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Kiln LinuxKiln Linux

Package management

kiln is Kiln’s package manager, written in Rust. It builds recipes into .kpkg packages and installs, upgrades, removes and queries them.

Build kiln

Section titled “Build kiln”

Run these commands from the source repository on a host with Rust, Cargo and a C compiler. The PATH change applies to the current shell. For the static bootstrap executable, follow Development.

cargo build --release --manifest-path kiln/Cargo.toml
export PATH="$PWD/kiln/target/release:$PATH"

Commands

Section titled “Commands”
# writes packages/zlib-1.3.1-1.x86_64.kpkg
kiln build recipes/zlib
kiln install packages/zlib-*.kpkg
kiln list
kiln info zlib
kiln files zlib
kiln owner /usr/lib/libz.so.1
kiln remove zlib
Command What it does
build <recipe> [--out DIR] Build a recipe directory into a .kpkg. Output goes to packages/ by default.
fetch <recipe|ORDER>... Download and verify sources without building.
build-all [ORDER] [--out DIR] [--force] [--keep-going] Build and install recipes in order; defaults to recipes/ORDER. Skips installed versions. --keep-going continues past failures and lists them at the end.
install <name|file.kpkg>... [--force] Install or upgrade local packages, or repository packages by name with their dependencies.
sync Download each configured repository’s package index.
search <term> Search repository package names and summaries.
upgrade [--force] Upgrade installed packages to repository versions.
index [DIR] Write index.toml for a directory of packages; defaults to packages/.
remove <name>... [--force] Remove installed packages. Refuses if another package depends on it, unless --force.
list List installed packages.
info <name> Show an installed package’s metadata.
files <name> List the files an installed package owns.
owner <path> Show which package owns a path.

Every command takes --root DIR to work on a system other than /. The bootstrap uses this to install packages into the new root.

How installs work

Section titled “How installs work”
  • kiln records installed packages under /var/lib/kiln/installed/<name>/.
  • Install refuses to overwrite files another package owns, or files no package owns unless you pass --force.
  • kiln writes each file beside its target and renames it into place, so a running program never sees half a file.
  • A package’s payload must match its manifest and checksums before kiln installs it.
  • File operations stay inside --root, including through symlinks. This needs Linux 5.6 or newer and a mounted /proc.
  • Modified or deleted files under /etc are kept on upgrade and removal. Unmodified configuration files get the package’s new version.
  • Upgrades delete files the new version dropped.

Repositories

Section titled “Repositories”

Kiln’s official repository is published as the repo-x86_64 release on GitHub, and /etc/kiln/repos lists it by default. It holds the base system packages. A repository is a directory containing .kpkg files and an index.toml generated with kiln index packages. List its local path or HTTP(S) URL in /etc/kiln/repos, one per line. Repository commands need a configured repository with packages in it.

kiln sync
kiln search editor
kiln install vim
kiln upgrade

kiln sync refreshes repository indexes; kiln upgrade upgrades installed packages. Dependency resolution applies when you install packages by name from a repository. Installing local .kpkg files does not fetch their dependencies.

Not done yet

Section titled “Not done yet”

Package signatures.