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#1 2016-03-07 01:57:21
- JohnBobSmith
- Member
- From: Canada
- Registered: 2014-11-29
- Posts: 804
How does pacman choose the order to download packages?
Greetings,
Apologies is this has been answered elsewhere already, but I couldn't find an answer in the pacman man page. What I am wondering, as opposed to having a real problem, is how does pacman choose the order to download files in? For example, when I run "sudo pacman -Syu", accept the first prompt, and the files begin downloading, they are in a seemingly random order. Are the files downloaded based on depenencies? Like, if foo depends on bar, download bar first? From what I can tell, they aren't downloaded from smallest to biggest or in alphabetical order. Is it based on server availability and/or proximity?? Like, download packages nearest to the user first, then look further away for remaining ones? Surely it isn't random. This is mostly (entirely) a curiosity question, and I am not having any problems with pacman or its operations. I am not looking for an overly technical answer. Just something I was wondering.
Have a good day folks! 
I am diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As it turns out, what I thought was my greatest weakness is now my greatest strength.
Everyday, I make a conscious choice to overcome my challenges and my problems. It's not easy, but its better than the alternative...
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#2 2016-03-07 02:40:56
- Allan
- Pacman
- From: Brisbane, AU
- Registered: 2007-06-09
- Posts: 11,393
- Website
Re: How does pacman choose the order to download packages?
Alphabetical within repos. (I think...)
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#3 2016-03-07 03:52:56
- Trilby
- Inspector Parrot
- Registered: 2011-11-29
- Posts: 29,531
- Website
Re: How does pacman choose the order to download packages?
I'm pretty sure it is alphabetically within repos for top level packages. But dependencies are processed before the packages that depend on them which is why it is often mostly alphabetical, with exceptions. This is why you'll also see a warning periodically for circular dependencies along the lines of "package X will be installed before it's dependency..." - harfbuzz and freetype2 are common examples of this.
"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" - Richard Stallman
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#4 2016-03-07 05:35:35
- x33a
- Forum Fellow
- Registered: 2009-08-15
- Posts: 4,587
Re: How does pacman choose the order to download packages?
Moving to "Pacman & Package Upgrade Issues".
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#5 2016-03-07 06:40:21
- JohnBobSmith
- Member
- From: Canada
- Registered: 2014-11-29
- Posts: 804
Re: How does pacman choose the order to download packages?
Ah, alphabetical within repos makes sense. I figured it couldn't be random, haha. As for circular dependencies, I'm very glad pac man does an excellent job of handling them.
Thanks for the replies!
I am diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As it turns out, what I thought was my greatest weakness is now my greatest strength.
Everyday, I make a conscious choice to overcome my challenges and my problems. It's not easy, but its better than the alternative...
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#6 2016-03-07 13:08:50
- shulamy
- Member
- From: israel
- Registered: 2010-09-11
- Posts: 454
Re: How does pacman choose the order to download packages?
the download order doesn't matter.
the trick is the installation order.
ezik
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