Bring command line package management to Windows with Chocolatey [Windows]
September 12, 2012 3
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Are you a fan of Linux, and its incredibly easy to use Terminal-based package management? Installing programs on Linux is as easy as a single command. With Chocolatey, you can bring that easy installation to your Windows computer.
With Chocolatey, you just run a few commands:
- clist [program name]. This searches for an app, and lists all packages that match the search term.
- cinst [packagename]. This installs a package, such as any returned by clist.
- cuninst [packagename]. This uninstalls programs.
- More! You can view the complete reference on Github.
There are currently 368 packages on Chocolatey. You can install anything from Chocolatey updates to 7-zip, and anything in between. While it’s still mostly developer-centric apps, Chocolatey has a healthy collection, and its bringing something similar to apt-get to Windows is quite nice.
To install Chocolatey, just open up a Command Prompt and run this command:
C:\> @powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('http://bit.ly/psChocInstall'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%systemdrive%\chocolatey\bin
Price: Free!
Version Discovered: v0.9.8.19
Supported OS: Windows unknown
Download size: unknown
VirusTotal malware scan results: N/A — no “installer”
Portability: Requires installation
[via Lifehacker]
About the author: Locutus View all posts by Locutus
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“Are you a fan of Linux, andincredibly easy to use Terminal-based package management?”???
A “feature” only a true propeller-head could appreciate. The rest of us? Not so much. Do you REALLY think Grandma could (or should) type in a string of arcane (properly capitalized, please) and seemingly nonsensical commands to install or fix something? If you’ve ever tried to direct Grandma to do so, remotely via a phone, you would quickly understand why Linux’ market share remains mired in single digits.
requires Powershell which is *not* installed by default with WinXP… installed “WindowsXP-KB968930-x86-ENG.exe”, ‘Windows can’t find @powershell’… stripped ‘@’ prefix from command string, chocolatey installs… Yep, just like Linux – undocumented dependancies, faulty command strings to (intentionally?) trip-up users who haven’t learned to think in Greek^H^H^H^H^HGeek
and a simple ‘cinst 7zip’ yields screens full of red errors… at least apt-get could handle a simple install like 7-zip 8-(
@No Linux 4 U: This program was not featured because Grandma would love it. It’s for those of us that like to use the Command Line,such as myself (and I know a few other dotTechies run Linux and are well-versed in Terminal commands). If this is not you, we feature two other pieces of Windows software every day.
@DrTszap: That’s too bad. Perhaps it only runs properly on Windows 7, which comes with it preinstalled? :(