pacman-essentials.md

Pacman Configuration

Located in /etc/pacman.conf

[options]
Color # uncomment (line 33) # enables color
ILoveCandy # insert (line 34) # typical progress bar will be replaced with a character eating dots
VerbosePkgLists # uncomment (line 37) # while installing a package, it will present the packages in a nicely formatted way

Mirrorlist (Reflector)

Required package: reflector

pacman -S reflector

Run the command below to get the fastest mirrors through reflector

sudo reflector --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist --sort rate --verbose -l 100 -n 5 -p https --ipv4

Located in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

################################################################################
################# Arch Linux mirrorlist generated by Reflector #################
################################################################################

# With:       sudo reflector --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist --sort rate --verbose -l 100 -n 5 -p https --ipv4
# When:       2025-07-06 12:00:37 UTC
# From:       https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/json/
# Retrieved:  2025-07-06 12:00:37 UTC
# Last Check: 2025-07-06 11:33:18 UTC

Server = https://mirror.osbeck.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://sg.mirrors.cicku.me/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://sa.mirrors.cicku.me/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://jp.mirrors.cicku.me/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://au.mirrors.cicku.me/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

Pacman Commands

pacman -Q # lists all currently installed packages
pacman -Qe # lists only explicitly installed packages
pacman -Ql <pkg> # lists all the files this package has
pacman -Qi <pkg> # provides standard, detailed information about an installed package
pacman -Qii <pkg> # same as -Qi + a list of backup files managed by pacman for that package, along with their MD5 sums
pacman -Qs <query> # searches installed packages

pacman -S <pkg> # install new package(s)
pacman -Ss <keywords> # searches available packages in repositories
pacman -Syu # update installed packages
pacman -Syu <pkg> # update installed packages and install new package(s)

pacman -R <pkg> # removing package(s)
pacman -Rs <pkg> # remove package(s) and it's dependencies which are no more needed
pacman -Rsc <pkg> # remove package(s) and all it's dependencies
pacman -Rnsc <pkg> # remove package(s), configuration files and all it's dependencies

pacman -Sc # remove cached packages that are not currently installed
pacman -Scc # remove all the package from the cache, including those that are installed

Reference: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks