pacman man page on Archlinux

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   11224 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
Archlinux logo
[printable version]

PACMAN(8)			 Pacman Manual			     PACMAN(8)

NAME
       pacman - package manager utility

SYNOPSIS
       pacman <operation> [options] [targets]

DESCRIPTION
       Pacman is a package management utility that tracks installed packages
       on a Linux system. It features dependency support, package groups,
       install and uninstall hooks, and the ability to sync your local machine
       with a remote ftp server to automatically upgrade packages. Pacman
       packages are a zipped tar format.

       Since version 3.0.0, pacman has been the frontend to libalpm(3), the
       “Arch Linux Package Management” library. This library allows
       alternative front ends to be written (for instance, a GUI front end).

       Invoking pacman involves specifying an operation with any potential
       options and targets to operate on. A target is usually a package name,
       filename, URL, or a search string. Targets can be provided as command
       line arguments. Additionally, if stdin is not from a terminal and a
       single dash (-) is passed as an argument, targets will be read from
       stdin.

OPERATIONS
       -D, --database
	   Modify the package database. This operation allows you to modify
	   certain attributes of the installed packages in pacman’s database.
	   At the moment, you can only change the install reason using
	   --asdeps and --asexplicit options.

       -Q, --query
	   Query the package database. This operation allows you to view
	   installed packages and their files, as well as meta-information
	   about individual packages (dependencies, conflicts, install date,
	   build date, size). This can be run against the local package
	   database or can be used on individual .tar.gz packages. In the
	   first case, if no package names are provided in the command line,
	   all installed packages will be queried. Additionally, various
	   filters can be applied on the package list. See Query Options
	   below.

       -R, --remove
	   Remove package(s) from the system. Groups can also be specified to
	   be removed, in which case every package in that group will be
	   removed. Files belonging to the specified package will be deleted,
	   and the database will be updated. Most configuration files will be
	   saved with a .pacsave extension unless the --nosave option is used.
	   See Remove Options below.

       -S, --sync
	   Synchronize packages. Packages are installed directly from the ftp
	   servers, including all dependencies required to run the packages.
	   For example, pacman -S qt will download and install qt and all the
	   packages it depends on. If a package name exists in more than one
	   repo, the repo can be explicitly specified to clarify the package
	   to install: pacman -S testing/qt. You can also specify version
	   requirements: pacman -S "bash>=3.2". (Quotes are needed, otherwise
	   your shell interprets ">" as redirection to file.)

	   In addition to packages, groups can be specified as well. For
	   example, if gnome is a defined package group, then pacman -S gnome
	   will provide a prompt allowing you to select which packages to
	   install from a numbered list. The package selection is specified
	   using a space and/or comma separated list of package numbers.
	   Sequential packages may be selected by specifying the first and
	   last package numbers separated by a hyphen (-). Excluding packages
	   is achieved by prefixing a number or range of numbers with a caret
	   (^).

	   Packages that provide other packages are also handled. For example,
	   pacman -S foo will first look for a foo package. If foo is not
	   found, packages that provide the same functionality as foo will be
	   searched for. If any package is found, it will be installed. A
	   selection prompt is provided if multiple packages providing foo are
	   found.

	   You can also use pacman -Su to upgrade all packages that are out of
	   date. See Sync Options below. When upgrading, pacman performs
	   version comparison to determine which packages need upgrading. This
	   behavior operates as follows:

	       Alphanumeric:
		 1.0a < 1.0b < 1.0beta < 1.0p < 1.0pre < 1.0rc < 1.0 < 1.0.a < 1.0.1
	       Numeric:
		 1 < 1.0 < 1.1 < 1.1.1 < 1.2 < 2.0 < 3.0.0

	   Additionally, version strings can have an epoch value defined that
	   will overrule any version comparison (unless the epoch values are
	   equal). This is specified in an epoch:version-rel format. For
	   example, 2:1.0-1 is always greater than 1:3.6-1.

       -T, --deptest
	   Check dependencies; this is useful in scripts such as makepkg to
	   check installed packages. This operation will check each dependency
	   specified and return a list of dependencies that are not currently
	   satisfied on the system. This operation accepts no other options.
	   Example usage: pacman -T qt "bash>=3.2".

       -U, --upgrade
	   Upgrade or add package(s) to the system and install the required
	   dependencies from sync repos. Either a URL or file path can be
	   specified. This is a “remove-then-add” process. See Upgrade Options
	   below; also see Handling Config Files for an explanation on how
	   pacman takes care of config files.

       -V, --version
	   Display version and exit.

       -h, --help
	   Display syntax for the given operation. If no operation was
	   supplied then the general syntax is shown.

OPTIONS
       -b, --dbpath <path>
	   Specify an alternative database location (a typical default is
	   /var/lib/pacman). This should not be used unless you know what you
	   are doing.  NOTE: if specified, this is an absolute path and the
	   root path is not automatically prepended.

       -r, --root <path>
	   Specify an alternative installation root (default is /). This
	   should not be used as a way to install software into /usr/local
	   instead of /usr. This option is used if you want to install a
	   package on a temporary mounted partition that is "owned" by another
	   system.  NOTE: if database path or logfile are not specified on
	   either the command line or in pacman.conf(5), their default
	   location will be inside this root path.

       -v, --verbose
	   Output paths such as as the Root, Conf File, DB Path, Cache Dirs,
	   etc.

       --arch <arch>
	   Specify an alternate architecture.

       --cachedir <dir>
	   Specify an alternative package cache location (a typical default is
	   /var/cache/pacman/pkg). Multiple cache directories can be
	   specified, and they are tried in the order they are passed to
	   pacman.  NOTE: this is an absolute path, the root path is not
	   automatically prepended.

       --color <when>
	   Specify when to enable coloring, can be always, never or auto.
	   Always forces colours on, never forces colours off, and auto only
	   automatically enables colours when outputting onto a tty.

       --config <file>
	   Specify an alternate configuration file.

       --debug
	   Display debug messages. When reporting bugs, this option is
	   recommended to be used.

       --gpgdir <dir>
	   Specify a directory of files used by GnuPG to verify package
	   signatures (a typical default is /etc/pacman.d/gnupg). This
	   directory should contain two files: pubring.gpg and trustdb.gpg.
	   pubring.gpg holds the public keys of all packagers.	trustdb.gpg
	   contains a so-called trust database, which specifies that the keys
	   are authentic and trusted.  NOTE: this is an absolute path, the
	   root path is not automatically prepended.

       --logfile <file>
	   Specify an alternate log file. This is an absolute path, regardless
	   of the installation root setting.

       --noconfirm
	   Bypass any and all “Are you sure?” messages. It’s not a good idea
	   to do this unless you want to run pacman from a script.

TRANSACTION OPTIONS (APPLY TO -S, -R AND -U)
       -d, --nodeps
	   Skips dependency version checks. Package names are still checked.
	   Normally, pacman will always check a package’s dependency fields to
	   ensure that all dependencies are installed and there are no package
	   conflicts in the system. Specify this option twice to skip all
	   dependency checks.

       --dbonly
	   Adds/Removes the database entry only, leaves all files in place.

       --noprogressbar
	   Do not show a progress bar when downloading files. This can be
	   useful for scripts that call pacman and capture the output.

       --noscriptlet
	   If an install scriptlet exists, do not execute it. Do not use this
	   unless you know what you are doing.

       -p, --print
	   Only print the targets instead of performing the actual operation
	   (sync, remove or upgrade). Use --print-format to specify how
	   targets are displayed. The default format string is "%l", which
	   displays URLs with -S, filenames with -U and pkgname-pkgver with
	   -R.

       --print-format <format>
	   Specify a printf-like format to control the output of the --print
	   operation. The possible attributes are: %n for pkgname, %v for
	   pkgver, %l for location, %r for repo and %s for size.

UPGRADE OPTIONS (APPLY TO -S AND -U)
       --force
	   Bypass file conflict checks and overwrite conflicting files. If the
	   package that is about to be installed contains files that are
	   already installed, this option will cause all those files to be
	   overwritten. Using --force will not allow overwriting a directory
	   with a file or installing packages with conflicting files and
	   directories. This option should be used with care, ideally not at
	   all.

       --asdeps
	   Install packages non-explicitly; in other words, fake their install
	   reason to be installed as a dependency. This is useful for makepkg
	   and other build from source tools that need to install dependencies
	   before building the package.

       --asexplicit
	   Install packages explicitly; in other words, fake their install
	   reason to be explicitly installed. This is useful if you want to
	   mark a dependency as explicitly installed so it will not be removed
	   by the --recursive remove operation.

       --ignore <package>
	   Directs pacman to ignore upgrades of package even if there is one
	   available. Multiple packages can be specified by separating them
	   with a comma.

       --ignoregroup <group>
	   Directs pacman to ignore upgrades of all packages in group even if
	   there is one available. Multiple groups can be specified by
	   separating them with a comma.

       --needed
	   Do not reinstall the targets that are already up to date.

QUERY OPTIONS
       -c, --changelog
	   View the ChangeLog of a package if it exists.

       -d, --deps
	   Restrict or filter output to packages installed as dependencies.
	   This option can be combined with -t for listing real orphans -
	   packages that were installed as dependencies but are no longer
	   required by any installed package.

       -e, --explicit
	   Restrict or filter output to explicitly installed packages. This
	   option can be combined with -t to list explicitly installed
	   packages that are not required by any other package.

       -g, --groups
	   Display all packages that are members of a named group. If a name
	   is not specified, list all grouped packages.

       -i, --info
	   Display information on a given package. The -p option can be used
	   if querying a package file instead of the local database. Passing
	   two --info or -i flags will also display the list of backup files
	   and their modification states.

       -k --check
	   Check that all files owned by the given package(s) are present on
	   the system. If packages are not specified or filter flags are not
	   provided, check all installed packages. Specifying this option
	   twice will perform more detailed file checking (including
	   permissions, file sizes and modification times) for packages that
	   contain the needed mtree file.

       -l, --list
	   List all files owned by a given package. Multiple packages can be
	   specified on the command line.

       -m, --foreign
	   Restrict or filter output to packages that were not found in the
	   sync database(s). Typically these are packages that were downloaded
	   manually and installed with --upgrade.

       -n, --native
	   Restrict or filter output to packages that are found in the sync
	   database(s). This is the inverse filter of --foreign.

       -o, --owns <file>
	   Search for packages that own the specified file(s). The path can be
	   relative or absolute and one or more files can be specified.

       -p, --file
	   Signifies that the package supplied on the command line is a file
	   and not an entry in the database. The file will be decompressed and
	   queried. This is useful in combination with --info and --list.

       -q, --quiet
	   Show less information for certain query operations. (This is useful
	   when pacman’s output is processed in a script.) Search will only
	   show package names and not version, group, and description
	   information; owns will only show package names instead of "file is
	   owned by pkg" messages; group will only show package names and omit
	   group names; list will only show files and omit package names;
	   check will only show pairs of package names and missing files; a
	   bare query will only show package names rather than names and
	   versions.

       -s, --search <regexp>
	   Search each locally-installed package for names or descriptions
	   that match regexp. When including multiple search terms, only
	   packages with descriptions matching ALL of those terms are
	   returned.

       -t, --unrequired
	   Restrict or filter output to packages not required by any currently
	   installed package.

       -u, --upgrades
	   Restrict or filter output to packages that are out of date on the
	   local system. (Only package versions are used to find outdated
	   packages, replacements are not checked here.) This option works
	   best if the sync database is refreshed using -Sy.

REMOVE OPTIONS
       -c, --cascade
	   Remove all target packages, as well as all packages that depend on
	   one or more target packages. This operation is recursive, and must
	   be used with care since it can remove many potentially needed
	   packages.

       -n, --nosave
	   Instructs pacman to ignore file backup designations. Normally, when
	   a file is removed from the system the database is checked to see if
	   the file should be renamed with a .pacsave extension.

       -s, --recursive
	   Remove each target specified including all of their dependencies,
	   provided that (A) they are not required by other packages; and (B)
	   they were not explicitly installed by the user. This operation is
	   recursive and analogous to a backwards --sync operation, and helps
	   keep a clean system without orphans. If you want to omit condition
	   (B), pass this option twice.

       -u, --unneeded
	   Removes targets that are not required by any other packages. This
	   is mostly useful when removing a group without using the -c option,
	   to avoid breaking any dependencies.

SYNC OPTIONS
       -c, --clean
	   Remove packages that are no longer installed from the cache as well
	   as currently unused sync databases to free up disk space. When
	   pacman downloads packages, it saves them in a cache directory. In
	   addition, databases are saved for every sync DB you download from,
	   and are not deleted even if they are removed from the configuration
	   file pacman.conf(5). Use one --clean switch to only remove packages
	   that are no longer installed; use two to remove all files from the
	   cache. In both cases, you will have a yes or no option to remove
	   packages and/or unused downloaded databases.

	   If you use a network shared cache, see the CleanMethod option in
	   pacman.conf(5).

       -g, --groups
	   Display all the members for each package group specified. If no
	   group names are provided, all groups will be listed; pass the flag
	   twice to view all groups and their members.

       -i, --info
	   Display information on a given sync database package. Passing two
	   --info or -i flags will also display those packages in all
	   repositories that depend on this package.

       -l, --list
	   List all packages in the specified repositories. Multiple
	   repositories can be specified on the command line.

       -q, --quiet
	   Show less information for certain sync operations. (This is useful
	   when pacman’s output is processed in a script.) Search will only
	   show package names and not repo, version, group, and description
	   information; list will only show package names and omit databases
	   and versions; group will only show package names and omit group
	   names.

       -s, --search <regexp>
	   This will search each package in the sync databases for names or
	   descriptions that match regexp. When you include multiple search
	   terms, only packages with descriptions matching ALL of those terms
	   will be returned.

       -u, --sysupgrade
	   Upgrades all packages that are out of date. Each
	   currently-installed package will be examined and upgraded if a
	   newer package exists. A report of all packages to upgrade will be
	   presented and the operation will not proceed without user
	   confirmation. Dependencies are automatically resolved at this level
	   and will be installed/upgraded if necessary.

	   Pass this option twice to enable package downgrade; in this case
	   pacman will select sync packages whose version does not match with
	   the local version. This can be useful when the user switches from a
	   testing repo to a stable one.

	   Additional targets can also be specified manually, so that -Su foo
	   will do a system upgrade and install/upgrade the foo package in the
	   same operation.

       -w, --downloadonly
	   Retrieve all packages from the server, but do not install/upgrade
	   anything.

       -y, --refresh
	   Download a fresh copy of the master package list from the server(s)
	   defined in pacman.conf(5). This should typically be used each time
	   you use --sysupgrade or -u. Passing two --refresh or -y flags will
	   force a refresh of all package lists even if they appear to be up
	   to date.

HANDLING CONFIG FILES
       Pacman uses the same logic as rpm to determine action against files
       that are designated to be backed up. During an upgrade, 3 md5 hashes
       are used for each backup file to determine the required action: one for
       the original file installed, one for the new file that’s about to be
       installed, and one for the actual file existing on the filesystem.
       After comparing these 3 hashes, the follow scenarios can result:

       original=X, current=X, new=X
	   All three files are the same, so overwrites are not an issue.
	   Install the new file.

       original=X, current=X, new=Y
	   The current file is the same as the original but the new one
	   differs. Since the user did not ever modify the file, and the new
	   one may contain improvements or bugfixes, install the new file.

       original=X, current=Y, new=X
	   Both package versions contain the exact same file, but the one on
	   the filesystem has been modified. Leave the current file in place.

       original=X, current=Y, new=Y
	   The new file is identical to the current file. Install the new
	   file.

       original=X, current=Y, new=Z
	   All three files are different, so install the new file with a
	   .pacnew extension and warn the user. The user must then manually
	   merge any necessary changes into the original file.

EXAMPLES
       pacman -Ss ne.hack
	   Search for regexp "ne.hack" in package database.

       pacman -S gpm
	   Download and install gpm including dependencies.

       pacman -U /home/user/ceofhack-0.6-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz
	   Install ceofhack-0.6-1 package from a local file.

       pacman -Syu
	   Update package list and upgrade all packages afterwards.

       pacman -Syu gpm
	   Update package list, upgrade all packages, and then install gpm if
	   it wasn’t already installed.

CONFIGURATION
       See pacman.conf(5) for more details on configuring pacman using the
       pacman.conf file.

SEE ALSO
       pacman.conf(5), makepkg(8), libalpm(3)

       See the pacman website at https://www.archlinux.org/pacman/ for current
       information on pacman and its related tools.

BUGS
       Bugs? You must be kidding, there are no bugs in this software. But if
       we happen to be wrong, send us an email with as much detail as possible
       to pacman-dev@archlinux.org.

AUTHORS
       Current maintainers:

       ·   Allan McRae <allan@archlinux.org>

       ·   Dan McGee <dan@archlinux.org>

       ·   Dave Reisner <dreisner@archlinux.org>

       Past major contributors:

       ·   Judd Vinet <jvinet@zeroflux.org>

       ·   Aurelien Foret <aurelien@archlinux.org>

       ·   Aaron Griffin <aaron@archlinux.org>

       ·   Xavier Chantry <shiningxc@gmail.com>

       ·   Nagy Gabor <ngaba@bibl.u-szeged.hu>

       For additional contributors, use git shortlog -s on the pacman.git
       repository.

Pacman 4.1.2			  2013-06-18			     PACMAN(8)
[top]

List of man pages available for Archlinux

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net