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Package Manager

SFBy Sitraka Forler · Lecturer, Durham Business School·Updated 13 September 2026· About this site

A tool that installs, updates and removes software, along with what it depends on.

A package manager downloads packages from an online catalogue such as PyPI (the Python Package Index), works out their dependencies and installs compatible versions: pip and conda for Python, npm for JavaScript, apt and dnf on Linux, Homebrew on macOS. The classic beginner trap is pip installing into a different Python from the one running your code; python -m pip install ties pip to the interpreter you name.

# Python packages from PyPI
python3 -m pip install requests
# JavaScript packages from the npm registry
npm install express
# system packages on Debian and Ubuntu
sudo apt install curl
# system packages on Fedora
sudo dnf install git
# command-line tools with Homebrew
brew install wget