PACSIFT(1)                          pacsift                         PACSIFT(1)


NAME
       pacsift - query and filter packages

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

DESCRIPTION
       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

OPTIONS
       --config=path
           Set an alternate configuration file path.

       --dbext=extension
           Set an alternate sync database extension.

       --dbpath=path
           Set an alternate database path.

       --root=path
           Set an alternate installation root.

       --sysroot=path
           Set an alternate system root.  See pacutils-sysroot(7).

       --null[=sep]
           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.

       --exists
           Exit with a non-zero value if no matches are found.

       --not-exists
           Exit with a non-zero value if matches are found.

       --invert
           Return packages that DO NOT match the provided search terms.

       --any
           Return the union of matched packages rather than the intersection.

       --exact
           Match values exactly.

       --regex
           Treat string values as extended case-insensitive regular
           expressions.

       --help
           Display usage information and exit.

       --version
           Display version information and exit.

   Filters
       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.

       --local
           Search locally installed packages.  Similar to:
            pacsift --repo=local | pacsift ...

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

       --cache (EXPERIMENTAL)
           Search packages in cache directories.

   String Fields
       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.

       --repo=val
       --name=val
       --base=val
       --description=val
       --packager=val
       --group=val
       --owns-file=path
           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)"

       --license=val
       --url=val

   Dependency Fields
       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.

       --provides
       --conflicts
       --replaces
       --depends
       --optdepends

   Size Fields
       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.

       --size
       --installed-size
       --download-size

   Date Fields
       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".

       --install-date
       --build-date

   Other
       --satisfies=dependency
           Search for packages that satisfy dependency.

EXAMPLES
       Find broken packages:
            pacsift --packager allan

       Find large installed packages:
            pacsift --local --size '>1.5GB'

       Find packages with either "pacman" or "alpm" in their description:
            pacsift --description pacman --description alpm

       Find packages with both "pacman" and "alpm" in their description:
            pacsift --description pacman | pacsift --description alpm

       Check if a package is installed:
            pacsift --local --exists --satisfies pacman && echo "pacman is installed"

CAVEATS
       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 "<&-".

pacutils                          2025-12-04                        PACSIFT(1)