The Pacman package manager is the default package manager for Arch Linux and other Arch-based distributions. It is one of the most feature-rich package managers out there and in this module, we are going to take a look at some of its functionalities.

What Is the Pacman Package Manager?

Pacman is a package manager utility for Arch Linux and its derivatives. It is written in C and combines a simple binary package format with an easy-to-use build system. The goal of pacman is to make it possible to easily manage packages, whether they are from the official repositories or the user’s own builds.

The pacman package manager works according to the client-server model with respect to the master servers, which allows the user to download/install packages with a simple command, complete with all required dependencies. It also helps you synchronize packages with the master servers and keep your packages updated.

Using the Pacman package manager

Pacman comes with a lot of functionalities. However, in this module, we will learn how to :

1. Search for packages with pacman
2. List installed packages with pacman
3. Install packages with pacman
4. Updating and Upgrading with pacman
5. Removing packages with pacman

1. Searching For Packages With Pacman

You can search for packages using pacman with :

$ pacman -Ss <package-name>

This shall return all the packages which contains the given string provided in the brackets. This returns all the packages which have a matching string in package name or description.

$ pacman -Ss fire

This would return a bunch of results like firefox, ufw, openfire, etc which have the word “fire” anywhere in their name or description. You can also use pacsearch like :

$ pacsearch -n ^fire

2. Listing All Installed Packages With Pacman

You can list all the packages installed on your system along with their versions by typing :

$ pacman -Q

You can also view additional information about a package by using :

$ pacman -Qi <package-name>

For example, to view the details of the package “firefox”, you can type in :

$ pacman -Qi firefox
Name            : firefox
Version         : 86.0.1-1
Description     : Standalone web browser from mozilla.org
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/
Licenses        : MPL  GPL  LGPL
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : gtk3  libxt  mime-types  dbus-glib  ffmpeg  nss  ttf-font  libpulse
Optional Deps   : networkmanager: Location detection via available WiFi networks [installed]
                  libnotify: Notification integration [installed]
                  pulseaudio: Audio support [installed]
                  speech-dispatcher: Text-to-Speech
                  hunspell-en_US: Spell checking, American English
Required By     : dracnmap  eyewitness  findsploit  firefox-security-toolkit  sn1per
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 217.90 MiB
Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <heftig@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Thu 11 Mar 2021 04:15:06 PM IST
Install Date    : Tue 16 Mar 2021 01:49:16 AM IST
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

As a bonus, you can also list all the orphaned dependencies which you have installed on your system with :

$ pacman -Qdt

3. Installing Packages With Pacman

Once you have located the package of you want to install, you can install it with :

$ sudo pacman -S <package-name>

Sometimes some packages might already be installed. In that case, this command shall reinstall them. You can however skip these packages with :

$ sudo pacman -S <package-name> --needed

You can also build packages from source using pacman with the help of the following syntax :

$ sudo pacman -U <package-file>

4. Updating And Upgrading With Pacman

You can update your system with:

$  sudo pacman -Syy

This is the Arch equivalent of apt update on Debian.

To upgrade your system, type in:

$ sudo pacman -Syu

This is the Arch equivalent of apt upgrade on Debian

5. Removing Packages With Pacman

You can remove a package with :

$ sudo pacman -R <package-name>

To remove a package with all it’s dependencies :

$ sudo pacman -Rcns <package-name>

Conclusion

Thus we saw the various functionalities of the Pacman package manager and yet we only scratched the surface of it. There’s a lot more to which you can feel free to explore. The best way to start off is with the man pages. You can also use the man command to view the man pages..