Software that installs and updates applications in a Linux or Unix environment. A package manager supports the version of the OS being used and functions as the control program for installations, updates and removals. Some package managers work only for their respective OS versions such as APT for Ubuntu, while others such as Flatpak work across distributions (see
Snap and
Flatpak).
To make sure they work smoothly, some Linux distributions provide a variety of free apps and utilities and store them in their own repository. See
Linux.