bearhub/README.md

bauh

Graphical user interface to manage your Linux applications (packages) (old fpakman). It currently supports Flatpak, Snap and AUR packaging types. When you launch bauh you will see a management panel where you can search, update, install and uninstall applications. You can also downgrade some applications depending on the package technology.

It has a tray mode (see Settings below) that attaches the application icon to the system tray providing a quick way to launch it. Also the icon will get red when updates are available.

Developed with:

• Python3 and Qt5.

Requirements

Debian-based distros

• python3.5 or above
• pip3

Arch-based distros

• python
• python-requests
• python-pip
• python-pyqt5

Optional

• flatpak: to be able to handle Flatpak applications
• snapd: to be able to handle Snap applications
• git: to be able to downgrade AUR packages
• wget: to be able to download and install AUR packages
• pacman: to be able to handle AUR packages
• libappindicator3: for the tray mode in GTK3 desktop environments

Distribution

AUR

As bauh package. There is also a staging version (bauh-staging) but is intended for testing and may not work properly.

PyPi

pip3 install bauh

It may require sudo, but prefer the Manual installation described below to not mess up with your system libraries.

Manual installation:

If you prefer a manual and isolated installation, type the following commands within the cloned project folder:

python3 -m venv env ( creates a virtualenv in a folder called **env** )
env/bin/pip install . ( install the application code inside the **env** )
env/bin/bauh  ( launch the application )

If you want do not want to clone / download this repository, go your Home folder and execute the commands above, but replace the second by env/bin/pip install bauh.

Autostart

In order to autostart the application, use your Desktop Environment settings to register it as a startup application / script (bauh --tray=1).

Settings

You can change some application settings via environment variables or arguments (type bauh --help to get more information).

• BAUH_SYSTEM_NOTIFICATIONS: enable or disable system notifications. Use 0 (disable) or 1 (enable, default).
• BAUH_CHECK_INTERVAL: define the updates check interval in seconds. Default: 60.
• BAUH_LOCALE: define a custom app translation for a given locale key (e.g: 'pt', 'en', 'es', ...). Default: system locale.
• BAUH_CACHE_EXPIRATION: define a custom expiration time in SECONDS for cached API data. Default: 3600 (1 hour).
• BAUH_ICON_EXPIRATION: define a custom expiration time in SECONDS for cached icons. Default: 300 (5 minutes).
• BAUH_DISK_CACHE: enables / disables disk cache. When disk cache is enabled, the installed applications data are loaded faster. Use 0 (disable) or 1 (enable, default).
• BAUH_DOWNLOAD_ICONS: Enables / disables app icons download. It may improve the application speed depending on how applications data are being retrieved. Use 0 (disable) or 1 (enable, default).
• BAUH_CHECK_PACKAGING_ONCE: If the available supported packaging types should be checked ONLY once. It improves the application speed if enabled, but can generate errors if you uninstall any packaging technology while using it, and every time a new supported packaging type is installed it will only be available after a restart. Use 0 (disable, default) or 1 (enable).
• BAUH_TRAY: If the tray icon and update-check daemon should be created. Use 0 (disable, default) or 1 (enable).
• BAUH_SUGGESTIONS: If application suggestions should be displayed if no packaged considered as an application is installed (runtimes / libraries do not count as applications). Use 0 (disable) or 1 (enable, default).
• BAUH_MAX_DISPLAYED: Maximum number of displayed packages in the management panel table. Default: 50.
• BAUH_LOGS: enable bauh logs (for debugging purposes). Use: 0 (disable, default) or 1 (enable)

The application settings are stored in /home/$USER/.config/bauh/config.json

Disk cache

• bauh stores some data about your installed applications by default in /home/$USER/.cache/bauh to load them faster.

How to improve bauh performance

• If you don't care about a specific packaging technology and don't want bauh to deal with it, just disable it via the graphical interface.
• If you don't care about restarting the app every time a new supported packaging technology is installed, set "check-packaging-once=1" (bauh --check-packaging-once=1). This can reduce the application response time up in some scenarios, since it won't need to recheck if the packaging type is available for every action you request.
• If you don't mind to see the applications icons, you can set "download-icons=0" (bauh --download-icons=0). The application may have a slight response improvement, since it will reduce the parallelism within it.
• If you don't mind app suggestions, disable it (bauh --sugs=0)
• Let the disk cache always enabled so bauh does not need to dynamically retrieve some data every time you launch it.

Code structure

Modules

view: code associated with the graphical interface

gems: code responsible to work with the different packaging technologies (every submodule deals with one or more type)

api: code abstractions representing the main actions that a user can do with Linux packages (search, install, ...). These abstractions are implemented by the gems, and the view code is only attached to them (it does not know how the gems handle the actions)

commons: common code used by gems and view

Roadmap

• Support for other packaging technologies
• Separate modules for each packaging technology
• Memory and performance improvements
• Improve user experience