lapt

lapt installs Debian/Ubuntu packages under $LAPT_HOME — no sudo, no writes to the system package database — for when you're on a shared or managed machine without root but still want a real .deb package instead of building from source. Under the hood it's a thin wrapper around apt-get download + dpkg -x.

Features

• Each package in its own private tree, easy to remove - no shared /usr, no apt dependency-hell: removing one package can't break another, because none of them share files.
• Vendor libraries for building - prints an env script pointing at already-installed packages' own opt/<pkg> trees, so you can build something against them without installing a -dev package system-wide.
• Respects packages the system already has - before bundling a dependency, lapt checks if dpkg already provides it and reuses that instead of duplicating it. This keeps installs small and avoids two copies of the same library drifting apart. If the system copy later gets removed, reinstalling (lapt remove <pkg> && lapt install <pkg>) bundles a replacement.
• Patches up compiled-in absolute paths - a few packages (git, file, bison) hardcode default paths like /usr/lib/git-core that break once relocated into opt/<pkg>/. pkgenv/<pkg> declares the env vars each one needs, exported automatically in its wrapper.

Requirements

• Debian or Ubuntu (or a derivative) with apt/dpkg available
• bash 4.3+
• No sudo/root required

Install

Clone the repo and symlink bin/lapt into $HOME/.local/bin (already on PATH for most setups):

git clone <this-repo> lapt
ln -s "$PWD/lapt/bin/lapt" "$HOME/.local/bin/lapt"

Or, without the full repo (no tests/docs/git history), download a release tarball from the Releases page, extract it anywhere, and symlink the same way:

tar xzf lapt-<version>.tar.gz
ln -s "$PWD/lapt/bin/lapt" "$HOME/.local/bin/lapt"

Then run lapt init once and add the printed line to your ~/.bashrc, so installed packages' binaries and man pages are reachable:

$ lapt init
lapt: wrote /home/you/.lapt/env -- add this line to your ~/.bashrc:
  . "$HOME/.lapt/env"

Everything lapt owns — installed packages, cache, env — lives under $LAPT_HOME ($HOME/.lapt).

Quickstart

$ lapt install curl
$ curl -V
curl 8.4.0

Commands

• lapt install <pkg...> — bundle a package and its dependency closure into opt/<pkg>, generating a wrapper and exposing its own binaries as needed. Best-effort across multiple packages: failures are collected and reported together, and don't stop the rest from installing.
• lapt remove <pkg...> — unlink a package's exposed files and delete its opt/<pkg> tree. Best-effort across multiple packages, same as install.
• lapt list [pkg...] — list installed packages. With no arguments, lists all of them; with names given, lists only those (silently skipping any that aren't installed).
• lapt vendor <pkg...> — print an env script (PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, PKG_CONFIG_PATH) pointing at already-installed packages' own opt/<pkg> trees, for linking an external build against them.
• lapt rewrap <pkg> — refresh an installed package's wrapper in place (e.g. after adding or editing its pkgenv/<pkg> entry), without reinstalling.
• lapt prune — reclaim cache entries no longer referenced by any installed or vendored package.
• lapt expose <pkg> — (re-)symlink an installed package's own binaries/man pages into $LAPT_HOME.
• lapt init — write (or regenerate) $LAPT_HOME/env, which puts $LAPT_HOME/bin on PATH and $LAPT_HOME/share/man on MANPATH.

See CONTEXT.md for the full domain model (closures, exposure, vendoring, etc.) and docs/adr/ for the design decisions behind them.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.