Install zero-install with Homebrew, winget, chocolatey, apt, dnf

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository

Commands and aliases

• 0alias
• 0desktop
• 0install
• 0launch
• 0store
• 0store-secure-add

Project history

Thomas Leonard traces Zero Install's goal back to 2003: secure, cross-platform, decentralized software installation. The earliest implementation was written in C as a Linux kernel module plus user-space helper, but that made Zero Install itself hard to distribute. In 2005 it was redesigned and reimplemented in Python to make bootstrapping easier.

The system's model deliberately complements rather than replaces the operating system package manager. The official docs say 0install packages do not interfere with distribution packages, and that developers publish XML metadata pointing at ordinary tarballs or zip files rather than inventing a new archive format.

The 1.0 release was made on May 23, 2011, and the 2.0 release followed on March 5, 2013. The 2.0 announcement emphasized backwards compatibility with 1.0 feeds while adding more expressive dependencies, native package integration for systems including Arch, Cygwin, Darwin, Fink, and MacPorts, an apps system for rollback, better diagnostics, shell completion, and improved headless support.

In 2013 Leonard migrated the core from Python to OCaml, finishing a 29,215-line port intended to preserve behavior while gaining static typing and faster startup. His 2014 retrospective reports similar code size, around 10x faster operations in simple benchmarks, and improved type-checking reliability.

Adoption history

Zero Install has always been adoption-challenged in the interesting way decentralized package systems are: it reduces the need for central distro blessing, but depends on upstreams publishing feeds and users trusting the model. Its docs explicitly describe the chicken-and-egg problem where distributions may not package software until popular, while software cannot become popular until it is easy to install.

The supplied package data shows Zero Install available from Homebrew, Chocolatey, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora-related OCaml packaging, and winget. That breadth reflects a mature cross-platform tool, even if it never displaced mainstream OS package managers.

The project also spread into related implementations and tools, including Zero Install for Windows, .NET components, feed/publishing utilities, and docs for integrating with native distribution package managers.

How it is used

Users typically invoke the `0install` family of commands to select and run applications from feed files, create aliases, manage cached implementations, or integrate desktop/menu entries. The model caches each version of a package separately rather than unpacking into system directories.

For developers, the work is feed publication: write XML metadata describing available implementations, dependencies, signatures, and platform constraints, then host it next to upstream software. 0install can use source or binary archives and can satisfy some dependencies from native package managers when appropriate.

Its practical appeal is strongest for cross-platform tools, research software, and upstream-controlled distribution where the author wants updates and dependency metadata without waiting for every distro repository.

Why package nerds care

Zero Install is historically important because it explored a serious alternative to both central distro repositories and ad hoc upstream installers. It tried to preserve package-manager virtues such as dependency solving, shared libraries, signatures, updates, and rollbacks while decentralizing publication.

For package nerds, it is also a case study in bootstrapping and trust. The C kernel-helper origin, Python redesign, OCaml rewrite, XML feed model, digest-based caches, and native package-manager integration all show the tradeoffs of building a package ecosystem that spans distributions without owning them.

Even where Zero Install did not become the default installation path, many of its concerns are now familiar: per-user installs without root, content-addressed caches, reproducible metadata, side-by-side versions, and upstream-controlled distribution.

Timeline

• 2003: Zero Install's goal of secure, cross-platform, decentralized software installation begins.
• 2005: Project is redesigned and reimplemented in Python to simplify distribution.
• 2011-05-23: Zero Install 1.0 is released.
• 2013-03-05: Zero Install 2.0 is released with backwards-compatible feeds, richer dependency metadata, native package integration, apps/rollback, diagnostics, completion, and headless improvements.
• 2013: Core implementation is migrated from Python toward OCaml.
• 2014-06-06: Thomas Leonard publishes a retrospective on the Python-to-OCaml migration.

Related projects

• ROX Desktop is historically associated with Zero Install as a desktop environment that used decentralized application installation.
• 0install-win and 0install-dotnet provide Windows/.NET-side Zero Install functionality.
• 0release, 0repo, 0publish, and 0compile are related tools in the Zero Install packaging and release workflow.

Sources

• https://0install.net/
• https://docs.0install.net/
• https://docs.0install.net/about/features/
• https://github.com/0install/0install#readme
• https://lwn.net/Articles/541676/
• https://roscidus.com/blog/blog/2014/06/06/python-to-ocaml-retrospective/
• source_facts.package-manager