PackageKit

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PackageKit

A screenshot of PackageKit
Developed by	Richard Hughes
Latest release	0.1.9 / March 4, 2008 (2008-03-04); 97 days ago
OS	Linux
Genre	Package management system
License	GPL
Website	PackageKit

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.

1 History
2 Design
- 2.1 Backends
- 2.2 Frontends
3 See also
4 References

[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 Linux distribution to use it as default front end for yum.

[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
Fast user switch 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 (package manager), opkg, PiSi, poldek, Smart Package Manager, Yellow dog Updater, Modified and zypp.

[edit] Frontends

gnome-packagekit is the name of the collection of software application front ends for PackageKit to be used in the GNOME desktop. Also released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, gnome-packagekit is free software.