| Where can I download it? |

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# Where do I download it?

## Precompiled Packages

Your distribution probably has compiled packages that are much easier to install.

## Released Versions

Released versions are found on http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/releases/.

## Compiling the latest code

You can get the latest PackageKit daemon from the public git repositories.

    git clone https://github.com/PackageKit/PackageKit.git

If you want to commit changes or add a new backend, then please email the mailing list and we can give you access to a developer server.

## Adding backends to PackageKit

PackageKit itself is an abstract daemon, the only bits that are distro specific are the backends.

To make PackageKit work on a new distribution, you have to write a "backend" which is basically a shim layer from the distro tool to packagekitd. A backend can have one or more threads and also spawn other processes.

See the developer information here for more information.

Backends do not have to be complete; often they just contain basic functionality to install and remove but do not provide dependency or file lists for example. See the FAQ here for backends status.

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