Arch Linux pacman¶

ID: pacman
Links: Home page · Documentation · Repository · Wikipedia
Upstream stars: ⭐ 66
Last commit: 2026-01-25
Version requirement: >= 5
Platforms: 🅱️ BSD · 🐧 Linux · ⨂ Unix
Operations: installed · outdated · orphans · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove · sync · cleanup · doctor
purl types: pkg:alpm/ · pkg:pacman/
CLI name: pacman
Every call: pacman --noconfirm --color never <command>
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: pacman-based
Source: pacman.py

Arch Linux’s native package manager, covering the official repositories.

mpm forces --noconfirm and --color never on every call so pacman runs unattended and prints uncolored text the regexes can parse. Installed packages come from --query and upgradable ones from --query --upgrades; searches hit the sync databases via --sync --search.

The AUR helpers Aura, Pacaur, Paru, Pikaur, Trizen and Yay subclass it, reusing its parsers and overriding the binary and the version probe; each class docstring names what else differs. DkpPacman is pacman itself, built for devkitPro’s repositories.

Command equivalences with other managers are listed in Pacman/Rosetta.

What `mpm` adds to `pacman`¶

Through mpm, pacman gains:

a one-command cleanup --orphans that removes every orphaned dependency at once
--extended search, to match against package descriptions

Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover pacman alongside aura, dkp-pacman, pacaur, pamac, paru, pikaur, shelly, trizen, yay and any other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `pacman` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know pacman: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `pacman`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`pacman --query`	`mpm --pacman installed`
List outdated packages	`pacman --query --upgrades`	`mpm --pacman outdated`
Search for a package	`pacman --sync --search fire`	`mpm --pacman search fire`
Install a package	`sudo pacman --sync firefox`	`mpm install pkg:pacman/firefox`
Upgrade one package	`sudo pacman --sync firefox`	`mpm --pacman upgrade firefox`
Upgrade everything	`sudo pacman --sync --refresh --sysupgrade`	`mpm --pacman upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`sudo pacman --remove firefox`	`mpm remove pkg:pacman/firefox`
List orphaned dependencies	`pacman --query --deps --unrequired`	`mpm --pacman orphans`
Clear caches	`sudo pacman --sync --clean --clean`	`mpm --pacman cleanup --cache`
Run health checks	`pacman --database --check`	`mpm --pacman doctor`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	✅
`outdated`	✅	Only packages tracked in a sync database are reported; foreign packages (AUR builds, `-U` installs) stay invisible to the plain `pacman` binary.
`orphans`	✅
`search`	✅	Extended search backfilled by `mpm`.
`install`	✅	A package already installed as a dependency is marked explicit by `mpm`.
`upgrade`	✅
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	✅	The `--orphans` flag also drops the package’s orphaned dependencies.
`sync`	✅
`cleanup`	✅	The `--orphans` sweep is backfilled by `mpm`.
`doctor`	✅

Configuration¶

Ignore pacman on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-pacman option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
pacman = false
```
Raise the timeout of all pacman calls:
```
[mpm.overrides.pacman]
timeout = 900
```

Run mpm config-template pacman to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.pacman]
cli_names = [
    "pacman",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = [
    "--noconfirm",
    "--color",
    "never",
]
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=5.0.0"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    ".*Pacman\\s+v(?P<version>\\S+)",
]

The arguments and environment variables listed in the box atop this page are forced on every pacman call, so runs stay quiet, non-interactive and reproducible: the defaults you would set in CI anyway.

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around pacman, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --pacman dump pacman.toml, then mpm restore pacman.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --pacman sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).
Gate CI on health: mpm --pacman doctor relays Arch Linux pacman’s own diagnosis and exits non-zero on trouble.

Privilege escalation¶

System-wide manager: mpm wraps its privileged operations in sudo out of the box. Instead of letting the tool prompt mid-run, mpm primes the credential cache up-front, with a single branded password prompt at most. Turn escalation off for rootless setups with --no-sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

Its privileged operations are cleanup, install, remove, sync, upgrade, upgrade_all.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Concurrency¶

mpm never runs pacman at the same time as aura, pacaur, pamac, paru, pikaur, trizen or yay: they all reach the pacman database (/var/lib/pacman/db.lck), and two of them mutating at once fail to init their transaction. Each mutating operation waits for the previous one, even with a higher --jobs, while managers outside this group keep running in parallel.

Only mutations are held back. The read-only queries (installed, outdated, search) take no backend lock and stay fully concurrent.

Cooldown¶

State of Arch Linux pacman’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: Distro binary archives (pkg:deb, pkg:rpm, pkg:alpm, pkg:apk)
Retraction: Index revert: removal is an archive operation and the mirror is rebuilt without the package. Debian, for one, requires filing an RM: bug against ftp.debian.org (developers-reference)
Publish date: ❌ the version string is the distro maintainer’s build, carrying no upstream publication date

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Reference traces¶

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the manager source. If you know Arch Linux pacman well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ pacman --noconfirm --color never --query
a52dec 0.7.4-11
aalib 1.4rc5-14
abseil-cpp 20211102.0-2
accountsservice 22.08.8-2
acl 2.3.1-2
acme.sh 3.0.2-1
acpi 1.7-3
acpid 2.0.33-1

$ pacman --noconfirm --color never --query --upgrades
linux 4.19.1.arch1-1 -> 4.19.2.arch1-1
linux-headers 4.19.1.arch1-1 -> 4.19.2.arch1-1

$ pacman --noconfirm --color never --query --deps --unrequired
gtest 1.14.0-1
libwlroots 0.16.2-2

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ pacman --version
 .--.                  Pacman v6.0.1 - libalpm v13.0.1
/ _.-' .-.  .-.  .-.   Copyright (C) 2006-2021 Pacman Development Team
\  '-. '-'  '-'  '-'   Copyright (C) 2002-2006 Judd Vinet
 '--'
                    This program may be freely redistributed under
                    the terms of the GNU General Public License.

and extracted with:

r".*Pacman\s+v(?P<version>\S+)"

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`pacman/pacman`
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Changelog¶

8.0.0 (2026-09-20)
- Mark a package already installed as a dependency as explicitly installed when mpm install or mpm restore names it, so mpm cleanup --orphans keeps it.
- Stop running the AUR helpers concurrently with pacman and with each other, all of them driving the same pacman database.
- Correct the commands shown on each manager’s page, which named fewer options than mpm actually runs.
7.4.0 (2026-07-25)
- sync now escalates through sudo like its other write commands: refreshing the sync databases writes root-owned state.
6.2.0 (2026-03-25)
- Add --color never option to all invocations.
5.6.0 (2022-09-26)
- Fix pacman install operation. Closes #766.
5.3.0 (2022-06-25)
- Run install, upgrade, remove and cleanup operations with sudo.
5.2.0 (2022-06-16)
- Add remove operation.
4.13.0 (2022-04-16)
- Add support for pacman. Closes #416.