Difference between revisions of "Pacman/Tips and tricks"
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[[Category:Package management]] | [[Category:Package management]] | ||
− | [[es:Pacman Tips]] | + | [[es:Pacman/Tips and tricks]] |
− | [[it:Pacman Tips]] | + | [[fa:Pacman tips]] |
− | [[ | + | [[fr:Pacman/Trucs et Astuces]] |
− | [[ | + | [[it:Pacman/Tips and tricks]] |
− | [[zh- | + | [[ja:Pacman ヒント]] |
− | {{ | + | [[pt:Pacman/Tips and tricks]] |
− | + | [[ru:Pacman/Tips and tricks]] | |
− | {{ | + | [[zh-hans:Pacman/Tips and tricks]] |
− | + | {{Related articles start}} | |
− | + | {{Related|Mirrors}} | |
− | {{ | + | {{Related|Creating packages}} |
− | {{ | + | {{Related articles end}} |
− | + | For general methods to improve the flexibility of the provided tips or ''pacman'' itself, see [[Core utilities]] and [[Bash]]. | |
− | == | + | == Maintenance == |
+ | |||
+ | {{Expansion|{{ic|1=Usage=}} introduced with pacman 4.2, see [http://allanmcrae.com/2014/12/pacman-4-2-released/]}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Note|Instead of using ''comm'' (which requires sorted input with ''sort'') in the sections below, you may also use {{ic|grep -Fxf}} or {{ic|grep -Fxvf}}.}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | See also [[System maintenance]]. | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Listing packages === | ||
+ | |||
+ | You may want to get the list of installed packages with their version, which is useful when reporting bugs or discussing installed packages. | ||
− | + | * List all explicitly installed packages: {{ic|pacman -Qe}}. | |
+ | * List all packages in the group named {{ic|group}}: {{ic|pacman -Sg group}} | ||
+ | * List all explicitly installed native packages (i.e. present in the sync database) that are not direct or optional dependencies: {{ic|pacman -Qent}}. | ||
+ | * List all foreign packages (typically manually downloaded and installed or packages removed from the repositories): {{ic|pacman -Qm}}. | ||
+ | * List all native packages (installed from the sync database(s)): {{ic|pacman -Qn}}. | ||
+ | * List packages by regex: {{ic|pacman -Qs ''regex''}}. | ||
+ | * List packages by regex with custom output format: {{ic|expac -s "%-30n %v" ''regex''}} (needs {{Pkg|expac}}). | ||
− | + | ==== With size ==== | |
− | + | Figuring out which packages are largest can be useful when trying to free space on your hard drive. There are two options here: get the size of individual packages, or get the size of packages and their dependencies. | |
− | === | + | ===== Individual packages ===== |
− | The following | + | The following command will list all installed packages and their individual sizes: |
− | = | + | $ pacman -Qi | awk '/^Name/{name=$3} /^Installed Size/{print $4$5, name}' | sort -h |
− | + | ===== Packages and dependencies ===== | |
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− | + | To list package sizes with their dependencies, | |
− | + | ||
− | + | * Install {{Pkg|expac}} and run {{ic|<nowiki>expac -H M '%m\t%n' | sort -h</nowiki>}}. | |
− | + | * Run {{Pkg|pacgraph}} with the {{ic|-c}} option. | |
− | + | ||
+ | To list the download size of several packages (leave {{ic|''packages''}} blank to list all packages): | ||
+ | |||
+ | $ expac -S -H M '%k\t%n' ''packages'' | ||
+ | |||
+ | To list explicitly installed packages not in {{Grp|base}} nor {{Grp|base-devel}} with size and description: | ||
+ | |||
+ | $ expac -H M "%011m\t%-20n\t%10d" $(comm -23 <(pacman -Qqen | sort) <(pacman -Qqg base base-devel | sort)) | sort -n | ||
+ | |||
+ | To list the packages marked for upgrade with their download size | ||
+ | |||
+ | $ pacman -Quq|xargs expac -S -H M '%k\t%n' | sort -sh | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== By date ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | To list the 20 last installed packages with {{Pkg|expac}}, run: | ||
+ | |||
+ | $ expac --timefmt='%Y-%m-%d %T' '%l\t%n' | sort | tail -n 20 | ||
+ | |||
+ | or, with seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 UTC): | ||
+ | |||
+ | $ expac --timefmt=%s '%l\t%n' | sort -n | tail -n 20 | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Not in a specified group or repository ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Note|To get a list of packages installed as dependencies but no longer required by any installed package, see [[#Removing unused packages (orphans)]].}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | List explicitly installed packages not in the {{Grp|base}} or {{Grp|base-devel}} groups: | ||
− | + | $ comm -23 <(pacman -Qeq | sort) <(pacman -Qgq base base-devel | sort) | |
− | + | List all installed packages unrequired by other packages, and which are not in the {{Grp|base}} or {{Grp|base-devel}} groups: | |
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− | + | $ comm -23 <(pacman -Qqt | sort) <(pacman -Sqg base base-devel | sort) | |
− | + | As above, but with descriptions: | |
− | + | $ expac -HM '%-20n\t%10d' $(comm -23 <(pacman -Qqt | sort) <(pacman -Qqg base base-devel | sort)) | |
− | |||
− | + | List all installed packages that are ''not'' in the specified repository ''repo_name'' | |
− | + | $ comm -23 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <(pacman -Slq ''repo_name'' | sort) | |
− | + | List all installed packages that are in the ''repo_name'' repository: | |
− | + | $ comm -12 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <(pacman -Slq ''repo_name'' | sort) | |
− | + | List all packages on the Arch Linux ISO that are not in the base group: | |
− | + | <nowiki>$ comm -23 <(curl https://git.archlinux.org/archiso.git/tree/configs/releng/packages.x86_64) <(pacman -Qqg base | sort)</nowiki> | |
− | + | ==== Development packages ==== | |
− | + | To list all development/unstable packages, run: | |
− | + | $ pacman -Qq | grep -Ee '-(bzr|cvs|darcs|git|hg|svn)$' | |
− | + | === Browsing packages === | |
− | + | To browse all installed packages with an instant preview of each package: | |
− | = | + | $ pacman -Qq | fzf --preview 'pacman -Qil {}' --layout=reverse --bind 'enter:execute(pacman -Qil {} | less)' |
− | + | This uses [[fzf]] to present a two-pane view listing all packages with package info shown on the right. | |
− | + | Enter letters to filter the list of packages; use arrow keys (or {{ic|Ctrl-j}}/{{ic|Ctrl-k}}) to navigate; press {{ic|Enter}} to see package info under ''less''. | |
− | + | === Listing files owned by a package with size === | |
− | + | This one might come in handy if you have found that a specific package uses a huge amount of space and you want to find out which files make up the most of that. | |
− | + | $ pacman -Qlq ''package'' | grep -v '/$' | xargs du -h | sort -h | |
− | pacman - | ||
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=== Identify files not owned by any package === | === Identify files not owned by any package === | ||
− | + | If your system has stray files not owned by any package (a common case if you do not [[Enhance system stability#Use the package manager to install software|use the package manager to install software]]), you may want to find such files in order to clean them up. | |
− | {{ | + | One method is to use {{ic|# pacreport --unowned-files}} from {{Pkg|pacutils}} which will list unowned files among other details. |
− | |||
− | + | Another is to list all files of interest and check them against pacman: | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | # find /etc /usr /opt /var | LC_ALL=C pacman -Qqo - 2>&1 > /dev/null | cut -d ' ' -f 5- | |
− | |||
− | + | {{Tip|The {{Pkg|lostfiles}} script performs similar steps, but also includes an extensive blacklist to remove common false positives from the output.}} | |
− | + | === Tracking unowned files created by packages === | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | Most systems will slowly collect several [http://ftp.rpm.org/max-rpm/s1-rpm-inside-files-list-directives.html#S3-RPM-INSIDE-FLIST-GHOST-DIRECTIVE ghost] files such as state files, logs, indexes, etc. through the course of usual operation. | |
− | + | {{ic|pacreport}} from {{Pkg|pacutils}} can be used to track these files and their associations via {{ic|/etc/pacreport.conf}} (see {{man|1|pacreport|FILES}}). | |
− | + | An example may look something like this (abridged): | |
− | + | {{hc|/etc/pacreport.conf|<nowiki> | |
+ | [Options] | ||
+ | IgnoreUnowned = usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache | ||
− | === | + | [PkgIgnoreUnowned] |
+ | alsa-utils = var/lib/alsa/asound.state | ||
+ | bluez = var/lib/bluetooth | ||
+ | ca-certificates = etc/ca-certificates/trust-source/* | ||
+ | dbus = var/lib/dbus/machine-id | ||
+ | glibc = etc/ld.so.cache | ||
+ | grub = boot/grub/* | ||
+ | linux = boot/initramfs-linux.img | ||
+ | pacman = var/lib/pacman/local | ||
+ | update-mime-database = usr/share/mime/magic | ||
+ | </nowiki>}} | ||
− | + | Then, when using {{ic|# pacreport --unowned-files}}, any unowned files will be listed if the associated package is no longer installed (or if any new files have been created). | |
− | + | Additionally, [https://github.com/CyberShadow/aconfmgr aconfmgr] ({{AUR|aconfmgr-git}}) allows tracking modified and orphaned files using a configuration script. | |
− | + | === Removing unused packages (orphans) === | |
− | + | For recursively removing orphans and their configuration files: | |
− | + | ||
− | + | # pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq) | |
− | + | ||
− | + | If no orphans were found ''pacman'' outputs {{ic|error: no targets specified}}. This is expected as no arguments were passed to {{ic|pacman -Rns}}. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | {{Note|The arguments {{ic|-Qt}} list only true orphans. To include packages which are ''optionally'' required by another package, pass the {{ic|-t}} flag twice (''i.e.'', {{ic|-Qtt}}).}} | |
− | |||
=== Removing everything but base group === | === Removing everything but base group === | ||
− | If it is ever necessary to remove all packages except the base group, try this one liner: | + | If it is ever necessary to remove all packages except the base group, try this one-liner (requires {{Pkg|pacman-contrib}}): |
+ | |||
+ | # pacman -R $(comm -23 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <((for i in $(pacman -Qqg base); do pactree -ul "$i"; done) | sort -u)) | ||
− | + | The one-liner was originally devised in [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130176 this discussion], and later improved in this article. | |
− | + | === Getting the dependencies list of several packages === | |
− | + | Dependencies are alphabetically sorted and doubles are removed. | |
− | + | {{Note|To only show the tree of local installed packages, use {{ic|pacman -Qi}}.}} | |
− | |||
− | { | + | $ pacman -Si ''packages'' | awk -F'[:<=>]' '/^Depends/ {print $2}' | xargs -n1 | sort -u |
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− | + | Alternatively, with {{Pkg|expac}}: | |
− | + | $ expac -l '\n' %E -S ''packages'' | sort -u | |
− | + | === Listing changed backup files === | |
− | + | If you want to backup your system configuration files you could copy all files in {{ic|/etc/}}, but usually you are only interested in the files that you have changed. Modified [[Pacnew_and_Pacsave_files#Package_backup_files|backup files]] can be viewed with the following command: | |
+ | |||
+ | # pacman -Qii | awk '/^MODIFIED/ {print $2}' | ||
− | + | Running this command with root permissions will ensure that files readable only by root (such as {{ic|/etc/sudoers}}) are included in the output. | |
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− | + | {{Tip|See [[#Listing all changed files from packages]] to list all changed files ''pacman'' knows about, not only backup files.}} | |
− | + | === Backup the pacman database === | |
− | + | The following command can be used to backup the local ''pacman'' database: | |
− | + | $ tar -cjf pacman_database.tar.bz2 /var/lib/pacman/local | |
− | + | Store the backup ''pacman'' database file on one or more offline media, such as a USB stick, external hard drive, or CD-R. | |
− | pacman | ||
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− | + | The database can be restored by moving the {{ic|pacman_database.tar.bz2}} file into the {{ic|/}} directory and executing the following command: | |
− | |||
− | + | # tar -xjvf pacman_database.tar.bz2 | |
− | + | {{Note|If the ''pacman'' database files are corrupted, and there is no backup file available, there exists some hope of rebuilding the ''pacman'' database. Consult [[#Restore pacman's local database]].}} | |
− | + | {{Tip|The {{AUR|pakbak-git}} package provides a script and a [[systemd]] service to automate the task. Configuration is possible in {{ic|/etc/pakbak.conf}}.}} | |
− | === | + | === Check changelogs easily === |
− | |||
− | {{ | + | When maintainers update packages, commits are often commented in a useful fashion. Users can quickly check these from the command line by installing {{AUR|pacolog}}. This utility lists recent commit messages for packages from the official repositories or the AUR, by using {{ic|pacolog <package>}}. |
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== Installation and recovery == | == Installation and recovery == | ||
− | + | Alternative ways of getting and restoring packages. | |
=== Installing packages from a CD/DVD or USB stick === | === Installing packages from a CD/DVD or USB stick === | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Merge|#Custom local repository|Use as an example and avoid duplication}} | ||
To download packages, or groups of packages: | To download packages, or groups of packages: | ||
Line 261: | Line 248: | ||
# mount /dev/sdxY /mnt/repo #For a USB stick. | # mount /dev/sdxY /mnt/repo #For a USB stick. | ||
− | '''2.''' Edit {{ic|pacman.conf}} and add this repository ''before'' the other ones (e.g. extra, core, etc.). This is important. | + | '''2.''' Edit {{ic|pacman.conf}} and add this repository ''before'' the other ones (e.g. extra, core, etc.). This is important. Do not just uncomment the one on the bottom. This way it ensures that the files from the CD/DVD/USB take precedence over those in the standard repositories: |
− | {{hc| | + | {{hc|/etc/pacman.conf|2= |
[custom] | [custom] | ||
+ | SigLevel = PackageRequired | ||
Server = file:///mnt/repo/Packages}} | Server = file:///mnt/repo/Packages}} | ||
− | '''3.''' Finally, synchronize the pacman database to be able to use the new repository: | + | '''3.''' Finally, synchronize the ''pacman'' database to be able to use the new repository: |
− | # pacman - | + | # pacman -Syu |
=== Custom local repository === | === Custom local repository === | ||
− | + | Use the ''repo-add'' script included with ''pacman'' to generate a database for a personal repository. Use {{ic|repo-add --help}} for more details on its usage. To add a new package to the database, or to replace the old version of an existing package in the database, run: | |
+ | |||
+ | $ repo-add ''/path/to/repo.db.tar.gz /path/to/package-1.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz'' | ||
− | + | {{Note|A package database is a tar file, optionally compressed. Valid extensions are ''.db'' or ''.files'' followed by an archive extension of ''.tar'', ''.tar.gz'', ''.tar.bz2'', ''.tar.xz'', or ''.tar.Z''. The file does not need to exist, but all parent directories must exist.}} | |
− | + | The database and the packages do not need to be in the same directory when using ''repo-add'', but keep in mind that when using ''pacman'' with that database, they should be together. Storing all the built packages to be included in the repository in one directory also allows to use shell glob expansion to add or update multiple packages at once: | |
− | + | $ repo-add ''/path/to/repo.db.tar.gz /path/to/*.pkg.tar.xz'' | |
− | + | {{Warning|''repo-add'' adds the entries into the database in the same order as passed on the command line. If multiple versions of the same package are involved, care must be taken to ensure that the correct version is added last. In particular, note that lexical order used by the shell depends on the locale and differs from the [https://www.archlinux.org/pacman/vercmp.8.html vercmp] ordering used by ''pacman''.}} | |
− | + | ''repo-remove'' is used to remove packages from the package database, except that only package names are specified on the command line. | |
− | + | $ repo-remove ''/path/to/repo.db.tar.gz pkgname'' | |
− | Once the local repository has been | + | Once the local repository database has been created, add the repository to {{ic|pacman.conf}} for each system that is to use the repository. An example of a custom repository is in {{ic|pacman.conf}}. The repository's name is the database filename with the file extension omitted. In the case of the example above the repository's name would simply be ''repo''. Reference the repository's location using a {{ic|file://}} url, or via FTP using ftp://localhost/path/to/directory. |
If willing, add the custom repository to the [[Unofficial user repositories|list of unofficial user repositories]], so that the community can benefit from it. | If willing, add the custom repository to the [[Unofficial user repositories|list of unofficial user repositories]], so that the community can benefit from it. | ||
=== Network shared pacman cache === | === Network shared pacman cache === | ||
+ | {{Merge|Package_Proxy_Cache|Same topic}} | ||
+ | If you happen to run several Arch boxes on your LAN, you can share packages so that you can greatly decrease your download times. Keep in mind you should not share between different architectures (i.e. i686 and x86_64) or you will run into problems. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Read-only cache ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | If you are looking for a quick solution, you can simply run a standalone webserver which other computers can use as a first mirror: | ||
+ | # ln -s /var/lib/pacman/sync/*.db /var/cache/pacman/pkg | ||
+ | $ sudo -u http darkhttpd /var/cache/pacman/pkg --no-server-id | ||
+ | You could also run darkhttpd as a systemd service for convenience. Just add this server at the top of your {{ic|/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist}} in client machines with {{ic|1=Server = http://mymirror:8080}}. Make sure to keep your mirror updated. | ||
+ | |||
+ | If you are already running a web server for some other purpose, you might wish to reuse that as your local repo server instead of darkhttpd. For example, if you already serve a site with [[nginx]], you can add an nginx server block listening on port 8080: | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{hc|/etc/nginx/nginx.conf| | ||
+ | server { | ||
+ | listen 8080; | ||
+ | root /var/cache/pacman/pkg; | ||
+ | server_name myarchrepo.localdomain; | ||
+ | try_files $uri $uri/; | ||
+ | } | ||
+ | }} | ||
− | + | Remember to restart nginx after making this change. | |
− | + | Whichever web server you use, remember to open port 8080 to local traffic (and you probably want to deny anything not local), so add a rule like the following to [[iptables]]: | |
− | + | {{hc|/etc/iptables/iptables.rules| | |
+ | -A TCP -s 192.168.0.0/16 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 8080 -j ACCEPT | ||
+ | }} | ||
− | {{Tip|To use sshfs or shfs, consider reading [[Using SSH Keys]].}} | + | Remember to restart iptables after making this change. |
+ | |||
+ | ==== Distributed read-only cache ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | There are Arch-specific tools for automatically discovering other computers on your network offering a package cache. Try {{Pkg|pacredir}}, [[pacserve]], {{AUR|pkgdistcache}}, or {{AUR|paclan}}. pkgdistcache uses Avahi instead of plain UDP which may work better in certain home networks that route instead of bridge between WiFi and Ethernet. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Historically, there was [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=64391 PkgD] and [https://github.com/toofishes/multipkg multipkg], but they are no longer maintained. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Read-write cache ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | In order to share packages between multiple computers, simply share {{ic|/var/cache/pacman/}} using any network-based mount protocol. This section shows how to use [[shfs]] or [[SSHFS]] to share a package cache plus the related library-directories between multiple computers on the same local network. Keep in mind that a network shared cache can be slow depending on the file-system choice, among other factors. | ||
+ | |||
+ | First, install any network-supporting filesystem packages: {{pkg|shfs-utils}}, {{pkg|sshfs}}, {{pkg|curlftpfs}}, {{pkg|samba}} or {{pkg|nfs-utils}}. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Tip| | ||
+ | * To use ''sshfs'' or ''shfs'', consider reading [[Using SSH Keys]]. | ||
+ | * By default, ''smbfs'' does not serve filenames that contain colons, which results in the client downloading the offending package afresh. To prevent this, use the {{ic|mapchars}} mount option on the client. | ||
+ | }} | ||
Then, to share the actual packages, mount {{ic|/var/cache/pacman/pkg}} from the server to {{ic|/var/cache/pacman/pkg}} on every client machine. | Then, to share the actual packages, mount {{ic|/var/cache/pacman/pkg}} from the server to {{ic|/var/cache/pacman/pkg}} on every client machine. | ||
− | + | {{Warning|Do not make {{ic|/var/cache/pacman/pkg}} or any of its ancestors (e.g., {{ic|/var}}) a symlink. ''Pacman'' expects these to be directories. When ''pacman'' re-installs or upgrades itself, it will remove the symlinks and create empty directories instead. However during the transaction ''pacman'' relies on some files residing there, hence breaking the update process. Refer to {{bug|50298}} for further details.}} | |
− | ==== | + | ==== two-way with rsync ==== |
+ | |||
+ | Another approach in a local environment is [[rsync]]. Choose a server for caching and enable the [[Rsync#rsync daemon]]. On clients synchronize two-way with this share via rsync protocol. Filenames that contain colons are no problem for the rsync protocol. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Draft example for a client, using {{ic|uname -m}} within the share name ensures an architecture dependant sync: | ||
+ | # rsync rsync://server/share_$(uname -m)/ /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ ... | ||
+ | # pacman ... | ||
+ | # paccache ... | ||
+ | # rsync /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ rsync://server/share_$(uname -m)/ ... | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Dynamic reverse proxy cache using nginx ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | [[nginx]] can be used to proxy requests to official upstream mirrors and cache the results to local disk. All subsequent requests for that file will be served directly from the local cache, minimizing the amount of internet traffic needed to update a large number of servers with minimal effort. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Warning| This method has a limitation. You must use mirrors that use the same relative path to package files and you must configure your cache to use that same path. In this example, we are using mirrors that use the relative path {{ic|/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch}} and our cache's {{ic|Server}} setting in {{ic|mirrorlist}} is configured similarly.}} | ||
− | + | In this example, we will run the cache server on {{ic|<nowiki>http://cache.domain.example:8080/</nowiki>}} and storing the packages in {{ic|/srv/http/pacman-cache/}}. | |
− | + | Create the directory for the cache and adjust the permissions so nginx can write files to it: | |
− | + | # mkdir /srv/http/pacman-cache | |
+ | # chown http:http /srv/http/pacman-cache | ||
− | + | Next, configure nginx as the [https://gist.github.com/anonymous/97ec4148f643de925e433bed3dc7ee7d dynamic cache] (read the comments for an explanation of the commands). | |
− | + | Finally, update your other Arch Linux servers to use this new cache by adding the following line to the {{ic|mirrorlist}} file: | |
− | + | {{hc|/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist|<nowiki> | |
+ | Server = http://cache.domain.example:8080/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch | ||
+ | ... | ||
+ | </nowiki>}} | ||
− | + | {{Note| You will need to create a method to clear old packages, as this directory will continue to grow over time. {{ic|paccache}} (which is provided by {{pkg|pacman-contrib}}) can be used to automate this using retention criteria of your choosing. For example, {{ic|find /srv/http/pacman-cache/ -type d -exec paccache -v -r -k 2 -c {} \;}} will keep the last 2 versions of packages in your cache directory.}} | |
− | + | ==== Synchronize pacman package cache using synchronization programs ==== | |
− | + | Use [[Syncthing]] or [[Resilio Sync]] to synchronize the ''pacman'' cache folders (i.e. {{ic|/var/cache/pacman/pkg}}). | |
− | + | ==== Preventing unwanted cache purges ==== | |
− | + | By default, {{Ic|pacman -Sc}} removes package tarballs from the cache that correspond to packages that are not installed on the machine the command was issued on. Because ''pacman'' cannot predict what packages are installed on all machines that share the cache, it will end up deleting files that should not be. | |
− | + | To clean up the cache so that only ''outdated'' tarballs are deleted, add this entry in the {{ic|[options]}} section of {{ic|/etc/pacman.conf}}: | |
− | + | CleanMethod = KeepCurrent | |
− | + | === Recreate a package from the file system === | |
− | + | To recreate a package from the file system, use {{AUR|fakepkg}}. Files from the system are taken as they are, hence any modifications will be present in the assembled package. Distributing the recreated package is therefore discouraged; see [[ABS]] and [[Arch Linux Archive]] for alternatives. | |
− | + | === List of installed packages === | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | Keeping a list of all the explicitly installed packages can be useful, to backup a system for example or speed up installation on a new system: | |
− | $ | + | $ pacman -Qqe > pkglist.txt |
− | + | {{Note| | |
+ | * With option {{ic|-t}}, the packages already required by other explicitly installed packages are not mentioned. If reinstalling from this list they will be installed but as dependencies only. | ||
+ | * With option {{ic|-n}}, foreign packages (e.g. from [[AUR]]) would be omitted from the list. | ||
+ | * Use {{ic|comm -13 <(pacman -Qqdt {{!}} sort) <(pacman -Qqdtt {{!}} sort) > optdeplist.txt}} to also create a list of the installed optional dependencies which can be reinstalled with {{ic|--asdeps}}. | ||
+ | * Use {{ic|pacman -Qqem > foreignpkglist.txt}} to create the list of AUR and other foreign packages that have been explicitly installed.}} | ||
− | {{ | + | To keep an up-to-date list of explicitly installed packages (e.g. in combination with a versioned {{ic|/etc/}}), you can set up a [[Pacman#Hooks|hook]]. Example: |
− | + | [Trigger] | |
+ | Operation = Install | ||
+ | Operation = Remove | ||
+ | Type = Package | ||
+ | Target = * | ||
+ | |||
+ | [Action] | ||
+ | When = PostTransaction | ||
+ | Exec = /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/pacman -Qqe > /etc/pkglist.txt' | ||
− | === | + | === Install packages from a list === |
− | + | To install packages from a previously saved list of packages, while not reinstalling previously installed packages that are already up-to-date, run: | |
− | + | # pacman -S --needed - < pkglist.txt | |
− | + | However, it is likely foreign packages such as from the AUR or installed locally are present in the list. To filter out from the list the foreign packages, the previous command line can be enriched as follows: | |
− | + | # pacman -S --needed $(comm -12 <(pacman -Slq | sort) <(sort pkglist.txt)) | |
− | + | Eventually, to make sure the installed packages of your system match the list and remove all the packages that are not mentioned in it: | |
− | # pacman - | + | # pacman -Rsu $(comm -23 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <(sort pkglist.txt)) |
− | |||
− | + | {{Tip|These tasks can be automated. See {{AUR|bacpac}}, {{AUR|packup}}, {{AUR|pacmanity}}, and {{AUR|pug}} for examples.}} | |
− | + | === Listing all changed files from packages === | |
− | + | If you are suspecting file corruption (e.g. by software/hardware failure), but are unsure if files were corrupted, you might want to compare with the hash sums in the packages. This can be done with {{Pkg|pacutils}}: | |
− | |||
− | + | # paccheck --md5sum --quiet | |
− | + | For recovery of the database see [[#Restore pacman's local database]]. The {{ic|mtree}} files can also be [[#Viewing a single file inside a .pkg file|extracted as {{ic|.MTREE}} from the respective package files]]. | |
− | + | {{Note|This should '''not''' be used as is when suspecting malicious changes! In this case security precautions such as using a live medium and an independent source for the hash sums are advised.}} | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | === Reinstalling all packages === | |
+ | To reinstall all native packages, use: | ||
− | + | # pacman -Qqn | pacman -S - | |
− | + | Foreign (AUR) packages must be reinstalled separately; you can list them with {{ic|pacman -Qqm}}. | |
− | + | ''Pacman'' preserves the [[installation reason]] by default. | |
− | === | + | === Restore pacman's local database === |
− | + | See [[Pacman/Restore local database]]. | |
− | + | === Recovering a USB key from existing install === | |
− | |||
− | + | If you have Arch installed on a USB key and manage to mess it up (e.g. removing it while it is still being written to), then it is possible to re-install all the packages and hopefully get it back up and working again (assuming USB key is mounted in {{ic|/newarch}}) | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | } | ||
− | $ | + | # pacman -S $(pacman -Qq --dbpath /newarch/var/lib/pacman) --root /newarch --dbpath /newarch/var/lib/pacman |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | === Viewing a single file inside a .pkg file === | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | { | + | For example, if you want to see the contents of {{ic|/etc/systemd/logind.conf}} supplied within the {{Pkg|systemd}} package: |
− | |||
− | } | ||
− | + | $ bsdtar -xOf /var/cache/pacman/pkg/systemd-204-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz etc/systemd/logind.conf | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | Or you can use {{pkg|vim}} to browse the archive: | |
− | |||
− | + | $ vim /var/cache/pacman/pkg/systemd-204-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | === Find applications that use libraries from older packages === | |
− | + | Even if you installed a package the existing long-running programs (like daemons and servers) still keep using code from old package libraries. And it is a bad idea to let these programs running if the old library contains a security bug. | |
− | + | Here is a way how to find all the programs that use old packages code: | |
− | + | # lsof +c 0 | grep -w DEL | awk '1 { print $1 ": " $NF }' | sort -u | |
+ | It will print running program name and old library that was removed or replaced with newer content. | ||
− | + | === Installing only content in required languages === | |
− | + | Many packages attempt to install documentation and translations in several languages. Some programs are designed to remove such unnecessary files, such as {{AUR|localepurge}}, which runs after a package is installed to delete the unneeded locale files. A more direct approach is provided through the {{ic|NoExtract}} directive in {{ic|pacman.conf}}, which prevent these files from ever being installed. The example below installs English (US) files, or none at all: | |
− | + | {{hc|/etc/pacman.conf|2= | |
+ | NoExtract = usr/share/help/* !usr/share/help/en* | ||
+ | NoExtract = usr/share/gtk-doc/html/* | ||
+ | NoExtract = usr/share/locale/* usr/share/X11/locale/* usr/share/i18n/* opt/google/chrome/locales/* | ||
+ | NoExtract = !*locale*/en*/* !usr/share/i18n/charmaps/UTF-8.gz !usr/share/*locale*/locale.* | ||
+ | NoExtract = !usr/share/*locales/en_?? !usr/share/*locales/i18n !usr/share/*locales/iso* | ||
+ | NoExtract = !usr/share/*locales/trans* | ||
+ | NoExtract = usr/share/qt4/translations/* | ||
+ | NoExtract = usr/share/man/* !usr/share/man/man* | ||
+ | NoExtract = usr/share/vim/vim*/lang/* | ||
+ | NoExtract = usr/lib/libreoffice/help/en-US/* | ||
+ | }} | ||
− | + | Some users noted that removing locales has resulted in [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Talk:Pacman&oldid=460285#Dangerous_NoExtract_example unintended consequences]. | |
− | + | == Performance == | |
− | + | === Download speeds === | |
− | + | {{Note|If your download speeds have been reduced to a crawl, ensure you are using one of the many [[mirrors]] and not ftp.archlinux.org, which is [https://www.archlinux.org/news/302/ throttled since March 2007].}} | |
− | + | When downloading packages ''pacman'' uses the mirrors in the order they are in {{ic|/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist}}. The mirror which is at the top of the list by default however may not be the fastest for you. To select a faster mirror, see [[Mirrors]]. | |
− | + | ''Pacman''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s speed in downloading packages can also be improved by using a different application to download packages, instead of ''pacman''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s built-in file downloader. | |
− | + | In all cases, make sure you have the latest ''pacman'' before doing any modifications. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | # pacman -Syu | |
− | + | ==== Powerpill ==== | |
− | + | [[Powerpill]] is a ''pacman'' wrapper that uses parallel and segmented downloading to try to speed up downloads for ''pacman''. | |
− | + | ==== wget ==== | |
− | + | This is also very handy if you need more powerful proxy settings than ''pacman''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s built-in capabilities. | |
− | + | To use {{ic|wget}}, first [[install]] the {{Pkg|wget}} package then modify {{ic|/etc/pacman.conf}} by uncommenting the following line in the {{ic|[options]}} section: | |
− | + | XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp -c -O %o %u | |
− | + | Instead of uncommenting the {{ic|wget}} parameters in {{ic|/etc/pacman.conf}}, you can also modify the {{ic|wget}} configuration file directly (the system-wide file is {{ic|/etc/wgetrc}}, per user files are {{ic|$HOME/.wgetrc}}. | |
− | + | ==== aria2 ==== | |
− | |||
− | + | [[aria2]] is a lightweight download utility with support for resumable and segmented HTTP/HTTPS and FTP downloads. aria2 allows for multiple and simultaneous HTTP/HTTPS and FTP connections to an Arch mirror, which should result in an increase in download speeds for both file and package retrieval. | |
− | + | {{Note|Using aria2c in ''pacman''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s XferCommand will '''not''' result in parallel downloads of multiple packages. ''Pacman'' invokes the XferCommand with a single package at a time and waits for it to complete before invoking the next. To download multiple packages in parallel, see [[Powerpill]].}} | |
− | + | Install {{Pkg|aria2}}, then edit {{ic|/etc/pacman.conf}} by adding the following line to the {{ic|[options]}} section: | |
− | + | XferCommand = /usr/bin/aria2c --allow-overwrite=true --continue=true --file-allocation=none --log-level=error --max-tries=2 --max-connection-per-server=2 --max-file-not-found=5 --min-split-size=5M --no-conf --remote-time=true --summary-interval=60 --timeout=5 --dir=/ --out %o %u | |
− | + | {{Tip|1=[https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1491879#p1491879 This alternative configuration for using ''pacman'' with aria2] tries to simplify configuration and adds more configuration options.}} | |
− | + | See [http://aria2.sourceforge.net/manual/en/html/aria2c.html#options OPTIONS] in {{man|1|aria2c}} for used aria2c options. | |
− | + | * {{ic|-d, --dir}}: The directory to store the downloaded file(s) as specified by ''pacman''. | |
+ | * {{ic|-o, --out}}: The output file name(s) of the downloaded file(s). | ||
+ | * {{ic|%o}}: Variable which represents the local filename(s) as specified by ''pacman''. | ||
+ | * {{ic|%u}}: Variable which represents the download URL as specified by ''pacman''. | ||
− | + | ==== Other applications ==== | |
− | + | There are other downloading applications that you can use with ''pacman''. Here they are, and their associated XferCommand settings: | |
− | + | * {{ic|snarf}}: {{ic|1=XferCommand = /usr/bin/snarf -N %u}} | |
+ | * {{ic|lftp}}: {{ic|1=XferCommand = /usr/bin/lftp -c pget %u}} | ||
+ | * {{ic|axel}}: {{ic|1=XferCommand = /usr/bin/axel -n 2 -v -a -o %o %u}} | ||
+ | * {{ic|hget}}: {{ic|1=XferCommand = /usr/bin/hget %u -n 2 -skip-tls false}} (please read the [https://github.com/huydx/hget documentation on the Github project page] for more info) | ||
− | + | == Utilities == | |
− | + | * {{App|Lostfiles|Script that identifies files not owned by any package.|https://github.com/graysky2/lostfiles|{{Pkg|lostfiles}}}} | |
+ | * {{App|Pacmatic|''Pacman'' wrapper to check Arch News before upgrading, avoid partial upgrades, and warn about configuration file changes.|http://kmkeen.com/pacmatic|{{Pkg|pacmatic}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|pacutils|Helper library for libalpm based programs.|https://github.com/andrewgregory/pacutils|{{Pkg|pacutils}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|[[pkgfile]]|Tool that finds what package owns a file.|http://github.com/falconindy/pkgfile|{{Pkg|pkgfile}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|pkgtools|Collection of scripts for Arch Linux packages.|https://github.com/Daenyth/pkgtools|{{AUR|pkgtools}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|[[Powerpill]]|Uses parallel and segmented downloading through [[aria2]] and [[Reflector]] to try to speed up downloads for ''pacman''.|https://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/powerpill/|{{AUR|powerpill}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|repoctl|Tool to help manage local repositories.|https://github.com/cassava/repoctl|{{AUR|repoctl}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|repose|An Arch Linux repository building tool.|https://github.com/vodik/repose|{{Pkg|repose}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|[[Snapper#Wrapping_pacman_transactions_in_snapshots|snap-pac]]|Make ''pacman'' automatically use snapper to create pre/post snapshots like openSUSE's YaST.|https://github.com/wesbarnett/snap-pac|{{pkg|snap-pac}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|vrms-arch|A virtual Richard M. Stallman to tell you which non-free packages are installed.|https://github.com/orospakr/vrms-arch|{{AUR|vrms-arch}}}} | ||
− | === | + | === Graphical === |
− | + | {{Warning|PackageKit opens up system permissions by default, and is otherwise not recommended for general usage. See {{Bug|50459}} and {{Bug|57943}}.}} | |
− | + | * {{App|Apper|Qt 5 application and package manager using PackageKit written in C++. Supports [https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Distributions/AppStream/ AppStream metadata].|https://userbase.kde.org/Apper|{{Pkg|apper}}}} | |
+ | * {{App|Discover|Qt 5 application manager using PackageKit written in C++/QML. Supports [https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Distributions/AppStream/ AppStream metadata], [[Flatpak]] and [[fwupd|firmware updates]]. |https://userbase.kde.org/Discover|{{Pkg|discover}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|GNOME PackageKit|GTK+ 3 package manager using PackageKit written in C.|https://freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/|{{Pkg|gnome-packagekit}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|GNOME Software|GTK+ 3 application manager using PackageKit written in C. Supports [https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Distributions/AppStream/ AppStream metadata], [[Flatpak]] and [[fwupd|firmware updates]]. |https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Software|{{pkg|gnome-software}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|pcurses|Curses TUI pacman wrapper written in C++.|https://github.com/schuay/pcurses|{{Pkg|pcurses}}}} | ||
+ | * {{App|tkPacman|Tk pacman wrapper written in Tcl.|https://sourceforge.net/projects/tkpacman|{{AUR|tkpacman}}}} |
Latest revision as of 10:35, 17 February 2019
For general methods to improve the flexibility of the provided tips or pacman itself, see Core utilities and Bash.
Contents
- 1 Maintenance
- 1.1 Listing packages
- 1.2 Browsing packages
- 1.3 Listing files owned by a package with size
- 1.4 Identify files not owned by any package
- 1.5 Tracking unowned files created by packages
- 1.6 Removing unused packages (orphans)
- 1.7 Removing everything but base group
- 1.8 Getting the dependencies list of several packages
- 1.9 Listing changed backup files
- 1.10 Backup the pacman database
- 1.11 Check changelogs easily
- 2 Installation and recovery
- 2.1 Installing packages from a CD/DVD or USB stick
- 2.2 Custom local repository
- 2.3 Network shared pacman cache
- 2.4 Recreate a package from the file system
- 2.5 List of installed packages
- 2.6 Install packages from a list
- 2.7 Listing all changed files from packages
- 2.8 Reinstalling all packages
- 2.9 Restore pacman's local database
- 2.10 Recovering a USB key from existing install
- 2.11 Viewing a single file inside a .pkg file
- 2.12 Find applications that use libraries from older packages
- 2.13 Installing only content in required languages
- 3 Performance
- 4 Utilities
Maintenance
grep -Fxf
or grep -Fxvf
.See also System maintenance.
Listing packages
You may want to get the list of installed packages with their version, which is useful when reporting bugs or discussing installed packages.
- List all explicitly installed packages:
pacman -Qe
. - List all packages in the group named
group
:pacman -Sg group
- List all explicitly installed native packages (i.e. present in the sync database) that are not direct or optional dependencies:
pacman -Qent
. - List all foreign packages (typically manually downloaded and installed or packages removed from the repositories):
pacman -Qm
. - List all native packages (installed from the sync database(s)):
pacman -Qn
. - List packages by regex:
pacman -Qs regex
. - List packages by regex with custom output format:
expac -s "%-30n %v" regex
(needs expac).
With size
Figuring out which packages are largest can be useful when trying to free space on your hard drive. There are two options here: get the size of individual packages, or get the size of packages and their dependencies.
Individual packages
The following command will list all installed packages and their individual sizes:
$ pacman -Qi | awk '/^Name/{name=$3} /^Installed Size/{print $4$5, name}' | sort -h
Packages and dependencies
To list package sizes with their dependencies,
To list the download size of several packages (leave packages
blank to list all packages):
$ expac -S -H M '%k\t%n' packages
To list explicitly installed packages not in base nor base-devel with size and description:
$ expac -H M "%011m\t%-20n\t%10d" $(comm -23 <(pacman -Qqen | sort) <(pacman -Qqg base base-devel | sort)) | sort -n
To list the packages marked for upgrade with their download size
$ pacman -Quq|xargs expac -S -H M '%k\t%n' | sort -sh
By date
To list the 20 last installed packages with expac, run:
$ expac --timefmt='%Y-%m-%d %T' '%l\t%n' | sort | tail -n 20
or, with seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 UTC):
$ expac --timefmt=%s '%l\t%n' | sort -n | tail -n 20
Not in a specified group or repository
List explicitly installed packages not in the base or base-devel groups:
$ comm -23 <(pacman -Qeq | sort) <(pacman -Qgq base base-devel | sort)
List all installed packages unrequired by other packages, and which are not in the base or base-devel groups:
$ comm -23 <(pacman -Qqt | sort) <(pacman -Sqg base base-devel | sort)
As above, but with descriptions:
$ expac -HM '%-20n\t%10d' $(comm -23 <(pacman -Qqt | sort) <(pacman -Qqg base base-devel | sort))
List all installed packages that are not in the specified repository repo_name
$ comm -23 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <(pacman -Slq repo_name | sort)
List all installed packages that are in the repo_name repository:
$ comm -12 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <(pacman -Slq repo_name | sort)
List all packages on the Arch Linux ISO that are not in the base group:
$ comm -23 <(curl https://git.archlinux.org/archiso.git/tree/configs/releng/packages.x86_64) <(pacman -Qqg base | sort)
Development packages
To list all development/unstable packages, run:
$ pacman -Qq | grep -Ee '-(bzr|cvs|darcs|git|hg|svn)$'
Browsing packages
To browse all installed packages with an instant preview of each package:
$ pacman -Qq | fzf --preview 'pacman -Qil {}' --layout=reverse --bind 'enter:execute(pacman -Qil {} | less)'
This uses fzf to present a two-pane view listing all packages with package info shown on the right.
Enter letters to filter the list of packages; use arrow keys (or Ctrl-j
/Ctrl-k
) to navigate; press Enter
to see package info under less.
Listing files owned by a package with size
This one might come in handy if you have found that a specific package uses a huge amount of space and you want to find out which files make up the most of that.
$ pacman -Qlq package | grep -v '/$' | xargs du -h | sort -h
Identify files not owned by any package
If your system has stray files not owned by any package (a common case if you do not use the package manager to install software), you may want to find such files in order to clean them up.
One method is to use # pacreport --unowned-files
from pacutils which will list unowned files among other details.
Another is to list all files of interest and check them against pacman:
# find /etc /usr /opt /var | LC_ALL=C pacman -Qqo - 2>&1 > /dev/null | cut -d ' ' -f 5-
Tracking unowned files created by packages
Most systems will slowly collect several ghost files such as state files, logs, indexes, etc. through the course of usual operation.
pacreport
from pacutils can be used to track these files and their associations via /etc/pacreport.conf
(see pacreport(1)).
An example may look something like this (abridged):
/etc/pacreport.conf
[Options] IgnoreUnowned = usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache [PkgIgnoreUnowned] alsa-utils = var/lib/alsa/asound.state bluez = var/lib/bluetooth ca-certificates = etc/ca-certificates/trust-source/* dbus = var/lib/dbus/machine-id glibc = etc/ld.so.cache grub = boot/grub/* linux = boot/initramfs-linux.img pacman = var/lib/pacman/local update-mime-database = usr/share/mime/magic
Then, when using # pacreport --unowned-files
, any unowned files will be listed if the associated package is no longer installed (or if any new files have been created).
Additionally, aconfmgr (aconfmgr-gitAUR) allows tracking modified and orphaned files using a configuration script.
Removing unused packages (orphans)
For recursively removing orphans and their configuration files:
# pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq)
If no orphans were found pacman outputs error: no targets specified
. This is expected as no arguments were passed to pacman -Rns
.
-Qt
list only true orphans. To include packages which are optionally required by another package, pass the -t
flag twice (i.e., -Qtt
).Removing everything but base group
If it is ever necessary to remove all packages except the base group, try this one-liner (requires pacman-contrib):
# pacman -R $(comm -23 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <((for i in $(pacman -Qqg base); do pactree -ul "$i"; done) | sort -u))
The one-liner was originally devised in this discussion, and later improved in this article.
Getting the dependencies list of several packages
Dependencies are alphabetically sorted and doubles are removed.
pacman -Qi
.$ pacman -Si packages | awk -F'[:<=>]' '/^Depends/ {print $2}' | xargs -n1 | sort -u
Alternatively, with expac:
$ expac -l '\n' %E -S packages | sort -u
Listing changed backup files
If you want to backup your system configuration files you could copy all files in /etc/
, but usually you are only interested in the files that you have changed. Modified backup files can be viewed with the following command:
# pacman -Qii | awk '/^MODIFIED/ {print $2}'
Running this command with root permissions will ensure that files readable only by root (such as /etc/sudoers
) are included in the output.
Backup the pacman database
The following command can be used to backup the local pacman database:
$ tar -cjf pacman_database.tar.bz2 /var/lib/pacman/local
Store the backup pacman database file on one or more offline media, such as a USB stick, external hard drive, or CD-R.
The database can be restored by moving the pacman_database.tar.bz2
file into the /
directory and executing the following command:
# tar -xjvf pacman_database.tar.bz2
/etc/pakbak.conf
.Check changelogs easily
When maintainers update packages, commits are often commented in a useful fashion. Users can quickly check these from the command line by installing pacologAUR. This utility lists recent commit messages for packages from the official repositories or the AUR, by using pacolog <package>
.
Installation and recovery
Alternative ways of getting and restoring packages.
Installing packages from a CD/DVD or USB stick
To download packages, or groups of packages:
# cd ~/Packages # pacman -Syw base base-devel grub-bios xorg gimp --cachedir . # repo-add ./custom.db.tar.gz ./*
Then you can burn the "Packages" folder to a CD/DVD or transfer it to a USB stick, external HDD, etc.
To install:
1. Mount the media:
# mkdir /mnt/repo # mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/repo #For a CD/DVD. # mount /dev/sdxY /mnt/repo #For a USB stick.
2. Edit pacman.conf
and add this repository before the other ones (e.g. extra, core, etc.). This is important. Do not just uncomment the one on the bottom. This way it ensures that the files from the CD/DVD/USB take precedence over those in the standard repositories:
/etc/pacman.conf
[custom] SigLevel = PackageRequired Server = file:///mnt/repo/Packages
3. Finally, synchronize the pacman database to be able to use the new repository:
# pacman -Syu
Custom local repository
Use the repo-add script included with pacman to generate a database for a personal repository. Use repo-add --help
for more details on its usage. To add a new package to the database, or to replace the old version of an existing package in the database, run:
$ repo-add /path/to/repo.db.tar.gz /path/to/package-1.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
The database and the packages do not need to be in the same directory when using repo-add, but keep in mind that when using pacman with that database, they should be together. Storing all the built packages to be included in the repository in one directory also allows to use shell glob expansion to add or update multiple packages at once:
$ repo-add /path/to/repo.db.tar.gz /path/to/*.pkg.tar.xz
repo-remove is used to remove packages from the package database, except that only package names are specified on the command line.
$ repo-remove /path/to/repo.db.tar.gz pkgname
Once the local repository database has been created, add the repository to pacman.conf
for each system that is to use the repository. An example of a custom repository is in pacman.conf
. The repository's name is the database filename with the file extension omitted. In the case of the example above the repository's name would simply be repo. Reference the repository's location using a file://
url, or via FTP using ftp://localhost/path/to/directory.
If willing, add the custom repository to the list of unofficial user repositories, so that the community can benefit from it.
If you happen to run several Arch boxes on your LAN, you can share packages so that you can greatly decrease your download times. Keep in mind you should not share between different architectures (i.e. i686 and x86_64) or you will run into problems.
Read-only cache
If you are looking for a quick solution, you can simply run a standalone webserver which other computers can use as a first mirror:
# ln -s /var/lib/pacman/sync/*.db /var/cache/pacman/pkg $ sudo -u http darkhttpd /var/cache/pacman/pkg --no-server-id
You could also run darkhttpd as a systemd service for convenience. Just add this server at the top of your /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
in client machines with Server = http://mymirror:8080
. Make sure to keep your mirror updated.
If you are already running a web server for some other purpose, you might wish to reuse that as your local repo server instead of darkhttpd. For example, if you already serve a site with nginx, you can add an nginx server block listening on port 8080:
/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
server { listen 8080; root /var/cache/pacman/pkg; server_name myarchrepo.localdomain; try_files $uri $uri/; }
Remember to restart nginx after making this change.
Whichever web server you use, remember to open port 8080 to local traffic (and you probably want to deny anything not local), so add a rule like the following to iptables:
/etc/iptables/iptables.rules
-A TCP -s 192.168.0.0/16 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 8080 -j ACCEPT
Remember to restart iptables after making this change.
Distributed read-only cache
There are Arch-specific tools for automatically discovering other computers on your network offering a package cache. Try pacredir, pacserve, pkgdistcacheAUR, or paclanAUR. pkgdistcache uses Avahi instead of plain UDP which may work better in certain home networks that route instead of bridge between WiFi and Ethernet.
Historically, there was PkgD and multipkg, but they are no longer maintained.
Read-write cache
In order to share packages between multiple computers, simply share /var/cache/pacman/
using any network-based mount protocol. This section shows how to use shfs or SSHFS to share a package cache plus the related library-directories between multiple computers on the same local network. Keep in mind that a network shared cache can be slow depending on the file-system choice, among other factors.
First, install any network-supporting filesystem packages: shfs-utils, sshfs, curlftpfs, samba or nfs-utils.
- To use sshfs or shfs, consider reading Using SSH Keys.
- By default, smbfs does not serve filenames that contain colons, which results in the client downloading the offending package afresh. To prevent this, use the
mapchars
mount option on the client.
Then, to share the actual packages, mount /var/cache/pacman/pkg
from the server to /var/cache/pacman/pkg
on every client machine.
/var/cache/pacman/pkg
or any of its ancestors (e.g., /var
) a symlink. Pacman expects these to be directories. When pacman re-installs or upgrades itself, it will remove the symlinks and create empty directories instead. However during the transaction pacman relies on some files residing there, hence breaking the update process. Refer to FS#50298 for further details.two-way with rsync
Another approach in a local environment is rsync. Choose a server for caching and enable the Rsync#rsync daemon. On clients synchronize two-way with this share via rsync protocol. Filenames that contain colons are no problem for the rsync protocol.
Draft example for a client, using uname -m
within the share name ensures an architecture dependant sync:
# rsync rsync://server/share_$(uname -m)/ /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ ... # pacman ... # paccache ... # rsync /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ rsync://server/share_$(uname -m)/ ...
Dynamic reverse proxy cache using nginx
nginx can be used to proxy requests to official upstream mirrors and cache the results to local disk. All subsequent requests for that file will be served directly from the local cache, minimizing the amount of internet traffic needed to update a large number of servers with minimal effort.
/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
and our cache's Server
setting in mirrorlist
is configured similarly.In this example, we will run the cache server on http://cache.domain.example:8080/
and storing the packages in /srv/http/pacman-cache/
.
Create the directory for the cache and adjust the permissions so nginx can write files to it:
# mkdir /srv/http/pacman-cache # chown http:http /srv/http/pacman-cache
Next, configure nginx as the dynamic cache (read the comments for an explanation of the commands).
Finally, update your other Arch Linux servers to use this new cache by adding the following line to the mirrorlist
file:
/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Server = http://cache.domain.example:8080/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ...
paccache
(which is provided by pacman-contrib) can be used to automate this using retention criteria of your choosing. For example, find /srv/http/pacman-cache/ -type d -exec paccache -v -r -k 2 -c {} \;
will keep the last 2 versions of packages in your cache directory.Synchronize pacman package cache using synchronization programs
Use Syncthing or Resilio Sync to synchronize the pacman cache folders (i.e. /var/cache/pacman/pkg
).
Preventing unwanted cache purges
By default, pacman -Sc
removes package tarballs from the cache that correspond to packages that are not installed on the machine the command was issued on. Because pacman cannot predict what packages are installed on all machines that share the cache, it will end up deleting files that should not be.
To clean up the cache so that only outdated tarballs are deleted, add this entry in the [options]
section of /etc/pacman.conf
:
CleanMethod = KeepCurrent
Recreate a package from the file system
To recreate a package from the file system, use fakepkgAUR. Files from the system are taken as they are, hence any modifications will be present in the assembled package. Distributing the recreated package is therefore discouraged; see ABS and Arch Linux Archive for alternatives.
List of installed packages
Keeping a list of all the explicitly installed packages can be useful, to backup a system for example or speed up installation on a new system:
$ pacman -Qqe > pkglist.txt
- With option
-t
, the packages already required by other explicitly installed packages are not mentioned. If reinstalling from this list they will be installed but as dependencies only. - With option
-n
, foreign packages (e.g. from AUR) would be omitted from the list. - Use
comm -13 <(pacman -Qqdt | sort) <(pacman -Qqdtt | sort) > optdeplist.txt
to also create a list of the installed optional dependencies which can be reinstalled with--asdeps
. - Use
pacman -Qqem > foreignpkglist.txt
to create the list of AUR and other foreign packages that have been explicitly installed.
To keep an up-to-date list of explicitly installed packages (e.g. in combination with a versioned /etc/
), you can set up a hook. Example:
[Trigger] Operation = Install Operation = Remove Type = Package Target = * [Action] When = PostTransaction Exec = /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/pacman -Qqe > /etc/pkglist.txt'
Install packages from a list
To install packages from a previously saved list of packages, while not reinstalling previously installed packages that are already up-to-date, run:
# pacman -S --needed - < pkglist.txt
However, it is likely foreign packages such as from the AUR or installed locally are present in the list. To filter out from the list the foreign packages, the previous command line can be enriched as follows:
# pacman -S --needed $(comm -12 <(pacman -Slq | sort) <(sort pkglist.txt))
Eventually, to make sure the installed packages of your system match the list and remove all the packages that are not mentioned in it:
# pacman -Rsu $(comm -23 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <(sort pkglist.txt))
Listing all changed files from packages
If you are suspecting file corruption (e.g. by software/hardware failure), but are unsure if files were corrupted, you might want to compare with the hash sums in the packages. This can be done with pacutils:
# paccheck --md5sum --quiet
For recovery of the database see #Restore pacman's local database. The mtree
files can also be extracted as .MTREE
from the respective package files.
Reinstalling all packages
To reinstall all native packages, use:
# pacman -Qqn | pacman -S -
Foreign (AUR) packages must be reinstalled separately; you can list them with pacman -Qqm
.
Pacman preserves the installation reason by default.
Restore pacman's local database
See Pacman/Restore local database.
Recovering a USB key from existing install
If you have Arch installed on a USB key and manage to mess it up (e.g. removing it while it is still being written to), then it is possible to re-install all the packages and hopefully get it back up and working again (assuming USB key is mounted in /newarch
)
# pacman -S $(pacman -Qq --dbpath /newarch/var/lib/pacman) --root /newarch --dbpath /newarch/var/lib/pacman
Viewing a single file inside a .pkg file
For example, if you want to see the contents of /etc/systemd/logind.conf
supplied within the systemd package:
$ bsdtar -xOf /var/cache/pacman/pkg/systemd-204-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz etc/systemd/logind.conf
Or you can use vim to browse the archive:
$ vim /var/cache/pacman/pkg/systemd-204-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
Find applications that use libraries from older packages
Even if you installed a package the existing long-running programs (like daemons and servers) still keep using code from old package libraries. And it is a bad idea to let these programs running if the old library contains a security bug.
Here is a way how to find all the programs that use old packages code:
# lsof +c 0 | grep -w DEL | awk '1 { print $1 ": " $NF }' | sort -u
It will print running program name and old library that was removed or replaced with newer content.
Installing only content in required languages
Many packages attempt to install documentation and translations in several languages. Some programs are designed to remove such unnecessary files, such as localepurgeAUR, which runs after a package is installed to delete the unneeded locale files. A more direct approach is provided through the NoExtract
directive in pacman.conf
, which prevent these files from ever being installed. The example below installs English (US) files, or none at all:
/etc/pacman.conf
NoExtract = usr/share/help/* !usr/share/help/en* NoExtract = usr/share/gtk-doc/html/* NoExtract = usr/share/locale/* usr/share/X11/locale/* usr/share/i18n/* opt/google/chrome/locales/* NoExtract = !*locale*/en*/* !usr/share/i18n/charmaps/UTF-8.gz !usr/share/*locale*/locale.* NoExtract = !usr/share/*locales/en_?? !usr/share/*locales/i18n !usr/share/*locales/iso* NoExtract = !usr/share/*locales/trans* NoExtract = usr/share/qt4/translations/* NoExtract = usr/share/man/* !usr/share/man/man* NoExtract = usr/share/vim/vim*/lang/* NoExtract = usr/lib/libreoffice/help/en-US/*
Some users noted that removing locales has resulted in unintended consequences.
Performance
Download speeds
When downloading packages pacman uses the mirrors in the order they are in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
. The mirror which is at the top of the list by default however may not be the fastest for you. To select a faster mirror, see Mirrors.
Pacman's speed in downloading packages can also be improved by using a different application to download packages, instead of pacman's built-in file downloader.
In all cases, make sure you have the latest pacman before doing any modifications.
# pacman -Syu
Powerpill
Powerpill is a pacman wrapper that uses parallel and segmented downloading to try to speed up downloads for pacman.
wget
This is also very handy if you need more powerful proxy settings than pacman's built-in capabilities.
To use wget
, first install the wget package then modify /etc/pacman.conf
by uncommenting the following line in the [options]
section:
XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp -c -O %o %u
Instead of uncommenting the wget
parameters in /etc/pacman.conf
, you can also modify the wget
configuration file directly (the system-wide file is /etc/wgetrc
, per user files are $HOME/.wgetrc
.
aria2
aria2 is a lightweight download utility with support for resumable and segmented HTTP/HTTPS and FTP downloads. aria2 allows for multiple and simultaneous HTTP/HTTPS and FTP connections to an Arch mirror, which should result in an increase in download speeds for both file and package retrieval.
Install aria2, then edit /etc/pacman.conf
by adding the following line to the [options]
section:
XferCommand = /usr/bin/aria2c --allow-overwrite=true --continue=true --file-allocation=none --log-level=error --max-tries=2 --max-connection-per-server=2 --max-file-not-found=5 --min-split-size=5M --no-conf --remote-time=true --summary-interval=60 --timeout=5 --dir=/ --out %o %u
See OPTIONS in aria2c(1) for used aria2c options.
-d, --dir
: The directory to store the downloaded file(s) as specified by pacman.-o, --out
: The output file name(s) of the downloaded file(s).%o
: Variable which represents the local filename(s) as specified by pacman.%u
: Variable which represents the download URL as specified by pacman.
Other applications
There are other downloading applications that you can use with pacman. Here they are, and their associated XferCommand settings:
snarf
:XferCommand = /usr/bin/snarf -N %u
lftp
:XferCommand = /usr/bin/lftp -c pget %u
axel
:XferCommand = /usr/bin/axel -n 2 -v -a -o %o %u
hget
:XferCommand = /usr/bin/hget %u -n 2 -skip-tls false
(please read the documentation on the Github project page for more info)
Utilities
- Lostfiles — Script that identifies files not owned by any package.
- Pacmatic — Pacman wrapper to check Arch News before upgrading, avoid partial upgrades, and warn about configuration file changes.
- pacutils — Helper library for libalpm based programs.
- pkgfile — Tool that finds what package owns a file.
- pkgtools — Collection of scripts for Arch Linux packages.
- Powerpill — Uses parallel and segmented downloading through aria2 and Reflector to try to speed up downloads for pacman.
- repoctl — Tool to help manage local repositories.
- repose — An Arch Linux repository building tool.
- snap-pac — Make pacman automatically use snapper to create pre/post snapshots like openSUSE's YaST.
- vrms-arch — A virtual Richard M. Stallman to tell you which non-free packages are installed.
Graphical
- Apper — Qt 5 application and package manager using PackageKit written in C++. Supports AppStream metadata.
- Discover — Qt 5 application manager using PackageKit written in C++/QML. Supports AppStream metadata, Flatpak and firmware updates.
- GNOME PackageKit — GTK+ 3 package manager using PackageKit written in C.
- GNOME Software — GTK+ 3 application manager using PackageKit written in C. Supports AppStream metadata, Flatpak and firmware updates.
- pcurses — Curses TUI pacman wrapper written in C++.
- tkPacman — Tk pacman wrapper written in Tcl.