Nala

Nala is a command-line front-end for libapt-pkg, currently being rewritten in Rust on top of rust-apt.

The goal is the same as the original Python project: keep APT's package semantics, but present package operations in a way that is easier to inspect before committing changes. The Rust version keeps that focus while adding a more structured command parser, typed configuration, JSON-friendly internal models, and terminal UI paths for high-information workflows.

Status

This repository is in transition from the original Python implementation to the Rust implementation. The active application code lives under src/. Python-era source, Poetry metadata, translation files, RST docs, and screenshots are archived under legacy/python.

Features

Package discovery commands: list, search, show, and policy
Transaction commands: install, remove, autoremove, update, and upgrade
Upgrade modes for normal, safe, and full upgrades
Exclusion support for upgrades with glob-style package patterns
Local .deb installation and direct URL package ingestion
Parallel package downloader with per-domain connection limits
Hash verification for package downloads before installation
Proxy support through APT acquire configuration
Transaction summaries in full, simple, plain, or TUI-backed views
Transaction history stored as per-entry JSON records
History inspection, undo, redo, and targeted or full history clearing
Mirror selection through nala fetch, including automatic and interactive TUI modes
Machine-readable output for package info and policy views
HCL configuration for Nala behavior, UI mode, units, color mode, and theme
Shell completion integration through clap_complete
Generated manpage and Markdown command documentation from the Rust CLI

Commands

Common command families:

nala update
nala upgrade
nala install ripgrep
nala remove ripgrep
nala autoremove

Package inspection:

nala list nala
nala search --names-only apt
nala show nala
nala policy nala

History:

nala history
nala history last
nala history undo last
nala history redo 12
nala history clear 12
nala history clear --all

Mirror selection:

nala fetch
nala fetch --auto
nala fetch --https-only --country US

Most transaction commands accept shared safety and behavior flags such as --download-only, --simple, --update, --no-update, --assume-yes, --assume-no, --purge, and --allow-unauthenticated.

Configuration

Nala reads an HCL configuration file. See nala.conf for the current shape.

Top-level configuration areas:

Nala: transaction behavior such as auto remove, auto update, simple summaries, and assume-yes defaults
Ui: output mode and binary or decimal unit formatting
Color: color mode and theme entries for package summaries, progress, and warnings

Command-line flags override configuration values for the current invocation. APT options can be passed through with -o KEY=VALUE.

Development

Install system requirements first:

sudo apt-get install libapt-pkg-dev codespell

Build and test:

cargo build
cargo test -- --test-threads 1

Useful just targets:

just build
just test
just clippy
just fmt
just check

just check runs spellcheck, clippy, and nightly rustfmt checking. The formatter target expects a nightly toolchain with rustfmt installed.

Generated Files

The Rust build script generates manpages from the clap parser through clap_mangen, keeping command documentation tied to the same parser that powers the binary.

Safety Notes

Package-changing commands require root privileges. Nala checks for root before operations that modify the system, displays planned changes before committing them, records applied transactions to history, and reports when the system marks a reboot as required.

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