Listing packages to update without updating.

cactus · 2004-11-20 02:59:39

Ok, here is the scenario.
I want to setup a cron that would run pacman daily, and send me the output as to which packages COULD be updated, without actually updating them.

something like pacman -Sy?
I don't know what to put in for the question mark. If I put in u, it prompts to actually perform the update. I just wan't to list what COULD be updated, not start trying to do an update.

Any ideas?

I could likely hack something together where I setup a script to run packman and then kill it after it stops generating output, but that is very ugly, and I would prefer to just have pacman output a list of potential upgrades, then just sent that to myself. This would be great for administering servers.

orelien · 2004-11-20 09:31:14

You can try something like:

echo "n" | pacman -Su

cactus · 2004-11-20 10:09:31

that kinda works, but still it is relying on termination of a real pacman update.
Does pacman have an option to just list potential updates?
like pacman -Su --list
or pacman -Sul

Snowman · 2004-11-20 23:56:33

pacman -Syup

will print the url's of the packages that need upgrading

cactus · 2004-11-21 01:10:44

hmm...I could use that, but it still seems a bit hackish..also prints out the progress of updating from the repositories..i still think it would be more elegent to have pacman do it for me. it is after all, the tool that is querying the server and updating the package list.
I might just try to patch pacman so that it will do a quiet mode and have the option to print potential updates, but not do anything...

like a pacman -Syu -ql
ie (q)uiet --(l)ist-only

or something similar..

i3839 · 2004-11-21 01:16:33

Pacman -Su doesn't do anything at all except reading its database, so I really don't see what your problem is. Perhaps you don't like the output format or something.

cactus · 2004-11-21 01:46:13

Proceed with upgrade? [Y/n]

As stated above, I could just pipe "n" to pacman, but that seems inelegant to me. I would prefer to have the package manager just output the potential changes without needing something like that. Must be just me though...thank god for open source.

Anyway, pacman -Su does not download updates from the repo anyway, so it would be fetching against outdated material..
pacman -Syu still suffers from the above fate, as well as the progress bar output if new package lists are fetched from the repo....

I guess this is just something that I alone think would be cool/useful. So be it. I will endeavor to make it happen for myself nonetheless.

orelien · 2004-11-21 11:44:12

You're right this feature could be quite useful.

Fetching the list of packages needed for a system upgrade will be possible with the future pacman library.

In the meantime, you'll have to wait... or have a look at pacman sources to extract the piece of code related to system upgrades and implement your own tool

Pajaro · 2004-11-21 15:44:56

a pacman library? that's great! Yesterday I was thinking there should be a pacman library in order to make a graphical version of pacman + srcpac with enhaced graphical features, like being able to manage repos or src packages easily

I made a design of how it could be. Here's a link to an executable that's nothing but the design:

http://linuxhelp.webcindario.com/ksrcpac

Nak · 2010-04-27 15:57:38

pacman -Qu

.:B:. · 2010-04-27 16:39:24

Not sure what you're thinking mate, this topic is from 2004 and it's been a while since this has been brought up... It's all in the manual too now

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … Bumping.27

Last edited by .:B:. (2010-04-27 16:54:01)

brisbin33 · 2010-04-27 16:41:53

it really took 10 posts to get to that? this is the backbone of every single conky-available-updates script.

archers, i are dissapoint

.

/edit... damn... i never look at dates from recent posts posts... so 10 posts and 6 years then...

Last edited by brisbin33 (2010-04-27 16:42:41)

flamelab · 2010-04-27 16:43:40

+1, same thing here, couldn't understand why the couldn't propose such an easy thing. But it's 6 years ago... lol xD

.:B:. · 2010-04-27 16:54:17

Dammit I should close quicker >_>

Arch Linux

#1 2004-11-20 02:59:39

Listing packages to update without updating.

#2 2004-11-20 09:31:14

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#3 2004-11-20 10:09:31

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#4 2004-11-20 23:56:33

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#5 2004-11-21 01:10:44

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#6 2004-11-21 01:16:33

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#7 2004-11-21 01:46:13

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#8 2004-11-21 11:44:12

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#9 2004-11-21 15:44:56

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#10 2010-04-27 15:57:38

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#11 2010-04-27 16:39:24

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#12 2010-04-27 16:41:53

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#13 2010-04-27 16:43:40

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

#14 2010-04-27 16:54:17

Re: Listing packages to update without updating.

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