Arch Linux

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

[SOLVED] Using /var/cache/pacman/pkg

Hello all,

I am thinking of reinstalling Arch. I have a download limit from my ISP and am trying to get around installing everything currently on my computer from the internet.

I made a backup of /var/cache/pacman/pkg on one of my hard drives that will not be formatted. I am under the impression that this contains every package currently on my computer. From what I can tell it seems that packages installed with 'yaourt' are in there as well, which I suppose would make sense.

Is it possible, after installing the base system from disc, to install everything in /var/cache/pacman/pkg with one simple command, instead of having to install each package on its own?

I have tried searching for this information but haven't had any luck, though admittedly I am not very good at searching. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I have been reading 'man pacman' and this caught my eye:

           In addition to packages, groups can be specified as well. For
           example, if gnome is a defined package group, then pacman -S
           gnome will install every package in the gnome group, as well as
           the dependencies of those packages.

Perhaps I could make a group called, 'whatever', and have all the packages that I want installed listed in 'whatever'. Does this sound like a reasonable way to go about this?

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2008-07-06 19:59:40)

_Marco_

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 242

Re: [SOLVED] Using /var/cache/pacman/pkg

I'd try a...

cd /var/cache/pacman/pkg
pacman -U *

but I've done this with not so many packages...

Last edited by _Marco_ (2008-06-07 19:39:16)

shazeal

Member

From: New Zealand

Registered: 2007-06-05

Posts: 341

Re: [SOLVED] Using /var/cache/pacman/pkg

You could do that but then It wont store the package depends as all the packages will be installed explicitly. This would make uninstalling anything a bitch. Easier just to do a "/usr/bin/pacman -Qqe > ~/packages.list" then just install the packages on the new install from the text file.

kjon

Member

From: Temuco, Chile

Registered: 2008-04-16

Posts: 398

Re: [SOLVED] Using /var/cache/pacman/pkg

That's right, you might try a pacman -Qqet > pkgfile and then a cat pkgfile | xargs pacman -S
That *might* work. In my case, I always prefer to perform a pacman -S base, and then, the rest of the packages. I know that pacman handles pretty well the dependencies, however, I don't think that it does any sort of magic.

---

They say that if you play a Win cd backward you hear satanic messages. That's nothing! 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs windows.

The Avatar of Time

Member

Registered: 2008-01-11

Posts: 226

Re: [SOLVED] Using /var/cache/pacman/pkg

Thanks for the replies.

This worked well enough for what I wanted to do:

cd /var/cache/pacman/pkg
pacman -U *

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: [SOLVED] Using /var/cache/pacman/pkg

You were better off doing it as kjon and shazeal suggested because that way pacman would keep track of packages installed as dependencies....

---

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

Stythys

Member

From: SF Bay Area

Registered: 2008-05-18

Posts: 878

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Using /var/cache/pacman/pkg

yes, agreed. you should reinstall again

---

[home page] -- [code / configs]

"Once you go Arch, you must remain there for life or else Allan will track you down and break you."
-- Bregol