packagekit_dart 0.3.2

Dart FFI bindings for PackageKit, the cross-distro Linux package manager. Search, install, update, and remove packages via D-Bus with async streams.

packagekit_dart

Typed Dart API for the PackageKit D-Bus package manager abstraction layer. Supports search, install, update, remove, and repo management across APT, DNF, Zypper, and other PackageKit backends.

Uses sdbus-cpp v2 for typed D-Bus signal delivery via Dart_PostCObject_DL.

Platform support

Platform	Search / info	Install / remove / update	Repo management
Ubuntu 22.04+ (APT)	Y	Y (polkit)	Y (polkit)
Fedora 38+ (DNF)	Y	Y (polkit)	Y (polkit)
openSUSE (Zypper)	Y	Y (polkit)	Y (polkit)
Arch (Alpm)	Y	Y (polkit)	Y (polkit)
Any Linux with PackageKit >= 1.2	Y	Y	Y
macOS / Windows	-	-	-

PackageKit is socket-activated on all modern distributions. If the daemon is not running when PkClient.connect() is called, systemd will start it automatically.

Prerequisites

PackageKit must be installed on the target system. Without it, PkClient.connect() will throw PkServiceUnavailableException.

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install packagekit

Fedora:

sudo dnf install PackageKit

openSUSE:

sudo zypper install PackageKit

Arch:

sudo pacman -S packagekit

Verify the daemon is available:

busctl status org.freedesktop.PackageKit 2>/dev/null && echo "OK" || echo "Not available"

Note: PackageKit requires a real Linux system with systemd and D-Bus. It will not work in minimal containers, chroots, or WSL environments that lack a system bus and the PackageKit .service file.

Quick start

import 'package:packagekit_dart/packagekit_dart.dart';

Future<void> main() async {
  final client = await PkClient.connect();
  print('Backend: ${client.properties?.backendName}');

  // Search for packages
  final tx = client.searchName('firefox');
  await for (final pkg in tx.packages) {
    print('${pkg.id.name} ${pkg.id.version}: ${pkg.summary}');
  }
  await tx.result;

  await client.close();
}

Dependency resolution and the simulate-first pattern

PackageKit performs full dependency resolution in the backend (libsolv for DNF/Zypper, libapt-pkg for APT). The recommended workflow for install/remove/update is:

1. simulateInstall(ids)  -->  PkInstallPlan (dry-run, no system changes)
2. Display plan to user, ask for confirmation
3. installPackages(ids)  -->  Real install with live progress

// Simulate first — see exactly what will change
final plan = await client.simulateInstall(packageIds);
print('${plan.installing.length} to install, '
    '${plan.updating.length} to update, '
    '${plan.removing.length} to remove');

if (!plan.isEmpty) {
  // Execute the real install
  final tx = client.installPackages(packageIds);
  await for (final p in tx.progress) {
    print(p.progressLabel);
  }
  await tx.result;
}

TOCTOU note

simulateInstall() and installPackages() are separate PackageKit transactions. The daemon's dependency solver runs independently in each. Between the two calls, another process may install packages, refresh the cache, or modify repos. The real install will silently recompute a fresh dependency plan that may differ from the simulate plan.

This is expected behavior. Always pass the original package IDs to installPackages(), not plan.allIds — let the backend resolve the current state at install time.

Flutter example

A full-featured Flutter desktop catalog app is included at example/packagekit_catalog/.

Examples

Example	Description
search.dart	Search packages by name
install.dart	Simulate-first install with live progress
simulate_install.dart	Dry-run dep resolution (scripting-friendly)
get_updates.dart	List available updates with security classification
list_repos.dart	List configured repositories
monitor_updates.dart	Watch for daemon update notifications

Run with:

dart run example/search.dart firefox
dart run example/install.dart vim
dart run example/get_updates.dart

Building the native library

# Clone with submodules
git clone --recursive https://github.com/meta-flutter/packagekit_dart.git
cd packagekit_dart

# Build
cmake -B build native/ -GNinja \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DBUILD_TESTING=ON
cmake --build build --parallel

# Run C++ tests
ctest --test-dir build/test --output-on-failure

# Run Dart tests
PK_NC_LIB=$PWD/build/libpackagekit_nc.so dart test

Dependencies

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install cmake ninja-build pkg-config clang libsystemd-dev libgtest-dev

Fedora:

sudo dnf install cmake ninja-build clang clang-tools-extra systemd-devel gtest-devel

Architecture

Dart (PkClient)
  |  dart:ffi
  v
pk_bridge.h  (C ABI)
  |
  +-- PkManager        (system bus connection, event loop thread, properties)
  +-- PkTransactionBridge  (per-transaction signal handlers -> PostCObject)
  |
  v
sdbus-cpp v2  (D-Bus proxy, typed signals)
  |
  v
org.freedesktop.PackageKit  (system bus, socket-activated daemon)

All signal payloads are glaze-encoded with a discriminator byte prefix and posted to Dart via Dart_PostCObject_DL. The Dart GlazeCodec decodes them into typed domain objects.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.

sdbus-cpp is MIT. PackageKit D-Bus XML interface files are LGPL 2.1 (vendored for code generation only).