Cross-distro Linux package auditor built with Tauri, React, and Rust.
lintd provides a unified desktop interface for inspecting installed packages across multiple package managers, reviewing orphaned packages, previewing removal impact, and tracking removal history — all in a dense, Linux-native UI.
Linux package hygiene is fragmented across ecosystems. Each distro family exposes different tools and output formats, making it hard to get one clear view of what is installed, what is unused, and what can be safely removed.
lintd addresses this by:
- Normalizing package metadata into a single application model
- Running all package manager queries concurrently for fast scans
- Streaming partial results to the UI as each manager finishes
- Providing safety checks before any removal
- Recording removal history in a local SQLite database
- Dashboard — system overview with distro info, CPU/RAM/GPU/storage gauges, package stats, and top packages by size
- Packages — unified package list across all detected sources with streaming scan progress, search, filter, and sort
- Orphans — orphan package detection with bulk review and removal flow
- History — removal history with space recovered tracking
- Removal preview — reverse dependency checks, system-critical blocking, file deletion preview, and CLI command preview
- Light and dark theme — warm off-white / near-black palette with amber accent
- Linux packaging — AppImage and Deb bundle targets
| Source | Description |
|---|---|
pacman |
Arch Linux native package manager |
aur |
Arch User Repository (foreign pacman packages) |
apt |
Debian / Ubuntu package manager |
dnf |
Fedora / RHEL package manager |
flatpak |
Universal Linux application distribution |
snap |
Canonical universal package format |
apk |
Alpine Linux package manager |
nix |
Nix package manager |
appimage |
Portable Linux applications (filesystem scan) |
- React + TypeScript
- React Router for navigation
- TanStack Query for async data and cache invalidation
- Zustand for theme state
- Tailwind CSS + Radix UI primitives
- Tauri v2 host application
- Rust async command handlers
- Package manager abstraction layer (
pmal/) — one backend per source - Concurrent scanning via
tokio::spawn+futures::join_all - Streaming scan events via Tauri event channel
- SQLite persistence via
sqlx
Frontend → invoke() → Tauri command → pmal backend → normalized Package model
↓
emit("scan_progress") → useStreamingScan hook → UI
src/
components/ shared UI and domain components
pages/ route-level pages (Dashboard, Packages, Orphans, History)
lib/ command wrappers, hooks, utilities, query keys
types/ shared TypeScript data contracts
src-tauri/src/
pmal/ package manager abstraction layer and source backends
commands.rs Tauri command handlers
lib.rs app setup and window configuration
sysinfo_collector.rs system info collection
distro_detect.rs distro and package manager detection
db.rs SQLite persistence layer
.github/workflows/ CI and release workflows
public/distro-logos/ distro SVG logo assets
- Linux desktop with GTK3 and WebKitGTK support
- Optional: any package managers you want to audit
- Node.js 20+
- npm 10+
- Rust stable toolchain
- WebKitGTK and GTK3 dev libraries
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
libgtk-3-dev \
libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
librsvg2-dev \
patchelf \
build-essential \
curl wget filesudo pacman -S --needed \
webkit2gtk-4.1 gtk3 \
libayatana-appindicator librsvg \
base-devel curl wget filesudo dnf install -y \
webkit2gtk4.1-devel gtk3-devel \
libappindicator-gtk3-devel librsvg2-devel \
openssl-devel curl wget file# Install frontend dependencies
npm install
# Run desktop app in dev mode (hot reload)
npm run tauri dev
# Type-check frontend only
npx tsc --noEmit
# Build frontend assets
npm run build
# Build desktop bundles (AppImage + Deb)
npm run tauri build| Script | Description |
|---|---|
dev |
Start the Vite development server |
build |
TypeScript check + build frontend assets |
preview |
Preview the built frontend |
tauri |
Proxy to the Tauri CLI |
chmod +x lintd_*.AppImage
./lintd_*.AppImagesudo dpkg -i lintd_*.deb
sudo apt-get install -fyay -S lintd
# or manually:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/lintd.git && cd lintd && makepkg -siPackage removal is guarded by:
- Hard block list for system-critical package names (kernel, libc, init, package managers)
- Reverse dependency detection before allowing removal
- Mandatory preview step before confirmation in the UI
- Privilege escalation via polkit / pkexec where required
Removal records are stored in a local SQLite database at ~/.local/share/lintd/ and include package name, source, timestamp, recovered space, and the executed command.
App won't start / permission error
chmod +x lintd_*.AppImageMissing library error — install system dependencies for your distro (see Prerequisites).
Package manager not detected — verify the binary is in $PATH (which pacman apt dnf flatpak snap) and restart lintd.
Cannot remove packages — ensure polkit is installed and your user is in the wheel or sudo group.
Package shows as system-critical — this is intentional. Use the native package manager directly if you need to remove essential system packages.
No orphans detected — orphan detection is package-manager specific. Some managers (Flatpak, Snap) don't expose orphan information. Compare with pacman -Qdt or equivalent.
Database errors — reset the database:
rm -rf ~/.local/share/lintd/Build fails — update Rust (rustup update), clean artifacts (cargo clean in src-tauri/), and ensure all system dependencies are installed.
Still having issues? Open an issue on GitHub Issues with your distro, installed package managers, steps to reproduce, and any error output.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, code style, adding new package manager backends, and the pull request process.
MIT — see LICENSE.
