Void XBPS

ID

xbps

Links

Documentation · Repository · Wikipedia

Upstream stars

⭐ 1,156

Last commit

2026-05-01

Version requirement

>= 0.59

Platforms

🐧 Linux

Operations

installed · outdated · orphans · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove · sync · cleanup · doctor

purl types

pkg:xbps/

CLI name

xbps-install

Issues and PRs

📦 manager: xbps

Source

xbps.py

X Binary Package System used by Void Linux.

XBPS is split across several sibling binaries: xbps-query for read-only operations, xbps-install for installs, sync and upgrades, and xbps-remove for uninstalls and cache cleanup.

What mpm adds to xbps

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Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover xbps alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of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

Your xbps commands, in mpm

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

To…

With xbps

With mpm

List what’s installed

xbps-query --list-pkgs

mpm --xbps installed

List outdated packages

xbps-install --update --dry-run

mpm --xbps outdated

Search for a package

xbps-query -R --search firefox

mpm --xbps search firefox

Install a package

sudo xbps-install --yes firefox

mpm install pkg:xbps/firefox

Upgrade one package

sudo xbps-install --update --yes firefox

mpm --xbps upgrade firefox

Upgrade everything

sudo xbps-install --sync --update --yes

mpm --xbps upgrade --all

Remove a package

sudo xbps-remove --yes firefox

mpm remove pkg:xbps/firefox

List orphaned dependencies

xbps-query --list-orphans

mpm --xbps orphans

Clear caches

sudo xbps-remove --clean-cache --yes

mpm --xbps cleanup --cache

Run health checks

xbps-pkgdb --all

mpm --xbps doctor

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outdated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

✅

upgrade_all

✅

remove

✅

The --orphans flag also drops the package’s orphaned dependencies.

sync

✅

cleanup

✅

The --orphans flag runs the system-wide orphan sweep.

doctor

✅

Configuration

  • Ignore xbps on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-xbps option.

  • Ignore it for every run in your configuration:

    [mpm]
xbps = false

  • Raise the timeout of all xbps calls:

    [mpm.overrides.xbps]
timeout = 900

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

    [mpm.overrides.xbps]
cli_names = [
    "xbps-install",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = []
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=0.59"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "XBPS:\\s+(?P<version>\\S+)",
]

Recipes

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

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

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

  • Gate CI on health: mpm --xbps doctor relays Void XBPS’s own diagnosis and exits non-zero on trouble.

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.

Cooldown

State of Void XBPS’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.

Reference traces

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the manager source. If you know Void XBPS well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ xbps-query --list-pkgs
ii acl-2.4.0_1                        Access Control List filesystem support
ii acpid-2.0.34_4                     ACPI Daemon (acpid) With Netlink Support
ii alsa-firmware-1.2.4_1              Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) firmware

$ xbps-install --update --dry-run
sl-5.05_1 update x86_64 https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/current 36429 9469

$ xbps-query --list-orphans
figlet-2.2.5_6

Version check

The version is probed by running:

$ xbps-install --version
XBPS: 0.60.7 API: 20250629 GIT: UNSET

and extracted with:

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

Upstream project

Metrics

void-linux/xbps

Activity

commit activity commits since open issues open pull requests

Popularity

forks watchers contributors

Metadata

latest release release date license main language

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.

    • Fix version detection, whose XBPS: banner was read as the version, dropping the manager from the pool on every Void Linux host. Closes #2074.

    • Fix search, which returned no results: the long --repository option takes a URL and was consuming the --search that followed it.

  • 7.4.0 (2026-07-25)

    • Plain cleanup no longer removes orphaned packages: their native sweeps moved behind cleanup --orphans. This also stops emerge’s cleanup from triggering its pre-depclean world upgrade unless --orphans is given.

    • remove no longer cascades to orphaned dependencies by default: a plain removal keeps them. Use the new remove --orphans to restore the previous behavior.

  • 6.4.0 (2026-04-27)

    • Add XBPS (Void Linux) package manager with installed, outdated, search, install, upgrade, remove, sync, and cleanup support.