# Package Manager

Package managers are used to handle the installation and management of programs on systems.

## List of Package Managers

The following is a list of package managers and the corresponding [Linux](/wiki/linux.md)
distributions.

- [Debian](/wiki/linux/debian.md) and Debian-based distributions like
  [Proxmox](/wiki/linux/proxmox.md) use the [APT](/wiki/linux/package_manager/apt.md) package
  manager.
- [Arch Linux](/wiki/linux/arch-linux.md) and Arch-based distributions use
  [Pacman](/wiki/linux/package_manager/pacman_and_aur.md) and various managers for the AUR.

## Alternative Software Distribution Formats

Besides traditional package managers, there are portable or universal application formats that work
across distributions.
These formats are not package managers.
They distribute standalone applications that can run independently of the system package database.

- [AppImage](/wiki/linux/appimage.md) packages applications together with their dependencies in a
    single executable file.
- [Flatpak](/wiki/linux/flatpak.md) distributes sandboxed desktop applications across different
    Linux distributions.
- [uv](/wiki/programming_language/python/uv.md) manages Python installations,
    [virtual environments](/wiki/programming_language/python.md#using-virtual-environments), project
    dependencies and Python-based command-line tools.
- [pip](/wiki/programming_language/python/pip.md) manages Python installations and can be used in a
    virtual environment.