winget-termux

A native ARM64 port of a working subset of Microsoft's winget-cli, built to run directly on Termux — no proot, no chroot, no root, no Wine, no emulation layer. The binary is a real clang build targeting bionic libc, using the same manifest schema and SQLite index format as upstream winget.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/rianprei/winget-termux.git
cd winget-termux
./build.sh
winget --version

What it does

• install, uninstall, upgrade (single or --all), search, show, list — the core winget command surface.
• source add/update/remove/list — register and sync remote SQLite catalogs, same schema as this project's own index.
• index — add a manifest to the local catalog in one command.
• install-url — install a single script or binary directly from a URL, no manifest required; the hash is computed from what was actually downloaded.
• pin / unpin — exclude a package from upgrades.
• export / import — snapshot and restore installed packages.
• hash — compute a manifest-ready SHA256 for a local file.
• validate — schema-check a manifest without indexing it.
• download — fetch a catalog entry's installer without installing it.
• Portable, Zip, and Script installer types, including automatic .tar.gz extraction alongside .zip.

What it can't do (and won't fake)

• .exe, .msi, .msix installers — no path to running Win32 binaries on Android without Wine/emulation, which this project deliberately avoids.
• msstore source — talks to a Microsoft Store API with no Android equivalent.
• winget configure (DSC) — Windows-only configuration engine, no ARM64/Linux port exists.
• COM API / PowerShell module (Microsoft.WinGet.Client) — no COM surface on Android.
• Group Policy / MDM enterprise controls — Windows-only management stack.

Everything else in real winget-cli's CLI surface (install, search, source management, pin, export/import, hash, validate, upgrade, list, completions) is implemented natively above.

Build

./build.sh

Clones winget-cli at a pinned commit, applies patches/winget-cli.patch, compiles the patched subset listed in FILES.txt, links ./winget_real_cli, and points a winget symlink at it from $PREFIX/bin. Installs its own pkg dependencies (clang, cmake, sqlite, libyaml, jsoncpp, libicu, openssl, libcurl, zlib, curl, unzip, zip, git).

If $PREFIX/bin/winget is already a real file — not this project's symlink — build.sh leaves it alone and says so. Remove the conflict yourself and rerun, or just call ./winget_real_cli directly.

Test

./run-tests.sh

Self-contained: stages its own manifests, serves real payloads over a local HTTP server, and exercises every command against the compiled binary. Exits non-zero on failure.

Use

winget search <query>
winget show <PackageIdentifier>
winget install <PackageIdentifier>
winget uninstall <PackageIdentifier>
winget upgrade <PackageIdentifier>       # or: winget upgrade --all
winget list                              # or: winget list --upgrade-available

winget index <manifest.yaml>
winget install-url <url> [alias]

winget pin <PackageIdentifier>
winget unpin <PackageIdentifier>
winget export [file]
winget import <file>
winget hash <file>
winget validate <manifest.yaml>
winget download <PackageIdentifier> [dest-dir]

winget source add <name> <url-to-sqlite-catalog>
winget source update <name>
winget source remove <name>
winget source list
winget source export [file]

winget --info
winget complete

To install something, it needs to be in the catalog first. Either write a manifest and run winget index:

winget index my_package.yaml
winget install <PackageIdentifier>

or skip the manifest entirely for a single binary:

winget install-url https://example.com/tool

There is no sync against the official winget.run catalog — this project maintains its own, see catalog/.

To remove just the winget shortcut (keeping the build): rm $PREFIX/bin/winget. ./build.sh recreates it.

Package

./package.sh
dpkg -i winget-termux_1.0.0_aarch64.deb

Builds a real Termux .deb from the compiled binary. Unlike the dev symlink, it installs the binary itself into $PREFIX/bin, so it works on a Termux install that never cloned this repository. Remove with dpkg -r winget-termux.

Documentation

• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md — how the port works, what was rewritten, what was cut, and why.
• docs/STATS.md — diff against upstream winget-cli.
• docs/AUDIT.md — known limitations and bugs found during development.
• catalog/ — nineteen verified ARM64 command-line tools.
• CONTRIBUTING.md — build, test, and contribution rules.
• SECURITY.md — vulnerability reporting.

License

MIT, same as upstream winget-cli (Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation). See LICENSE.