Arch Linux

Huugin

Member

Registered: 2013-03-09

Posts: 9

[SOLVED] pacman -[S|Q]i not working, invalid option -- '['

I was looking for the equivalent for apt-cache show and from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_Rosetta, it found the command

pacman -[S|Q]i

However, when I try to use it I get the error invalid option -- '['

Last edited by Huugin (2015-05-25 00:17:08)

SnowyClaw

Member

Registered: 2015-05-12

Posts: 24

Re: [SOLVED] pacman -[S|Q]i not working, invalid option -- '['

I was looking for the equivalent for

 apt-cache show 

and from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_Rosetta, it found the command

 pacman -[S|Q]i 

However, when I try to use it I get the error

invalid option -- '[' 

Hello, Huugin. It seems that they're meaning for you to choose between -Si and -Qi. -[S|Q]i will not work.

Huugin

Member

Registered: 2013-03-09

Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] pacman -[S|Q]i not working, invalid option -- '['

But the -Qi argument only works for installed packages.

WorMzy

Forum Moderator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 11,901

Website

Re: [SOLVED] pacman -[S|Q]i not working, invalid option -- '['

But the -Qi argument only works for installed packages.

Correct. However, -Si will show details of any package in the binary repositories.

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SnowyClaw

Member

Registered: 2015-05-12

Posts: 24

Re: [SOLVED] pacman -[S|Q]i not working, invalid option -- '['

But the -Qi argument only works for installed packages.

I've checked what the command does, and you're right. If you need info of a non-installed package, use

pacman -Si

If you need the info of an installed package, use

pacman -Qi

Edit: WorMzy beat me to it. cx

Last edited by SnowyClaw (2015-05-25 00:10:57)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED] pacman -[S|Q]i not working, invalid option -- '['

'[foo]'' means optional argument, ,'<foo>' means mandatory argument. It's a similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus–Naur_Form