[HowTo] Get Acquainted with Pacman package manager

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Introduction

Pacman is the default and official package manager for Arch Linux.
While Manjaro also provides Pamac and Pamac-cli, pacman is present on all installations.
In fact Pamac shares and relies on certain pacman resources such as the package cache found at /var/cache/pacman/pkg/.

This guide will not serve as a comparison of the two, but hopefully to help demystify this standard tool.

For a list of common commands skip to this section.

For those familiar with other package managers that would appreciate a translator, or for more robust documentation, see the resource links at the bottom.


Functions In-Depth

Help Yourself

As with many tools you can use the --help flag for a simple overview of available options.

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$ pacman --help

usage:  pacman <operation> [...]
operations:
    pacman {-h --help}
    pacman {-V --version}
    pacman {-D --database} <options> <package(s)>
    pacman {-F --files}    [options] [file(s)]
    pacman {-Q --query}    [options] [package(s)]
    pacman {-R --remove}   [options] <package(s)>
    pacman {-S --sync}     [options] [package(s)]
    pacman {-T --deptest}  [options] [package(s)]
    pacman {-U --upgrade}  [options] <file(s)>

use 'pacman {-h --help}' with an operation for available options

Similarly, but much more verbose, a man page is available providing an entire manual for pacman.

$ man pacman

PACMAN(8)                             Pacman Manual                             PACMAN(8)

NAME
       pacman - package manager utility

SYNOPSIS
       pacman <operation> [options] [targets]

[...]

Root and sudo

Some, or most, pacman commands do not require root or sudo.

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Those making changes to the root filesystem, such as installation, removal, or upgrade of packages, do require sudo.
Maintain ‘only use sudo when required’, as should already be standard linux practice.

pacman -Q

The query flag (-Q) is the main operator for local packages.

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To search local packages use

pacman -Qs $PACKAGE_or_DESCRIPTION

To see package information like version, size, and dependencies use

pacman -Qi $PACKAGE

To list files on the system provided by a package use

pacman -Ql $PACKAGE

To print all foreign (do not exist in the repositories) packages use

pacman -Qm

To print all orphan (not required by any other package nor explicitly installed) packages use

pacman -Qdt

pacman -R

The remove flag (-R) is the operator for uninstalling packages.

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To uninstall a package use

sudo pacman -R $PACKAGE

To uninstall a package and any associated save files use

sudo pacman -Rn $PACKAGE

To uninstall a package and its dependencies not required by another package use

sudo pacman -Rs $PACKAGE

To print packages for removal instead of removing them use

pacman -Rsp $PACKAGE

To remove packages the most common way use

sudo pacman -Rns $PACKAGE

To remove all orphan packages use

sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qdtq)

pacman -S

The sync flag (-S) is the main operator for any repository target.

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To search the repositories use

pacman -Ss $SEARCH_TERM

To print information about a package use

pacman -Si $PACKAGE

To install a package you could use*

sudo pacman -S $PACKAGE

* :information_source: It is HIGHLY encouraged to always be up to date before installing new packages.
See the following sections.

To update all packages sync, refresh, and upgrade

sudo pacman -Syu

As systems should be up-to-date before installing new packages, to install a package use

sudo pacman -Syu $PACKAGE

To clean the package cache of all uninstalled packages and unused repositories use

sudo pacman -Sc

To clean the entire cache and unused repositories use

sudo pacman -Scc

pacman -U

The upgrade flag (-U), despite its name, is mainly used to install packages from a path or URL.

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To install either a remote or local package (by URL or path) use

sudo pacman -U $PATH_or_URL

pacman -F

The files flag (-F) is the main operator for searching for files in the repositories.

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To update the files database use

sudo pacman -Fy

To search the files database use

pacman -F $FILE_or_PATH

To search the files database with regex use

pacman -Fx $FILE_or_PATH

pacman -D

The database flag (-D) is the main operator for the local database of packages.

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To check the consistency of the local system against the database use

pacman -Dk

To mark a package previously ‘explicitly installed’ as a dependency use

sudo pacman -D --asdeps $PACKAGE

To mark a package previously installed as a dependency as ‘explicitly installed’ use

sudo pacman -D --asexplicit $PACKAGE

Configuring pacman.conf

Settings in /etc/pacman.conf or /etc/pacman.conf.d/*.conf files have various effects.

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Help Yourself

An exhaustive manual is available

man pacman.conf

IgnorePkg and IgnoreGroup

These options instruct pacman to ignore upgrades of the listed array of packages or groups of packages respectively.

NoUpgrade

File paths listed under this option will not be modified during installation or upgrade and will always produce a .pacnew file.

NoExtract

File paths listed under this option will not be extracted from any package onto the filesystem. This can be used to selectively deny certain parts of a package from being installed.

Misc Options

  • UseSyslog - Log messages through syslog into /var/log/messages or equivalent.
  • Color - Automatically enable colors only when pacman’s output is on a tty.
  • NoProgressBar - Disable progress bars. Also helps avoid escape characters.
  • CheckSpace - Approximate check for adequate disk space before installing packages.
  • VerbosePkgLists - Display target package information as table before operations.
  • ParallelDownloads = N - Where N is the number of concurrent download streams.
  • DisableSandbox - Disable default sandbox applied to the process downloading files.
  • ILoveCandy - This ‘easter egg’ option will apply a Wakka Wakka theme to progress bars.

Common Invocations

These are the (likely) most common pacman commands in everyday use.

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File Database

Update and query database:

sudo pacman -Fyx $FILE_or_PATH

Information, Search

Search installed packages:

pacman -Qs $PACKAGE_or_DESCRIPTION

Query installed package information:

pacman -Qi $PACKAGE

Search the repositories:

pacman -Ss $PACKAGE_or_DESCRIPTION

Query repository package information:

pacman -Si $PACKAGE

Installation and Update

Update repository packages:

sudo pacman -Syu

Install new repository packages:

sudo pacman -Syu $PACKAGE1 $PACKAGE2

Uninstallation and Orphans

Remove packages, their save files, and unneeded dependencies:

sudo pacman -Rns $PACKAGE1 $PACKAGE2

Remove orphan packages

sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qdtq)

Cleaning

Clean uninstalled packages

sudo pacman -Sc

More Information

Online Manual

pacman(8) — Arch manual pages

ArchWiki Page

pacman - ArchWiki

Pacman Rosetta

pacman/Rosetta - ArchWiki

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