PURL-TYPES.rst

Package URL Type definitions

Each package manager, platform, type, or ecosystem has its own conventions and protocols to identify, locate, and provision software packages.

The package type is the component of a package URL that is used to capture this information with a short string such as maven, npm, nuget, gem, pypi, etc.

These are known purl package type definitions.

Known purl type definitions are formalized here independent of the core Package URL specification. See also a candidate list further down.

Definitions can also include types reserved for future use.

See also https://github.com/package-url/purl-spec and PURL-SPECIFICATION.rst for the Package URL specification.

Known purl types

alpm

alpm for Arch Linux and other users of the libalpm/pacman package manager.

• There is no default package repository: this should be implied either from the distro qualifiers key or using a repository base url as repository_url qualifiers key.

• The namespace is the vendor such as arch, arch32, archarm, manjaro or msys. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The name is the package name. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The version is the version of the package as specified in [vercmp(8)](https://man.archlinux.org/man/vercmp.8#DESCRIPTION) as part of alpm.

• The arch is the qualifiers key for a package architecture.

• Examples:

  pkg:alpm/arch/pacman@6.0.1-1?arch=x86_64
  pkg:alpm/arch/python-pip@21.0-1?arch=any
  pkg:alpm/arch/containers-common@1:0.47.4-4?arch=x86_64
  

apk

apk for APK-based packages:

• There is no default package repository: this should be implied either from the distro qualifiers key or using a repository base url as repository_url qualifiers key.

• The namespace is the vendor such as alpine or openwrt. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The name is the package name. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The version is a package version as expected by apk.

• The arch is the qualifiers key for a package architecture.

• Examples:

  pkg:apk/alpine/curl@7.83.0-r0?arch=x86
  pkg:apk/alpine/apk@2.12.9-r3?arch=x86
  

bitbucket

bitbucket for Bitbucket-based packages:

• The default repository is https://bitbucket.org.

• The namespace is the user or organization. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The name is the repository name. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The version is a commit or tag.

• Examples:

  pkg:bitbucket/birkenfeld/pygments-main@244fd47e07d1014f0aed9c
  

cocoapods

cocoapods for Cocoapods:

• The default repository is https://cdn.cocoapods.org/.

• The name is the pod name and is case sensitive, cannot contain whitespace, a plus (+) character, or begin with a period (.).

• The version is the package version.

• The purl subpath is used to represent a pods subspec (if present).

• Examples:

  pkg:cocoapods/AFNetworking@4.0.1
  pkg:cocoapods/MapsIndoors@3.24.0
  pkg:cocoapods/ShareKit@2.0#Twitter
  pkg:cocoapods/GoogleUtilities@7.5.2#NSData+zlib
  

cargo

cargo for Rust:

• The default repository is https://crates.io/.

• The name is the repository name.

• The version is the package version.

• Examples:

  pkg:cargo/rand@0.7.2
  pkg:cargo/clap@2.33.0
  pkg:cargo/structopt@0.3.11
  

composer

composer for Composer PHP packages:

• The default repository is https://packagist.org.

• The namespace is the vendor.

• Note: private, local packages may have no name. In this case you cannot create a purl for these.

• Examples:

  pkg:composer/laravel/laravel@5.5.0
  

conan

conan for Conan C/C++ packages. The purl is designed to closely resemble the Conan-native <package-name>/<package-version>@<user>/<channel> syntax for package references.

• name: The Conan <package-name>.
• version: The Conan <package-version>.
• namespace: The vendor of the package.
• Qualifier user: The Conan <user>. Only required if the Conan package was published with <user>.
• Qualifier channel: The Conan <channel>. Only required if the Conan package was published with Conan <channel>.
• Qualifier rrev: The Conan recipe revision (optional). If omitted, the purl refers to the latest recipe revision available for the given version.
• Qualifier prev: The Conan package revision (optional). If omitted, the purl refers to the latest package revision available for the given version and recipe revision.
• Qualifier repository_url: The Conan repository where the package is available (optional). If ommitted, https://center.conan.io as default repository is assumed.

Additional qualifiers can be used to distinguish Conan packages with different settings or options, e.g. os=Linux, build_type=Debug or shared=True.

If no additional qualifiers are used to distinguish Conan packages build with different settings or options, then the purl is ambiguous and it is up to the user to work out which package is being referred to (e.g. with context information).

Examples:

pkg:conan/openssl@3.0.3
pkg:conan/openssl.org/openssl@3.0.3?user=bincrafters&channel=stable
pkg:conan/openssl.org/openssl@3.0.3?arch=x86_64&build_type=Debug&compiler=Visual%20Studio&compiler.runtime=MDd&compiler.version=16&os=Windows&shared=True&rrev=93a82349c31917d2d674d22065c7a9ef9f380c8e&prev=b429db8a0e324114c25ec387bfd8281f330d7c5c

conda

conda for Conda packages:

• The default repository is https://repo.anaconda.com.

• The name is the package name.

• The version is the package version.

• The qualifiers: build is the build string. channel is the package stored location. subdir is the associated platform. type is the package type.

• Examples:

  pkg:conda/absl-py@0.4.1?build=py36h06a4308_0&channel=main&subdir=linux-64&type=tar.bz2
  

cran

cran for CRAN R packages:

• The default repository is https://cran.r-project.org.

• The name is the package name and is case sensitive, but there cannot be two packages on CRAN with the same name ignoring case.

• The version is the package version.

• Examples:

  pkg:cran/A3@1.0.0
  pkg:cran/rJava@1.0-4
  pkg:cran/caret@6.0-88
  

deb

deb for Debian, Debian derivatives, and Ubuntu packages:

• There is no default package repository: this should be implied either from the distro qualifiers key or using a base url as a repository_url qualifiers key.

• The namespace is the "vendor" name such as "debian" or "ubuntu". It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The name is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The version is the version of the binary (or source) package.

• arch is the qualifiers key for a package architecture. The special value arch=source identifies a Debian source package that usually consists of a Debian Source control file (.dsc) and corresponding upstream and Debian sources. The dpkg-query command can print the name and version of the corresponding source package of a binary package:

  dpkg-query -f '${source:Package} ${source:Version}' -W <binary package name>
  

• Examples:

  pkg:deb/debian/curl@7.50.3-1?arch=i386&distro=jessie
  pkg:deb/debian/dpkg@1.19.0.4?arch=amd64&distro=stretch
  pkg:deb/ubuntu/dpkg@1.19.0.4?arch=amd64
  pkg:deb/debian/attr@1:2.4.47-2?arch=source
  pkg:deb/debian/attr@1:2.4.47-2%2Bb1?arch=amd64
  

docker

docker for Docker images:

• The default repository is https://hub.docker.com.

• The namespace is the registry/user/organization if present.

• The version should be the image id sha256 or a tag. Since tags can be moved, a sha256 image id is preferred.

• Examples:

  pkg:docker/cassandra@latest
  pkg:docker/smartentry/debian@dc437cc87d10
  pkg:docker/customer/dockerimage@sha256%3A244fd47e07d10?repository_url=gcr.io
  

gem

gem for Rubygems:

• The default repository is https://rubygems.org.

• The platform qualifiers key is used to specify an alternative platform. such as java for JRuby. The implied default is ruby for Ruby MRI.

• Examples:

  pkg:gem/ruby-advisory-db-check@0.12.4
  pkg:gem/jruby-launcher@1.1.2?platform=java
  

generic

generic for plain, generic packages that do not fit anywhere else such as for "upstream-from-distro" packages. In particular this is handy for a plain version control repository such as a bare git repo.

• There is no default repository. A download_url and checksum may be provided in qualifiers or as separate attributes outside of a purl for proper identification and location.

• When possible another or a new purl type should be used instead of using the generic type and eventually contributed back to this specification.

• as for other type, the name component is mandatory. In the worst case it can be a file or directory name.

• Examples (truncated for brevity):

  pkg:generic/openssl@1.1.10g
  pkg:generic/openssl@1.1.10g?download_url=https://openssl.org/source/openssl-1.1.0g.tar.gz&checksum=sha256:de4d501267da
  pkg:generic/bitwarderl?vcs_url=git%2Bhttps://git.fsfe.org/dxtr/bitwarderl%40cc55108da32
  

github

github for Github-based packages:

• The default repository is https://github.com.

• The namespace is the user or organization. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The name is the repository name. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The version is a commit or tag.

• Examples:

  pkg:github/package-url/purl-spec@244fd47e07d1004
  pkg:github/package-url/purl-spec@244fd47e07d1004#everybody/loves/dogs
  

golang

golang for Go packages:

• There is no default package repository: this is implied in the namespace using the go get command conventions.

• The namespace and name must be lowercased.

• The subpath is used to point to a subpath inside a package.

• The version is often empty when a commit is not specified and should be the commit in most cases when available.

• Examples:

  pkg:golang/github.com/gorilla/context@234fd47e07d1004f0aed9c
  pkg:golang/google.golang.org/genproto#googleapis/api/annotations
  pkg:golang/github.com/gorilla/context@234fd47e07d1004f0aed9c#api
  

hackage

hackage for Haskell packages:

• The default repository is https://hackage.haskell.org.

• The version is package version.

• The name is case sensitive and use kebab-case.

• Examples:

  pkg:hackage/a50@0.5
  pkg:hackage/AC-HalfInteger@1.2.1
  pkg:hackage/3d-graphics-examples@0.0.0.2
  

hex

hex for Hex packages:

• The default repository is https://repo.hex.pm.

• The namespace is optional; it may be used to specify the organization for private packages on hex.pm. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The name is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• Examples:

  pkg:hex/jason@1.1.2
  pkg:hex/acme/foo@2.3.
  pkg:hex/phoenix_html@2.13.3#priv/static/phoenix_html.js
  pkg:hex/bar@1.2.3?repository_url=https://myrepo.example.com
  

huggingface

huggingface for Hugging Face ML models

• The default repository is https://huggingface.co.

• The namespace is the model repository username or organization, if present. It is case sensitive.

• The name is the model repository name. It is case sensitive.

• The version is the model revision Git commit hash. It is case insensitive and must be lowercased in the package URL.

• Examples:

  pkg:huggingface/distilbert-base-uncased@043235d6088ecd3dd5fb5ca3592b6913fd516027
  pkg:huggingface/microsoft/deberta-v3-base@559062ad13d311b87b2c455e67dcd5f1c8f65111?repository_url=https://hub-ci.huggingface.co
  

maven

maven for Maven JARs and related artifacts:

• The default repository is https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2.

• The group id is the namespace and the artifact id is the name.

• Known qualifiers keys are: classifier and type as defined in the POM documentation. Note that Maven uses a concept / coordinate called packaging which does not map directly 1:1 to a file extension. In this use case, we need to construct a link to one of many possible artifacts. Maven itself uses type in a dependency declaration when needed to disambiguate between them.

• Examples:

  pkg:maven/org.apache.xmlgraphics/batik-anim@1.9.1
  pkg:maven/org.apache.xmlgraphics/batik-anim@1.9.1?type=pom
  pkg:maven/org.apache.xmlgraphics/batik-anim@1.9.1?classifier=sources
  pkg:maven/org.apache.xmlgraphics/batik-anim@1.9.1?type=zip&classifier=dist
  pkg:maven/net.sf.jacob-projec/jacob@1.14.3?classifier=x86&type=dll
  pkg:maven/net.sf.jacob-projec/jacob@1.14.3?classifier=x64&type=dll
  

mlflow

mlflow for MLflow ML models (Azure ML, Databricks, etc.)

• The repository is the MLflow tracking URI. There is no default. Examples:

  • Azure ML: https://<region>.api.azureml.ms/mlflow/v1.0/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group-name>/providers/Microsoft.MachineLearningServices/workspaces/<workspace-name>
  • Azure Databricks: https://adb-<numbers>.<number>.azuredatabricks.net/api/2.0/mlflow
  • AWS Databricks: https://dbc-<alphanumeric>-<alphanumeric>.cloud.databricks.com/api/2.0/mlflow
  • GCP Databricks: https://<numbers>.<number>.gcp.databricks.com/api/2.0/mlflow

• The namespace is empty.

• The name is the model name. Case sensitivity depends on the server implementation:

  • Azure ML: it is case sensitive and must be kept as-is in the package URL.
  • Databricks: it is case insensitive and must be lowercased in the package URL.

• The version is the model version.

• Known qualifiers keys are: model_uuid and run_id as defined in the MLflow documentation.

• Examples:

  pkg:mlflow/creditfraud@3?repository_url=https://westus2.api.azureml.ms/mlflow/v1.0/subscriptions/a50f2011-fab8-4164-af23-c62881ef8c95/resourceGroups/TestResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.MachineLearningServices/workspaces/TestWorkspace
  pkg:mlflow/trafficsigns@10?model_uuid=36233173b22f4c89b451f1228d700d49&run_id=410a3121-2709-4f88-98dd-dba0ef056b0a&repository_url=https://adb-5245952564735461.0.azuredatabricks.net/api/2.0/mlflow
  

npm

npm for Node NPM packages:

• The default repository is https://registry.npmjs.org.

• The namespace is used for the scope of a scoped NPM package.

• Per the package.json spec, new package "must not have uppercase letters in the name", therefore the must be lowercased.

• Examples:

  pkg:npm/foobar@12.3.1
  pkg:npm/%40angular/animation@12.3.1
  pkg:npm/mypackage@12.4.5?vcs_url=git://host.com/path/to/repo.git%404345abcd34343
  

nuget

nuget for NuGet .NET packages:

• The default repository is https://www.nuget.org.

• There is no namespace per se even if the common convention is to use dot-separated package names where the first segment is namespace-like.

• Examples:

  pkg:nuget/EnterpriseLibrary.Common@6.0.1304
  

qpkg

qpkg for QNX packages:

• There is no default package repository: this should be implied either from the namespace or using a repository base URL as repository_url qualifiers key.

• The namespace is the vendor of the package. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• Examples:

  pkg:qpkg/blackberry/com.qnx.sdp@7.0.0.SGA201702151847
  pkg:qpkg/blackberry/com.qnx.qnx710.foo.bar.qux@0.0.4.01449T202205040833L
  

oci

oci for all artifacts stored in registries that conform to the OCI Distribution Specification, including container images built by Docker and others:

• There is no canonical package repository for OCI artifacts. Therefore oci purls must be registry agnostic by default. To specify the repository, provide a repository_url value.

• OCI purls do not contain a namespace, although, repository_url may contain a namespace as part of the physical location of the package.

• The name is not case sensitive and must be lowercased. The name is the last fragment of the repository name. For example if the repository name is library/debian then the name is debian.

• The version is the sha256:hex_encoded_lowercase_digest of the artifact and is required to uniquely identify the artifact.

• Optional qualifiers may include:

  • arch: key for a package architecture, when relevant.
  • repository_url: A repository URL where the artifact may be found, but not intended as the only location. This value is encouraged to identify a location the content may be fetched.
  • tag: artifact tag that may have been associated with the digest at the time.

• Examples:

  pkg:oci/debian@sha256%3A244fd47e07d10?repository_url=docker.io/library/debian&arch=amd64&tag=latest
  pkg:oci/debian@sha256%3A244fd47e07d10?repository_url=ghcr.io/debian&tag=bullseye
  pkg:oci/static@sha256%3A244fd47e07d10?repository_url=gcr.io/distroless/static&tag=latest
  pkg:oci/hello-wasm@sha256%3A244fd47e07d10?tag=v1
  

pub

pub for Dart and Flutter packages:

• The default repository is https://pub.dartlang.org.

• Pub normalizes all package names to be lowercase and using underscores. The only allowed characters are [a-z0-9_].

• More information on pub naming and versioning is available in the [pubspec documentation](https://dart.dev/tools/pub/pubspec)

• Examples:

  pkg:pub/characters@1.2.0
  pkg:pub/flutter@0.0.0
  

pypi

pypi for Python packages:

• The default repository is https://pypi.python.org.

• PyPI treats - and _ as the same character and is not case sensitive. Therefore a PyPI package name must be lowercased and underscore _ replaced with a dash -.

• Examples:

  pkg:pypi/django@1.11.1
  pkg:pypi/django-allauth@12.23
  

rpm

rpm for RPMs:

• There is no default package repository: this should be implied either from the distro qualifiers key or using a repository base URL as repository_url qualifiers key.

• The namespace is the vendor such as Fedora or OpenSUSE. It is not case sensitive and must be lowercased.

• The name is the RPM name and is case sensitive.

• The version is the combined version and release of an RPM.

• epoch (optional for RPMs) is a qualifier as it's not required for unique identification, but when the epoch exists we strongly encourage using it.

• arch is the qualifiers key for a package architecture.

• Examples:

  pkg:rpm/fedora/curl@7.50.3-1.fc25?arch=i386&distro=fedora-25
  pkg:rpm/centerim@4.22.10-1.el6?arch=i686&epoch=1&distro=fedora-25
  

swid

swid for ISO-IEC 19770-2 Software Identification (SWID) tags:

• There is no default package repository.
• The namespace is the optional name and regid of the entity with a role of softwareCreator. If specified, name is required and is the first segment in the namespace. If regid is known, it must be specified as the second segment in the namespace. A maximum of two segments are supported.
• The name is the name as defined in the SWID SoftwareIdentity element.
• The version is the version as defined in the SWID SoftwareIdentity element.
• The qualifier tag_id must not be empty and corresponds to the tagId as defined in the SWID SoftwareIdentity element. Per the SWID specification, GUIDs are recommended. If a GUID is used, it must be lowercase. If a GUID is not used, the tag_id qualifier is case aware but not case sensitive.
• The qualifier tag_version is an optional integer and corresponds to the tagVersion as defined in the SWID SoftwareIdentity element. If not specified, defaults to 0.
• The qualifier patch is optional and corresponds to the patch as defined in the SWID SoftwareIdentity element. If not specified, defaults to false.
• The qualifier tag_creator_name is optional. If the tag creator is different from the software creator, the tag_creator_name qualifier should be specified.
• The qualifier tag_creator_regid is optional. If the tag creator is different from the software creator, the tag_creator_regid qualifier should be specified.

Use of known qualifiers key/value pairs such as download_url can be used to specify where the package was retrieved from.

• Examples:

  pkg:swid/Acme/example.com/Enterprise+Server@1.0.0?tag_id=75b8c285-fa7b-485b-b199-4745e3004d0d
  pkg:swid/Fedora@29?tag_id=org.fedoraproject.Fedora-29
  pkg:swid/Adobe+Systems+Incorporated/Adobe+InDesign@CC?tag_id=CreativeCloud-CS6-Win-GM-MUL
  

swift

swift for Swift packages:

• There is no default package repository: this should be implied from namespace.

• The namespace is source host and user/organization and is required.

• The name is the repository name.

• The version is the package version and is required.

• Examples:

  pkg:swift/github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire@5.4.3
  pkg:swift/github.com/RxSwiftCommunity/RxFlow@2.12.4
  

Other candidate types to define:

• apache for Apache projects packages:
• android for Android apk packages:
• atom for Atom packages:
• bower for Bower JavaScript packages:
• brew for Homebrew packages:
• buildroot for Buildroot packages
• carthage for Cocoapods Cocoa packages:
• chef for Chef packages:
• chocolatey for Chocolatey packages
• clojars for Clojure packages:
• cocoapods for Cocoapods iOS packages:
• coreos for CoreOS packages:
• cpan for CPAN Perl packages:
• ctan for CTAN TeX packages:
• crystal for Crystal Shards packages:
• drupal for Drupal packages:
• dtype for DefinitelyTyped TypeScript type definitions:
• dub for D packages:
• elm for Elm packages:
• eclipse for Eclipse projects packages:
• gitea for Gitea-based packages:
• gitlab for Gitlab-based packages:
• gradle for Gradle plugins
• guix for Guix packages:
• haxe for Haxe packages:
• helm for Kubernetes packages
• julia for Julia packages:
• lua for LuaRocks packages:
• melpa for Emacs packages
• meteor for Meteor JavaScript packages:
• nim for Nim packages:
• nix for Nixos packages:
• opam for OCaml packages:
• openwrt for OpenWRT packages:
• osgi for OSGi bundle packages:
• p2 for Eclipse p2 packages:
• pear for Pear PHP packages:
• pecl for PECL PHP packages:
• perl6 for Perl 6 module packages:
• platformio for PlatformIO packages:
• ebuild for Gentoo Linux portage packages:
• puppet for Puppet Forge packages:
• sourceforge for Sourceforge-based packages:
• sublime for Sublime packages:
• terraform for Terraform modules
• vagrant for Vagrant boxes
• vim for Vim scripts packages:
• wordpress for Wordpress packages:
• yocto for Yocto recipe packages:

License

This document is licensed under the MIT license.