pacsift

List all available packages

$ pacsift

$ pacsift --satisfies [package]

pacsift [options] [<query>]

-s, --sync
    Search the sync database (repositories) instead of the local database.

-i, --info
    Display detailed package information (like pacman -Si/pacman -Qi).

-g, --groups
    Filter by package groups.

-r, --repo
    Filter by repository name.

-l, --list
    List unique values for a specified field (e.g., repos, groups).

-p, --quiet
    Suppress output headers.

-v, --verbose
    Display the full package description.

-f <field>, --field <field>
    Specify the field to search (e.g., name, desc, group, repo).

-w, --word
    Match whole words only.

-c, --case
    Perform a case-sensitive search.

-x, --regex
    Use extended regular expressions (this is the default behavior).

-e, --exact
    Perform an exact string match.

-o, --origin
    Filter packages by their installation origin (e.g., explicit, dependency).

-u, --upgrades
    Show only packages that have available upgrades.

-S <field>, --sort <field>
    Sort results by a specified field (e.g., name, size, version).

-D, --desc
    Sort results in descending order.

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

-V, --version
    Display version information and exit.

pacsift is a powerful command-line utility for Arch Linux that enables users to efficiently search and filter packages within the
pacman database. It acts as an intelligent wrapper around
pacman -Qs (for installed packages) and pacman -Ss (for repository packages), providing a more structured and flexible way to query package information.

Unlike basic
grep pipes, pacsift understands various package fields like name, description, group, repository, and origin, allowing users to target their searches precisely. It supports regular expressions, case sensitivity, whole-word matching, and can display detailed package information or list unique values for specific fields, making it an invaluable tool for system administration and package management.

pacsift relies on pacman's database and output format. Changes in pacman's behavior or output could potentially affect pacsift's functionality. It requires the pacman-contrib package to be installed on Arch Linux.

Search sync database for "linux":
pacsift -s linux
Filter installed packages by the "base-devel" group:
pacsift -g base-devel
List all unique repository names:
pacsift -l repo
Show upgradable packages:
pacsift -u
Search for packages with "python" in their name or description in a case-sensitive manner:
pacsift -c python

pacsift leverages pacman's capabilities, essentially parsing and enhancing its output for more user-friendly and precise filtering. It streamlines the process of extracting relevant package information without needing complex shell pipelines.

pacsift is part of the pacman-contrib package, which provides various helper scripts and tools for pacman. It emerged to address the need for more sophisticated package searching and filtering capabilities beyond what pacman -Qs or pacman -Ss combined with simple piping could offer, providing a more structured and field-aware approach to querying package metadata.

pacman(8), grep(1), awk(1)