Pacman Guide
Some very basic commands.
To update the system
sudo pacman -Syu
Update the database:
sudo pacman -Syy
Installing
To install a package (always run pacman -Syu, before installing):
sudo pacman -S package_name
To install a local package, or from a website:
sudo pacman -U /path/to/the/package
To re-install all packages (those from the repo’s), in case of emergency:
pacman -Qnq | pacman -S -
Removing Packages
If you want to only remove the package, the following command is sufficient:
sudo pacman -R
To remove the package and those of its dependencies that aren’t needed by any other application, do
sudo pacman -Rs
Finally, to remove the package, avoid orphaned dependencies and erase its global configuration, type
sudo pacman -Rns package_name
which in most cases is the proper command to remove software.
Searches/Queries
Info about an installed package:
pacman -Qi package_name
Queries the repo about a package:
pacman -Ss package_name
Queries the repo about a packages, and all that depend on it:
pacman -Sii package_name
Howto
List Installed Packages that are not in the Official Repositories:
If you want a list of the packages you built and installed locally or packages that are no longer in the official repositories:
pacman -Qm
Make sure to check this regularly, preferably monthly but at least every three months. KaOS repositories are always moving so you don’t want to keep unmaintained and possibly conflicting packages in your install.
Pacman is completely broken! How do I reinstall it?
In the case that pacman is broken beyond repair, manually download the necessary packages (openssl, libarchive, and pacman) and extract them. The pacman binary will be restored along with its default configuration file. Afterwards, reinstall these packages with pacman to maintain package database integrity. You can use this command to extract them.
sudo tar -xwvpf <i>package_name-version.tar.xz</i> -C / --exclude .PKGINFO --exclude .INSTALL
More info: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman