whypkg 0.5.1

wonder why the f* you have that package? know it now - a fast, cross-distro package investigator (apt, pacman, dnf, flatpak)
whypkg-0.5.1 is not a library.

whypkg

Canonical: gitlab.com/safteinzz/whypkg · Mirror: github.com/safteinzz/whypkg

wonder why the f* you have that package? know it now - a fast, cross-distro package investigator (apt, pacman, dnf, flatpak)

Install

cargo install whypkg

whypkg filtering a package list, opening a package to see what pulled it in, following the dependency graph, and printing the pending-upgrade report

What have I actually got?

[M] you installed it · [A] something pulled it in · [F] flatpak app · ↑ upgrade waiting

The whypkg browser listing every installed package, each row tagged with how it got there

What was that thing called?

Type to filter. It matches descriptions as well as names, which is the only way anyone finds a flatpak app by the name on its window.

Typing "element" as a filter, with the flatpak app im.riot.Riot at the top of the results

Why is this here?

A package dossier: libllvm21, 133 MB, pulled in by clang, with the eleven packages that need it listed below

pulled in by clang. That is the whole point. You also get what it arrived alongside, whether it came from a repo or a local file you sideloaded (or a repo that no longer exists), what needs it and what it needs. Enter on anything in the list follows the thread; Esc comes back.

What is around it?

Ctrl-G draws the neighbourhood in the terminal. No browser, no image protocol, so it survives ssh and tmux.

The dependency graph view: libllvm21 in the centre, packages that need it on the left, packages it needs on the right

Enter re-centres on a neighbour and keeps digging, Esc retraces.

What is this upgrade about to pull down?

The pending report: one line per upgradable package with its size and why it is installed

Every package with an upgrade waiting, and why it is on your machine. Pipe it, grep it, diff it before and after.

Commands

whypkg                 # browse every installed package
whypkg --upgradable    # browse only packages with an upgrade waiting
whypkg pending         # full report, grouped by what pulled things in
whypkg pending --quick # one line per package: size + reason
whypkg self update     # reinstall whypkg from crates.io
whypkg self check      # is there a newer release?

whypkg pending also takes --kernel, --apps, --auto and --sizes to show one section at a time.

Keys

Key In the list
any character filter, on names and descriptions
↑ ↓ or Ctrl-P Ctrl-N move
Tab cycle all / manual / auto / flatpak
Enter open the highlighted package
← → inside a package, flip between what needs it and what it needs
Ctrl-G the dependency graph
Esc back one level, and quit at the top
Ctrl-C quit
Key In the graph
← ↓ ↑ → or hjkl move between packages
Enter re-centre on the selected package
Ctrl-G open that package's dossier
Esc retrace, then leave the graph
q leave the graph

Distro support

Distro family Status
Debian / Ubuntu (apt) ✅ working
Arch (pacman) ✅ working
Fedora / RHEL (dnf) ✅ working
Flatpak ✅ working

Flatpak apps appear alongside your system packages whenever flatpak is installed. Each package manager sits behind a single Backend trait, so the analysis and the interface are distro-agnostic.

It never touches your system

whypkg only reads. It will not sync, install or remove anything. The upgrade list reflects your last database refresh (apt update, pacman -Sy, dnf makecache), exactly like your package manager's own listing does.

Everything loads once at startup into an in-memory graph, so every hop while you browse is a hash-map lookup rather than a subprocess. The slow part is your package manager's own queries, about half a second.

It started as the bash apt-why / apt-pending scripts, kept in legacy/.

License

AGPL-3.0-only.