Installation records what a module reports about itself. dpm_install_module opens a module once, writes its version and description to a .meta file in /var/lib/dpm/metadata/, and records the alternate names it declared in modules.aliases beside it. dpm_uninstall_module removes both, leaving the module file in place. dpm_list_modules reads those records and opens no module. A module with no record lists with a version of <uninstalled> and still loads when a caller names it. An unreadable or absent metadata directory costs the listing its detail and costs nothing else. Aliases give a module alternate names, declared through the new dpm_module_aliases contract symbol or added with dpm_add_module_alias. A name is recorded once: one already serving as an alias, or belonging to an installed module, is refused rather than repointed. dpm_require matches a name against the installed modules, then the alias table, then the module path. The metadata directory is a fifth override field and the -M flag, and [modules] metadata in core.conf. The test suite is four binaries covering context, modules, records, and aliases, each a ctest case of its own, alongside the CLI cases.
Internal Headers
libdpm-core.so's own headers, used by its sources and never installed.
They declare the types and functions the library's translation units share with each other: the definitions behind the opaque handles <dpm/core.h> exposes, and the helpers those sources call across file boundaries.
Nothing here is part of the public interface. The install rule ships include/dpm/ alone, so a consumer or a module compiles against <dpm/core.h> and never sees this directory.