Nala¶

ID: nala
Links: Documentation · Repository
Upstream stars: ⭐ 921
Last commit: 2026-09-19
Version requirement: >= 0.12.2
Platforms: 🐧 Linux
Operations: installed · outdated · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove · sync · cleanup
purl types: pkg:deb/ · pkg:nala/
CLI name: nala
Forced environment: LC_ALL=C
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: dpkg-based
Source: nala.py

Front-end to Debian’s apt, driving libapt-pkg directly.

Nala reaches the same archives apt does, adding a parallel downloader, a mirror-scoring fetcher and a transaction history it can roll back. It is wrapped on the same grounds as the AUR helpers that sit over pacman: a distinct tool with a vocabulary of its own, rather than a translation layer over another CLI. It shares dpkg’s lock with the rest of that family, so mpm runs it serially against them.

What `mpm` adds to `nala`¶

Through mpm, nala gains --exact and --extended search, to narrow to exact names or match descriptions.

Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover nala alongside apt, apt-mint, aptitude and any other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `nala` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know nala: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `nala`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`nala list --installed`	`mpm --nala installed`
List outdated packages	`nala list --upgradable`	`mpm --nala outdated`
Search for a package	`nala search vim`	`mpm --nala search vim`
Install a package	`sudo nala install --assume-yes firefox`	`mpm install pkg:nala/firefox`
Upgrade one package	`sudo nala install --assume-yes firefox`	`mpm --nala upgrade firefox`
Upgrade everything	`sudo nala upgrade --assume-yes`	`mpm --nala upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`sudo nala remove --assume-yes firefox`	`mpm remove pkg:nala/firefox`
Clear caches	`sudo nala clean`	`mpm --nala cleanup --cache`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	✅
`outdated`	✅
`orphans`
`search`	✅	Exact and extended search backfilled by `mpm`.
`install`	✅	A package already installed as a dependency is marked explicit by `mpm`.
`upgrade`	✅	The tool’s `upgrade` takes no package argument, so a single upgrade runs through `install`, which moves an installed package to its candidate.
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	✅
`sync`	✅
`cleanup`	✅	The `--orphans` flag runs the system-wide orphan sweep.
`doctor`

Configuration¶

Ignore nala on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-nala option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
nala = false
```
Raise the timeout of all nala calls:
```
[mpm.overrides.nala]
timeout = 900
```

Run mpm config-template nala to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.nala]
cli_names = [
    "nala",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = []
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=0.12.2"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "nala\\s+(?P<version>\\S+)",
]

[mpm.overrides.nala.extra_env]
LC_ALL = "C"

The arguments and environment variables listed in the box atop this page are forced on every nala call, so runs stay quiet, non-interactive and reproducible: the defaults you would set in CI anyway.

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around nala, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --nala dump nala.toml, then mpm restore nala.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --nala sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation¶

System-wide manager: mpm wraps its privileged operations in sudo out of the box. Instead of letting the tool prompt mid-run, mpm primes the credential cache up-front, with a single branded password prompt at most. Turn escalation off for rootless setups with --no-sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

Its privileged operations are cleanup, install, remove, sync, upgrade, upgrade_all.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Concurrency¶

mpm never runs nala at the same time as apt, apt-mint, aptitude, deb-get or pacstall: they all install through dpkg and serialize on its /var/lib/dpkg/lock. Each mutating operation waits for the previous one, even with a higher --jobs, while managers outside this group keep running in parallel.

Only mutations are held back. The read-only queries (installed, outdated, search) take no backend lock and stay fully concurrent.

Cooldown¶

State of Nala’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: Distro binary archives (pkg:deb, pkg:rpm, pkg:alpm, pkg:apk)
Retraction: Index revert: removal is an archive operation and the mirror is rebuilt without the package. Debian, for one, requires filing an RM: bug against ftp.debian.org (developers-reference)
Publish date: ❌ the version string is the distro maintainer’s build, carrying no upstream publication date

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ nala --version
nala 0.16.0

and extracted with:

r"nala\s+(?P<version>\S+)"

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`volian/nala`
Activity
Popularity
Metadata

Changelog¶

8.0.0 (2026-09-20)
- Mark a package already installed as a dependency as explicitly installed when mpm install or mpm restore names it, so mpm cleanup --orphans keeps it.
- Resolve pkg:alpm, pkg:conda, pkg:deb, pkg:melpa, pkg:pypi and pkg:rpm pURLs to these managers too, alongside the ones already handling each type.
- Declare support for the Linux compatibility layers, WSL included, in place of the Linux distributions alone, so the readme’s operation matrix reports their platforms.
- Add the Nala front-end to Debian’s apt with installed, outdated, search, install, upgrade, remove, sync and cleanup support, every call forced LC_ALL=C. It joins the dpkg lock family.
- Sample the upstream project from GitLab, so the manager page gains the upstream stars and commit facts, and its live badges.