fex

A universal interactive package search TUI.

Supported Providers

• apk - Alpine Linux
• apt - Debian/Ubuntu
• brew - Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
• dnf - Fedora/RHEL
• flatpak - Flatpak (cross-distro, searches Flathub and other remotes)
• nix - Nix/NixOS
• pacman - Arch Linux (official repos)
• paru - Arch AUR helper (official repos + AUR)
• snap - Snap (cross-distro, searches the Snap Store)
• xbps - Void Linux
• yay - Arch AUR helper (official repos + AUR)
• zerobrew - Zerobrew (Homebrew drop-in)
• zypper - openSUSE

On some systems the first search may be slow if the package manager cache needs updating.

Installation

Install rust following official instructions here.

Then simply run:

cargo install fex

On macOS with Homebrew, you can also install it from the tap:

brew install krisfur/tap/fex

Building

With cargo:

cargo build --release

The binary ends up at target/release/fex.

Usage

fex                 # Auto-detect best available provider
fex -p pacman       # Use a specific provider
fex -l              # List available providers
fex -h              # Show help
fex -V              # Show version

Controls

Testing with Docker

Install Docker (example for Arch):

sudo pacman -S docker
sudo systemctl enable --now docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker  # or logout/login

Then run a distro container with fex already built:

./testing/test.sh alpine    # Alpine (apk)
./testing/test.sh arch      # Arch Linux (pacman, yay)
./testing/test.sh fedora    # Fedora (dnf)
./testing/test.sh flatpak   # Flatpak with Flathub
./testing/test.sh homebrew  # Linuxbrew (brew)
./testing/test.sh nixos     # NixOS (nix)
./testing/test.sh opensuse  # openSUSE (zypper)
./testing/test.sh snap      # Snap Store (requires privileged — handled automatically)
./testing/test.sh ubuntu    # Ubuntu (apt)
./testing/test.sh void      # Void Linux (xbps)
./testing/test.sh zerobrew  # Zerobrew (brew symlink)

Podman works as a drop-in replacement — the script detects it automatically.

Adding a New Provider

1. Create src/providers/yourprovider.rs and implement the Provider trait:
   • name() — provider name string
   • is_available() — check if the tool exists (command_exists("tool"))
   • search(query) — run the search command and return a SearchResult
   • install_command(pkg) — return the install command string
   • Optionally override source_color(source) for colored source badges
2. Declare the module in src/providers/mod.rs and add it to create_provider(), auto_detect_provider(), and get_available_providers()

Inspiration

Based on my prior work on the C++26 version of this paclook.