OpenIndiana as the open-source project built atop Illumos that is continuing to maintain and advance the former OpenSolaris code is working on a big ambitions of modernizing the Image Packaging System (IPS) package management solution. As part of that they are working to move from a C and Python codebase over to Rust.
Till Wegmüller as one of the OpenIndiana maintainers presented at FOSDEM this past weekend in Brussels around re-building a next-gen system package manager and image management tool out of IPS.
The key takeaway is with the future IPS “pkg6” is porting the code over to Rust in the name of better performance than the C/Python implementation, better safety due to the Rust guarantees, modernizing the codebase, and API improvements. Among the design improvements being sought with the new code as well is improving the dependency solver, improved metadata indexing and repository management, and easier integration with tooling and the OS.
Fans of (Open)Solaris/OpenIndiana and wanting to learn more about this next-gen IPS package management initiative can find the FOSDEM 2026 presentation by Till Wegmüller with the video recording and slide deck over on FOSDEM.org.
