mirror of
https://github.com/moparisthebest/pacman
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201 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
201 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
Pacman Home Page
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================
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A simple library-based package manager.
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Introduction
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------------
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pacman is a utility which manages software packages in Linux. It uses simple
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compressed files as a package format, and maintains a text-based package
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database (more of a hierarchy), just in case some hand tweaking is necessary.
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pacman does not strive to "do everything." It will add, remove and upgrade
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packages in the system, and it will allow you to query the package database for
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installed packages, files and owners. It also attempts to handle dependencies
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automatically and can download packages from a remote server.
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History
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~~~~~~~
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Version 2.0 of pacman introduced the ability to sync packages (the `--sync`
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option) with a master server through the use of package databases. Prior to
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this, packages would have to be installed manually using the `--add` and
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`--upgrade` operations.
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Version 3.0 was the switch to a two-part pacman- a backend named libalpm
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(library for Arch Linux Package Management), and the familiar pacman frontend.
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Speed in many cases was improved, along with dependency and conflict resolution
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being able to handle a much wider variety of cases. The switch to a
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library-based program should also make it easier in the future to develop
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alternative front ends.
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Documentation
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-------------
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Manpages
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~~~~~~~~
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There are several manpages available for the programs, utilities, and
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configuration files dealing with pacman.
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* linkman:PKGBUILD[5]
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* linkman:libalpm[3]
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* linkman:makepkg[8]
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* linkman:makepkg.conf[5]
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* linkman:pacman[8]
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* linkman:pacman.conf[5]
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* linkman:repo-add[8]
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Changelog
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~~~~~~~~~
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For a good idea of what is going on in pacman development, take a look at the
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link:http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=pacman.git[Gitweb] summary
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page for the project.
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See the most recent
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link:http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=pacman.git;a=blob_plain;f=NEWS;hb=HEAD[NEWS]
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file for a not-as-frequently-updated list of changes. However, this should
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contain the biggest changes in a format more concise than the commit log.
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Releases
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--------
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`------------`-------
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Date Version
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---------------------
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2010-06-16 v3.4.0
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2009-11-10 v3.3.3
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2009-10-05 v3.3.2
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2009-09-22 v3.3.1
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2009-08-02 v3.3.0
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2009-01-05 v3.2.2
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2008-08-26 v3.2.1
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2008-07-30 v3.2.0
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2008-04-01 v3.1.4
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2008-03-06 v3.1.3
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2008-02-20 v3.1.2
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2008-01-20 v3.1.1
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2008-01-09 v3.1.0
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2007-09-16 v3.0.6
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2007-06-17 v3.0.5
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2007-05-08 v3.0.4
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2007-04-28 v3.0.3
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2007-04-23 v3.0.2
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2007-04-04 v3.0.1
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2007-03-25 v3.0.0
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2006-02-02 v2.9.8
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2005-09-16 v2.9.7
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2005-06-10 v2.9.6
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2005-01-11 v2.9.5
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2004-12-19 v2.9.4
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2004-12-18 v2.9.3
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2004-09-25 v2.9.2
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2004-09-24 v2.9.1
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2004-09-18 v2.9
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---------------------
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Source code for all releases is available at
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link:ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/other/pacman/[]. To install, download the newest
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available source tarball, unpack it in a directory, and run the three magic
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commands:
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$ ./configure
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$ make
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# make install
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You may wish to read the options presented by `./configure --help` in order to
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set appropriate paths and build options that are correct for your system.
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Development
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-----------
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Mailing List
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~~~~~~~~~~~~
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There is a mailing list devoted to pacman development, hosted by Arch Linux.
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link:http://www.archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/pacman-dev/[Subscribe] or
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link:http://www.archlinux.org/pipermail/pacman-dev/[view the archives].
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Source Code
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~~~~~~~~~~~
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Development of pacman is currently done in GIT. The central repository is
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hosted by Arch Linux, although some of the developers have their own trees (ask
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on the above mailing lists if you are interested in finding the locations of
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these trees).
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The current development tree can be fetched with the following command:
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git clone git://projects.archlinux.org/pacman.git pacman
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which will fetch the full development history into a directory named pacman.
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You can browse the source as well using
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link:http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=pacman.git[Gitweb].
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If you are interested in hacking on pacman, it is highly recommended you join
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the mailing list mentioned above, as well as take a quick glance at our
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link:HACKING.html[HACKING] document.
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link:submitting-patches.html[submitting-patches] is also a recommended read.
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Not as familiar with code as you'd like to be, but still want to help out? If
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you speak a foreign language, you can help by either creating or updating a
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translation file for your native language. Instructions can be found in
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link:translation-help.html[translation-help].
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Other Utilities
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Although the package manager itself is quite simple, many scripts have been
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developed that help automate building and installing packages. These are used
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extensively in link:http://archlinux.org[Arch Linux]. Most of these utilities
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are available in the Arch Linux projects
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link:http://projects.archlinux.org/[Gitweb browser].
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Utilities available:
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* link:http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=abs.git[abs] - ABS (Arch Build System), scripts to download & use the Arch Linux PKGBUILD tree
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* link:http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=devtools.git[devtools] - tools to assist in packaging and dependency checking
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* link:http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=namcap.git[namcap] - a package analysis utility written in python
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* link:http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=pacbuild.git[pacbuild] - a package building system utilizing a daemon
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* link:http://projects.archlinux.org/?p=srcpac.git[srcpac] - a bash build-from-source pacman wrapper
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Bugs
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----
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If you find bugs (which is quite likely), please email them to the pacman-dev
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mailing last at mailto:pacman-dev@archlinux.org[] with specific information
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such as your commandline, the nature of the bug, and even the package database
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if it helps.
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You can also post a bug to the Archlinux bug tracker
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link:http://bugs.archlinux.org/index.php?project=3[Flyspray]. Be sure to file
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bugs under the Pacman project.
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Pacman/libalpm in the Wild
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--------------------------
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Although Arch Linux is the primary user of pacman and libalpm, other
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distributions and projects also use pacman as a package management tool. In
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addition, there have been several projects started to provide a frontend GUI to
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pacman and/or libalpm.
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Arch derivatives:
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* link:http://archie.dotsrc.org/[Archie] - Arch Live on steroids
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* link:http://www.faunos.com/[FaunOS] - A portable, fully integrated operating system based on Arch Linux
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* link:http://larch.berlios.de/[larch] - A live CD/DVD/USB-stick construction kit for Arch Linux
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Other distributions:
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* link:http://www.delilinux.org/[DeLi Linux] - "Desktop Light" Linux, a Linux distribution for old computers
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* link:http://www.frugalware.org/[Frugalware Linux] - A general purpose Linux distribution for intermediate users (pacman is forked and maintained separately)
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Pacman/libalpm frontends:
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* link:http://shaman.iskrembilen.com/[Shaman] - A GUI frontend using Qt and libalpm
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Copyright
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---------
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pacman is Copyright (C) 2006-2010 Pacman Development Team
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<pacman-dev@archlinux.org> and Copyright (C) 2002-2006 Judd Vinet
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<jvinet@zeroflux.org> and is licensed through the GNU General Public License,
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version 2 or later.
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/////
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vim: set ts=2 sw=2 syntax=asciidoc et:
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/////
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