Roswell

ID

roswell

Home page

https://roswell.github.io/

Version requirement

>= 22.12.14.113

Platforms

🅱️ BSD · 🐧 Linux · 🍎 macOS · ⨂ Unix · 🪟 Windows

Operations

installed · install

purl types

pkg:roswell

CLI name

ros

Issues and PRs

📦 manager: roswell

Source

meta_package_manager/managers/roswell.py

Roswell, a Common Lisp implementation installer and launcher.

Important

A roswell package is a Lisp implementation, not a Lisp library. ros install accepts both an implementation and a Quicklisp system, but ros list installed answers for implementations alone: a system installed with ros install cl-ppcre never appears there. The two verbs disagree on their object, and this wrap resolves it the way RustUp resolves the same question, by narrowing to what the listing can enumerate.

Caution

remove is deliberately absent. ros delete <impl> reports success on every channel that matters, exiting 0 with sbcl-bin was deleted successfully. and an empty <stderr>, and leaves roswell unusable: its own runtime core was built against the implementation just deleted, so every later subcommand answers <impl>/<version> does not exist.stop.. Recovery means deleting ~/.roswell and running ros setup again, ros config set being just as broken as the rest. mpm will not drive a removal that reports success and breaks the tool.

Caution

upgrade is absent for the same reason remove is, one level up: ros update resolves its argument through asdf:find-system, so it upgrades Quicklisp systems, never the implementations installed() reports. Mapping it here would upgrade something other than what mpm just listed.

Documentation: Roswell wiki.

What mpm adds to roswell

mpm reaches across every manager at once, not roswell alone: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover roswell alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill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.

Operations

Operation

Supported

installed

✓

outdated

orphans

search

install

✓

upgrade

upgrade_all

remove

sync

cleanup

doctor

Selecting and configuring roswell

Deselect roswell for a single run with --no-roswell, or persist the choice in your configuration:

[mpm]
roswell = false

Keep it enabled but tune how mpm drives it with a per-manager override:

[mpm.managers.roswell]
timeout = 900

mpm config-template roswell prints every overridable attribute as a ready-to-paste block.

Recipes

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

  • Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --roswell dump roswell.toml, then mpm restore roswell.toml on the next one.

  • Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --roswell sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation

mpm runs this manager as the current user and never prepends sudo by default. Flip the policy for its privileged operations with --sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown

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

Status: ❌ None (installs Lisp implementations from GitHub releases)

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: GitHub release assets

  • Retraction: None: withdrawing a build is the upstream author deleting their own release or tag. Nothing sits between them and the user

  • Publish date: ✅ server-set published_at on each release (REST API)

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 probe

The version is probed by running:

$ ros --version
roswell 26.02.116(NO-GIT-REVISION)

and extracted with:

r"roswell\s+(?P<version>[^\s(]+)"

Reference traces

Raw native outputs captured in the manager source: the reference mpm’s parsers were written against. If you know Roswell well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ ros list installed
sbcl-bin/2.6.8

Feed any of these through mpm and the raw output becomes one uniform table, the same shape for every manager: filter it, project columns, or export it (mpm --roswell installed --output json, or csv, toml, yaml), each package carrying a purl and a version comparable across managers.

Changelog

  • 8.0.0.dev0 (unreleased)

    • Add Roswell package manager, listing and installing the Common Lisp implementations it manages.