux: $PREFIX/var/lib/alps/installed.json, macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/alps/installed.json)
• Repo cache: /var/cache/alps/more/main.txt ((Termux: $PREFIX/var/cache/alps/more/main.txt macOS: ~/Library/Caches/alps/more/main.txt`)
• Mirrors: GitHub Pages and Codeberg

Key Features

• Simple placeholders: {ARCH}, {OS}, {DISTRO}, {VERSION}, {PKG_DIR}, {SERVER}
• Practical macros: {DOWNLOAD}, {BASH_RUN} (no external curl)
• Mirror failover and server reachability checks
• Optional sudo handling (skipped on Termux)

Validation & Safety

• Platform checks prevent mismatched installs
• deps validated via exec.LookPath
• Install preview + explicit confirmation required (no -y for repo installs)

Full Authoring Guide

Complete documentation, including all package fields, command blocks, macros, placeholders, examples, and publishing instructions are in ALPSMORE.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT