pacman-s

View documentation for the original command

$ tldr pacman sync

pacman -Ss [options] [search_string]

-s, --search regexp
    Search package names and descriptions for regexp. This is the default behavior if no other operation is specified.

-i, --info package(s)
    View package information for the given package(s) from the sync database.

-w, --download
    Download packages but do not install them.

-y, --refresh
    Download a fresh copy of the master package database from the server(s) defined in pacman.conf.

-q, --quiet
    Show less information for certain operations.

--color when
    Specify when to enable color. when can be 'always', 'auto' or 'never' (default).

The pacman -Ss command is a powerful tool in Arch Linux for searching the repositories for available packages. It connects to the configured package databases (defined in /etc/pacman.conf) and searches package names and descriptions. The search is case-insensitive and can perform wildcard searches if specified. Using the command without any specific arguments will list all available packages, while specifying search terms will narrow the results. The output typically includes the package name, version, and a brief description.

When searching the packages it is important to update the local package databases before searching with the command pacman -Sy or pacman -Syy to force a refresh, otherwise the results may be inaccurate. The double y flag in the update command bypasses the package age check. The pacman command searches also on remote packages that aren't necessarily installed in the system.

Remember to update the package database before searching to ensure accurate results. Wildcards in search terms can lead to long search times if too broad.

pacman -Ss firefox: Searches for packages related to 'firefox'.
pacman -Ss '^firefox': Searches for packages where the name begins with 'firefox'.

pacman(8), pacman-Sy(8), pacman-Si(8), pacman-S(8)