tvpkg — a friendly package manager for Termux

tvpkg (also available as tvp) is a wrapper around Termux's package manager, supporting both APT and Pacman, with an interactive TUI and a fast command-line interface. It is part of the TermuxVoid project.

Real help is the package that ships with Termux (pkg); tvpkg behaves like it, but adds a fuzzy-search TUI and works with either backend.

Install

Install from the TermuxVoid repository:

pkg install tvpkg

Packages and prebuilt binaries are published at https://termuxvoid.github.io/.

Or run it straight from source:

go build -trimpath -ldflags "-s -w" -o tvpkg .
./tvpkg

Usage

Run without arguments to open the TUI:

tvpkg

It opens on the package-manager home screen with a tvpkg banner (adapts to the terminal size); start typing to pop up a small centered search window (fzf/telescope style) with live results. Operations run on a clean progress screen (spinner, progress bar, elapsed time) instead of flooding the terminal with apt/pacman output; the raw log is still one key away.

Keybinds in the TUI:

Key	Action
type	open search window and filter live
↑/↓	move up / down through results
←/→	cycle action (Install / Remove / Info)
PgUp,PgDn	page up / down (also Home, End)
tab	cycle action (Install / Remove / Info)
enter	run the selected action
y / n	confirm / cancel quit (when ctrl+c prompts)
esc	close the search window / close result
l / o	toggle the raw tool log while busy
q, ctrl+c	quit
touchscreen	tap = select, pill tap / double-tap = run, scroll = navigate

The action pills always reflect the selected package's real state and the list refreshes automatically after every operation:

• an installed package shows a green ● and a disabled installed tag where the Install button would be — Install is skipped while cycling and never runs,
• Remove is dimmed for packages that are not installed,
• in Pacman mode Info is only offered for installed packages.

The header shows the package manager in use plus live installed / available counts, and the Result window stays open after an operation until esc.

Non-interactive commands:

tvpkg install <pkgs...>   (i)  apt install -y / pacman -S
tvpkg remove  <pkgs...>   (r)  apt remove -y  / pacman -R
tvpkg search  <query>     (s)  apt-cache search / pacman -Ss
tvpkg update              (u)  apt update        / pacman -Sy
tvpkg upgrade             (up) apt update && full-upgrade / pacman -Syu
tvpkg list                (l)  list available packages
tvpkg list-installed     (li)  list installed packages
tvpkg info    <pkg>            show package metadata
tvpkg fix                    diagnose + repair interrupted databases
tvpkg files   <pkgs...>   (f)  dpkg -L / pacman -Ql
tvpkg clean                   apt clean        / pacman -Scc
tvpkg autoclean               apt autoclean    / pacman -Sc

Commands mirror Termux's pkg script ($PREFIX/bin/pkg): same underlying backend operations, same aliases (upg, cl, ac, li, f).

Options

--pkgmgr apt|pacman   force a package manager (default: auto-detect)
-y, --yes             skip all confirmation prompts
--simulate            dry-run: print commands without executing

Detection order (mirrors termux-setup-package-manager): TERMUX_APP_PACKAGE_MANAGER env → TERMUX_MAIN_PACKAGE_FORMAT env → presence of pacman/apt on $PREFIX/bin → fall back to apt.

tvpkg refuses to run as root, the same policy as the stock pkg script.

Confirmation prompts

Mutating CLI commands (install, remove, upgrade) ask for confirmation before proceeding. A preview of the action (and upgrade plan, if applicable) is shown so you can review what will happen. Reverse-dependency warnings are displayed when removing a package.

• -y / --yes: skip all prompts (useful in scripts).
• --simulate: preview the commands that would be executed, without changing anything — combines well with -y to silently list what would happen.
• TVPKG_DRY_RUN=1: environment-variable equivalent of --simulate.

In the TUI, install/remove start immediately when you press Enter, double-tap a result row, or tap one of the action pills — there is no confirmation prompt.

During a live operation, ctrl+c asks for confirmation rather than quitting immediately: answering n keeps the operation running, while y quits (which may leave the database in a broken state).

Fix command

tvpkg fix

Runs a quick database audit (dpkg --audit or pacman -Dk) and prints a diagnostic. If issues are found, it offers to run repair commands (dpkg --configure -a --force-confdef --force-confold or pacman --noconfirm -D --asdeps …) after a confirmation prompt.

Audit log

All mutating operations (install, remove, upgrade, repair) are logged to $PREFIX/var/log/tvpkg.log with a timestamp, command, packages, and exit status.

Dry run

Set TVPKG_DRY_RUN=1 to print the commands tvpkg would run without executing anything.

Build

make build     # builds ./tvpkg
make vet       # gofmt + go vet
make test      # go test ./...
make release   # cross-compiles all 4 Termux arches (needs NDK clang)

CI (.github/workflows/release.yml) builds aarch64, arm (GOARM=7), x86_64 and i686 (GO386=sse2) binaries on every v* tag and attaches them to a GitHub Release.

License

MIT