Is it possible to change the package manager commands Linux Mint tools use to an attribrary value you choose, by specifiying the commands in a configuration? Linux Mint typically uses apt. However, there's nala you can install, and there is also my new tool, which for Linux Mint, is ready enough to use, softi. All 3 of these, make use of apt, but they are not apt. Is there a way, short of modifying the source code of mintupdate and mintinstall, to make all of these, including for flatpaks, use a package manager you specify? Before I fork it or something, it would be great if (if not), linux mint provided this feature, just because of at least the existance of nala. I don't always want to use the command line to manage pakages, but these tools do "extra things", and when you ignore them, those "extra things" do not get done.

This is the first place I'm going to ask this question. More details depending on this answer might better go on discord. But before I did something like forked it or something, I wanted to make sure about that. I'm not sure the license of these tools yet either. But this would be a great feature to have if it doesn't already exist.

My first impulse is probably not. To manage *.deb packages, you need a package manager designed for *.deb packages. I don't want to sound querulous here, but it seems to me that, if you are using a package manager that "makes use of apt," for all practical purposes, you are using apt, just with a different front end.

This article from the Debian Wiki might provide more information.

I'm curious. Could you be more specific about these "extra things" to which you refer and about just what precisely are apt's failings?

I'll go and read the debian wiki when I have more time. Yes, they are all .deb packages at this point. Yes, they all make use of apt.

Now, the extra things:

If I use nala, I'm able to do commands like;

Which will undo the last thing that nala did, if I've remembered the command right. But if you use apt, it can't undo what it does. That's the main reason I'd want to use nala. As far as softi, it's the start of a universal package manager. What I've actually implemented right now, is the ability to use nala and the ability to use apt. nala uses apt with those additional features. nala is still in development as well, but thats a reason why to use it.

softi, is the smartest as it can use either nala or apt. I might add extra commands which handle other package tasks, like keeping track with softi of what I've installed and stuff, so to also be able to implement an undo command. But it would only work on things you used softi for. So while it all uses apt, there are extra features.

So I guess you cannot set the package manager linux mint tools use. So that would leave me a few choices to get those extra features. Option a, never use the gui, always use the command line. Option b, fork the tools from linux mint, if the license allows, and implement a feature to change the package manager myself. Then I can use the GUI tools. Option c, half and half. I can install with the command line, once I find packages, with the gui, and I can leave the other software alone, and not use it. I can disable the update manager without removing it. All I have to do, is disable the refresh like I've not been doing, and decide on a frequency of updates, and patch my crontab to let me automatically update on a schedule, which would use my commands.

I don't know which might be best why. Any opinions to get me started? My actual goal for now, is to just get my system working, with my distro, which I like, not create a new one. I've made changes that essentially create a new distro though, but the impmentation completely will remain private for now. Albeit not an advanced distro. It's still linux mint underneath, which is ubuntu, which is debian. So that's a possible reason not to fork just yet. But maybe forking later. I really don't want to use only command line, but maybe the last option where I will do all installing from command line, but may look it up with the other.

By the way, my softi also understands (so far in the context of linux mint), snap and flatpak and homebrew packages with the same thing, it may be more advanced than those native commands. If you need to see code snippets to get an idea of extra work it does, let me know. Thanks!

Now I read the guide. The guide is good. I think now I'll print it.

OK. It's printed, and I looked at the article. The only thing it teaches me new really, as far as the programs, is aptitude. But in linux mint, they want you to use apt directly as a rule. You can use upstream apt with /usr/bin/apt. I will eventually delve deep into the inner workings of linux. But I'm thus far, a bit ignorant. Anyway, now I know about how you'd do it on debian.

I decided to go with the option not to fork right now, and to disable mintupdate and then update via crontab once a month.