go-pkgx¶

A dependency-free, pure-Go (CGO_ENABLED=0) package manager for pkgx packages — a single static binary that installs and runs packages on a FROM scratch image, with no runtime dependencies of its own.

The reference pkgm is a Deno/TypeScript script that shells out to pkgx, deno, curl, openssl, zlib and xz — roughly 515 MB of runtime closure just to install a package. go-pkgx replaces all of it with one static ~9 MB binary.

Install¶

Linux / macOS — one line:

curl -fsSL https://go-pkgx.github.io/install.sh | sh

Windows — one line (PowerShell):

irm https://go-pkgx.github.io/install.ps1 | iex

The installer downloads the static binary for your os/arch from the latest release, verifies it against the release SHA256SUMS, and puts pkgm on your PATH ($HOME/.local/bin, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\go-pkgx on Windows; set PKGM_INSTALL to override on Unix).

Go users:

go install github.com/go-pkgx/pkgm@latest

Once installed, pkgm install lz4.org verifies each bottle against the signed registry by default.

Usage¶

pkgm install|i    <pkg>[@version] ...   install to /usr/local (root) or ~/.local
pkgm uninstall|rm <pkg> ...             remove an installation
pkgm shim|stub    <pkg> ...             create a shim in <prefix>/bin
pkgm list|ls                            list what's installed
pkgm outdated                           list outdated installations
pkgm update|up|upgrade                  update installations to latest
pkgm pin          <pkg>@version ...     install pinned to an exact version
pkgm run|x        <pkg> [-- args...]    run a pkg (works FROM scratch)

flags: -h/--help  -v/--version  -p/--pin  -P/--prefix DIR  -s/--from-scratch
env:   PKGX_DIR   package store (default: ~/.pkgx)
       PKGM_PREFIX default install prefix (ideal for FROM scratch)

The install/uninstall/shim/list/outdated/update/pin command surface and the ~/.local vs /usr/local prefix logic mirror the reference pkgm, so it is a drop-in replacement.

FROM scratch¶

A scratch image whose only file is the pkgm binary can install and run real packages, with no system libc:

FROM scratch
COPY pkgm /pkgm
ENV PKGX_DIR=/pkgx
ENTRYPOINT ["/pkgm"]

$ docker run --rm pkgm-scratch run gnu.org/bash -- --version
GNU bash, version 5.3.0(1)-release (aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu)

See FROM scratch for how the closure is resolved, the conformance matrix, and the pantry-wide audit.