The missing package manager for Chrome OS
$ crew install vim
$ crew remove vim
$ crew search
$ crew search vim
$ crew update
$ crew upgrade
$ bash <(curl -L git.io/vddgY) && . ~/.bashrc
Chromebrew is an open source package manager / source builder hybrid targeting Chromebooks and Chrome OS.
It installs the software you need that hasn't been provided by Google. Many important packages are already precompiled and it's enough to just type crew install package_name
, but if something's not already there, you can easily build and install it from source.
In fact, Chromebrew is a simple Ruby script. There's also some Git involved, so we needed both of these things to run it on a bare Chrome OS. We have prebuilt them along with their dependencies to install into your system during installation. So, basically, after installing Chromebrew, you will have fully functional Ruby with Rubygems, Git and a package manager dedicated just for your Chromebook. Cool, huh?
Well, Chromebrew doesn't install an operating system. :p
The idea is that you may be on a weak internet connection and cannot download too much data, but you don't have Crouton and need just a few small packages. Also, you may be on a good internet connection and need just a few small packages. Also, why not use Chrome OS as the operating system?
Chromebrew supports most GUI apps with help from the sommelier daemon. We don't support legacy 32-bit x86 architecture, due to Google dropping support.
If you have a compatible Chromebook, you can fork my Github repo and add new packages to the packages/
directory if you managed to build them from source successfully on your device. Package recipes are simple Ruby files - here is an example: