paclook

A universal interactive package CLI search tool.

Supported Providers

• apk - Alpine Linux package manager
• apt - Debian/Ubuntu package manager
• brew - Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
• dnf - Fedora/RHEL package manager
• nix - Nix/NixOS package manager
• pacman - Official Arch Linux repos
• paru - AUR helper (official repos + AUR)
• xbps - Void Linux package manager
• yay - AUR helper (official repos + AUR)
• zypper - openSUSE package manager

More providers can be added in a modular manner.

NOTE: On some systems if you have not used your package manager in a while (or ever) the first search might take some time as your package manager will update its own cache.

Building from source

Requires clang++ >= 19 (C++26 modules support), CMake >= 3.30, and Ninja.

cmake -G Ninja -S . -B build \
    -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ \
    -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON
cmake --build build

For static linking (portable binary):

cmake -G Ninja -S . -B build \
    -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ \
    -DSTATIC_LIBC=ON
cmake --build build

Usage

./paclook                   # Auto-detect best available provider
./paclook -p pacman         # Use specific provider
./paclook -l                # List available providers
./paclook -h                # Show help

Controls

Key	Action
Type	Search for packages
Up/Down	Navigate results
PgUp/PgDn	Navigate by page
Enter	Install selected package
Escape	Clear search
Ctrl+X	Quit

Testing with Docker

First install docker for your specific machine, on Arch:

sudo pacman -S docker
sudo systemctl enable --now docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker  # or logout/login for group to take effect

Then run the docker testing scripts to start an interactive session with paclook built from source:

./docker/test.sh alpine    # Alpine (apk)
./docker/test.sh arch      # Arch Linux (pacman, paru, yay)
./docker/test.sh fedora    # Fedora (dnf)
./docker/test.sh homebrew  # Linuxbrew (brew)
./docker/test.sh nixos     # NixOS (nix)
./docker/test.sh opensuse  # openSUSE (zypper)
./docker/test.sh ubuntu    # Ubuntu (apt)
./docker/test.sh void      # Void Linux (xbps)

Adding New Providers

1. Create src/providers/yourprovider.cppm as a module (export module paclook.providers.yourprovider;)
2. Import paclook.provider (and paclook.util if you need sort_by_relevance)
3. Implement: name(), is_available(), search(), install_command()
4. Register in src/app.cppm: create_provider() and get_available_providers()
5. Add the .cppm file to the FILE_SET CXX_MODULES list in CMakeLists.txt