Pacman cheat sheet
Summary
Pacman is the package manager for Arch Linux, used to install, update, and manage software packages. The cheat sheet provides essential Pacman commands for tasks like updating systems, installing and removing packages, managing caches, and rolling back package versions.
Introduction #
Pacman, a portmanteau of “package manager”, is the package manager used by Arch Linux and its derivatives. It is a powerful tool that allows users to install, update, and manage software packages, whether they are from the official repositories or the user’s own builds.
There are the most essential pacman commands:
Updating #
Update system #
pacman -Syu
Update pacman database #
pacman -Syy
Ignore package updates #
To ignore updates for a specific package, add the package to the IgnorePkg line in /etc/pacman.conf.
Installing packages #
Installing from official repositories #
Install packmage_name package from the official repositories:
pacman -S package_name
Install local package #
Install packmage_name package from a local file:
pacman -U /path/to/package_name
Install from PKGBUILD #
Install package_name from local PKGBUILD file:
makepkg -si package_name
Removing packages #
Simple remove #
Remove packmage_name package:
pacman -R package_name
Remove package incl. dependencies #
Remove packmage_name package incl. unneeded dependencies:
pacman -Rs package_name
Remove package, incl. dependencies and configuration file #
Remove packmage_name package incl. unneeded dependencies and global configuration file:
pacman -Rns package_name
Remove unneeded packages and their dependencies #
Remove multiple unneeded packages incl. unused dependencies
pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qdtq)
Removing cached packages #
Pacman stores all downloaded packages in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ and does not automatically delete old or uninstalled packages from the cache.
Remove cached versions of installed and uninstalled packages #
Remove all cached versions of installed and uninstalled packages, except for the most recent three (default):
paccache -r
Remove all cached versions of installed and uninstalled packages, except for the most recent one:
paccache -rk1
Remove cached versions of uninstalled packages #
Remove all cached versions of uninstalled packages only:
paccache -ruk0
Remove all the cached packages that are not currently installed including the unused sync database:
pacman -Sc
Remove all files from the cache #
Remove all files from the cache (most aggressive approach):
pacman -Scc
Search & Query #
Retrieve packmage_name package information:
pacman -Qi package_name
Rollback #
To rollback to a previous version of a package:
pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/package_name-version.pkg.tar.zst
Further readings #
Sources and recommended, further resources on the topic:
Author
Jonas Jared Jacek (J15k)
Jonas works as project manager, web designer, and web developer since 2001. On top of that, he is a Linux system administrator with a broad interest in things related to programming, architecture, and design. See: https://www.j15k.com/License
Pacman cheat sheet by Jonas Jared Jacek is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. To give credit, provide a link back to the original source, the author, and the license e.g. like this:
<p xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"><a property="dct:title" rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://www.ditig.com/pacman-cheat-sheet">Pacman cheat sheet</a> by <a rel="cc:attributionURL dct:creator" property="cc:attributionName" href="https://www.j15k.com/">Jonas Jared Jacek</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="license noopener noreferrer">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>.</p>For more information see the Ditig legal page.
