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37 sats \ 6 replies \ @DannyM 21 May \ on: Is it just me or is pacman package manager not intuitive devs
Pacman has some pretty weird flag choices, but they make more sense once you get the logic behind them:
-S (sync): Grabs and installs a package from the database -s (search): Just a modifier telling pacman "don't install anything, just search" -y (refresh): Updates your package database so it knows what's new out there -u (update): Upgrades your installed stuff to the newest versions -Q (query): Shows what packages you've got installed -R (remove): Kicks a package off your system
So when you run pacman -S firefox, you might not get the newest Firefox version if your local database is outdated. For the latest, you'd need pacman -Sy firefox, which refreshes your database first, then installs Firefox.
pacman -R firefox just removes Firefox from your system pacman -Ss firefox searches for any packages with "firefox" in the name pacman -Qs firefox searches for any installed package with "firefox" in the name
the only flag that that never made sense to me is -y, I have no idea why refresh is y
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0 sats \ 5 replies \ @kepford OP 21 May
I don't get the case difference logically. I really lean on mnemonics as well for learning. I just haven't figured that out for pacman. This is how I learned Vim and its something I think about when trying to remember anything new.
-S Sync makes no sense to me for install. -s Search makes sense but I'm not sure why its lowercase -y makes no sense for refreshing.
I swear its like the creator is trolling us all.
-u makes sense but why lower case -Q Query makes sense but why upper case and query being local doesn't. Why not lowercase for local and upper for searching?
I would argue that the massive number of CLIs out there that do not follow these patterns is a signal.
I will add... I'm a long time CLI guy and Vim user.
Thanks for the info though.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @DannyM 21 May
-U uppercase allows you to install a package from a local file, while still downloading dependencies from the db, so if you do for example pacman -U ~/firefox.tar.gz will download all the dependencies for firefox specified in the tar.gz, but then install the version in your .tar.gz not the one in the sync db.
And if I remember correctly, there's also another -u, that only works with -R, which removes packages only if they're not needed as a dependency of something else.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford OP 21 May
Yeah, that sounds right. You're making my point btw :)
Maybe this is a common criticism but I don't recall ever hearing it. Honestly, it kinda seems intentionally obtuse and I get that really. The types of questions you see on forums for Mint are... very different from other distros like Arch.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @DannyM 21 May
No trust me, I know. It's extremely unintuitive, wasn't trying to argue otherwise, just wanted to be helpful :)
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 21 May
Yeah, I feel ya.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 21 May
Sorry... its like nails on a chalkboard.
Q queries your local system but s searches remote repos for packages... while S syncs remote to local...
I'm trying to find the patterns and I do not see them.
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