Software Alternatives & Startups

Spack VS pkgsrc

Compare Spack VS pkgsrc and see what are their differences

Spack

A flexible package manager supporting multiple versions, configurations, platforms, and compilers.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
pkgsrc

pkgsrc is a framework for building over 17,000 open source software packages.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, pkgsrc should be more popular than Spack. It has been mentioned 11 times since March 2021.

social mentions
3 vs 11
Front End Package Manager popularity
38% vs 62%
alternatives listed
25 vs 86

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Spack
pkgsrc
Website spack.io pkgsrc.org
Pricing
Open source
Open source
Listed in

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Spack 0 features
pkgsrc 5 features

No features have been listed yet.

  • Cross-Platform Support
    pkgsrc is designed to be a portable package management system and can be used on a variety of Unix-like operating systems, including NetBSD, Solaris, Linux, and macOS. This cross-platform capability makes it a versatile tool for developers working in diverse environments.
  • Consistency Across Systems
    Using pkgsrc allows for a consistent package management experience regardless of the underlying operating system, reducing the learning curve and maintenance overhead for administrators managing multiple systems.
  • Comprehensive Package Collection
    pkgsrc offers a wide range of software packages, providing a robust collection that can meet diverse user needs from scientific libraries to web applications.
  • Quarterly Releases
    With quarterly releases, pkgsrc provides a balanced approach between stability and keeping software up to date, offering users new features regularly while maintaining reliability.
  • Flexible Build Options
    pkgsrc supports a flexible build system, allowing users to customize package builds with specific options or dependencies, tailored to their specific needs or system requirements.

Possible disadvantages

  • Smaller Community
    Compared to other popular package management systems like apt (Debian/Ubuntu) or yum (RedHat/CentOS), pkgsrc has a relatively smaller community, which might affect the availability of support and community-driven improvements.
  • Potentially Older Software
    While pkgsrc maintains stable quarterly releases, it may occasionally lag behind other systems in terms of offering the very latest versions of certain software, which might not be ideal for users needing the newest features.
  • Manual Configuration
    Setting up pkgsrc might require manual interventions and configurations, which could pose a hurdle for users unfamiliar with its setup process or those who prefer more automated solutions.
  • Dependency Management
    Although pkgsrc is quite capable in dependency handling, some users may find its dependency resolution to be less automatic or seamless compared to other systems which offer more integrated solutions.
  • Performance Overhead
    Because it is designed to be cross-platform, there can be some performance overhead associated with using pkgsrc compared to native package managers that are optimized for specific operating systems.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Spack 0 videos + Add
pkgsrc 2 videos + Add

No Spack videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

pkgsrc on ChromeOS

More videos

  • - Using pkgsrc for multi-platform deployments in heterogeneous environments, G Clifford Williams

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Spack
pkgsrc
38% 38%
62% 62%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%
18% 18%
82% 82%

User comments

Share your experience with using Spack and pkgsrc. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Spack 3 mentions
pkgsrc 11 mentions
  • Pkgsrc Is Cool (2022)
    In a similar vein, Spack and Easybuild are similar (more recent) build systems which are often used in the HPC space. * https://spack.io * https://easybuild.io. - Source: Hacker News / 6 days ago
  • The Future of Flatpak
    > I find Appimage to be better alternative to Flatpak Me too. But there is a "bigger picture" view of this which I think is important and relevant: * AppImage encapsulates apps' requirements using the app bundle format from the ROX... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Autodafe: "freeing your freeing your project from the clammy grip of autotools."
    > Are we talking about the same autotools? Yes. Instead of figuring out how to do something particular with every single software package, I can do a --with-foo or --without-bar or --prefix=/opt/baz-1.2.3, and... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Debian isn't waiting for 2038 to blow up, switches to 64-bit time for everything
    > Most open source software packages are also compiled for BSD variants, they switched to 64 bit time_t a long time ago and reported back upstream any problems. * NetBSD in 2012:... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Our Audit of Homebrew
    > https://pkgsrc.smartos.org/install-on-macos/ Note that Pkgsrc is a NetBSD-derived project. * https://pkgsrc.org The Joyent folks leveraged it to allow their customers, who were perhaps not as familiar with Solaris/SmartOS, a... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Show HN: Brioche – A new Nix-like package manager
    Https://pkgsrc.org/ from netbsd runs on many systems. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago

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Alternatives to Spack and pkgsrc

When comparing Spack and pkgsrc, you can also consider the following products.