# pacman

The package manager as a module (novox/hq to-be 42 Phase 1, ADR 0207, research 027). It holds the
`node-package-manager` seat, which has no verbs yet. Every module that declares a package depends on
that seat (ADR 0207).

## What it owns

- The `pacman` package. A component's own package belongs to the module that holds its seat
  (ADR 0207).
- **`/etc/pacman.conf`, whole.** A block cannot be added to `[options]` by appending: anything added
  at the end of the file lands in the last repository's section. So the module owns the file:
  - The repositories are the union of what the four machines had enabled on 2026-10-04: `core`,
    `extra` and `multilib`. All four had all three.
  - The options are the distribution's defaults, plus `Color`, `ParallelDownloads = 5`,
    `VerbosePkgLists`, and `DownloadUser = alpm` (pacman 7; the `alpm` user exists on all four).
  - The manifest test runs `pacman-conf` on the rendered file and checks the repository list and the
    options as pacman reads them. It skips that check where `pacman-conf` is absent.
  - The host keeps the machine's previous file once, the first time it writes over it (ADR 0102).
- **Mirrors.** The `reflector` package, `/etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf` written whole (https,
  Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, France, the 20 most recently synced, sorted by
  rate, saved to `/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist`), and `reflector.timer` running and enabled. The mirror
  list stays reflector's to write, not the mesh's.
- **Cache cleaning.** The `pacman-contrib` package and `paccache.timer` running and enabled. Each
  week it keeps the last three versions of each package.

## What it improves

- Mirrors were generated once and never again: in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and on one machine by its
  hosting provider's installer. The list is now refreshed weekly. The timer's first run is at the
  next weekly boundary; `pacman_mirrors` with `refresh: true` runs it at once.
- Package caches were never cleaned. One workstation held 48 GB, of which paccache would free 33 GB.
- Every machine has the same options. Only one had parallel downloads.

## What it leaves found

- `/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist`, which reflector rewrites, and the stale `mirrorlist.pacnew`,
  `.bak`, `.original` and similar copies beside it.
- `/etc/pacman.d/hooks`, the keyring, and the AUR helper. Packages from outside the repositories
  are research 027 question 1.

## Tools

| tool | | answers |
|---|---|---|
| `pacman_search` | r | `pacman -Ss`: repository, name, version, groups, installed and at which version, description |
| `pacman_info` | r | `-Qi`, or `-Si` when not installed, with lists as lists |
| `pacman_installed` | r | every package with version, explicit or dependency, foreign; filters and totals |
| `pacman_owns` | r | which package owns a path, or `owned: false` |
| `pacman_files` | r | what a package placed, bounded |
| `pacman_updates` | r | `checkupdates`: what a full upgrade would change, never setting up a partial upgrade |
| `pacman_upgrade` | a | starts `pacman -Syu --noconfirm` (sudo -n) as a transient unit that outlives the call; answers the unit and the news since the last upgrade; given the unit, how it went |
| `pacman_orphans` | r | `pacman -Qdt` |
| `pacman_remove_orphans` | a | `pacman -Rs` on named orphans, or all of them, as a unit of its own; a name that is not an orphan is refused |
| `pacman_cache` | r/a | size, interrupted downloads, what paccache would free keeping N; `clean: true` removes them |
| `pacman_history` | r | `/var/log/pacman.log`: installs, upgrades, downgrades, reinstalls and removals since a day, and the last full upgrade |
| `pacman_mirrors` | r/a | the list, its generator and age, reflector's options, timer and last run; `refresh: true` starts reflector |
| `pacman_foreign` | r | `pacman -Qm` |
| `pacman_news` | r | the distribution's news since the last full upgrade (or a day), over https; no network is `reachable: false` |
| `pacman_config` | r | `pacman-conf`: options, repositories, and whether `/etc/pacman.conf` is the module's |

A transaction never runs as the tool's own child. An upgrade takes longer than the 20 s a call may
take, and a pacman killed mid-transaction leaves a half-upgraded machine and a lock. So a transaction
runs as a transient unit (`systemd-run`, named `mesh-pacman-…`), and its log is read from the journal.