PackageKit

{{Short description|Free software}}

{{Distinguish|text = PackageKit.framework, a macOS component}}

{{Infobox software

| name = PackageKit

| logo = packagekit.png

| logo caption =

| logo_size =

| logo_alt =

| screenshot = Linux desktop system daemons and their graphical front-ends.svg

| caption = PackageKit is a system daemon, various graphical front-ends are available

| screenshot_size =

| screenshot_alt =

| collapsible =

| author = Richard Hughes

| developer =

| released = {{Start date and age|2007|df=yes}}

| discontinued =

| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|P348}}

| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}

| latest preview version =

| latest preview date =

| programming language = C, C++, Python

| operating system = Linux

| platform =

| size =

| language =

| language count =

| language footnote =

| genre = Package management system

| license = GNU General Public License

| website = {{URL|https://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/}}

}}

PackageKit is a free and open-source suite of software applications designed to provide a consistent and high-level abstraction layer for a number of different package management systems. PackageKit was created by Richard Hughes in 2007,{{cite web |title=Installing and Updating Software Blows Goats |date=27 July 2007 |url=https://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/2007/07/27/installing-and-updating-software-blows-goats/ |publisher=Richard Hughes |access-date=18 January 2011}}{{cite web |title=Richard Hughes' blog posts about PackageKit |url=https://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/?s=PackageKit |publisher=Richard Hughes |access-date=18 January 2011}} and first introduced into an operating system as a default application in May 2008 with the release of Fedora 9.{{cite web|title=Releases/9/FeatureList|date=28 May 2008|access-date=7 July 2015|url=https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/9/FeatureList|website=Fedora Project Wiki|publisher=Fedora Project}}

The suite is cross-platform, though it is primarily targeted at Linux distributions which follow the interoperability standards set out by the freedesktop.org group. It uses the software libraries provided by the D-Bus and Polkit projects to handle inter-process communication and privilege negotiation respectively.

PackageKit seeks to introduce automatic updates without having to authenticate as root, fast-user-switching, warnings translated into the correct locale, common upstream GNOME and KDE tools and one software over multiple Linux distributions.{{cite web |url=http://www.hughsie.com/public/introduction-to-packagekit.pdf |title=Introduction to PackageKit, a Package Abstraction Framework |publisher=Richard Hughes |date=2008-02-24 |access-date=2014-04-11}}

Although PackageKit is still maintained, no major features have been developed since around 2014, and the package's maintainer suggested that it could be replaced by plugins for other tools, such as Flatpak and Snap as they become more popular. However, a D-Bus interface would still be needed to support managing packages on mutable file systems.{{cite web | title=PackageKit is dead, long live, well, something else | url=https://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/2019/02/14/packagekit-is-dead-long-live-well-something-else/ | date=2019-02-15 | access-date=2019-06-18 | publisher=Richard Hughes}}