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Managing Installed Packages

This chapter covers the commands you use after packages have already been installed: list, info, and uninstall. It also explains how to recover from incomplete operations with repair.

In the examples below, replace placeholders such as <package-name> and <version> with real values.

List installed packages

Show installed packages:

foton list

By default, list shows packages in the installed state.

If you also want to see packages left by incomplete operations, pass --show-incomplete.

foton list --show-incomplete

With --show-incomplete, each entry includes its state, such as installed, incomplete-install, or incomplete-uninstall.

If you see such packages, inspect them with foton info, then clean them up with foton repair. Most of the time, you will work only with installed packages.

Inspect a package in detail

Show detailed information about one or more packages recorded in the local package database:

foton info <package-name>

foton info <package-name>@<version>

info prints the package name, version, state, metadata, and source information for matching packages recorded in the local package database. This can include packages left by incomplete operations. Use this command when you want to confirm exactly what is recorded in the local package database.

Recover from incomplete operations

If list --show-incomplete shows packages left by incomplete operations, use repair to clean them up:

foton repair

You can also target a specific package:

foton repair <package-name>

foton repair <package-name>@<version>

repair cleans up those packages. It does not resume an interrupted install or update.

Remove a package

Uninstall one or more packages:

foton uninstall <package-name>

foton uninstall <package-name-1> <package-name-2>

Like install and update, uninstall asks for confirmation before applying changes. If an uninstall does not complete cleanly, use foton repair to clean up any packages it leaves behind. If you want to skip the prompt, pass the global --no-confirm option.

foton --no-confirm uninstall <package-name>

Typical workflow

A common workflow is:

  1. Run foton list to see what is installed
  2. Run foton info <package-name> to inspect a package in detail
  3. Run foton uninstall <package-name> to remove a package you no longer need