diff --git a/src/pacman/sync.c b/src/pacman/sync.c
index e4fe867c..e581579e 100644
--- a/src/pacman/sync.c
+++ b/src/pacman/sync.c
@@ -156,52 +156,44 @@ static int sync_cleancache(int level)
 
 static int sync_synctree(list_t *syncs)
 {
-	char path[PATH_MAX];
-	mode_t oldmask;
-	list_t *files = NULL;
+	char *root, *dbpath;
 	list_t *i;
-	int success = 0;
+	int ret = 0;
+
+	alpm_get_option(PM_OPT_ROOT, (long *)&root);
+	alpm_get_option(PM_OPT_DBPATH, (long *)&dbpath);
 
 	for(i = syncs; i; i = i->next) {
+		char path[PATH_MAX];
+		list_t *files = NULL;
 		sync_t *sync = (sync_t *)i->data;
 
 		/* build a one-element list */
 		snprintf(path, PATH_MAX, "%s"PM_EXT_DB, sync->treename);
 		files = list_add(files, strdup(path));
 
-		success = 1;
-		if(downloadfiles(sync->servers, pmo_dbpath, files)) {
+		snprintf(path, PATH_MAX, "%s%s", root, dbpath);
+
+		if(downloadfiles(sync->servers, path, files)) {
 			fprintf(stderr, "failed to synchronize %s\n", sync->treename);
-			success = 0;
+			FREELIST(files);
+			ret--;
+			continue;
 		}
 
 		FREELIST(files);
-		snprintf(path, PATH_MAX, "%s/%s"PM_EXT_DB, pmo_dbpath, sync->treename);
 
-		if(success) {
-			char ldir[PATH_MAX];
-
-			snprintf(ldir, PATH_MAX, "%s/%s", pmo_dbpath, sync->treename);
-			/* remove the old dir */
-			vprint("removing %s (if it exists)\n", ldir);
-			rmrf(ldir);
-
-			/* make the new dir */
-			oldmask = umask(0000);
-			mkdir(ldir, 0755);
-			umask(oldmask);
-
-			/* uncompress the sync database */
-			vprint("Unpacking %s...\n", path);
-			if(unpack(path, ldir, NULL)) {
-				return(1);
-			}
+		snprintf(path, PATH_MAX, "%s%s/%s"PM_EXT_DB, root, dbpath, sync->treename);
+		if(alpm_db_update(sync->treename, path) == -1) {
+			fprintf(stderr, "error: %s\n", alpm_strerror(pm_errno));
+			ret--;
 		}
+
 		/* remove the .tar.gz */
 		unlink(path);
 	}
 
-	return(!success);
+	return(ret);
 }
 
 static int sync_search(list_t *syncs, list_t *targets)
diff --git a/src/pacman/util.c b/src/pacman/util.c
index 56c3349b..5ae26149 100644
--- a/src/pacman/util.c
+++ b/src/pacman/util.c
@@ -28,84 +28,11 @@
 #include <fcntl.h>
 #include <ctype.h>
 #include <dirent.h>
-#include <zlib.h>
-#include <libtar.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
 
 /* pacman */
 #include "util.h"
 
-/* borrowed and modified from Per Liden's pkgutils (http://crux.nu) */
-long gzopen_frontend(char *pathname, int oflags, int mode)
-{
-	char *gzoflags;
-	int fd;
-	gzFile gzf;
-
-	switch (oflags & O_ACCMODE) {
-		case O_WRONLY:
-			gzoflags = "w";
-			break;
-		case O_RDONLY:
-			gzoflags = "r";
-			break;
-		case O_RDWR:
-		default:
-			errno = EINVAL;
-			return -1;
-	}
-	
-	if((fd = open(pathname, oflags, mode)) == -1) {
-		return -1;
-	}
-	if((oflags & O_CREAT) && fchmod(fd, mode)) {
-		return -1;
-	}
-	if(!(gzf = gzdopen(fd, gzoflags))) {
-		errno = ENOMEM;
-		return -1;
-	}
-
-	return (long)gzf;
-}
-
-int unpack(char *archive, const char *prefix, const char *fn)
-{
-	TAR *tar = NULL;
-	char expath[PATH_MAX];
-	tartype_t gztype = {
-		(openfunc_t) gzopen_frontend,
-		(closefunc_t)gzclose,
-		(readfunc_t) gzread,
-		(writefunc_t)gzwrite
-	};
-
-	/* open the .tar.gz package */
-	if(tar_open(&tar, archive, &gztype, O_RDONLY, 0, TAR_GNU) == -1) {
-		perror(archive);
-		return(1);
-	}
-	while(!th_read(tar)) {
-		if(fn && strcmp(fn, th_get_pathname(tar))) {
-			if(TH_ISREG(tar) && tar_skip_regfile(tar)) {
-				char errorstr[255];
-				snprintf(errorstr, 255, "bad tar archive: %s", archive);
-				perror(errorstr);
-				tar_close(tar);
-				return(1);
-			}
-			continue;
-		}
-		snprintf(expath, PATH_MAX, "%s/%s", prefix, th_get_pathname(tar));
-		if(tar_extract_file(tar, expath)) {
-			fprintf(stderr, "could not extract %s: %s\n", th_get_pathname(tar), strerror(errno));
-		}
-		if(fn) break;
-	}
-	tar_close(tar);
-
-	return(0);
-}
-
 /* does the same thing as 'mkdir -p' */
 int makepath(char *path)
 {
diff --git a/src/pacman/util.h b/src/pacman/util.h
index 15ce8043..b181dbd1 100644
--- a/src/pacman/util.h
+++ b/src/pacman/util.h
@@ -26,10 +26,8 @@
                        fprintf(stderr, "malloc failure: could not allocate %d bytes\n", b); \
                        exit(1); }} else p = NULL; } while(0)
 
-#define FREE(p) do { if (p) { free(p); (p)= NULL; }} while(0)
+#define FREE(p) do { if (p) { free(p); (p) = NULL; }} while(0)
 
-long gzopen_frontend(char *pathname, int oflags, int mode);
-int unpack(char *archive, const char *prefix, const char *fn);
 int makepath(char *path);
 int rmrf(char *path);
 void indentprint(char *str, int indent);