Package management system

software that manages the installation, upgrading, removal and dependency resolution of software packages

A package management system keeps track of information about software packages: what files go where, and which package owns that file, therefore behaving like a phone directory. Examples of package management systems for Linux include dpkg, rpm and emerge. In Microsoft Windows, "Add/Remove Programs"/"Programs and Features" are like package managers, but use no format (it leaves it up to the program).