tum-bash

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Overview

tum (TheUnixManager) is a universal package management and system initialization library created by Archetypum, designed to simplify interactions with UNIX-like operating systems and streamline the development of system-related bash/shell scripts.

This is the Bash implementation of tum.

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Table of contents

• Why?
• What does it solve?
• Use Cases
• Requirements
• Installation
• Documentation
• Supported Package Management Utilities (35)
• Supported Initialization Systems (7)
• Example Usage
• Other Implementations by Archetypum
• Legal

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Why?

Because interacting with countless package managers and init systems across UNIX-like platforms is painful — tum fixes that.

With tum, you:

1. Don't need to be a UNIX maniac who knows every package manager and init system syntax and arguments by heart;

2. Don't waste time building utilities from scratch — core functions are prebuilt and ready;

3. Don't write bloated, error-prone scripts — your code stays clean, readable, and portable.

What does it solve?

Managing packages and system services is inconsistent across distros. Whether you're scripting for Arch, Debian, Void, Slackware, Red Hat, or others, tum provides a unified interface to abstract those differences.

It gives you:

1. A standardized way to install, remove, purge, update, upgrade packages (any many more!);

2. Unified service control (status, start, stop, enable, etc.) across multiple init systems (and many more);

3. A modular approach to extend support for more tools and distros;

4. Shell-friendly integration for faster development and cleaner scripts.

Use Cases

• Write portable installation scripts that “just work” on most UNIX-like systems;

• Build lightweight system provisioning tools in pure Bash;

• Create consistent automation for servers, containers, or virtual machines;

• Prototype cross-distro sysadmin tools without rewriting core logic.

tum executable consists of 1239 lines of pure bash (without empty lines and comments) that makes your code support 400+ GNU/Linux, BSD and macOS distros. That makes tum a very small and lightweight dependency in your project.

Your users can install it in just three commands and forget about tum existence for forever, because their cross-platform scripts are working just like intended.

So why not give it a shot?

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Requirements

tum requires only one dependency - GNU Bash version >3.2+. You can install it on practically any UNIX-like operating system if you somehow don't have it installed already.

Installation

• Via Makefile:

git clone https://github.com/Archetypum/tum-bash.git
cd tum-bash/

# You can use doas instead of sudo.
sudo make dependencies
sudo make install

• Also, you can use tum-bash modules separately if you only need to use some specific functionality:

cp lib/unix.sh your_desired_location/
cp lib/package_manager/apt.sh your_desired_location/
cp lib/init_system/systemd.sh your_desired_location/

Documentation

You can find tum-bash documentation inside the doc/ directory.

Supported Package Management Utilities (35)

Debian-based:

• apt, apt-get, apt-cache, apt-cdrom, apt-config, apt-extracttemplates, apt-listchanges, apt-mark, apt-sortpkgs, aptitude, aptitude-create-state-bundle, aptitude-run-state-bundle, dpkg

Arch-based:

• pacman, yay, trizen, pamac

Gentoo-based:

• portage (open for pull requests)

Slackware-based:

• slackpkg

Alpine-based:

• apk

Void-based:

• xbps-install, xbps-remove, xbps-query

Guix-based:

• guix

Dragora-based:

• qi

OpenBSD/NetBSD/FreeBSD-based:

• pkg_add, pkg_delete, pkg_create, pkg_info

FreeBSD-based:

• pkg

NetBSD-based:

• pkgin

RedHat-based:

• yum, dnf

openSUSE-based:

• zypper, zypper-log

macOS-based:

• homebrew

Supported Initialization Systems (7)

• systemd

• sysvinit

• openrc

• runit

• s6

• dinit

• launchd

Usage Examples

Information gathering:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

source /usr/bin/tum

distro=$(get_user_distro)
init=$(get_init_system) 
init_comm=$(get_pid1_comm)
check_privileges           # example: [*] Success! Root privileges are present.

echo $distro    # example: artix
echo $init      # example: s6 
echo $init_comm # example: s6-svscan

Service Management:

#!/bin/bash

source sysvinit.sh

SERVICE_NAME="ssh"

echo -e "${GREEN}Starting service '$SERVICE_NAME'...${RESET}"
start_service "$SERVICE_NAME"

echo -e "${GREEN}Checking status of service '$SERVICE_NAME'...${RESET}"
status_service "$SERVICE_NAME"

echo -e "${GREEN}Restarting service '$SERVICE_NAME' using execute_service function...${RESET}"
execute_service restart "$SERVICE_NAME"

echo -e "${GREEN}Stopping service '$SERVICE_NAME'...${RESET}"
stop_service "$SERVICE_NAME"

echo -e "${GREEN}Trying unknown command with execute_service...${RESET}"
execute_service foobar "$SERVICE_NAME"

Package Management

#!/bin/bash

source apk.sh

echo "=== Display apk version ==="
apk_version

echo -e "\n=== Show apk help ==="
apk_help

echo -e "\n=== Update package index ==="
apk_update

echo -e "\n=== Search for package 'bash' ==="
apk_search bash

echo -e "\n=== Show info about package 'bash' ==="
apk_info bash

echo -e "\n=== List installed packages ==="
apk_list

echo -e "\n=== Add package 'curl' (dry-run) ==="
apk_add --simulate curl

echo -e "\n=== Remove package 'curl' (dry-run) ==="
apk_del --simulate curl

Other Implementations by Archetypum

• tum-python

• tum-perl

• tum-raku

• tum-c

• tum-rust

Legal

tum-bash is free software, released under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.

See:

• LICENSE-LGPLv3.md

• https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.html

• Free Software Foundation