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Package Management

Complete Guide to Searching, Installing, and Managing Packages

OMG provides unified package management for official repositories and AUR on Arch Linux, with experimental Debian/Ubuntu support.

🎯 Overview​

OMG's package management features:

  • 22x faster searches than pacman (6ms vs 133ms)
  • Unified AUR integration — no separate AUR helper needed
  • Security grading — packages rated before installation
  • Policy enforcement — organization-wide installation rules
  • Transaction history — full audit trail with rollback

🔍 Package Search​

# Search all repositories (official + AUR)
omg search vim

# Limit results
omg search vim --limit 10

# Search AUR only
omg search -a visual-studio-code

# Search official only
omg search -o firefox
# Interactive mode — select packages to install
omg search browser -i

Interactive mode provides:

  • Fuzzy matching with arrow key navigation
  • Multi-select with space bar
  • Package descriptions inline
  • Security grades displayed

Search Performance​

ModeLatencyNotes
With daemon (cached)~6msInstant feel
With daemon (fresh)~200msStill fast
Without daemon~500msDirect libalpm

Fuzzy Matching​

OMG uses Nucleo for intelligent fuzzy matching:

omg search frfx
# Finds: firefox, firefox-developer-edition

omg search vsc
# Finds: visual-studio-code-bin, vscodium-bin

📦 Package Installation​

Install Packages​

# Install single package
omg install firefox

# Install multiple packages
omg install firefox chromium brave-bin

# Install AUR package (auto-detected)
omg install visual-studio-code-bin

# Install as dependency
omg install --asdeps libfoo

Installation Lifecycle​

  1. Security Analysis: Every package is evaluated against the system's security criteria and assigned a grade.
  2. Policy Validation: The system checks the package against defined rules, ensuring it meets organizational or user-set standards.
  3. Conflict Resolution: Dependencies are mapped and resolved, ensuring that all required components are available.
  4. Download & Integrity: Artifacts are retrieved over secure channels and verified using cryptographic signatures and hashes.
  5. Integration: Official packages are integrated through the system backend, while custom sources are prepared and deployed efficiently.
  6. Audit Recording: The entire transaction is logged to the history database for future reference or rollback.

AUR Build Options​

Configure in ~/.config/omg/config.toml:

[aur]
# Parallel build jobs
build_concurrency = 8

# makepkg flags
makeflags = "-j8"

# Cache built packages
cache_builds = true

# Use ccache for C/C++
enable_ccache = true

# Use sccache for Rust
enable_sccache = false

🗑️ Package Removal​

Remove Packages​

# Remove single package
omg remove firefox

# Remove with orphaned dependencies
omg remove firefox -r

# Remove multiple packages
omg remove pkg1 pkg2 pkg3

Safety Features​

  • Confirms before removing packages
  • Won't remove system dependencies
  • Warns about dependent packages

🔄 System Updates​

Update Packages​

# Update everything (official + AUR)
omg update

# Check for updates without installing
omg update --check

Update Flow​

  1. Database Sync — Fresh package lists
  2. Official Updates — Via pacman
  3. AUR Updates — Parallel builds
  4. History Recording — All changes logged

Selective Updates​

# Update specific package
omg install firefox  # Re-installing updates if newer

# Update official only (traditional pacman)
sudo pacman -Syu

ℹ️ Package Information​

Get Package Details​

omg info firefox

Output includes:

  • Name and version
  • Description
  • Repository (official/AUR)
  • Dependencies and optional dependencies
  • Installed files count
  • Security grade
  • Installation status

Performance​

ModeLatency
With daemon (cached)~6.5ms
Without daemon~150ms

📋 Package Listings​

Explicitly Installed Packages​

# List all explicit packages
omg explicit

# Count only
omg explicit --count

System Status​

omg status

Shows:

  • Total packages
  • Explicit packages
  • Orphaned packages
  • Updates available
  • Vulnerabilities

🧹 Cleanup​

Clean Caches​

# Remove orphaned packages
omg clean --orphans

# Clear package cache
omg clean --cache

# Clear AUR build cache
omg clean --aur

# Full cleanup
omg clean --all

Sync Databases​

omg sync

🔐 Security Features​

Security Grades​

Every package is assigned a security grade:

GradeMeaningExamples
LOCKEDSLSA Level 3 + PGPglibc, linux, pacman
VERIFIEDPGP signature verifiedOfficial repo packages
COMMUNITYAUR/unsignedAUR packages
RISKKnown vulnerabilitiesCVE-affected packages

Policy Enforcement​

Create ~/.config/omg/policy.toml:

# Minimum grade required
minimum_grade = "Verified"

# Allow AUR packages
allow_aur = true

# Require PGP signatures
require_pgp = false

# Allowed licenses (SPDX)
allowed_licenses = ["Apache-2.0", "MIT"]

# Banned packages
banned_packages = ["some-bad-pkg"]

Vulnerability Checking​

OMG checks installed packages against:

  • Arch Linux Security Advisory (ALSA)
  • OSV.dev global database

Run audit:

omg audit

📜 Transaction History​

View History​

# Recent transactions
omg history

# Last 5 transactions
omg history --limit 5

Rollback​

# Interactive rollback
omg rollback

# Rollback specific transaction
omg rollback <transaction-id>

Rollback Limitations:

  • Official packages only (AUR rollback planned)
  • Requires old packages in cache
  • May have dependency conflicts

🌐 Mirror Management​

Pacman Mirrors​

OMG uses system pacman mirrors. Configure in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.

AUR Source​

Default AUR endpoint: https://aur.archlinux.org

💨 Performance Tips​

1. Use the Daemon​

# Start daemon for cache
omg daemon

# Verify it's running
omg status

2. Use omg-fast for Scripts​

# Ultra-fast package count
omg-fast ec  # Explicit count
omg-fast tc  # Total count

3. Batch Operations​

# Install multiple at once
omg install pkg1 pkg2 pkg3

# Rather than individual commands
omg install pkg1
omg install pkg2
omg install pkg3

🐧 Platform Support​

Arch Linux (Full Support)​

  • Official repositories via libalpm
  • AUR with full build support
  • All features available

Debian/Ubuntu (Experimental)​

Build with Debian feature:

cargo build --release --features debian

Requires libapt-pkg-dev:

sudo apt install libapt-pkg-dev

Supported commands:

  • omg search
  • omg info
  • omg install
  • omg remove
  • omg update
  • omg explicit

Note: No AUR equivalent on Debian.

🔧 Troubleshooting​

Search Returns Nothing​

# Sync databases
omg sync

# Restart daemon
pkill omgd && omg daemon

# Try direct
pacman -Ss <query>

AUR Build Fails​

# Check base-devel
pacman -Q base-devel

# Clear cache and retry
omg clean --aur
omg install <package>

# Check logs
cat ~/.cache/omg/logs/*.log

Permission Denied​

# AUR builds shouldn't need sudo
# Official installs prompt for sudo

# If socket issues
ls -la $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/omg.sock

📚 See Also​