PACSIFT(1) pacsift PACSIFT(1)

pacsift - query and filter packages

pacsift [options] (<field> <term>)...
pacsift (--help|--version)

By default the intersection of matched packages are returned. If a field is provided multiple times the union of matches will be used for that field.

If stdin is not connected to a terminal, packages to filter will be read from stdin.

Combine with pacinfo to display brief package information similar to "pacman -Qs" and "pacman -Ss":

pacsift --name pacman | pacinfo --short

Set an alternate configuration file path.
Set an alternate sync database extension.
Set an alternate database path.
Set an alternate installation root.
Set an alternate system root. See pacutils-sysroot(7).
Set an alternate separator for values parsed from stdin. By default a newline "\n" is used as the separator. If --null is used without specifying sep "NUL" will be used.
Exit with a non-zero value if no matches are found.
Exit with a non-zero value if matches are found.
Return packages that DO NOT match the provided search terms.
Return the union of matched packages rather than the intersection.
Match values exactly.
Treat string values as extended case-insensitive regular expressions.
Display usage information and exit.
Display version information and exit.

Filters limit the initial set of packages to be searched. They may not be used if packages are provided on stdin and they are not affected by --invert or --any.

Search locally installed packages. Similar to:
pacsift --repo=local | pacsift ...
Search packages in sync databases. Similar to:
pacsift --invert --repo=local | pacsift ...
Search packages in cache directories.

By default string fields will use a case-insensitive substring search. If --exact is used string fields must match val exactly. If "--regex" is used val will be used as an extended case-insensitive regular expression.

File paths must match the package database; no attempt is made to resolve the provided path. Note: when used with --exact the installation root will be removed from path if present, otherwise path will be used exactly as provided. May be used with realpath or which to more easily search for the owner of installed files: 
pacsift --local --exact --owns-file="$(which pacsift)"

Dependencies may be specified in the format "<pkgname>[<cmp><version]". "cmp" may be any of the following: "=", "<", "<=", ">", ">=". If "version" is provided the package dependency must be an exact match to the search term. If "version" is omitted only "pkgname" will be compared unless --exact is used. If "--exact" is used and "version" is not provided only dependencies with no version specified will be matched.

Dependency fields are not affected by --regex.

Size fields may be prefixed with any of the following comparisons: "=", "!=", "<", "<=", ">", ">=". If no comparison is provided "=" will be used. The size may be followed by abbreviated unit. Units are case-sensitive.

Date fields may be prefixed with any of the following comparisons: "=", "!=", "<", "<=", ">", ">=". If no comparison is provided "=" will be used. Dates may be provided as seconds since the epoch or any of the following "strptime" formats: "%Y-%m-%d", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S".

Search for packages that satisfy dependency.

pacsift --packager allan

pacsift --local --size '>1.5GB'

pacsift --description pacman --description alpm

pacsift --description pacman | pacsift --description alpm

pacsift --local --exists --satisfies pacman && echo "pacman is installed"

pacsift determines whether or not to read packages from stdin based on a naive check using isatty(3). If pacsift is called in an environment, such as a shell function or script being used in a pipe, where stdin is not connected to a terminal but does not contain packages to filter, pacsift should be called with stdin closed. For POSIX-compatible shells, this can be done with "<&-".

2024-04-16 pacutils