Handy tip o' the day

apeiro · 2002-08-13 19:38:50

You can use the --info switch to see information about a package.

[judd@earth judd]# pacman -Q --info xfree86
Name          : xfree86
Version       : 4.2.0-1
Packager      : Arch Linux (http://www.archlinux.org)
Size          : 118401024
Build Date    : Tue Jul 23 20:34:57 2002 UTC
Install Date  : Fri Jul 26 22:32:23 2002 UTC
Install Script: no
Depends On    : glibc 
Required By   : lesstif gimp ghostscript gtk imagemagick xautolock 
Conflicts With: None
Description   : Freely redistributable implementation of the X Window System

[judd@earth judd]#

If you try it and see a lot of blank fields, it's probably because you installed the package before I added this feature. If you reinstall the package you should see it.

dunbar · 2002-08-14 13:50:43

Yes, I'd like to see a tip every day, and I'm especially interested it tips that allow use without internet connectivity, as my box has none.

ody · 2002-08-14 13:58:06

May be kewl to have the option to tell pacman to point to a cd instead of its default ftp, and add some functionality to maintain package cd's.. neone get what Im saying? ;p

Arielext · 2002-08-14 15:33:00

pacman 1 had that option

don't think it's to hard though, mount the cdrom as part of the local ftp / http deamon and point to that.

but having a special local folder bladiebla option would be cool

apeiro · 2002-08-14 17:53:09

Yea, it can be done, but you need a bit of symlink trickery to fool pacman. You also need the current.db.tar.gz from an Arch ftp server. This is the actual sync database that pacman uses to calculate dependencies.

This snippet is taken from the Arch setup script, which uses this same technique to perform a cd-based installation:

# set up some symlinks to fool pacman
mkdir -p $DESTDIR/var/cache/pacman && ln -sf /arch/pkg $DESTDIR/var/cache/pacman/pkg
mkdir -p $DESTDIR/var/lib/pacman && ln -sf /etc/pacman/current $DESTDIR/var/lib/pacman/current

The first line symlinks the package directory to pacman's cache directory. This will prevent pacman from trying to download any packages, since it will find all of them in the cache directory, /var/cache/pacman/pkg.

The second line links the 'current' sync db from /etc/pacman/current to its proper location at /var/lib/pacman/current. This lets you use 'pacman -S' to install packages with dependencies.

Now this is too much work to be handy to use, so I'll look at adding something to allow access to a local repository. I'll also have to release a script that lets users build their own sync databases. Let's say pacman 2.1 or 2.2...

dunbar · 2002-08-29 14:59:35

I posted elsewhere: Can't install via CDRW, can't get internet on the Linux box. Thus, said pacman trickery will be the option I'd need to use.
;-) Patiently yours. Tired of Spamm

Arielext · 2002-08-29 15:58:13

get pacman 2.1

pacman 2.1 has the option (no trickery needed!)

Arch Linux

#1 2002-08-13 19:38:50

Handy tip o' the day

#2 2002-08-14 13:50:43

Re: Handy tip o' the day

#3 2002-08-14 13:58:06

Re: Handy tip o' the day

#4 2002-08-14 15:33:00

Re: Handy tip o' the day

#5 2002-08-14 17:53:09

Re: Handy tip o' the day

#6 2002-08-29 14:59:35

Re: Handy tip o' the day

#7 2002-08-29 15:58:13

Re: Handy tip o' the day

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