Print "last updated" and "first submitted" when using pacman

Support Software & Applications
1

Hello.
Lately I started using more command line utility because why not.
One annoying thing switching from the gui app to install app to pacman/yay/paru is that I wasn’t able to print useful information found in the gui, like “last updated” (build date), but also the link to github/official site. Is there a way to print any of this information when using pacman?

2 
pacman -Qi PACKAGE  # installed

pacman -Si PACKAGE # not installed

pacman -Ss REGULAR_EXPRESSION # search 

man pacman # man page

Links

3

Hello. I skimmed through the man page and tried the option already. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, because in order for that to work I need the exact name of the package. I tried to pair up with the s option like this:

pacman -Ssi

But that wasn’t a thing.

This may be what I’m looking for. Can you elaborate a bit please?

Thanks

4

That information is present with either of those commands. Both yay and paru use the same command switches.

Example:

❯ pacman -Qi gnome-shell | grep 'Build Date'
Build Date      : Wed 26 Oct 2022 05:05:40 PM MDT
5

Thing is, in order to do that, i need to spell exactly the name of the package. This is not convenient when, for example, I’m installing a package that has multiple versions, for example latte and latte-dock and latte-dock-git, or when I’m not sure what I want to install (e.g. plasma widget).

Is there a way to show this information along with the package name & version when using pacman -Ss?

In the gui app I have every info at a glance. You may argue this is exactly what gui applications are for. Fine, what I’m asking is if I can have a similar experience in the terminal. Thank you

6

Yes, we’re aware. The resources you need to do so have already been shared with examples. Now it’s up to you to review them.

Once you have, don’t hesitate to ask more questions. :wink:

7

I don’t understand what “examples” you gave me. I asked a specific question, I already said that I read through the man page and the wiki page, tried a bunch of option and failing at those. If you say that a way exist but don’t tell me how to do it or nudge me in the right direction, you’re not helping. I’m not here to complain or asking for the answer without trying to figure out a solution myself. I did ask because I wasn’t able to come up with a solution.

The closest thing to my answer is to retrieve the info package by package with the -Si command, and not when choosing from different packages with the -Ss command

8

Tried what and failed at what?

I did and provided an example.

Fine, then I will not longer participate in this discussion.

1 Like
9

You were provided with pacman’s archwiki (beside other things). Read that, and read manpage again, after all you said you “skimmed” over it. What more do you want? If you want to do something that is not available in documentation, then you’ll have to script together something yourself, eg. you can install expac and do anything with it, if pacman is too restrictive.

10

It’s a 2-step process.

  1. Find what packages are available.

    • Use pamac search to display sync and AUR packages. pacman does not search AUR.
    • Try your search with a simple character string first.
      • Ex: pamac search latte-dock
      • Ex: pacman -Ss latte-dock
    • You can always pipe the output of pamac or pacman to grep
      • Ex: pamac search latte- | grep -i 'dock'

  2. Find details about that package.

    • Use pamac info to display AUR packages too
    • pacman -Si latte-dock
    • Display lines that contain build: pamac info latte-dock | grep -i 'build'
    • Display lines that begin with name or build: pamac info latte-dock | grep -Ei -e '^(name|build)'

When searching, you are searching a copy of the repositories on your system (sync database) and what is installed (local database). The repositories contains metadata about packages. They get updates when you update your system with pacman -Syu or pamac upgrade|update .

I’m an explorer. Sometimes it helps to have a understanding of where things reside:

  • Installed packages database: /var/lib/pacman/local/
    NEVER edit this directory maually, unless in the remote chance you are fixing a rare problem.

  • Repository databases (pacman): /var/lib/pacman/sync/

  • Repository databases (pamac): /var/tmp/pamac/dbs/sync/

  • Packages downloaded: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/

    • systemctl list-timers will show a unit pamac-cleancache. This manages how many copies of each package based on value set in /etc/pamac.conf. This can be configured in the GUI too.

Have fun exploring.

1 Like
11

Hi @luigir-it,

Try

pamac info <pacjageName>

Where <packageName> is the name of the package you wish the info about.

Example:

$ pamac info code
Name                  : code
Version               : 1.72.0-1
Description           : The Open Source build of Visual Studio Code (vscode) editor
URL                   : https://github.com/microsoft/vscode
Licences              : MIT
Repository            : community
Installed Size        : 100.8 MB
Groups                : --
Depends On            : electron19 libsecret libx11 libxkbfile ripgrep
Optional Dependencies : bash-completion: Bash completions
zsh-completions: ZSH completitons [Installed]
x11-ssh-askpass: SSH authentication [Installed]
Required By           : code-marketplace
Optional For          : --
Provides              : vscode
Replaces              : --
Conflicts With        : --
Packager              : Massimiliano Torromeo <mtorromeo@archlinux.org>
Build Date            : Fri 07 Oct 2022 00:45:52
Install Date          : Tue 11 Oct 2022 14:40:20
Install Reason        : Explicitly installed
Validated By          : Signature
Backup files          : --

Note:

This uses pamac CLI, not pacman.

12

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