Soar is a Fast, Modern, Bloat-Free Distro-Independent Package Manager that Just Works
Supports Static Binaries, AppImages, and other Portable formats on any *Unix-based Distro

Soar Package Manager

🌟 Key Features

Feature	Description
Universal Package Format Support	Soar can install and manage portable package formats including static binaries, self-extractable archives, and AppImages.
System Integration	Soar automatically integrates installed packages with your system to provide a native-like experience.
Flexible Repository System	While Soar comes preconfigured with official repositories, you can configure custom repositories that use any build format as long as they provide compatible metadata. The .SBUILD format is only required for the official repositories, not for custom ones.
Security First	Soar enforces security through checksums and signing verification for package installations.
External Repository Support	Soar can access packages from sources like ivan-hc/AM and appimage.github.io through metadata provided by pkgforge. These external sources don't directly work with soar but are made compatible through pkgforge's metadata conversion. Note: Packages from external repositories are not verified.
Fast Package Operations	Soar provides efficient package searching, installation, and management with minimal overhead.

📦 Packages Available Through Official Repositories

Packages in the official Soar repositories have these characteristics:

Feature	Description
Portable Packages	Packages are designed to be portable across distributions, either through static linking or by bundling all dependencies. This makes them distro-agnostic.
Extensive Collection	Official repositories host one of the largest collections of portable packages. Browse them with soar list or at pkgs.pkgforge.dev.
Prebuilt Binaries	100% of official packages are provided as prebuilts, making installation limited only by download speed.
Quality Compilation	Around 80% of packages are compiled from source with optimizations for performance (LTO), security (ASLR/PIE), and size (MUSL).
High Security Standards	Official packages are built with SLSA Build L2 Security Guarantees.
Community Contributions	The .SBUILD format in pkgforge/soarpkgs allows community members to submit package definitions, similar to AUR.
Cross-Distro Compatibility	Some packages are repackaged from other distro repositories, allowing you to run applications from e.g., Arch repositories on Debian-based systems without containers.
Decentralized	The portable nature of packages means they can be downloaded and used independently of Soar if needed.

☢️ Caveats

Soar doesn't reinvent things

Soar isn't a package manager in the traditional sense, neither is it a new standard, thus soar doesn't handle core system tools/libraries by design. This means soar is not a replacement for your distro's official package manager.
Instead, Soar complements existing package managers by providing your distro with additional packages or newer version of packages that your distro may not provide.
Soar is meant to coexist with existing package managers by avoiding conflicts, being completely functional in userspace & using XDG Specifications.
For more questions, check our FAQ or create a discussion.

🔧 Installation

Soar comes as a single-file, statically-linked executable with no dependencies that you can simply download & run.

• Docs: https://soar.qaidvoid.dev/installation.html
• Extra Guide & Information: https://docs.pkgforge.dev

⚙️ Configuration

Soar comes with sane defaults & official repositories preconfigured
For additional configuration guide, see here

🎯 Usage

Simply run soar --help for general options.

• General Guide & Manual is maintained at: soar.qaidvoid.dev
• Detailed guide regarding each format is at: docs.pkgforge.dev

📦 Packages

For reporting any issues related to packaging, please use our Official package repository at pkgforge/soarpkgs.

💬 Community

Be a part of our community to interact with our team, get quick help, and share your ideas

• 
• Other Channels: https://docs.pkgforge.dev/contact/chat

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please feel free to fork the repository and submit pull requests. If you have suggestions or feature requests, open an discussion to discuss.

Please feel free to:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch
3. Submit a pull request

📝 License

This project is licensed under MIT - see the LICENSE file for details.