bauh ( ba-oo ), formerly known as fpakman, is a graphical interface for managing your Linux applications / packages. It is able to manage AUR, AppImage, Flatpak, Snap and native Web applications. When you launch bauh a management panel will be displayed where you can search, update, install, uninstall and launch applications ( downgrading is also possible in some cases ).

It has a tray mode ( see Settings ) that attaches itself as an icon to the system tray. The attached icon will get red when updates are available.

This project has an official Twitter account ( @bauh4linux ) so people can stay on top of its news.

To contribute have a look at CONTRIBUTING.md

Developed with

• Python3 and Qt5

Basic requirements

Debian-based distros

• python3.5 or above
• pip3
• python3-requests
• python-yaml
• qt5dxcb-plugin
• python3-venv ( only for Manual installation )
• libappindicator3 ( for the tray mode in GTK3 desktop environments )

Arch-based distros

• python
• python-requests
• python-pip
• python-pyqt5
• python-yaml
• libappindicator-gtk3 ( for the tray mode in GTK3 desktop environments )

The other requirements depend on which type of applications you want to manage ( see Gems ).

Installation

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, open your favorite terminal application and type the following commands:

python3 -m venv bauh_env ( creates a virtualenv in a folder called **bauh_env** )
bauh_env/bin/pip install bauh ( installs bauh in the isolated environment )
bauh_env/bin/bauh  ( launches bauh )

# P.S: if you want to launch it attached to your system tray, replace the last command by: bauh_env/bin/bauh --tray=1

• To update your isolated bauh to the latest version:

bauh_env/bin/pip install bauh --upgrade

• To uninstall it just remove the bauh_env folder

• To create a shortcut ( desktop entry ) for it in your system menu ( assuming you created the isolated environment in your home folder using Python 3.7 ):

  • Create a file called bauh.desktop in ~/.local/share/applications with the following content

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=bauh
Comment=Install and remove applications ( AppImage, AUR, Flatpak, Snap )
Exec=/home/$USER/bauh_env/bin/bauh
Icon=/home/$USER/bauh_env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/bauh/view/resources/img/logo.svg

• If you want a shortcut to the tray, put the --tray=1 parameter in the end of the Exec line of the example above ( e.g: Exec=/home/$USER/bauh_env/bin/bauh --tray=1 )
• P.S: If the shortcut is not working, try to replace the $USER var by your user name.

Autostart

In order to autostart the application, use your Desktop Environment settings to register it as a startup application / script (bauh --tray=1). Or create a file named bauh.desktop in ~/.config/autostart with the content below:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=bauh ( tray )
Exec=/path/to/bauh --tray=1

Uninstallation

Before uninstalling bauh via your package manager, consider executing bauh --reset to remove configuration and cached files stored in your HOME folder.

Gems ( package technology support )

Flatpak ( flatpak )

• The user is able to search, install, uninstall, downgrade, launch and retrieve the applications history

• The configuration file is located at ~/.config/bauh/flatpak.yml and it allows the following customizations:

installation_level: null # defines a default installation level: user or system. ( the popup will not be displayed if a value is defined )

• Required dependencies:
  • Any distro: flatpak

Snap ( snap )

• The user is able to search, install, uninstall, refresh, launch and downgrade applications

• Required dependencies:
  • Any distro: snapd ( it must be enabled after its installation. Details at https://snapcraft.io/docs/installing-snapd )

AppImage ( appimage )

• The user is able to search, install, uninstall, downgrade, launch and retrieve the applications history

• Supported sources: AppImageHub ( applications with no releases published to GitHub are currently not available )
• Installed applications are store at ~/.local/share/bauh/appimage/installed
• Desktop entries ( menu shortcuts ) of the installed applications are stored at ~/.local/share/applications
• Downloaded database files are stored at ~/.local/share/bauh/appimage as apps.db and releases.db
• Databases are always updated when bauh starts
• Databases updater daemon running every 20 minutes ( it can be customized via the configuration file described below )
• Crashes may happen during an AppImage installation if AppImageLauncher is installed. It is advisable to uninstall it and reboot the system before trying to install an application.
• All supported application names can be found at apps.txt
• The configuration file is located at ~/.config/bauh/appimage.yml and it allows the following customizations:

db_updater:
  enabled: true  # if 'false': disables the daemon database updater ( bauh will not be able to see if there are updates for your already installed AppImages )
  interval: 1200  # the databases update interval in SECONDS ( 1200 == 20 minutes )

• Required dependencies
  • Arch-based systems: sqlite, wget ( or aria2 for faster multi-threaded downloads )
  • Debian-based systems: sqlite3, wget ( or aria2 for faster multi-threaded downloads )
  • fuse may be required to run AppImages on your system
  • P.S: aria2 will only be used if multi-threaded downloads are enabled

AUR ( arch )

• Only available for Arch-based systems
• The user is able to search, install, uninstall, downgrade, launch and retrieve packages history

• It handles conflicts, and missing / optional packages installations ( including from your distro mirrors )

• Automatically makes simple package compilation improvements:

  a) if MAKEFLAGS is not set in /etc/makepkg.conf, then a copy of /etc/makepkg.conf will be generated at ~/.config/bauh/arch/makepkg.conf defining MAKEFLAGS to work with the number of your machine processors (-j${nproc}).

  b) same as previous, but related to COMPRESSXZ and COMPRESSZST definitions ( if '--threads=0' is not defined )

  c) ccache will be added to BUILDENV if it is installed on the system and already not defined

  Obs: For more information about them, have a look at Makepkg

• During bauh initialization a full AUR normalized index is saved at /tmp/bauh/arch/aur.txt, and it will only be used if the AUR API cannot handle the number of matches for a given query.

• If some of your installed packages are not categorized, send an e-mail to [email protected] informing their names and categories in the following format: name=category1[,category2,category3,...]

• The configuration file is located at ~/.config/bauh/arch.yml and it allows the following customizations:

optimize: true  # if 'false': disables the auto-compilation improvements
transitive_checking: true  # this property defines if dependencies of a dependency should be retrieved before the package installation. It avoids interruptions, since it will detect all required dependencies before the process begin.
sync_databases: true # package databases synchronization once a day ( or every device reboot ) before the first package installation / upgrade / downgrade
simple_checking: false  # this property defines how the missing dependencies checking process should be done before installing a package. When set to 'false' an algorithm combining pacman's methods and AUR's API is used ( currently slower, but more accurate ), whereas 'false' relies only on pacman's methods ( faster. but currently not always accurate ) 

• Required dependencies:
  • pacman
  • wget
• Optional dependencies:
  • git: allows to retrieve packages release history and downgrading
  • aria2: provides faster, multi-threaded downloads for required source files ( if the param )

Native Web Applications ( web )

• It allows the installation of native Web applications by typing their addresses / URLs on the search bar

• It offers the possibility to customize the generated app the way you want:

• It provides some suggestions coming with predefined settings, and they also can be retrieved by their names. They are defined at suggestions.yml, and downloaded during the application usage.

• It relies on NodeJS, Electron and nativefier to do all the magic, but you do not need them installed on your system. An isolated installation environment will be generated at ~/.local/share/bauh/web/env.
• The isolated environment is created based on the settings defined in environment.yml ( downloaded during runtime ).
• Some applications require Javascript fixes to properly work. If there is a known fix, bauh will download the file from fix and attach it to the generated app.
• The installed applications are located at ~/.local/share/bauh/installed.
• A desktop entry / shortcut will be generated for the installed applications at ~/.local/share/application
• If the Tray Mode Start Minimized is defined during the installation setup, a desktop entry will be also generated at ~/.config/autostart allowing the application to launch automatically after the system's boot attached to the tray.

• The configuration file is located at ~/.config/bauh/web.yml and it allows the following customizations:

environment:
  electron:
    version: null  # set a custom Electron version here ( e.g: '6.1.4' )
  system: false  # set it to 'true' if you want to use the nativefier version globally installed on your system 

• Required dependencies:
  • Arch-based systems: python-lxml, python-beautifulsoup4
  • Debian-based systems ( using pip ): beautifulsoup4, lxml

General settings

Environment variables / parameters

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

• BAUH_TRAY (--tray ): If the tray icon and update-check daemon should be created. Use 0 (disable, default) or 1 (enable).
• BAUH_LOGS (--logs ): enable bauh logs (for debugging purposes). Use: 0 (disable, default) or 1 (enable)
• --reset: cleans all configurations and cached data stored in the HOME directory

General configuration file ( ~/.config/bauh/config.yml )

disk_cache:
  enabled: true  # allows bauh to save applications icons and data to the disk to load them faster when needed
download:
  icons: true # allows bauh to download the applications icons when they are not saved on the disk
  multithreaded: true  # allows bauh to use a multithreaded download client installed on the system to download applications source files faster ( current only **aria2** is supported )
gems: null  # defines the enabled applications types managed by bauh ( a null value means all available ) 
locale: null  # defines a different translation for bauh ( a null value will retrieve the system's default locale )
memory_cache:
  data_expiration: 3600 # the interval in SECONDS that data cached in memory will live
  icon_expiration: 300  # the interval in SECONDS that icons cached in memory will live
suggestions:
  by_type: 10  # the maximum number of application suggestions that must be retrieved per type
  enabled: true  # if suggestions must be displayed when no application is installed
system:
  notifications: true  # if system popup should be displayed for some events. e.g: when there are updates, bauh will display a system popup
  single_dependency_checking: false  # if bauh should check only once if for the available technologies on the system.
ui:
  style: null  # the current QT style set. A null value will map to 'Fusion' or 'Breeze' ( depending on what is installed )  
  table:
    max_displayed: 50  # defines the maximum number of displayed applications on the table.
  tray:  # system tray settings
    default_icon: null  # defines a path to a custom icon
    updates_icon: null  # defines a path to a custom icon indicating updates
  hdpi: true  # enables HDPI rendering improvements. Use 'false' to disable them if you think the interface looks strange
  auto_scale: false # activates Qt auto screen scale factor (QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR). It fixes scaling issues for some desktop environments ( like Gnome )
updates:
  check_interval: 30  # the updates checking interval in SECONDS
  sort_packages: true  # if the selected applications / packages to upgrade must be sorted to avoid possible issues
  pre_dependency_checking: true  # displays all applications / packages that must be installed before upgrading the selected ones  

Tray icons

Priority:

1. Icon paths defined in ~/.config/bauh/config.yml
2. Icons from the system with the following names: bauh_tray_default and bauh_tray_updates
3. Own packaged icons

How to improve the performance

• Disable the application types you do not want to deal with
• If you don't care about restarting the app every time a new supported package technology is installed, enable single_dependency_checking. This can reduce the application response time, since it won't need to recheck if the required technologies are available on your system every time a given action is executed.
• If you don't mind to see the applications icons, you can disable them via download: icons: false. The application may have a slight response improvement, since it will reduce the IO and parallelism within it.
• Let the disk_cache always enabled so bauh does not need to dynamically retrieve data every time you launch it.

Files and Logs

• Installation logs and temporary files are saved at /tmp/bauh ( or /tmp/bauh_root if you launch it as root)
• Some data about your installed applications are stored in ~/.cache/bauh to load them faster ( default behavior ).

bauh-files

• It is a separate repository with some files downloaded during runtime.

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 types )

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 these 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