pacgraph

Produce an SVG and PNG graph

$ pacgraph

$ pacgraph --svg

$ pacgraph --console

$ pacgraph --file=[path/to/file]

$ pacgraph --top=[color]

$ pacgraph --dep=[color]

$ pacgraph --background=[color]

$ pacgraph --link=[color]

pacgraph [OPTIONS]

-c, --color
    Color nodes in the graph based on package type (e.g., base, explicitly installed, required, unrequired) for better visual distinction.

-d file, --dotfile=file
    Specify the output file path for the generated .dot graph description. This file can then be processed by Graphviz tools.

-o file, --output=file
    Directly specify the output file path for the final rendered image (e.g., PNG, SVG). This option requires the dot command to be available in the system's PATH.

-s size, --size=size
    Set the maximum size of the output graph image. Useful for controlling output dimensions, especially for very large graphs.

-t, --transitive
    Include transitive dependencies in the graph, showing not just direct dependencies but also dependencies of dependencies, and so on.

-u, --upto
    Generate a graph showing packages that depend on the specified target packages (reverse dependencies).

-w, --web
    Generate an interactive HTML web page with the graph, allowing for zooming and panning within a web browser.

-?, --help
    Display a help message and exit.

--version
    Show program's version number and exit.

pacgraph is a powerful Python-based utility designed for Arch Linux users to visually represent their installed package dependencies. It leverages the Graphviz suite to generate graphical layouts from package relationship data. Users can choose to display direct and transitive dependencies, or explore reverse dependencies (which packages depend on a given one). This tool is invaluable for understanding the complex web of inter-package relationships on a system, helping to identify orphaned packages, visualize the impact of removing software, or simply gain insight into the system's structure.

The output is typically a .dot file, a plain text graph description language, which can then be rendered into various image formats like PNG, SVG, or JPEG using the dot command from Graphviz. It can also generate interactive web pages for exploration.

Generating a graph of an entire system can result in a very large and complex image, which may be slow to render or difficult to interpret visually. For large systems, it's often more effective to generate graphs for specific subsets of packages or use the interactive web output.

The quality and readability of the generated graphs heavily depend on the underlying Graphviz installation and its algorithms.

pacgraph requires the Graphviz package (specifically the dot command) to be installed on the system to render the generated .dot files into image formats or interactive web pages. Without Graphviz, pacgraph can only output the raw .dot graph description files.

To generate a PNG image of your system's package dependencies:
pacgraph -d system_deps.dot && dot -Tpng system_deps.dot -o system_deps.png

To generate an interactive web page:
pacgraph --web > index.html

pacgraph was developed as a complementary tool for Arch Linux's pacman package manager. Its creation aimed to provide a visual understanding of the package ecosystem, which is often challenging to grasp from text-based dependency listings alone. It leverages the robust and widely used Graphviz software, building upon its graph visualization capabilities to offer a more intuitive perspective on package relationships.

pacman(8), pactree(8), dot(1)