[SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

bivan · 2026-06-18 05:24:47

E.g. supertux https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/supertux/ not installed depends among other of physfs not installed, I can stupidly enter

sudo pacman -Syu supertux physfs

instead of just

sudo pacman -Syu supertux

so the title? Any command?

Last edited by bivan (2026-06-19 19:50:31)

seth · 2026-06-18 06:51:49

Errr… wut?
You just install the package you actually want and have pacman resolve the dependencies.

sudo pacman -Syu supertux physfs

marks supertux and physfs as explicitly installed because you explicitly want both and physfs NOT to be removed w/ supertux - pacman cannot magically know that this isn't your actual intention.

LC_ALL=C pacman -Si supertux | grep 'Depends On'

will get you a list of hard dependencies for supertux, but whatever you're trying to achieve here, fundamentally rethink what you're doing first.

bivan · 2026-06-18 07:05:49

Well if I don't know the "master" (how to say?) package(s)? supertux or physfs?

Precisely my issue is to install ALARM Plasma Mobile on a Pinephone Pro (yes there's https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/ but register is broken & it's a general question, on PC also), a packages list https://git.sr.ht/~undeadleech/catacomb … .js#L84-91 : I suspect there are too many packages (like physfs), so my question? Justly I want explicitly install at minimum.

Last edited by bivan (2026-06-18 07:25:56)

seth · 2026-06-18 07:15:54

https://git.sr.ht/~undeadleech/catacomb … .js#L84-91 doesn't include physfs and at a glance nothing there looks like it's a hard dependency for other packages in the list (and even if, that would not mean that a dependency cannot be desirable apart its dependents)

bivan · 2026-06-18 07:54:35

seth wrote:

doesn't include physfs

I edited, "like" instead of "as".

Well if the egyptian god seth doesn't know, who knows? So feature request: a software to know the too many dependency(ies) in a packages list, maybe a Bash script with pactree, where to post an Arch Linux software feature request?

V1del · 2026-06-18 10:31:05

If you don't explicitly list the packages as part of -Syu any relevant dependencies will be installed as dependencies and be considered on a pacman -Rns call to be safe for removal if nothing else depends on it.

So in your supertuxkart example if you pick just supertuxkart physfs would get uninstalled if you do a pacman -Rns of supertuxkart because physfs wasn't explicitly installed. If this doesn't answer your question then you need to clarify what you actually want, it's somewhat hard to follow your intention.

bivan · 2026-06-18 11:29:59

V1del wrote:

supertuxkart

no, supertux.

In summary:

E.g. I can do

sudo pacman -Syu supertux zaz physfs chromium-bsu openal

but I want the least packages to explicitly install, so errors above! physfs & openal are dependencies of supertux , so the right answer is

sudo pacman -Syu supertux zaz chromium-bsu

so is there a software (a command) to reduce or know the packages list for the least packages to explicitly install (without the dependency(ies)), as above?
I think of a Bash script using pactree, any volunteer(s) ?

V1del · 2026-06-18 11:33:44

So you basically want something you can give a list of packages to and only top level ones to remain/ get output? While I don't quite see the usecase as you'd naturally just install supertux and zaz and chromium-bsu because those are the actual tools you're interested in, one could proably do something like that.

Whoracle · 2026-06-18 11:34:14

pacman -Qe lists all explicitly installed packages. Is that what you want?

seth · 2026-06-18 11:48:33

Afaiu the OP has some list of packages that might include redundancies. An actual example would probably be better…

LC_ALL=C pacman -Si supertux firefox | sed '/Depends On/!d; s/^.*: //g; s/ \+/\n/g' | sort -u

will get you a collated list of explicit dependencies for supertux and firefox
You can then use https://man.archlinux.org/man/comm.1.en to filter that against your list of packages.

Getting optional dependencies in there is going to be a bit more involved because of the output format (they're commented and in multiple lines)

killertofus · 2026-06-18 22:03:38

alarm is not Arch, (yet) and is not supported here for now.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/misc.php?action=rules

bivan · 2026-06-19 19:13:43

Seems your command works seth thanks, finally I composed myself a packages list for my Pinephone Pro.

lol what about the Other Architectures sub forum? AArch64 is ARM 64-bit.

seth · 2026-06-19 19:46:25

You mean the one w/ the bytext

Discussion about AArch64, RISC-V and other architectures that are currently unsupported

?

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

bivan · 2026-06-19 19:49:58

Yes.

Lone_Wolf · 2026-06-20 10:00:19

The Bring ARM into the fold? is about the efforts to get archlinux running on ARMv8.2-A (and later) architecture .

When that initiative gets far enough archlinux will likely officially support that new architecture using the same PKGBUILDs , repositories , tooling etc that's now used exclusively for x86_64 .

Arch Linux

#1 2026-06-18 05:24:47

[SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#2 2026-06-18 06:51:49

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#3 2026-06-18 07:05:49

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#4 2026-06-18 07:15:54

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#5 2026-06-18 07:54:35

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#6 2026-06-18 10:31:05

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#7 2026-06-18 11:29:59

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#8 2026-06-18 11:33:44

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#9 2026-06-18 11:34:14

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#10 2026-06-18 11:48:33

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#11 2026-06-18 22:03:38

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#12 2026-06-19 19:13:43

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#13 2026-06-19 19:46:25

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#14 2026-06-19 19:49:58

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

#15 2026-06-20 10:00:19

Re: [SOLVED] How to know, get rid of the too many package(s) in a list?

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