Detect package manager in bash

lusiads · 09-20-2008, 05:59 AM

I want to write a simple script that simplifies the installation process of some software from standard repos, which runs on different distros.

For example,
on Redhat based distro, I would call

Code:

yum -y install package-name

on Debian based, It would be

Code:

apt-get -y install package-name

similar to Gentoo

Code:

emerge package-name

How can I archive this goal?
Which is the best way to detect the default package manager on specific distro and how?
Keep in mind that parameters of these package managers are different.

Any help would be appreciated.

unSpawn · 09-20-2008, 06:15 AM

Most distro's will have a file in /etc that lists distribution like /etc/*release or /etc/*ersion. For an example grep for instance the Rootkit Hunter script for "REL_FILES". LSB-compliant releases can also be queried using 'lsb_release -irs'. From then on (or even without distro check) it's just testing a list of applications to use (which, test -x). Note network probs and updater configuration options like blacklisting so do run post checks instead of assuming the install succeeded.

lusiads · 09-20-2008, 07:07 AM

Thank you for such quickly reply.

Your information is somewhat useful to me.
I would try to detect distro then making assumption about its default package manager.

Code:

if [ -f /etc/redhat-release ] ; then
PKMGR=`which yum`
elif [ -f /etc/debian_version ] ; then
PKMGR=`which apt-get`
fi

I'm just interested in LSB-complaint distros, is there any better way?

unSpawn · 09-20-2008, 07:15 AM

Your question is somewhat vague. Define "better".

lusiads · 09-20-2008, 12:57 PM

I'm sorry.
All I want is a script that installs some specific packages on different distros.
I want to install scim scim-m17n m17n-db and all their dependencies.Then checking if version of these installed packages are correct. If they are not, I will try to setup compilation environment and compile them from source.

How could I do this the easy way?

unSpawn · 09-21-2008, 03:41 AM

I think you're on the right track. If your script runs interactively you might want to add an option to ask the user for input to bypass or select a package manager?

lusiads · 09-21-2008, 07:54 AM

Okay, Thanks a lot.