Pacman syntax with three y's

anewbie · 2020-04-17 18:40:16

I have seen several websites that recommend using paceman -Syyy. However, I can't find any documentation that mentions what three y's does. Can someone let me know?

Slithery · 2020-04-17 18:44:44

Then those websites are wrong, that isn't a valid command.

Running pacman -Syy is valid but not recommended as it will lead to a partial upgrade and a broken system.

Read..

man pacman

ugjka · 2020-04-17 18:45:31

Don't read garbage read "man pacman"

Edit: sniped...

Last edited by ugjka (2020-04-17 18:46:01)

anewbie · 2020-04-17 18:49:22

Thank you. Would it be fair to say that -Syu is what I should use to upgrade before installing something new?

DeletedUser210826 · 2020-04-17 18:49:28

From pacman's man page:

-y, --refresh
           Download a fresh copy of the master package database from the server(s) defined in pacman.conf(5). This should typically be used each time you use --sysupgrade or -u. Passing two --refresh or -y flags will force a
           refresh of all package databases, even if they appear to be up-to-date.

So it's either one or two. You should not trust third party websites, always check Arch Wiki and man pages.

EDIT: To your question, yes.

Last edited by DeletedUser210826 (2020-04-17 18:50:15)

Trilby · 2020-04-17 18:51:40

To build on the above, even one 'y' without a 'u' would be valid but dangerous. Never do `pacman -Syy` or `pacman -Sy`. They are, in fact, equally dangerous. Only do either of those with a 'u' also: `pacman -Syyu` or `pacman -Syu`. As long as you include the 'u', there is no risk of a partial upgrade, no matter how many 'y's you add.

The difference between one 'y' and two in a safe command like `pacman -Syu` vs `pacman -Syyu` is that the latter is a useless waste of your time and of community resources as you use server bandwidth. There are very rare exceptions of when a second 'y' should be used in updates, but unless you know exactly what you are doing and why, then you are not in one of these rare exceptions. The differnece between two y's and three, is that you have no reason to use two, and the third is ignored, so you also have no reason to use three.

Last edited by Trilby (2020-04-17 18:52:51)

ugjka · 2020-04-17 18:53:38

I say you should do pacman -Syyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu because Allan allowed it to be a valid command

/me waits for this to pop up on blogposts all over the web

Trilby · 2020-04-17 18:56:37

$ pacman -Syyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
error: you cannot perform this operation because you're an idiot.

schard · 2020-04-17 20:07:14

Trilby wrote:

$ pacman -Syyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
error: you cannot perform this operation because you're an idiot.

I know that was meant, as a joke, but:

Last login: Thu Apr 16 14:28:35 2020 from 172.23.56.21
0 ✓ rne@homesrv ~ $ sudo pacman -Syyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
[sudo] Passwort für rne:
:: Synchronisiere Paketdatenbanken...
 core                  135,1 KiB  2,20 MiB/s 00:00 [###################] 100% extra                1647,1 KiB  5,81 MiB/s 00:00 [###################] 100% community               4,9 MiB  5,78 MiB/s 00:01 [###################] 100% rne                    10,8 KiB  0,00   B/s 00:00 [###################] 100% rne.sig               119,0   B  0,00   B/s 00:00 [###################] 100%:: Starte vollständige Systemaktualisierung...
Löse Abhängigkeiten auf...
Suche nach in Konflikt stehenden Paketen...

Warnung: Zu wenig Spalten für Tabellenanzeige vorhanden
Pakete (4) libtirpc-1.2.6-1  nginx-mainline-1.17.10-1
           python-dulwich-0.19.16-1  python-urllib3-1.25.9-1

Gesamtgröße des Downloads:           1,49 MiB
Gesamtgröße der installierten Pakete:  6,48 MiB
Größendifferenz der Aktualisierung:  0,06 MiB

:: Installation fortsetzen? [J/n]
:: Empfange Pakete...
 libtirpc-1.2.6-1...   177,2 KiB  5,77 MiB/s 00:00 [###################]  11% python-urllib3-1...   346,4 KiB  4,39 MiB/s 00:00 [###################]  22% nginx-mainline-1...   899,8 KiB  4,62 MiB/s 00:00 [###################]  59% python-dulwich-0...  1524,4 KiB  4,70 MiB/s 00:00 [###################] 100%(4/4) Prüfe Schlüssel im Schlüsselring             [###################] 100%(4/4) Überprüfe Paket-Integrität                   [###################] 100%(4/4) Lade Paket-Dateien                           [###################] 100%(4/4) Prüfe auf Dateikonflikte                     [###################] 100%(4/4) Überprüfe verfügbaren Festplattenspeicher    [###################] 100%:: Verarbeite Paketänderungen...
(1/4) Aktualisiere libtirpc                        [###################] 100%(2/4) Aktualisiere nginx-mainline                  [###################] 100%(3/4) Aktualisiere python-urllib3                  [###################] 100%(4/4) Aktualisiere python-dulwich                  [###################] 100%:: Starte post-transaction hooks...
(1/2) Reloading system manager configuration...
(2/2) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
0 ✓ rne@homesrv ~ $

Also: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … ther_users

loqs · 2020-04-17 20:08:34

Sadly some users really do pass random argument strings to pacman https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=253072

Trilby · 2020-04-17 20:28:23

schard wrote:

I know that was meant, as a joke, but ...

Apparently you didn't if you felt the need to put a long code block in another language showing that a command that would obviously work, worked. And I'm not sure why you linked to a random part of the COC. Here's another part that actually is relevant, but still rather pointless:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … s_and_code

schard · 2020-04-18 02:30:29

The code was intended to show that pacman's output is not what you suggested it to be, the other language is called German and you were clearly intending to insult ugjka. That's why I posted the link.
That being said, putting more than two y or more than two u into a pacman command has the same effect as two of them. Therefore Pacman -Syyyu is a valid command albeit useless wear and tear of the keyboard.

HalosGhost · 2020-04-18 02:41:34

Well,

This has been fun. Since the question has been asked and answered, I'll be closing this topic now.

Have a good day folks, and let's all reread the CoC just for fun.

All the best,

-HG

Arch Linux

#1 2020-04-17 18:40:16

Pacman syntax with three y's

#2 2020-04-17 18:44:44

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#3 2020-04-17 18:45:31

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#4 2020-04-17 18:49:22

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#5 2020-04-17 18:49:28

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#6 2020-04-17 18:51:40

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#7 2020-04-17 18:53:38

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#8 2020-04-17 18:56:37

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#9 2020-04-17 20:07:14

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#10 2020-04-17 20:08:34

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#11 2020-04-17 20:28:23

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#12 2020-04-18 02:30:29

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

#13 2020-04-18 02:41:34

Re: Pacman syntax with three y's

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