pacman.sh - adds some frequently needed minor functionalities

pacman-g2 does a lot of things. Sometimes it does too much. For example its package searches always search in the descriptions too. Even when you want to search only in the package names. So you have to filter the output to reduce the result list to the desired packages only. pacman.sh is a wrapper which helps to accomplish such simple tasks with fewer typing and typos.

Usage

You can use pacman.sh as a standalone script or as a wrapper. In the later case create an alias to it :

Bash code - create a wrapper

alias pacman=/path/to/pacman.sh

Operations implemented in the wrapper will be executed, other operations will be passed forward to pacman-g2.

Warning !
Although pacman.sh performs only read operations, is still better to NOT use it when you have write access to the pacman-g2 database. Avoid using it as superuser. Create the alias to it only in your ~/.bashrc .

sample output - pacman.sh -W?

usage:
  pacman.sh -Wu  regexp     - search for uninstalled package
  pacman.sh -Wsn regexp     - search for package name
  pacman.sh -Wqn regexp     - search for installed package name
  pacman.sh -Wun regexp     - search for uninstalled package name
  pacman.sh -Wc  package(s) - list changelog-like files
  pacman.sh -Wcv package(s) - view changelog-like files with $PAGER
  pacman.sh -Wx  package(s) - list executable files
  pacman.sh -Wxp package(s) - list executable files on $PATH
  pacman.sh -Wd  package(s) - list recursive dependencies
  pacman.sh -Wdt package(s) - tree recursive dependencies
  pacman.sh -Wox command(s) - print the owner of the commands on $PATH
  pacman.sh -Wh  package    - package operation history
  pacman.sh -Wn             - show some statistical number
  pacman.sh -Wv             - print wrapper version
  pacman.sh -W?             - print ( this ) wrapper help

Configuration

No own configuration.

From the /etc/pacman-g2.conf configuration file uses some options for the -Wh ( LogFile ) and -Wn ( HoldPkg, IgnorePkg, CacheDir, Server, DBPath, UpgradeDelay, OldDelay ) operations.

Versions

• 0.1 - September 2011
  • Initial release.
• 0.2 - September 2011
  • Unified the wrapper command ( -W ).
  • Search uninstalled package description and name ( -Wu, -Wun ).
  • Search package history ( -Wh ).
• 0.3 - September 2011
  • Print the owner of the commands on $PATH ( -Wox ).
  • List package dependencies recursively ( -Wd ).
  • Show some statistical number ( -Wn ).
• 0.4 - September 2011
  • Tree package dependencies recursively ( -Wdt ).

Plans

• Arrange the recursive dependencies in a tree. ( Done in 0.4 – see -Wdt option. )
• Add more statistical information.
• List summarized recursive dependencies.

Download

You can find the related files on GitHub in my bash-script repository’s pacman directory :

• pacman.sh - script
• pacman.sh.1 - man page
• pacman.sh.pod - man page source