[SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

3beb6e7c46a615a · 2023-02-26 19:28:06

Out of curiosity, can I somehow remove the pacman-mirrorlist package? It's a hard dependency of pacman, so I presume I'd have to make a custom empty package with a corresponding provides to actually get rid of pacman-mirrorlist? Or is there some pacman hack I could use to get rid of the package?

I'm using reflector to keep my mirrorlist updated, and recently started using the worldwide rackspace mirror, so I don't really need the mirrorlist updates from pacman-mirrorlist, and it's the only package which frequently generates .pacnew files on my system. I presume I could just put pacman-mirrorlist into IgnorePkg to avoid this situation, but then again I figured it'd be nicer to get rid of the whole package right away.

Last edited by 3beb6e7c46a615a (2023-02-28 14:52:32)

Trilby · 2023-02-26 19:37:44

FWIW, NoExtract would probably be better than IgnorePkg, but that doesn't really address you main question.

3beb6e7c46a615a · 2023-02-27 19:49:51

Not really But thanks for the advice. I now set both options; let's see how it goes.

I wonder why pacman-mirrorlist is still a thing… does anyone not use reflector or a worldwide mirror?

jasonwryan · 2023-02-27 20:24:35

lunaryorn wrote:

I wonder why pacman-mirrorlist is still a thing… does anyone not use reflector or a worldwide mirror?

People that live in low bandwidth parts of the world. I don't care about the speed of the mirrors in the US or EU, I want to connect to local mirrors. And as there are only three of them, it makes no sense using reflector, let alone a worldwide mirror.

3beb6e7c46a615a · 2023-02-27 20:59:34

I'm not sure I follow… if you're in a region with so few mirrors that it doesn't make sense to use reflector, what do you need the whole of "pacman-mirrorlist" for?

I don't mean to argue; I'm just curious how you're dealing with the mirrorlist. As far as I can see there are like 350 servers in there you'd never use… do you even look at mirrorlist.pacnew after pacman-mirrorlist updates? Isn't dealing with big irrelevant diffs on that file much more hassle than setting up reflector once and for all to give you all NZ mirrors?

See, even I find those mirrorlist.pacnew annoying, and all I ever do is throw them away because my mirrorlist is either constant or managed by reflector. But if you're handling the mirrorlist yourself wouldn't you actually need to check every mirrorlist.pacnew file just in case those three mirrors in your region ever changed?

Last edited by 3beb6e7c46a615a (2023-02-27 21:24:10)

seth · 2023-02-27 22:04:54

You wrote:

what do you need the whole of "pacman-mirrorlist" for

But your quote also wrote:

does anyone not use reflector or a worldwide mirror?

What Jason wrote:

it makes no sense using reflector, let alone a worldwide mirror.

doesn't say that pacman-mirrorlist needs to be a hard dependency for pacman.

Reflector could be on the iso and the guide telling you to run it to generate an initial list w/ reflector and pacman-mirrorlist being optional installation choices if you want to select/optimize beyond "Sheep barn I", "Sheep barn II" and "The one with the goats"

jasonwryan · 2023-02-27 22:32:16

lunaryorn wrote:

what do you need the whole of "pacman-mirrorlist" for?

Well, I do occasionally travel... And, if a new mirror is added, how else would I fiind out?

jasonwryan · 2023-02-27 22:33:11

seth wrote:

and "The one with the goats"

They're alpacas, seth. We've talked about this before!

seth · 2023-02-28 07:43:15

Sorry, I certainly didn't mean to insult your wifes

But out of curiosity I found this very concerning data:
https://i.imgur.com/IqKOzMc.png
Source: https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/livestock-numbers

Do you understand what that means?
If this worrysome trend continues, the rest of the world will soon have to find a new trope about New Zealand!

3beb6e7c46a615a · 2023-02-28 14:52:15

jasonwryan wrote:

lunaryorn wrote:
what do you need the whole of "pacman-mirrorlist" for?
Well, I do occasionally travel... And, if a new mirror is added, how else would I fiind out?

Well, there's this tool which automatically updates your mirrorlist with the up to date mirror data… ;p

SCNR

It'd be nice if pacman-mirrorlist was an optdepends of pacman, but then again I really have more important problems ^^

Thanks for your help; I'll mark this as solved.

Trilby · 2023-02-28 15:03:29

seth wrote:

... the rest of the world will soon have to find a new trope about New Zealand!

He said sheepishly.

probackup-nl · 2025-03-15 13:46:48

It's a pity that "remove pacman-mirrorlist" package is not actually solved:

# pacman -R pacman-mirrorlist
checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: removing pacman-mirrorlist breaks dependency 'pacman-mirrorlist' required by pacman

For non mobile high bandwidth users that use rankmirrors to create the mirrorlist, its annoying to have '/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.pacnew' on every update. It's annoying that pacdiff prompts for mirrorlist, that such a user always wishes to "(R)emove".

Actually I don't ever want to download any pacman-mirrorlist. Instead a rankmirrors command/script that fetches a live list (wiki 3.1.2: Fetching and ranking a live mirror list) might create a new mirrorlist on every mirrorlist update or periodically.

For now I will use:

# nano /etc/pacman.conf
[options]
NoExtract = etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

which will create new pacdiff prompts on each pacman upgrade. Basicly not much is improved, one frequent prompt is traded in for another less frequent one.

PS Having less pacdiff prompts encourages to user to not postpone .pacnew administrative tasks.

Last edited by probackup-nl (2025-03-15 14:13:52)

seth · 2025-03-15 15:24:03

~/bin/makepkg-dummy

#!/bin/bash
cd /tmp
echo "pkgname=$1-dummy
pkgver=1
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc='Dummy for $1'
arch=('any')
license=('dwtfyq')
provides=('$1')
conflicts=("'${provides[@]}'")" > .PGKBUILD.$1

PKGEXT=".pkg.tar" makepkg -p .PGKBUILD.$1
rm .PGKBUILD.$1

Edit: -i doesn't work here…

makepkg-dummy pacman-mirrorlist

Last edited by seth (2025-03-15 16:31:01)

cryptearth · 2025-03-15 16:27:48

although necro a two year old topic:
why is the mirrorlist in its own package anyway? what was the initial idea of it and is that still relevant?
would this make a useful contribution to get rid of that package altogether but rather make pacman depend on reflector?

seth · 2025-03-15 16:38:18

pacman "should" probably not hard-depend on either.
You need a mirrorlist, whether through that package, frequent updates from https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/ or reflector or handcrafted or … doesn't matter.
The current approach just doesn't require people to worry/care - you get a mirrorlist shoveled onto your system and frequent inert .pacnew's when customizing it.

Lone_Wolf · 2025-03-16 11:29:55

Originally the mirrorlist was included with the pacman package.
Everytime the mirrorlist changed pacman required an update, moving the mirrorlist to its own package in 2008 improved things by a lot .

The Arch-dev-public and Pacman-dev mailing list archives from that period may shed light on the reasons for doing it this way.

Moderator Note : Closing this old thread.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-02-26 19:28:06

[SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#2 2023-02-26 19:37:44

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#3 2023-02-27 19:49:51

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#4 2023-02-27 20:24:35

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#5 2023-02-27 20:59:34

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#6 2023-02-27 22:04:54

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#7 2023-02-27 22:32:16

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#8 2023-02-27 22:33:11

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#9 2023-02-28 07:43:15

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#10 2023-02-28 14:52:15

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#11 2023-02-28 15:03:29

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#12 2025-03-15 13:46:48

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#13 2025-03-15 15:24:03

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#14 2025-03-15 16:27:48

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#15 2025-03-15 16:38:18

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

#16 2025-03-16 11:29:55

Re: [SOLVED] Remove pacman-mirrorlist package?

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