Using Pacman on Arch-Linux Distributions

Steve Rackham included in categories Arch-Linux Terminal

2023-07-14 2023-07-14 481 words 3 minutes

Contents

Overview

Pacman is the package manager for Arch-Linux distributions.

Its fast. Very fast.
Its pretty (at least I think so).
You can easily manage repositories, whether official or custom.

But, one thing it is not is intuitive. So, I made some notes for a reference while learning Garuda Linux.

Command Structure

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pacman --help

# Output:
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.

Cheat Sheet

Quick Cheat Sheet Snippets Reference.

Everyday Packagement

Eveyday Package Management

Search for a package:

pacman -Ss hugo

Install a package:

pacman -S hugo

Install or update a package:

pacman -Syu hugo

Remove a package:

pacman -Rsc hugo

Everyday Package Queries

Eveyday Package Queries

Search installed packages for keywords:

pacman -Qs <query>

List information on a package:

pacman -Qii hugo

List all explicitly install packages:

pacman -Qe

List files associated with a file:

pacman -Ql hugo

Finding Dependencies

What does a package depend on?

pactree hugo

What packages depend on a package?

pacman -r hugo

Finding and Removing Orphaned Packages

Finding Orphaned Packages

List unneeded or orphaned packages:

pacman -Qdt

Remove unneeded or orphaned packages:

pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qdtq)

Pacman Performance

Some tips for increasing performance.

Update the Mirror List

Avoid slow downloads and time-out errors while installing and updating packages by updating the mirrorlist file. For this we can use:

Reflector does the heavy lifting for us. Lets use that.

Reflector

Reflector is a python script that,

checks and retrieves the most up-to-date mirror list for each country.
can sort by speed and age.
can update the mirror list file automatically: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.

Set the mirror list according to your country.

Finding Country Code

List unneeded or orphaned packages:

reflector --list-countries

Sample Output:

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Country                Code Count
---------------------- ---- -----
Argentina                AR     2
Australia                AU    20
Austria                  AT    11
Azerbaijan               AZ     4
Bangladesh               BD     1
Belarus                  BY     4

Update Mirror List by Country Code

sudo reflector --country 'NZ, AU' --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Updating the mirror list and sorting by download rate.

--country New Zealand and Australia.
--sort Sorting by download rate.
--save Saving to /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.

Parallel Downloads.

Garuda Linux has parallel downloads on by default (5). You can check the setting here: /etc/pacman.conf

Set Parallel Downloads

sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf

Under [options], add or adjust the ParallelDownloads parameter.

Recommend setting to 5.

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[options]
ParallelDownloads = 5

Summary

Pacman Power-Up!

Go Pacman!

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Nice!