GitHub launches beta of Package Registry

GitHub has announced the limited beta of the new Package Registry. Package Registry is a new package management service that allows developers to publish public and private packages alongside their source code.

Package Registry is not a competitor to tools like npm and RubyGems, reports TechCrunch. It is a service that works with these tools and allows developers to find and publish their own packages. They do this using the same GitHub interface that is used for the code.

“GitHub Package Registry works with common package management clients, so you can publish your packages with your chosen tool,” says Simina Pasat, Director of Product Management. She says that if a repository is more complex, developers can publish multiple packages of different types.

The new service now works with JavaScript (npm), Java (Maven), Ruby (RubyGems), .NET (NuGet) and Docker Images. In the future, more languages and tools will need to be supported. “With webhooks or with GitHub Actions you can customize your publication and post-publication workflows to your liking,” says Pasat.

Companies can also give their employees a single set of credentials to manage both their code and their packages. In addition, it becomes easier to create a set of approved packages. Users can also download statistics and access the entire history of the package on GitHub.

Logical step

Most open source packages use GitHub to develop their code before it is placed on a public registry. Also, GitHub is already used by developers to host private repositories, allowing packages and code to be managed in the same place.

GitHub states that these developers can now use the Package Registry to publish pre-release versions, for example. By doing so, GitHub is in fact making the practices formal by building a product around them.