Install tup with Homebrew, apk, apt, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• tup

Project history

tup was published as an alternative to traditional build tools whose rebuild cost depends heavily on scanning files and manually maintained dependencies. The official README and homepage describe it as a build system for Linux, macOS, and Windows that takes a list of file changes and a DAG, then executes the commands needed to update dependent files with very little overhead.

The project has been public on GitHub since 2011, but its official site keeps the older research-oriented framing alive: the navigation links to the manual, examples, Make-vs-tup comparisons, a Lua parser, and the Build System Rules and Algorithms PDF. The manual presents `tup` as the primary command, `tup init` as the creator of the `.tup` database, and Tupfiles as the place where projects describe how source files become outputs.

Unlike build front ends such as CMake, tup is itself the dependency-tracking updater. Its manual emphasizes that it has no domain-specific knowledge: C, generated files, and other build products are expressed through Tupfiles, while tup handles the graph, changed-file detection, parallel jobs, environment checking, and optional file monitoring.

Adoption history

tup remained a specialist build-system choice rather than a universal default, but it achieved unusually broad package-manager coverage for a niche developer tool. The supplied package metadata lists packages in apk, Homebrew, Debian, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, Scoop, Ubuntu, and zypper.

Its adoption history is tied to developers who care about exact incremental builds, generated dependency graphs, and avoiding unnecessary work. The official manual's examples and comparisons position tup in the same conversation as Make-like tools, but with a stronger focus on automatic dependency knowledge and fast no-op updates.

How it is used

In day-to-day use, a developer initializes a tup hierarchy with `.tup` or a root `Tupfile.ini`, writes `Tupfile` rules, and runs `tup` to bring outputs up to date. The manual notes that `tup` can be run from anywhere in the hierarchy and will update requested outputs or the whole project.

For package-manager users, tup is a compact CLI that installs beside compilers and editors. It is often evaluated by people who are already dissatisfied with Makefile dependency drift or build-system scans, and who are comfortable adopting a declarative graph-oriented build workflow.

Why package nerds care

tup matters in the package-nerd niche because it is a long-lived, packaged build-system experiment with a clear thesis: rebuild correctness and speed should come from the updater knowing the file graph, not from every project hand-maintaining perfect dependency lists.

It is also a useful package-index signal for build-tool archaeology. Seeing tup in Homebrew, Linux distributions, Nix, Scoop, and other managers marks it as a tool that remained interesting enough for cross-platform packagers even without becoming the dominant build system.

Timeline

• 2011: Official GitHub repository created.
• 2011: Early v0.1 tag recorded in the official GitHub tag list.
• 2024: Official manual page updated date shows continued maintenance of command documentation.
• 2026: GitHub repository metadata shows recent activity and continued public maintenance.

Related projects

• Make
• Ninja
• CMake
• SCons
• redo
• Lua

Sources

• GitHub API for gittup/tup: repository created 2011-05-01, active metadata, and official tag list.
• https://github.com/gittup/tup README: file-based build system, Linux/macOS/Windows support, changed files plus DAG model.
• https://gittup.org/tup homepage: project positioning and documentation sections.
• https://gittup.org/tup manual: `tup`, `tup init`, `.tup`, `Tupfile.ini`, Tupfiles, secondary commands, and 2024-05-19 manual update date.
• source_facts.package-manager: apk, Homebrew, Debian, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, Scoop, Ubuntu, and zypper package-manager presence.