OPAM-ADMIN(1)

📦
version 2.6.1 · 8 versions
, in arch rolling, fedora 44

💅 OPAM ADMIN(1) 💅

okay so welcome to page one of the Opam admin Manual, bestie — this is the section-1 glow-up for repo admins, and it's lowkey iconic. 🎀

👑 NAME 👑

opam admin — the literal toolbox for repository administrators. That's the whole job description. 💖

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

opam admin [COMMAND] …

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So this command does a whole bunch of actions on repositories in the opam format. Fr fr, it's built different — but here's the tea: it expects to be run from the root of a repository, i.e. a directory that contains a repo file and a subdirectory packages/ holding package definition within subdirectories. 🗂️

Also a compilers/ subdirectory (that's opam repository format version < 2) will also be used by the upgrade-format subcommand. Don't ask why, it just will. 💅

🦋 COMMANDS 🦋

Pick your fighter, bestie — every single one is listed below, no skips, no cap. 🫶

🍓 add-constraint

opam admin add-constraint [--force] [--packages=PACKAGES] [OPTION]… PACKAGE

Adds version constraints on all dependencies towards a given package. 💜

🍓 add-hashes

opam admin add-hashes [--packages=PACKAGES] [--replace] [OPTION]… HASH_ALGO…

Add archive hashes to an opam repository. Slay. ✨

🍓 cache

opam admin cache [OPTION]… [DIR]

Fills a local cache of package archives. It's giving hoarding but make it useful. 🎀

🍓 check

opam admin check [OPTION]…

Runs some consistency checks on a repository. Vibe check, basically. 👀

🍓 compare-versions

opam admin compare-versions [OPTION]… V0 V1

Compare two package versions. Who wore it better. 💅

🍓 filter

opam admin filter [--dry-run] [--environment=VAR=VALUE[,VAR=VALUE]] [--remove] [OPTION]… [PATTERNS]…

Filters a repository to only keep selected packages. Unfollow everyone else. 🚫

🍓 help

opam admin help [--man-format=FMT] [OPTION]… [TOPIC]

Display help about opam admin and opam admin subcommands. Yes queen, ask away. 🙋‍♀️

🍓 index

opam admin index [--full-urls-txt] [--minimal-urls-txt] [--no-urls-txt] [OPTION]…

Generate an inclusive index file for serving over HTTP. Main character energy. 🌐

🍓 lint

opam admin lint [OPTION]… [INT]…

Runs opam lint and reports on a whole repository. Constructive criticism only, obviously. 🧚

🍓 list

opam admin list [--environment=VAR=VALUE[,VAR=VALUE]] [OPTION]… [PATTERNS]…

Lists packages from a repository. A whole roster. 📋

🍓 migrate-extrafiles

opam admin migrate-extrafiles [--hash=HASH_ALGO] [--packages=PACKAGES] [OPTION]… DIR URL

Move extra-files to extra-source. Moving day, bestie. 📦

🍓 update-extrafiles

opam admin update-extrafiles [--hash=HASH_ALGO] [--packages=PACKAGES] [OPTION]…

Add extra-files to an opam repository. ✨

🍓 upgrade

opam admin upgrade [--clear-cache] [--mirror=URL] [OPTION]…

Upgrades repository from earlier opam versions. Growth era. 🌱

💫 COMMAND ALIASES 💫

Sometimes one name just isn't enough, iykyk. 😌

🌸 make

opam admin make [--full-urls-txt] [--minimal-urls-txt] [--no-urls-txt] [OPTION]…

An alias for index. Same energy, different name. 🫶

🔥 COMMON OPTIONS 🔥

These options are common to all commands — so learn them once and you're set for life. No cap. 💯

  • --best-effort — Don't fail if all requested packages can't be installed: try to install as many as possible. Note that not all external solvers may support this option (recent versions of aspcud or mccs should). This is equivalent to setting $OPAMBESTEFFORT environment variable. 🥲
  • --cli=MAJOR.MINOR (absent=2.6) — Use the command-line interface syntax and semantics of MAJOR.MINOR. Intended for any persistent use of opam (scripts, blog posts, etc.), any version of opam in the same MAJOR series will behave as for the specified MINOR release. The flag was not available in opam 2.0, so to select the 2.0 CLI, set the OPAMCLI environment variable to 2.0 instead of using this parameter. 🕰️
  • --color=WHEN — Colorize the output. WHEN must be one of always, never or auto. Yes, we are doing aesthetics. 💅
  • --confirm-level=LEVEL — Confirmation level, LEVEL must be one of ask, no, yes or unsafe-yes. Can be specified more than once. If --yes or --no are also given, the value of the last --confirm-level is taken into account. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL. ⚠️
  • --criteria=CRITERIA — Specify user preferences for dependency solving for this run. Overrides $OPAMCRITERIA, $OPAMFIXUPCRITERIA and $OPAMUPGRADECRITERIA. For details on the supported language, and the external solvers available, see http://opam.ocaml.org/doc/External_solvers.html. A general guide to using solver preferences can be found at http://www.dicosmo.org/Articles/usercriteria.pdf. 📚
  • --cudf=FILENAME — Debug option: Save the CUDF requests sent to the solver to FILENAME-<n>.cudf where <n> is the n-th call to the solver during the opam run. 🐛
  • --debug — Print debug message to stderr. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMDEBUG to "true". 🔍
  • --debug-level=LEVEL — Like --debug, but allows specifying the debug level (--debug sets it to 1). Equivalent to setting $OPAMDEBUG to a positive integer. 📈
  • --git-version — Print the git version of opam, if set (i.e. you are using a development version), and exit. 👋
  • --help[=FMT] (default=auto) — Show this help in format FMT. The value FMT must be one of auto, pager, groff or plain. With auto, the format is pager or plain whenever the TERM env var is dumb or undefined. 🙋‍♀️
  • --ignore-pin-depends — Ignore extra pins required by packages that get pinned, either manually through opam pin or through opam install DIR. This is equivalent to setting IGNOREPINDEPENDS=true. 📌
  • --json=FILENAME — Save the results of the opam run in a computer-readable file. If the filename contains the character %, it will be replaced by an index that doesn't overwrite an existing file. Similar to setting the $OPAMJSON variable. 🤖
  • --no — Answer no to all opam yes/no questions without prompting. See also --confirm-level. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMNO to "true". 🙅‍♀️
  • --no-aspcud — Removed in 2.1. 💀 (gone, but not forgotten)
  • --no-auto-upgrade — When configuring or updating a repository that is written for an earlier opam version (1.2), opam internally converts it to the current format. This disables this behaviour. Note that repositories should define their format version in a repo file at their root, or they will be assumed to be in the older format. It is, in any case, preferable to upgrade the repositories manually using opam admin upgrade [--mirror URL] when possible. 🛑
  • -q, --quiet — Disables --verbose. Shhh. 🤫
  • --root=ROOT — Use ROOT as the current root path. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMROOT to ROOT. 🌳
  • --safe, --readonly — Make sure nothing will be automatically updated or rewritten. Useful for calling from completion scripts, for example. Will fail whenever such an operation is needed ; also avoids waiting for locks, skips interactive questions and overrides the $OPAMDEBUG variable. This is equivalent to set environment variable $OPAMSAFE. 🧊
  • --solver=CMD — Specify the CUDF solver to use for resolving package installation problems. This is either a predefined solver (this version of opam supports builtin-mccs+lp(), builtin-mccs+glpk, builtin-dummy-z3-solver, builtin-0install, aspcud, mccs, aspcud-old, packup), or a custom command that should contain the variables %{input}%, %{output}%, %{criteria}%, and optionally %{timeout}%. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMEXTERNALSOLVER. 🧠
  • --strict — Fail whenever an error is found in a package definition or a configuration file. The default is to continue silently if possible. 😤
  • --switch=SWITCH — Use SWITCH as the current compiler switch. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMSWITCH to SWITCH. 🔀
  • --use-internal-solver — Disable any external solver, and use the built-in one (this requires that opam has been compiled with a built-in solver). This is equivalent to setting $OPAMNOASPCUD or $OPAMUSEINTERNALSOLVER. 🏠
  • -v, --verbose — Be more verbose. One -v shows all package commands, repeat to also display commands called internally (e.g. tar, curl, patch etc.) Repeating n times is equivalent to setting $OPAMVERBOSE to "n". 🗣️
  • --version — Show version information. 🏷️
  • -w, --working-dir — Whenever updating packages that are bound to a local, version-controlled directory, update to the current working state of their source instead of the last committed state, or the ref they are pointing to. As source directory is copied as it is, if it isn't clean it may result on a opam build failure. This only affects packages explicitly listed on the command-line. It can also be set with $OPAMWORKINGDIR. 🛠️
  • -y, --yes — Answer yes to all opam yes/no questions without prompting. See also --confirm-level. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMYES to "true". ✅

✨ ENVIRONMENT ✨

okay bestie, so opam is deeply into environment variables. like, it has opinions. it reads the ones listed here, and you can use them to tweak basically anything without typing a single flag 💅

first tho, the rules of the game for boolean variables: set them to "0", "no", "false" or the empty string to turn them off, and "1", "yes" or "true" to turn them on. that's it, that's the whole language 🔥

and now, the lineup 👑

  • OPAMALLPARENS — surrounds all filters with parenthesis. that's the whole job, she's simple and she delivers ✨
  • OPAMASSUMEDEPEXTS — see option --assume-depexts.
  • OPAMAUTOANSWER — internal use only. not for you bestie, look away 🙈
  • OPAMAUTOREMOVE — see remove option --auto-remove.
  • OPAMBESTEFFORT — see option --best-effort.
  • OPAMBESTEFFORTPREFIXCRITERIA — sets the string that must be prepended to the criteria when the --best-effort option is set, and is expected to maximise the opam-query property in the solution.
  • OPAMBUILDDOC — Removed in 2.1. gone, deceased, no longer with us 💀
  • OPAMBUILDTEST — Removed in 2.1. same fate 💀
  • OPAMCLI — see option --cli.
  • OPAMCOLOR — when set to always or never, sets a default value for the --color option.
  • OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL — see option --confirm-level. and hear me out: OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL has priority over OPAMYES and OPAMNO.
  • OPAMCRITERIA — specifies user preferences for dependency solving. the default value depends on the solver version, so run config report to know the current setting. see also option --criteria.
  • OPAMCUDFFILE — save the cudf graph to file-actions-explicit.dot.
  • OPAMCUDFTRIM — controls the filtering of unrelated packages during CUDF preprocessing.
  • OPAMCURL — can be used to select a given 'curl' program. see OPAMFETCH for more options.
  • OPAMDEBUG — see options --debug and --debug-level.
  • OPAMDEBUGSECTIONS — if set, limits debug messages to the space-separated list of sections. sections can optionally have a specific debug level (for example, CLIENT:2 or CLIENT CUDF:2), but otherwise use --debug-level.
  • OPAMDIGDEPTH — defines how aggressive the lookup for conflicts during CUDF preprocessing is. she's nosy on purpose 🔍
  • OPAMDOWNLOADJOBS — sets the maximum number of simultaneous downloads.
  • OPAMDROPWORKINGDIR — overrides packages previously updated with --working-dir on update. without this variable set, opam would keep them unchanged unless explicitly named on the command-line.
  • OPAMDRYRUN — see option --dry-run.
  • OPAMEDITOR — sets the editor to use for opam file editing, overrides $EDITOR and $VISUAL. she said my editor, not yours 💅
  • OPAMERRLOGLEN — sets the number of log lines printed when a sub-process fails. 0 to print all.
  • OPAMEXTERNALSOLVER — see option --solver.
  • OPAMFAKE — see option --fake.
  • OPAMFETCH — specifies how to download files: either wget, curl or a custom command where variables %{url}%, %{out}%, %{retry}%, %{compress}% and %{checksum}% will be replaced. overrides the 'download-command' value from the main config file.
  • OPAMFIXUPCRITERIA — same as OPAMUPGRADECRITERIA, but specific to fixup and reinstall.
  • OPAMIGNOREAVAILABLE — see install option --ignore-available-on.
  • OPAMIGNORECONSTRAINTS — see install option --ignore-constraints-on.
  • OPAMIGNOREPINDEPENDS — see option --ignore-pin-depends.
  • OPAMINPLACEBUILD — see option --inplace-build.
  • OPAMJOBS — sets the maximum number of parallel workers to run.
  • OPAMJSON — log json output to the given file (use character % to index the files).
  • OPAMKEEPBUILDDIR — see install option --keep-build-dir.
  • OPAMKEEPLOGS — tells opam to not remove some temporary command logs and some backups. this skips some finalisers and may also help to get more reliable backtraces.
  • OPAMLOCKED — combination of --locked and --lock-suffix options.
  • OPAMLOGS — logdir sets log directory, default is a temporary directory in /tmp.
  • OPAMMAKECMD — set the system make command to use.
  • OPAMMERGEOUT — merge process outputs, stderr on stdout.
  • OPAMNO — answer no to any question asked, see options --no and --confirm-level. OPAMNO is ignored if either OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL or OPAMYES is set.
  • OPAMNOAGGREGATE — with opam admin check, don't aggregate packages.
  • OPAMNOASPCUD — Deprecated. let her rest 😭
  • OPAMNOAUTOUPGRADE — disables automatic internal upgrade of repositories in an earlier format to the current one, on 'update' or 'init'.
  • OPAMNOCHECKSUMS — enables option --no-checksums when available.
  • OPAMNODEPEXTS — disables system dependencies handling, see option --no-depexts.
  • OPAMNOENVNOTICE — Internal.
  • OPAMNOSELFUPGRADE — see option --no-self-upgrade.
  • OPAMPINKINDAUTO — sets whether version control systems should be detected when pinning to a local path. enabled by default since 1.3.0.
  • OPAMPRECISETRACKING — fine grain tracking of directories.
  • OPAMPREPRO — set this to false to disable CUDF preprocessing. less efficient, but might help debugging solver issue.
  • OPAMREPOSITORYTARRING — internally store all non-vcs repositories as tar.gz files (by default, http repositories are stored as archive). this can be much faster on filesystems that don't cope well with scanning large trees. all operation are done in-memory, no I/O for scanning the repository.
  • OPAMREQUIRECHECKSUMS — Enables option --require-checksums when available (e.g. for opam install).
  • OPAMRETRIES — sets the number of tries before failing downloads.
  • OPAMREUSEBUILDDIR — see option --reuse-build-dir.
  • OPAMROOT — see option --root. this is automatically set by opam env --root=DIR --set-root.
  • OPAMROOTISOK — don't complain when running as root.
  • OPAMSAFE — see option --safe.
  • OPAMSHOW — see option --show.
  • OPAMSKIPUPDATE — see option --skip-updates.
  • OPAMSKIPVERSIONCHECKS — bypasses some version checks. Unsafe, for compatibility testing only. do NOT make this your personality 🚫
  • OPAMSOLVERALLOWSUBOPTIMAL — (default true) allows some solvers to still return a solution when they reach timeout; while the solution remains assured to be consistent, there is no guarantee in this case that it fits the expected optimisation criteria. if true, opam will continue with a warning, if false a timeout is an error. currently only the builtin-z3 backend handles this degraded case.
  • OPAMSOLVERTIMEOUT — change the time allowance of the solver. default is 60.0, set to 0 for unlimited. note that all solvers may not support this option.
  • OPAMSOLVERTOLERANCE — changes the tolerance towards the solver choosing an unoptimized solution (i.e. might pull outdated packages). typical values range from 0.0 (best solution known to the solver) to 1.0 (unoptimized solution). default is 0.0. this option is useful in case the solver can't find a solution in a reasonable time (see $OPAMSOLVERTIMEOUT). note that all solvers may not support this option.
  • OPAMSTATS — Removed in 2.4. 💀
  • OPAMSTATUSLINE — display a dynamic status line showing what's currently going on on the terminal. (one of always, never or auto)
  • OPAMSTRICT — fail on inconsistencies (file reading, switch import, etc.).
  • OPAMSWITCH — see option --switch. automatically set by opam env --switch=SWITCH --set-switch.
  • OPAMUNLOCKBASE — see install option --unlock-base.
  • OPAMUPGRADECRITERIA — specifies user preferences for dependency solving when performing an upgrade. overrides OPAMCRITERIA in upgrades if both are set. see also option --criteria.
  • OPAMUSEINTERNALSOLVER — see option --use-internal-solver.
  • OPAMUSEOPENSSL — Removed in 2.2. 💀
  • OPAMUTF8 — use UTF8 characters in output (one of always, never or auto). by default auto, which is determined from the locale).
  • OPAMUTF8MSGS — use extended UTF8 characters (camels) in opam messages. implies OPAMUTF8. this is set by default on macOS only. 🐪 iconic behavior honestly
  • OPAMVALIDATIONHOOK — if set, uses the %{hook}% command to validate an opam repository update.
  • OPAMVERBOSE — see option --verbose.
  • OPAMVERBOSEON — see option --verbose-on.
  • OPAMVERSIONLAGPOWER — do not use. that's it. that's the description. do NOT use it bestie 🚫
  • OPAMWITHDEVSETUP — see install option --with-dev-setup.
  • OPAMWITHDOC — see install option --with-doc.
  • OPAMWITHTEST — see install option --with-test.
  • OPAMWORKINGDIR — see option --working-dir.
  • OPAMYES — see options --yes and --confirm-level. OPAMYES has priority over OPAMNO and is ignored if OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL is set.
  • OPAMVAR_var — overrides the contents of the variable var when substituting %{var}% strings in opam files.
  • OPAMVAR_package_var — overrides the contents of the variable package:var when substituting %{package:var}% strings in opam files.

🦋 CLI VERSION 🦋

okay so this one is the important one for anyone writing scripts, and i need you to lock in 🔒

all scripts and programmatic invocations of opam should use --cli in order to ensure that they work seamlessly with future versions of the opam client. additionally, blog posts or other documentation can benefit, as it prevents information from becoming stale. like, future-proof your blog babe, it costs nothing ✨

although opam only supports roots (~/.opam/) for the current version, it does provide backwards compatibility for its command-line interface.

since CLI version support was only added in opam 2.1, use OPAMCLI to select 2.0 support (as opam 2.0 will just ignore it), and --cli=2.1 for 2.1 (or later) versions, since an environment variable controlling the parsing of syntax is brittle. to this end, opam displays a warning if OPAMCLI specifies a valid version other than 2.0, and also if --cli=2.0 is specified. 👀 noted.

the command-line version is selected by using the --cli option or the OPAMCLI environment variable. --cli may be specified more than once, where the last instance takes precedence. OPAMCLI is only inspected if --cli is not given. last one wins, periodt 💅

🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

Okay bestie, this is the part where opam admin tells you how it's feeling by handing you a number. Every exit code is a whole mood, and reading them correctly is the glow-up. 💅

Heads up though, there's one big exception before we even start: the exec command does not play by these rules. It returns 127 if the command wasn't found or couldn't be executed, and otherwise it returns the command's own exit value. Iconic behaviour, honestly. ✨

Now, the codes:

  • 0 — Success, or true for boolean queries. Living your best life. 🎀
  • 1 — False. This is what you get when a boolean return value is expected, like when you're running with --check, or for queries like opam lint.
  • 2 — Bad command-line arguments, or command-line arguments that point to an invalid context (think: a file that doesn't follow the expected format). Not me typing the flag wrong again 💀
  • 5 — Not found. You asked for something — a package, a version, a repository, etc. — and it genuinely could not be found. 🦋
  • 10 — Aborted. The operation needed confirmation and you didn't give it. It's giving "asked and then ghosted."
  • 15 — Could not acquire the locks required for the operation. Somebody else has the aux files, bestie, wait your turn. 🔒
  • 20 — There is no solution to the user request. This can happen when you ask to install two incompatible packages, for example. Math said no. 😭
  • 30 — Error in package definition, or in other metadata files. Using --strict raises this error more often. Petty, but fair.
  • 31 — Package script error. Some package operations were unsuccessful. This may be an error in the packages or an incompatibility with your system. This can be a partial error — not everything fell over, just some of it.
  • 40 — Sync error. Could not fetch some remotes from the network. This can be a partial error too. The internet said "not today." 🌈
  • 50 — Configuration error. Opam or your system configuration doesn't allow the operation, and it needs fixing. ✨
  • 60 — Solver failure. The solver failed to return a sound answer. It can be due to a broken external solver, or an error in solver configuration.
  • 99 — Internal error. Something went wrong, likely due to a bug in opam itself. Not your fault, queen. 🫶
  • 130 — User interrupt. SIGINT was received, generally because the user pressed Ctrl+C. Yes, that was you. It was always you. 🙈

And then there's this little second set of codes that shows up right at the end, chillin' on their own:

  • 0 — on success.
  • 123 — on indiscriminate errors reported on standard error.
  • 124 — on command line parsing errors.
  • 125 — on unexpected internal errors (bugs).

📚 FURTHER DOCUMENTATION 📚

Want more lore? Go read the docs at https://opam.ocaml.org/doc. That's the homework, and it's actually good reading. ✨

👑 AUTHORS 👑

These are the absolute legends who built this thing. Show some respect, they literally wrote the tool you're arguing with right now. 💖

  • David Allsopp <david@tarides.com>
  • Vincent Bernardoff <vb@luminar.eu.org>
  • Raja Boujbel <raja.boujbel@ocamlpro.com>
  • Kate Deplaix <kit-ty-kate@exn.st>
  • Roberto Di Cosmo <roberto@dicosmo.org>
  • Thomas Gazagnaire <thomas@gazagnaire.org>
  • Louis Gesbert <louis.gesbert@ocamlpro.com>
  • Fabrice Le Fessant <Fabrice.Le_fessant@inria.fr>
  • Anil Madhavapeddy <anil@recoil.org>
  • Guillem Rieu <guillem.rieu@ocamlpro.com>
  • Ralf Treinen <ralf.treinen@pps.jussieu.fr>
  • Frederic Tuong <tuong@users.gforge.inria.fr>

🐛 BUGS 🐛

Found something cursed? Check the bug reports at https://github.com/ocaml/opam/issues. Filing it is self-care, fr fr. 🦋

And that's a wrap on the whole page, bestie!! 🎉 The footer down there says this is Opam admin 2.6.1 and that you're reading OPAM ADMIN(1) — no date on it, so don't come for me. Go forth, run your commands, read your exit codes, and remember: you're the main character of this terminal. periodt. 💅✨🌸

📦 where this page comes from