Package Control

Introduction#

Package Control is a full-featured package manager that helps discovering, installing, updating and removing packages for Sublime Text.

Remarks#

Package Control is the Sublime Text package manager. It includes a list of over 2,500 packages available for install, and users can add any GitHub or BitBucket repository themselves. Once installed, packages are kept up-to-date automatically.

The example code creates the Installed Packages folder for you (if necessary), and then downloads the Package Control.sublime-package into it. The download will be done over HTTP instead of HTTPS due to Python standard library limitations, however the file will be validated using SHA-256.

Installing Package Control

If you are using Sublime Text 3 then the simplest way to install Package Control is to select Install Package Control in the Tools menu or in the Command Palette and Sublime Text will install it automatically.

Manually Installing:

For Sublime Text 2, older versions of Sublime Text 3, or if you have a proxy server related problem, then Package Control can be installed using a Python script that must be pasted into the Sublime Text console.

Open the Package Control Installation Web Page in your web browser.
Click on the Sublime Text version you require.
Copy the Python script into your clipboard.
Open the Sublime Text console by selecting the Show Console in the View menu, or by using the Ctrl+` shortcut keys, or by selecting Console: Show in the Command Palette.
Paste the Python script into the console and press the Enter key to run the script.
It will take a few seconds to install but once it has been a new Sublime Text buffer will be displayed with information about Package Control.

You can new go to the Package Control Web Site and choose the packages that you want to install.

Customizing sublime text

Once you have package control installed, it is super easy to install any plugin, theme, color scheme, syntax that you want!

plugin: perform an action (compile your less code into css for example)
theme: change the entire skin of sublime text (tabs, sidebar, command palette, etc)
color scheme: change the color of your code
syntax: define how code should be highlighted.

How do I find a package

You can search for packages on this website: packagecontrol.io, or simply search for some key words when you decide you need to install a package (see below).

Once I choose which package I want to install, how do I install it?

From ST, bring up the command palette, and type install package until package control: install package is hightlighted, and press enter.

Wait a bit, and a list with all the package available will come up. Type the name of the one you want to install, and it enter. Done!

Note: It is safe to restart sublime text after you’ve install a package. But it become less and less useful (sublime text gets better, so you almost don’t need to now). So, just restart it if something is weird, not just because I said it.

Installing an unlisted package

By unlisted package, I mean a package that is not available through Package Control (yet). So, you can’t find it in packagecontrol.io.

BUT, you can still install it using Package Control, so you’ll get all the advantages. For example, they’ll be automatically updated, just like a “regular” installation.

And it’s really easy.

Find your package repository (it’ll often be on GitHub, but you can use a BitBucket one) and copy the URL.
Search for Package Control: Add repository in the command palette (ctrl+shift+p)
Paste the URL
Hit enter

And now, it’s just like if this package was on the default channel (a channel is a simple list of packages. The default one is the one you get… by default 😃).

Search for Package Control: Install Package in the command palette (ctrl+shift+p)
(you might need to wait a few secs) Search for the package you want to install
Hit enter!

That’s it! Pretty cool, huh? So, if you’re a package developer don’t hesitate to let them know they can do it this way (always better than the git clone and git pull 😉).

Note: Feel free to copy/paste this text in your readme, or adapt your own version!