Thanks for taking interest in pax! This project enables a Linux distro
to have a package management system. While obviously not for the large
players due to their own implementations, this one has a target market
aimed at smaller players like TinyCore and XiniX. Considering it is a
single file, it does have an impressive feature set. While there is a
larger set of TODO, the below is a priority short-list.
TODO
- create a graphical user interface
- create an update server
- create an admin server for network clients using fifo's
- optional automated package update checks/downloads/installs
- enable package searches using databases or filenames
- implement package building using 'builder'
- update the code to reduce reliance on coreutils
- update the code to rely on squashfs-tools ondemand
WARNING: currently this software is limited in use to only XiniX or
TinyCore (using a config file) Linux distros. We will expand beyond
this in time - patches are welcomed from the community to expedite
this timeline.
To Install:
1. cd /path/to/pax
2. sudo cp ./pax /bin
Make Default:
1. pax --install
To Use:
1. pax --help
Being a single file usually does not include a rich feature set, but
this script was able to pack quite a bit in! Here's a short list of
some rather robust actions that can be performed:
o Copy or symlink package contents to filesystem
o Copying packages to another folder or (storage) device
o Extract package contents
o Find which package requested files belong to
o Create a software package, with optional compiling
o Create restore points allowing for restoration
o List installed packages
o List package dependency trees
o Installation of version specific packages
o Unload installed packages
o Validate package data integrity and dependencies
o Can proxy actions from offline to online device
o Defined installation locations for packages
o Client control using fifo
Install a package:
pax -i nano[.i32.bin.soft]
Install packages from a file:
pax -i /path/to/package.list
Install a specific version:
pax -i -V 1.2.3 nano[.i32.bin.soft]
Make a package for distribution:
pax -m nano /path/to/package[/source]
Only download a package from the repo:
pax -d nano[.i32.bin.soft]
Update a package without optional restore point:
pax -i -R none nano[.i32.bin.soft]
Unload a package:
pax -u unload nano[.i32.bin.soft]
Uninstall a package:
pax -u delete nano[.i32.bin.soft]
Uninstall a package, purging configs too:
pax -u purge nano[.i32.bin.soft]
Since we are working with several many projects (13 on github alone),
we are going to provide an anticipated timeline of releases using
internal staff. Obviously outside contribution will advance these
forecasted dates.
2025 Oct - update pax; modify to work with (TC) TinyCore Linux
2026 Jan - package dittodata for (TC) TinyCore Linux
2026 Feb - completion of ModuleMaker for webWorks
2026 Apr - migration of existing webWorks modules using ModuleMaker
- migration of Tracker into webWorks and deprecation of
of standalone project
2026 May - update paged to 2018 code base from ACME
- apply any patches for bug fixes to existing projects
2026 Jun - update web.libs for dittodata and web.de
2026 Aug - move code from web.de into cli.de and update the former
to use the latter via XML communication
2026 - rest of 2026 tbd