This post tries to simply introduce some package managers and their basic usage.

pacman

The pacman package manager is the default package manager of Arch Linux. Learn more about pacman on the official wiki here.

pacman - Changing to mirror

Before you start to use pacman, changing its source to mirror source in your country might be greatly helpful.

Firstly, find a mirror you need on Mirror Overview of ArchLinux offical site. Here I choose the mirror from my mother school, whose URL is https://mirrors.njupt.edu.cn/archlinux/.

Then, edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist , and paste the string below into the file.

Server = https://mirrors.njupt.edu.cn/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

Last, save the file and run sudo pacman -Syu to update.

The file /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist has already provided many mirrors in it. So you can just skip the first step above, just edit the mirrorlist file. Find the server you want, and delete the # at the begining of that line to uncomment it.

For an easy copy, here are some mirrors in China:

### China
## Aliyun
# Server = https://mirrors.aliyun.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Netease
# Server = https://mirrors.163.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Tsinghua
# Server = https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## NJU
# Server = https://mirrors.nju.edu.cn/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## NJUPT
# Server = https://mirrors.njupt.edu.cn/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

pacman - Upgrading packages

Run the command below to upgrade packages.

sudo pacman -Syu

You are recommended to immediately run this command after changing to a mirror.

pacman - Querying package(s)

To find the package you need in the sync database:

pacman -Ss <package_name>

The “s” in the small case means “search”.

To list the packages installed:

pacman -Qq  // list all the packages, ignore version (-q)
pacman -Qqe // list explicitly installed packages (-e)
pacman -Qqd // list the packages installed as dependencies (-d)
pacman -Qqdt // list the packages which are no longer dependencies (-t), usually can be removed

pacman - Installing package(s)

This command helps install one or more packages.

sudo pacman -S <package_name1> <package_name2> ...

For example, to install bat, run:

sudo pacman -S bat

pacman - Removing package(s)

This command helps remove a single package, leaving all of its dependencies installed:

sudo pacman -R <package_name>

To remove a package and its dependencies that are not required by any other installed package:

sudo pacman -Rs <package_name>

Here I found a helpful article that provides more information: 《Arch Linux 软件包的查询及清理》.

APT

The APT(Advanced Packaging Tools) is(Maybe “are”? Since it’s “tools”?) widely used in Debian and Ubuntu etc. It mainly includes apt-get ,apt-cache and apt-file.

APT - Changing to mirror

Take Tsinghua’s mirror as an example:

## Tsinghua
## from https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/help/ubuntu
# 默认注释了源码镜像以提高 apt update 速度，如有需要可自行取消注释
deb https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy main restricted universe multiverse
deb https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

# deb https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
# # deb-src https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse

# 预发布软件源，不建议启用
# deb https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
# # deb-src https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/ jammy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

APT - Useful commands

sudo apt update // update the package info 
sudo apt upgrade // upgrade all the packages installed
apt list --upgradeable // list all the packages that can upgrade

sudo apt install <package_name> // install a specific package
sudo apt install -f // fix the dependencies

sudo apt remove <package_name> // remove a specific package
sudo apt autoremove // auto remove the packages that no longer needed

apt show <package_name> // show the info about a specific package

To be continued