updt

updt is a Rust command-line tool that checks and runs updates across your development package managers from one interactive workflow.

Instead of remembering separate update commands for Homebrew, npm, cargo, rustup, Scoop, paru, pacman, DNF, Flatpak, and Termux pkg, run updt, review what has updates, choose the targets you want, and let the original package managers do the work.

cargo install updt
updt

Project Links

• Crates.io package: https://crates.io/crates/updt
• API documentation: https://docs.rs/updt
• GitHub repository: https://github.com/haohaaaa/updt

What It Does

updt answers one question quickly: which of my system and developer tools can be upgraded right now?

It checks supported targets in parallel, shows the results in a terminal selector, and upgrades only the targets you confirm. It does not replace any package manager or maintain its own package database; it orchestrates the tools already installed on your machine.

Why Use It

• One command for routine update checks across multiple ecosystems.
• Interactive selection before anything is upgraded.
• Direct target updates for scripts or muscle memory, such as updt update npm cargo.
• Platform-aware defaults for macOS, Windows, Arch Linux, Fedora Asahi Remix, and Termux.
• Small Rust binary with no shell script bootstrap step.

Quick Start

Install the latest release from crates.io:

cargo install updt

Run the interactive update flow:

updt

Update specific targets without opening the selector:

updt update npm cargo
updt update npm,cargo

Install fish completions:

updt fish

Features

• Parallel checks across enabled targets for faster detection.
• Interactive terminal UI for selecting which targets to upgrade.
• Direct non-interactive updates with explicit target names.
• OS profile policy that only enables targets that make sense for the current platform.
• Fish shell completion installer.
• Uses existing package manager commands and forwards their output.

Supported Update Targets

Target	What it updates	Notes
brew	Homebrew formulae and casks	macOS profile
npm	npm global packages	Requires npm
cargo	cargo-installed crates	Requires cargo-install-update
rustup	Rust toolchains	Requires rustup
scoop	Scoop packages	Windows profile
paru	AUR packages	Arch Linux profile
dnf	Fedora system packages	Fedora Asahi Remix profile
flatpak	Flatpak apps	Arch Linux profile
pacman	pacman packages	Arch Linux profile
pkg	Termux packages	Termux profile

Windows system package managers winget and choco are intentionally unsupported.

Platform Defaults

updt enables targets by OS profile:

Profile	Enabled targets
macOS	brew, npm, cargo, rustup
Windows	npm, cargo, rustup, scoop
Arch Linux	npm, cargo, rustup, paru, pacman, flatpak
Fedora Asahi Remix	dnf, npm, cargo, rustup, flatpak
Termux	pkg, npm, cargo
Other systems	None

Unsupported or missing commands are skipped during checks.

Requirements

Install the package managers you want updt to control. For cargo package checks, install cargo-update so cargo-install-update is available:

cargo install cargo-update

Target-specific notes:

• cargo checks require cargo-install-update in PATH.
• cargo-binstall is recommended for faster binary installation of cargo-managed tools, except on Android (Termux).
• dnf checks require support for dnf check-update --json (DNF5).
• dnf upgrades refresh repository metadata with --refresh so the elevated command sees current updates.
• dnf upgrades may use sudo or pkexec, depending on terminal focus and desktop session state.
• Termux pkg checks refresh repository metadata with pkg update and inspect candidates with apt list --upgradable.
• pacman upgrades may use sudo or pkexec, depending on terminal focus and desktop session state.

Interactive Flow

Running updt starts a three-stage workflow:

1. Check upgrade candidates.
2. Select targets to upgrade.
3. Run upgrades for selected targets.

The check stage runs in parallel across enabled targets. The upgrade stage runs the underlying package manager commands and forwards their output.

On Windows, Scoop's rustup package update and cargo's updt self-update are deferred until all other updates finish. A single foreground window waits for the current updt process to exit, then updates Scoop's rustup package (preserving local/global scope), followed by updt itself. The main summary lists these as pending; their final results appear in the separate window. Rust toolchain updates (rustup update --no-self-update) still run during the normal upgrade stage.

For other Scoop updates blocked by running processes, Kill & Retry stops processes running from the package's installation directory before retrying. If that includes the current updt process, it skips the package without stopping any processes and prints a command to run after updt exits. If stopping processes fails, the package is reported as failed without retrying. Deferred Scoop updates report any remaining process blockers in the final update window without stopping them automatically.

Selector controls:

Key	Action
Up / Down	Move cursor
Space	Toggle selected target
Enter	Confirm selection
q / Esc	Quit selection

CLI Reference

Two interactive interfaces

The original interface and the embedded terminal interface have separate entry points:

Command	Interface
updt	Original TUI: checks, target selection and confirmation, then command output
updt update npm cargo	Original interface for the requested targets
updt terminal	New interface: real target status on the left, checks, confirmation and updates inside the terminal on the right
updt terminal npm cargo	New interface for the requested targets; updates the selected targets that have updates

Without explicit targets, the new interface asks which targets to update in the right-hand terminal. Answer package-manager prompts in their command session. Each command has its own output view, so parallel checks never interleave output from different commands. The workflow view shows parsed check results, confirmation, and the final summary. Update order and deferred Windows updates use the same business logic as the original interface.

The workflow submits commands through an internal Rust execution API. The UI opens a command session, displays the command, and renders its live output while the caller awaits the result. Capture commands return separate, unchanged stdout/stderr for JSON parsing. Interactive commands run in a native PTY and return the merged terminal output and exit code. Display and API results come from the same execution.

The sidebar lists command sessions; F5 / F6 switches between them and the workflow view. Up to 32 completed/running sessions are retained (older completed sessions are evicted first). Each session has its own terminal screen and scrollback. The header shows the selected command and its exit status. Workflow messages remain in the activity view (F2, up to 500 lines). See the internal execution API for implementation details.

On Windows, deferred rustup and updt updates wait for the outer terminal interface to exit, so its executable no longer holds the installation directory open. Once the workflow finishes, press Esc to leave panel focus, then q to close the interface and allow those updates to run.

The new interface uses a native PTY (ConPTY on Windows), with ANSI colors, Unicode, terminal resizing, keyboard and mouse input, paste, and up to 2,000 lines of scrollback. The standalone validation modes remain available:

updt terminal --demo
updt terminal --shell

--demo runs two harmless commands through the execution API: one produces JSON and stderr, and one asks for text input in a real PTY. The demo verifies the captured JSON and shows the interactive command's returned exit code and output size. It does not execute package-manager commands. --shell opens PowerShell on Windows or $SHELL (falling back to /bin/sh) on Unix without starting the update workflow. Commands you type run in that shell.

• Start in panel navigation mode. Use h/j/k/l or the arrow keys to move between the target list, session list, and terminal output; press Enter to focus the selected panel. A cyan border marks the selected panel; green means focused.
• Within a focused list, use h/j/k/l or the arrow keys to move between entries. Moving through sessions displays each session's output. Within the focused terminal, keys (including q, h/j/k/l, arrows, and Ctrl+C) go to the child process.
• Esc always leaves panel focus and never exits the interface or reaches the child process. Press q in navigation mode to exit; a running workflow requires confirmation. Enter does not close a finished terminal.
• Click a target or session to select it and focus its panel; click terminal output to focus it. The footer buttons are clickable too.
• Scroll over terminal output or activity history to review it. Scroll over the sidebar lists to browse their entries. When a focused live child requests mouse reporting, clicks, releases, dragging, motion, and wheel events are forwarded using its requested mode and pane-relative coordinates. Hold Shift while scrolling to review local history instead.
• Use F2 to switch between terminal output and the read-only activity view in the update workflow.
• Use F5 / F6 to switch to the previous/next command session or workflow view. Manually selecting a session stops automatic focus changes.
• Use Shift+PageUp / Shift+PageDown to review output or activity history.
• Use F4 to return to the active interactive command (or workflow when none is running) and resume automatic focus. Query sessions and completed commands are read-only. Keyboard input and paste are paused while browsing history, so they cannot accidentally answer a hidden prompt.
• Use exit to end the shell, then Esc to leave focus and q to return.

Command sessions run separate processes; working-directory changes and shell variables do not persist between commands. Use --shell for a persistent interactive shell. Mouse capture is restored on exit. Full compatibility with arbitrary terminal applications is not guaranteed.

Show the installed version:

updt --version

Run the default interactive workflow:

updt

Update selected targets without the interactive selector:

updt update npm
updt update npm,cargo
updt update npm cargo

Install fish completion to ~/.config/fish/completions/updt.fish:

updt fish

Development

Build the project:

cargo build

Run tests:

cargo test

Run formatting and lint checks before opening a pull request:

cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Please include the operating system, the target package manager, and the command output when reporting an update detection or upgrade problem.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development workflow and SECURITY.md for responsible vulnerability reporting.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.