Spork

Spork is a Scoop-style third-party package manager for Linux, focused on DEB package discovery, download, and install workflows for apt/dpkg-based systems.

It borrows the bucket-and-manifest workflow from Scoop, the Windows package manager, but keeps Linux package installation in the hands of the system package manager.

Keywords: Linux package manager, DEB package manager, Debian package manager, Ubuntu package manager, apt package manager, dpkg, Scoop-style package manager, bucket manifest package manager.

Spork finds packages. Your system package manager installs packages.

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Status

Spork is an open source project in early development. The command surface is usable for local testing and experimentation, but manifests, buckets, and package-manager adapters should still be treated as evolving interfaces.

Why Spork Exists

Linux already has mature package managers. Spork does not try to replace them.

Instead, Spork provides a lightweight third-party discovery layer:

• Buckets describe software entries outside the system repository.
• Manifests point to package files, metadata, homepages, and versions.
• The configured package manager handles install, update, uninstall, dependency resolution, and system state.

This keeps Spork small and makes the boundary explicit.

Features

• Scoop-style buckets and app manifests.
• Local app index built from configured buckets.
• Install, update, uninstall, and optional purge through a system package manager adapter.
• Download-only mode for package files.
• App search, info, homepage, manifest display, and dependency inspection.
• CPU architecture filtering for buckets that publish multiple builds.
• English and Chinese output selection.
• User-scoped installation under ~/.spork.

Supported Package Managers

Spork currently supports these adapter names:

• apt
• apt-get
• dnf
• yum
• zypper
• pacman

Debian and Ubuntu installs keep the existing apt install --simulate preflight behavior.

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spork-linux/spork/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
spork checkup
spork update

The installer is user-scoped. It initializes this layout:

~/.spork/
  apps/
    spork/
      current/        # Spork source checkout
  shims/
    spork -> ~/.spork/apps/spork/current/scripts/spork
  config/
    config.json
    buckets.json
    trusted-buckets.json
  buckets/
    main/             # default bucket checkout
  cache/
    index/
    downloads/
  state/
    installed.json

~/.local/bin/
  spork -> ~/.spork/apps/spork/current/scripts/spork

The installer creates a user command link at ~/.local/bin/spork when that path is available, and updates common shell profiles so new SSH shells can find spork from any directory.

The installer checks for the base commands Spork needs, including python3, git, sudo, and the command set required by the detected package manager. It detects the package manager from /etc/os-release and available commands, then writes it to config.json as packageManager.

By default, the installer downloads Spork from the network:

https://github.com/spork-linux/spork.git

Override the source repository or checkout ref if you maintain a fork:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spork-linux/spork/main/scripts/install.sh \
  | SPORK_REPO_URL=https://github.com/<owner>/spork.git SPORK_REF=<branch-or-tag> sh

The installer also adds the default bucket:

main -> https://github.com/spork-linux/spork-bucket.git

Override it during installation if you maintain your own bucket:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spork-linux/spork/main/scripts/install.sh \
  | SPORK_DEFAULT_BUCKET_NAME=main SPORK_DEFAULT_BUCKET_URL=https://github.com/<owner>/<bucket>.git sh

Quick Start

Run a local environment check without installing anything:

./scripts/spork checkup

After installing:

spork checkup
spork update
spork search <query>
spork info <app-id>

Common Commands

spork bucket list
spork bucket add extras <bucket-url>
spork bucket rm extras
spork bucket update
spork update

spork list
spork list --available
spork search <query>
spork info <app-id>
spork cat <app-id>
spork home <app-id>
spork depends <app-id>

spork download <app-id>
spork install <app-id>
spork update <app-id>
spork status
spork uninstall <app-id>
spork uninstall <app-id> --purge
spork uninstall <app-id> --autoremove
spork cache clean
spork checkup
spork create my-app ./bucket/my-app.json --url https://example.com/my-app.deb

spork update updates Spork itself with git pull --ff-only, updates git buckets, then rebuilds the local app index from bucket/*.json. It does not execute bucket scripts. Use --no-self-update or --no-bucket-update to skip either phase.

Bucket Layout

Spork buckets follow the Scoop convention of storing app manifests under bucket/:

bucket/
  code.json
  gh.json
bucket.json

Each bucket/*.json file is directly consumable metadata. Automation may update these files in the bucket repository, but clients only read JSON after pulling the bucket.

Single-architecture entries can use top-level arch, url, and sha256 fields. Multi-architecture entries can use architectures; Spork uses the CPU architecture detected during installation and skips unsupported apps. Common aliases are normalized to Debian-style names such as amd64, arm64, mips64el, and loongarch64:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "my-app",
  "name": "My App",
  "package": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "homepage": "https://example.com",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-21T00:00:00Z",
  "architectures": {
    "amd64": {
      "url": "https://example.com/my-app_1.0.0_amd64.deb",
      "sha256": "..."
    },
    "arm64": {
      "url": "https://example.com/my-app_1.0.0_arm64.deb",
      "sha256": "..."
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Inspect or change the configured package manager:

spork config get packageManager
spork config set packageManager apt
spork config set packageManager dnf
spork config set packageManager zypper
spork config set packageManager pacman

Select output language:

spork --lang en checkup
spork config set language zh
spork config set language en
spork config set language auto

Temporary environment overrides:

SPORK_LANG=en spork checkup
SPORK_LANGUAGE=zh spork list
SPORK_DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=30 spork download <app-id>
SPORK_PACKAGE_MANAGER=dnf spork checkup
SPORK_HOME=/tmp/spork-dev spork checkup

Source Layout

Spork uses the standard Python src/ layout:

src/spork/
  package_managers/
    apt.py
    dnf.py
    pacman.py
    zypper.py

New package-manager adapters should be added under src/spork/package_managers/ and registered in src/spork/package_managers/__init__.py.

What Spork Does Not Do

Spork does not install managed apps under ~/.spork. It stores buckets, metadata, state, and downloaded package files there. Actual app installation and removal still go through the configured system package manager.

Uninstall

./scripts/uninstall.sh
./scripts/uninstall.sh --keep-data

Contributing

Spork is open source and welcomes practical contributions:

• Improve package-manager adapters.
• Improve bucket automation.
• Improve bucket and manifest validation.
• Write or maintain public buckets.
• Improve documentation.

Keep changes small, testable, and aligned with the project boundary: Spork should discover and describe packages, while the system package manager should own installation.

Acknowledgements

Spork is deeply inspired by Scoop. Scoop's simple bucket model, readable manifests, and practical command-line experience had a strong influence on this project.

Respect and thanks to the Scoop project and its contributors.