Learn about your package manager January 10, 2018 on Drew DeVault's blog

Tools like virtualenv, rbenv, and to a lesser extent npm and pip, are occasionally useful in development but encourage bad practices in production. Many people forget that their distro already has a package manager! And there’s more– you, the user, can write packages for it!

Your distro’s package repositories probably already have a lot of your dependencies, and can conveniently update your software alongside the rest of your system. On the whole you can expect your distro packages to be much better citizens on your system than a language-specific package manager will be. Additionally, pretty much all distros provide a means for you to host your own package repositories, from which you can install and update any packages you choose to make.

If you find some packages to be outdated, find out who the package maintainer is and shoot them an email. Or better yet - find out how the package is built and send them a patch instead. Linux distributions are run by volunteers, and it’s easy to volunteer yourself! Even if you find missing packages, it’s a simple matter to whip up a package yourself and submit it for inclusion in your distro’s package repository, installing it from your private repo in the meanwhile.

“But what if dependencies update and break my stuff?”, you ask. First of all, why aren’t you keeping your dependencies up-to-date? That aside, some distros, like Alpine, let you pin packages to a specific version. Also, using the distro’s package manager doesn’t necessarily mean you have to use the distro’s package repositories - you can stand up your own repos and prioritize it over the distro repos, then release on any schedule you want.

In my opinion, the perfect deployment strategy for some software is pushing a new package to your package repository, then SSHing into your fleet and running system updates (probably automatically). This is how I manage deployments for most of my software. As a bonus, these packages offer a good place to configure things that your language’s package manager may be ill suited to, such as service files or setting up new users/groups on the system. Consider it!

Articles from blogs I read Generated by openring

When Flat Rate Movers Won't Answer Your Calls

Back in 2023 I went through an inter-state move with Flat Rate Movers, LTD. (US DOT 488466, MC 254356). They bungled the job, damaged my stuff and my house, and then refused to talk to me or their own insurance company. I placed dozens of calls, wrote letter…

via Aphyr: Posts May 3, 2025

Summary of changes for April 2025

Hey everyone!This is the list of all the changes we've done to our projects during the month of April. 100r.co, updated water, ditch bag, woodstove installation, and added new photos and information on first-aid kit. Rabbit Waves, updated Triangular…

via Hundred Rabbits April 30, 2025

Walking on eggshells

It's been one year since the person I loved left my house forever, and in the end, I couldn't be happier.The first emotion I felt after she left was sorrow that something so beautiful had to come to an end. The second emotion I felt was an overwhe…

via Cadence's Weblog April 20, 2025