Packages

The packages field in a Podfile lists software to install in the container during setup. Podspawn splits packages into two categories: plain apt packages and versioned runtime installs.

Syntax

packages:
  - git                # apt package (latest)
  - curl               # apt package (latest)
  - nodejs@22          # versioned runtime
  - python@3.12        # versioned runtime
  - go@1.22            # versioned runtime (any version)
  - rust               # apt package (no version = apt)
  - rust@stable        # versioned runtime (any version)

Plain package names (no @) are installed with apt-get install -y. Names with @version are looked up in the built-in version map.

Version map

Podspawn ships with install sequences for common development runtimes. These are defined in the source and handle repository setup, GPG keys, and installation automatically.

nodejs

Installed via NodeSource.

packages:
  - nodejs@22

python

Installed via the deadsnakes PPA.

Installs both the interpreter and venv module (e.g., python3.12 and python3.12-venv).

packages:
  - python@3.12

go

Installed from the official Go downloads. Accepts any version string, so you are not limited to a fixed set.

packages:
  - go@1.22
  - go@1.23.4

The binary is downloaded for the container's architecture and extracted to /usr/local/go, with a symlink at /usr/local/bin/go.

rust

Installed via rustup. Accepts any toolchain specifier as the version.

packages:
  - rust@stable
  - rust@nightly
  - rust@1.78.0

Unknown versioned packages

If a package name with a version is not in the built-in map, podspawn falls back to apt with a version glob:

packages:
  - nginx@1.24    # becomes: apt-get install -y nginx=1.24*

This works for any apt package that supports version pinning.

How it works

Under the hood, InstallCommands splits the package list into two groups:

1. apt packages - collected and installed in a single apt-get install -y call.
2. special install sequences - run as individual shell commands in order.

Apt packages are always installed first, followed by the versioned runtime installs.