The Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network (CKAN) Package Manager; v1.18.0 [19 June 2016] (2024)

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Introduction

When I first discovered Kerbal Space Program, I found it was great. And then I discovered the mods; and they turned a great game into an amazing one.

About 70 mod installs later, I realised that installing mods was time-consuming, and error-prone. Each mod seemed to have its own set of dependencies, its own way of being packaged, its own way of being installed. Worst of all, some mods would conflict with each other, something I'd often discover after it was already too late.

I saw the same problems were plaguing mod authors as well. Users would be asking for help because they had installed the wrong version, or were experiencing conflicts with existing mods.

Having searched for a better way to install and manage mods, I set about making my own. Taking lessons from decades of package installation and management experience in the Debian and Perl projects, each of which successfully manage tens of thousands of distinct packages, I am very glad to present to you...

The Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network (CKAN)

The CKAN is a mod management solution for Windows, Mac and Linux that targets the .NET/Mono 4.5 framework. It leverages strong metadata about the mods it installs to ensure they are compatible with the user's version of KSP, free of conflicts, and are installed in a reliable and predictable fashion.

If you've used Linux, then the CKAN is apt-get for KSP. Like the App Store or Play Store for your phone, the CKAN knows which version of KSP you're running, which mods are compatible, and how to install, uninstall, and manage them.

The CKAN provides strong guarantees on consistency. It will not allow conflicting mods to be installed, nor a mod to be installed without its dependencies. It will never leave mods in a half-installed state. It will never overwrite a file owned by another mod, nor a mod that was installed outside of the CKAN.

Demonstration Videos

The CKAN has gained a lot of coverage on YouTube, so here are videos by:

• See Also

  [1.8.x-1.12.x] Module Manager 4.2.3 (July 03th 2023) - Fireworks season[0.20] ModuleManager 1.3 - for all your stock-modding needsThe Great Unofficial Module Manager Help Thread![1.3.0] Community Database of Module Manager Patches for Stock KSP

The GUI is now stable on all platforms. To run it, simply double-click the ckan.exe file, or run it with mono ckan.exe.

For those who prefer a command-line interface, the instructions can be expanded below:

Adding support for new mods

The CKAN is designed to be friendly to mod authors. There's no requirement for authors to include metadata in their files, or change their release process in any way. Where possible, new releases are indexed automatically from systems which provide us with release APIs. Dozens of mods already have CKAN support, and new ones are being added every day.

If you'd like to see more mods available via the CKAN, then we have a quickstart guide, along with a full metadata spec for more complex operations. Contributions are very welcome, and we'd love you to add your favourite mods. You do not need to be the author of a mod in order to write the metadata for it.

Reporting bugs

You can run any command with --verbose or --debug at the end to see extra information as to what's going on.

Please report bugs and suggestions to our issues tracker on github.

Please include the output of ckan.exe version when reporting bugs.

Thanks

The CKAN has been an amazing team effort, with dozens of contributors providing code, metadata, advice, and support. However, there are a few I would like to personally thank:

• nlight: For countless contributions, for endless patience with reviewing my code, for keeping me sane during many late nights coding.
• invultri: For questioning how we do things, for providing great architectural advice, for expanding our test suite.
• techman83: For endless amounts of enthusiasm, moral support, advice, and help.
• darklight: For enthusiasm and vision, and the determination to make the CKAN great.
• ippo: For making the documents amazing. For being so good at finding bugs. For always cheering me up.
• NathanKell: For ludicrous amounts of support, for making the world a better place.
• RichardLake: For refactoring, testing, fixing and improving EVERYTHING.
• dbent: For consisting improving our code architecture.
• Daz: For doing an *amazing* job on metadata and support.
• plague006: For consistently improving our user experience.
• Postremus: For systematically eliminating all our bugs, no matter how big or small.

Further resources:

• FAQ
• CKAN wiki
• CKAN IRC channel
• Github page
• Issues tracker (please report bugs here)
• Releases page
• Adding a mod to the CKAN
• CKAN metadata specification
• Code of Conduct

We love contributions of all sorts, and have just a few simple rules for those who wish to help the CKAN awesome!

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Edited January 25, 2017 by Red Iron Crown
Fixed link