luislavena / deb-get

apt-get functionality for .debs published in 3rd party repositories or via direct download 📦

deb-get

apt-get functionality for .debs published in 3rd party repositories or via direct download. It works on Debian, Ubuntu and their derivative distributions.
Made with 💝 for &

Introduction

deb-get makes it easy to install and update .debs published in 3rd party apt repositories or made available via direct download on websites or GitHub release pages.

Install

Use deb-get to install deb-get.

sudo apt install curl
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wimpysworld/deb-get/main/deb-get | sudo -E bash -s install deb-get

Alternatively, you can download the .deb of deb-get from the releases page and install it manualy with sudo apt-get install ./path/to/deb-get_<version>.deb

Usage

Here's an example of how to install Google Chrome.

deb-get install google-chrome-stable

You can see what applications are supported by using deb-get list or you can search the available applications with deb-get search <app>.

You can upgrade packages installed using deb-get by running deb-get upgrade.

deb-get {update | upgrade | show pkg | install pkg | reinstall pkg | remove pkg
        | purge pkg | search pkg | cache | clean | list | prettylist | csvlist | help | version}

deb-get provides a high-level commandline interface for the package management
system to easily install and update packages published in 3rd party apt
repositories or via direct download.

update
    update is used to resynchronize the package index files from their sources.

upgrade
    upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system.

install
    install is followed by one package desired for installation or upgrading.

reinstall
    reinstall is followed by one package desired for reinstallation.

remove
    remove is identical to install except that packages are removed instead of installed.

purge
    purge is identical to remove except that packages are removed and purged (any configuration files are deleted too).

clean
    clean clears out the local repository (/var/cache/deb-get) of retrieved package files.

search
    search for the given regex(7) term(s) from the list of available packages supported by deb-get and display matches.

show
    show information about the given package including its install source and update mechanism.

list
    list the packages available via deb-get.

prettylist
    markdown formatted list the packages available via deb-get. Use this to update README.md

csvlist
    csv formatted list the packages available via deb-get. Use this with 3rd party wrappers.

cache
    list the contents of the deb-get cache (/var/cache/deb-get)

help
    show this help

version
    show deb-get version

Why?

3rd party apt repositories exist. They are not going away.

Some application vendors and projects express their support for Debian/Ubuntu by publishing .debs of their software as direct downloads or via their own apt repositories. deb-get makes it easy to find, install and update .debs published in this way.

• Perhaps you want to use software that is not (yet) officially packaged for Debian/Ubuntu.
• Perhaps you want to use software that is fast moving and newer versions are available from the vendor/project.
• Perhaps you want to use some non-free software that Debian/Ubuntu cannot distribute due to licensing restrictions.

deb-get tries to remedy this by providing a curated index of software available for Ubuntu that is published by the project or vendor. deb-get is inspired by Software Boutique, a graphical application I co-authored that does much the same thing and has been included in Ubuntu MATE since 2015.

Supported Software

The software below can be installed, updated and removed using deb-get.

• deb-get install <packagename>
• deb-get update
• deb-get upgrade
• deb-get remove <packagename>
• deb-get purge <packagename>

Source	Package Name	Description
	1password	The easiest way to store and use strong passwords.
	android-messages-desktop	Run Android Messages as a desktop app.
	antimicrox	A graphical program used to map keyboard buttons and mouse controls to a gamepad.
	anydesk	Access any device at any time. From anywhere. Always secure and fast.
	appimagelauncher	A free and open source MIT licensed app that makes your Linux desktop AppImage ready. Integrate AppImages to your application launcher with one click, and manage, update and remove them from there.
	atom	A hackable text editor for the 21st Century.
	audio-recorder	Audio recording app that allows for the recording from various sources such as microphones, a system's sound card, or a web browser, and save it to various possible formats.
	azure-cli	Command-line interface used to create and manage Azure resources.
	azuredatastudio	Data management tool for working with SQL Server, Azure SQL DB and SQL DW.
	balena-etcher-electron	Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily.
	bat	A 'cat' clone with wings.
	battery-monitor	An X-platform utility tool developed on Python, notifies about charging, discharging, and critically low battery state of the battery on laptop.
	beersmith3	Home Brewing Software.
	bitwarden	Open Source Password Manager.
	bitwig-studio	Modern music production and performance.
	blanket	Improve focus and increase your productivity by listening to different sounds. Or allows you to fall asleep in a noisy environment.
	blockbench	A low-poly 3D model editor
	bluejeans-v2	The secure video conferencing platform that makes you more productive.
	bottom	Yet another cross-platform graphical process/system monitor.
	brave-browser	Browse privately. Search privately. And ditch Big Tech.
	brisqi	An offline-first personal Kanban app.
	caprine	Elegant Facebook Messenger desktop app.
	cawbird	Twitter client for the Linux desktop.
	chronograf	Open source monitoring and visualization UI for the TICK stack.
	code	Code editing. Redefined.
	codium	Community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft's Code editor.
	com.github.tkashkin.gamehub	Unified library for all your games.
	copyq	An advanced clipboard manager with editing and scripting features.
	crossover	Run your Windows apps on Linux! CrossOver is a Microsoft Windows compatibility layer based on Wine.
	cryptomator	Multi-platform transparent client-side encryption of your files in the cloud.
	dbeaver-ce	Database GUI Client
	deadbeef	The ultimate music player
	deb-get	'apt-get' functionality for .debs published in 3rd party repositories or via direct download package.
	deltachat-desktop	Email-based instant messaging for Desktop.
	discord	A place that makes it easy to talk every day and hang out more often.
	docker-ce	Open source containerization technology for building and containerizing your applications.
	docker-desktop	The fastest way to containerize applications.
	draw.io	Diagramming and whiteboarding app that wraps the core draw.io editor.
	dropbox	Securely share, store and do more with your content.
	duf	Disk Usage/Free Utility - a better 'df' alternative.
	dustracing2d	Dust Racing 2D is a traditional top-down car racing game including a level editor.
	element-desktop	Secure and independent communication, connected via Matrix.
	enpass	Remember one master password and let Enpass take care of the rest.
	exodus	Bitcoin & Crypto Wallet.
	expressvpn	Popular VPN software
	fd	A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to 'find'.
	figma-linux	Unofficial Electron-based Figma desktop app for Linux.
	firefox-esr	Firefox Extended Support Release.
	flameshot	Flameshot is a free and open-source, cross-platform tool to take screenshots with many built-in features to save you time.
	foliate	A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops.
	franz	A messaging app for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram and many many more.
	fsearch	Fast file search utility.
	geforcenow-electron	Desktop client for Nvidia's GeForce NOW game streaming service.
	gh	GitHub CLI brings GitHub to your terminal. Free and open source.
	git-delta	A syntax-highlighting pager for 'git', 'diff', and 'grep' output.
	github-desktop	Simple collaboration from your desktop.
	gitkraken	Intuitive Git GUI & powerful Git CLI.
	gitter	A chat and networking platform to manage and connect communities through messaging, content and discovery.
	google-chat-electron	An unofficial desktop app for Google Chat.
	google-chrome-stable	Fast, Secure Browser from Google.
	google-earth-pro-stable	Explore worldwide satellite imagery and 3D buildings and terrain for hundreds of cities.
	gpu-viewer	A front-end to glxinfo, vulkaninfo, clinfo and es2_info.
	grype	A vulnerability scanner for container images and filesystems.
	heroic	An Open Source GOG and Epic games launcher.
	hugo	Open-source static site generator.
	hyper	A terminal built on web technologies.
	igdm	Continue your Instagram direct messages from your phone to your desktop.
	influxdb	Scalable datastore for metrics, events, and real-time analytics.
	influxdb2	Scalable datastore for metrics, events, and real-time analytics.
	influxdb2-cli	CLI for managing resources in InfluxDB v2
	insomnia	The API Design Platform and API Client.
	insync	Manage your Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox files straight from your Desktop.
	irccloud-desktop	IRCCloud desktop application.
	jabref	The efficient way to collect, organize & discover.
	jami	Share, freely and privately.
	jellyfin	The Free Software Media System.
	kapacitor	Open source framework for processing, monitoring, and alerting on time series data.
	kdiskmark	A simple open-source disk benchmark tool for Linux distros.
	keepassxc	Cross-Platform Password Manager.
	keybase	End-to-end encryption for things that matter. Secure messaging and file-sharing.
	kopia-ui	Cross-platform backup tool for Windows, macOS & Linux with fast, incremental backups, client-side end-to-end encryption, compression and data deduplication.
	ksnip	Cross-platform screenshot and annotation tool.
	librewolf	An independent fork of Firefox, with the primary goals of privacy, security and user freedom.
	lsd	The next gen 'ls' command.
	ludo	A minimalist frontend for emulators.
	lutris	Open Gaming Platform.
	mailspring	Boost your productivity and send better email with the best mail client.
	mattermost-desktop	Open Source platform for developer collaboration.
	mergerfs	A featureful union filesystem.
	micro	A modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor.
	microsoft-edge-stable	Fast and secure browser that helps you protect your data and save time and money.
	min	A fast, minimal browser
	minigalaxy	A simple GOG client for Linux.
	minikube	minikube quickly sets up a local Kubernetes cluster on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
	motrix	A full-featured download manager.
	mpdevil	A simple music browser for MPD.
	ms-office-electron	A Microsoft Office Online Desktop Client made with Electron.
	mullvad-vpn	VPN Service based in Sweden that does not collect user data.
	neo4j	The Graph Data Platform for Today's Intelligent Applications.
	nextcloud-desktop	The self-hosted productivity platform that keeps you in control.
	nomad	Orchestration tool for deploying and managing applications.
	nordvpn	VPN service for speed and security.
	notable	The Markdown-based note-taking app that doesn't suck.
	obs-cli	OBS-cli is a command-line remote control for OBS.
	obs-studio	Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
	obsidian	A powerful knowledge base on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.
	ocenaudio	Easy, fast and powerful audio editor.
	onlyoffice-desktopeditors	Free desktop office suite for document editing and collaboration.
	openaudible	A cross-platform desktop application for downloading and managing your Audible audiobooks.
	openrazer-meta	Open source driver and user-space daemon that allows you to manage Razer peripherals.
	openrgb	Open source RGB lighting control that doesn't depend on manufacturer software.
	opera-stable	Faster, safer and smarter than default browsers.
	p3x-onenote	A Linux compatible version of OneNote.
	pandoc	A universal document converter.
	papirus-icon-theme	A free and open source SVG icon theme for Linux. Papirus weaves a beautiful visual cohesiveness over an ever-growing coverage of icons.
	parsec	Simple, low-latency game streaming.
	peazip	PeaZip is a free file archiver utility and extractor.
	picocrypt	A very small, very simple, yet very secure encryption tool.
	plexmediaserver	Stream Movies and TV Shows.
	polychromatic	Frontend for OpenRazer that enables Razer devices to control lighting effects and more.
	portmaster	Portmaster is a free and open-source application that puts you back in charge over all your computer's network connections.
	powershell	Cross-platform automation and configuration tool/framework and optimized for dealing with structured data.
	protonmail-bridge	Proton Mail Bridge adds end-to-end encryption to popular email apps, including Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail.
	protonvpn	High-speed Swiss VPN that safeguards your privacy.
	qownnotes	Free open source plain-text file markdown note-taking with Nextcloud / ownCloud integration.
	pulse-sms	A desktop client for Pulse SMS
	quickemu	Quickly create and run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux desktop virtual machines.
	quickgui	A Flutter frontend for Quickemu.
	rambox	Workspace simplifier.
	rclone	Syncs your files to cloud storage.
	resilio-sync	Fast, reliable, and simple file sync and share solution, powered by P2P technology
	retroarch	RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.
	rocketchat	Official Desktop Client for Rocket.Chat.
	rpi-imager	Raspberry Pi Imaging Utility.
	rstudio	Professional software for data science teams.
	rustdesk	Open source virtual / remote desktop infrastructure for everyone!
	sejda-desktop	Easy, pleasant and productive PDF editor.
	shutter-encoder	Professional video, audio and image coversion and encoding tool.
	signal-desktop	Private Messenger.
	simplenote	The simplest way to keep notes.
	skypeforlinux	Stay connected with free video calls worldwide.
	slack-desktop	One platform for your team and your work.
	sleek	Todo manager based on the todo.txt syntax for Linux, free and open-source (FOSS).
	softmaker-office-2021	Create impressive documents with ease.
	soundux	Soundux is a cross-platform soundboard compatible with both Pulseaudio and Pipewire. It has a universal architecture and works with a variety of applications such as Discord, Steam, and more.
	spotify-client	Millions of songs and podcasts.
	standard-notes	Standard Notes is an end-to-end encrypted note-taking app for digitalists and professionals. Capture your notes, files, and life’s work all in one secure place.
	strawberry	Music player and music collection organizer aimed at music collectors and audiophiles.
	stremio	Watch videos, movies, TV series and TV channels instantly.
	sublime-merge	Git Client, done Sublime.
	sublime-text	Text Editing, Done Right.
	surfshark	Award-winning VPN service.
	syft	CLI tool and library for generating a Software Bill of Materials from container images and filesystems.
	syncthing	Continuous file synchronization program.
	system-monitoring-center	Multi-featured system monitor.
	tailscale	Zero config VPN. Works on any device, manages firewall rules for you, and works from anywhere.
	teams	Team chat and collaboration.
	teamviewer	The Remote Desktop Software.
	telegraf	The plugin-driven server agent for collecting & reporting metrics.
	terraform	Automate Infrastructure on Any Cloud.
	tidal-hifi	Web version of listen.tidal.com running in Wlectron with hifi support thanks to widevine.
	tixati	A New and Powerful P2P System.
	tribler	An encrypted torrent client.
	trivy	A simple and comprehensive vulnerability/misconfiguration/secret scanner for containers and other artifacts.
	typora	A minimal Markdown editor and reader.
	ubuntu-make	Easy setup of common tools for developers on Ubuntu.
	ulauncher	Application launcher for Linux.
	virtualbox-6.1	VirtualBox 6.1 is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware, targeted at server, desktop and embedded use.
	vivaldi-stable	The most feature-packaged, customisable browser.
	vuescan	Scanner Software that supports over 6500 scanners.
	wavebox	Rethink the Web. Productivity Browser.
	waydroid	A container-based approach to boot a full Android system on a regular GNU/Linux system like Ubuntu.
	webex	Video Conferencing, Cloud Calling and Screen Sharing.
	weechat	The extensible chat client.
	whalebird	A Mastodon, Pleroma, and Misskey client for desktop application.
	whatsapp-for-linux	An unofficial WhatsApp desktop application for Linux.
	wire-desktop	Secure collaboration platform.
	xemu	A free and open-source application that emulates the original Microsoft Xbox game console, enabling people to play their original Xbox games on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.
	youtube-music	Open source, cross-platform, unofficial YouTube Music Desktop App with built-in ad blocker and downloader.
	yq	A lightweight and portable command-line YAML processor.
	zenith	Sort of like 'top' or 'htop' but with zoom-able charts.
	zettlr	A Markdown Editor for the 21st century.
	zoom	Video Conferencing, Cloud Phone, Webinars, Chat, Virtual Events.
	zotero	A free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research.

Legend

The icons above denote how deb-get installs/updates the packages.

• apt repository
• GitHub releases
• Launchpad PPA
• Website

How do package updates work?

3rd party apt repositories and PPAs

If packages are available via a 3rd party apt repository or a Launchpad PPA , then those packages will be updated/upgraded when using apt-get update and apt-get upgrade.

GitHub Releases and direct downloads

For .deb packages that are only available via GitHub Releases or direct download , then those packages can only be updated/upgrade by using deb-get update and deb-get upgrade.

Adding Software

For information on what is acceptable as suggestion for new packages and instructions on how to open a PR to add a new package, head to CONTRIBUTING.

Custom User Includes /etc/deb-get.d/

As a more advanced feature, it's now possible to also add your own local customizations or overrides. And supplement the supplied list of official packages. This feature is especially useful to that your local copy of the deb-get tool can remain unmodified and always be kept fully up to date. By moving your customizations out in a seperate folder away from the main deb-get script.

Typically either because:

1. You are waiting on a pending request for a new software package. Which has been submitted for consideration. But which has not been reviewed / accepted / merged / released yet.
2. Or because you need to add something which does not meet any of the general guidelines in the previous section ^^ detailed above, for whatever various reason(s).

How to use:

• Manually create the folder /etc/deb-get.d/ if not exist already. By default deb-get does not create this folder unless your specific distribution has packaged it that way.
• Can also create any arbitrary nested sub-folder structure within /etc/deb-get.d/**/* main folder
• Any files within this tree will be bash sourced in alphabetical order e.g. . /etc/deb-get.d/01-pending-merge/10-appname1
• Your user custom deb_* functions are then loaded directly after the last deb_*() package declarations that officially come with deb-get
• Recommendation message printed for any new user added deb_* functions. With a URL link to open a request.
• Warning messages are then also printed for any conflicts detected. For overriden functions (of same name), which then take priority over existing official deb-get apps.

For the last situation, this is most often meant as a helpful reminder to remove your custom declaration once it has been successfully merged upstream into the official deb-get tool. So after deb-get updates itself you are properly notified. And can avoid keeping lots of duplite functions around.

We really hope that you will enjoy the convenience and flexibility of the new user overrides feature. So please consider in return to open new issues or pull requests (here on github), for any new deb_*() functions / packages you create! So that we can share those back with the wider community. Many thanks for your consideration!

Related projects

• App Outlet: A Universal linux app store
• bin-get: Script to easily and safely fetch binaries from Github Releases/tags
• makedeb: A simplicity-focused packaging tool for Debian archives
• MakeResolveDeb: Install DaVinci Resolve or DaVinci Resolve Studio on Debian
• pacstall: The AUR alternative for Ubuntu
• Ubuntu Make: Easy setup of common tools for developers on Ubuntu.
• unsnap: Quickly migrate from using snap packages to flatpaks

In the media

• The deb-get tool helps Ubuntu (and derivative distro) fans grab extra apps - GamingOnLinux
• Deb-Get is ‘Apt-Get’ for 3rd-Party Ubuntu Software - omg! ubuntu!
• How To Install Third-Party Linux Applications with Deb-Get - toms HARDWARE
• How to use deb-get to install third-party software on Ubuntu - TechRepublic
• Ubuntu MATE’s Lead Creates a Nifty Tool to Help Install 3rd Party Deb Packages - It's FOSS
• Easily Get 3rd-Party Software on Ubuntu With Deb-Get - FOSS Post
• deb-get, an "apt-get" to install third-party software on Ubuntu - ubunlog
• deb-get, a utility for installing third-party software - Linux Addicted