Pacli – An Interactive BASH Frontend For Pacman And Yaourt

Pacli is an interactive Bash frontend for Pacman and Yaourt. It provides a simple and advanced Pacman, Yaourt, and Packer commands in an easy to use text interface. Also, we can install some Manjaro exclusive commands using Pacli. It is opt for intermediate and advanced users. If you're a beginner just stay away from it unless you know what you're doing. You will be overwhelmed with the lot of options.

In this short tutorial, we are going to see how to install and use Pacli in Arch Linux.

Pacli - An Interactive BASH Frontend For Pacman And Yaourt

Install Pacli on Arch Linux

To install Pacli on Arch Linux, you need to install AUR helper 'yaourt'. Refer the following link to install Yaourt.

• How to install Yaourt on Arch Linux

After installing Yaourt, you can install Pacli using command:

yaourt -S pacli

Install Pacli on Manjaro Linux

Pacli is available in the default repositories of Manjaro Linux. So, you can just install it using pacman as shown below.

sudo pacman -S pacli

Usage

Type 'pacli' from your Terminal to launch it.

pacli

Pacli home screen will look like below. The home screen is divided into three sections. The first section has the options to install, update and remove packages. The second section includes advanced options for optimizing and fixing your system. The options that are marked in red color might break your system. You need to be careful while using the red-marked options. The last section offers Arch User Repository (AUR) management options.

As you can see in the pacli interface, it will do the following for you.

1. Update System
2. Clean System
3. Install Package
4. Remove Package with dependencies
5. Package Information
6. List Local Package Files
7. Dependency Tree
8. Reverse Dependency Tree
9. Defragment Database
10. Help
11. Downgrade Packages
12. Pacman Log
13. Fix Errors
14. Configure Pacman
15. Force Install Package
16. Force Update System
17. Force Remove Package
18. Empty Package Cache
19. Update AUR
20. Force Update AUR
21. Search or Install from AUR
22. Install from AUR
23. List Installed from AUR
24. Configure Yaourt

Enter a number between 0 to 24 and press ENTER to execute the respective command. To exit Pacli, type 0 (zero) and press ENTER.

Say for example, to update your Arch Linux or Manajaro system,  type 1 (Number one) and press ENTER.

You should see an output something like below.

[sudo] password for sk: 
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
 multilib is up to date
 archlinuxfr is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
 there is nothing to do

 Your system is updated. To return to pacli press [Enter]

To install a package, type '3' and press ENTER. Use up and down arrow keys to select a package to install. To select more than one packages use TAB key. Once you have selected the packages to install press ENTER to install them.

To remove a package, type 4 and press ENTER. Select a package you'd like to remove using UP and DOWN arrow keys. or, just type the package name in the prompt to choose it. Also, you can use TAB key to select more than one packages. Once you have selected the packages to remove, press ENTER to remove.

Once the selected task is finished, press ENTER to return back to the Pacli main menu. You can press CTRL-C to forcibly close an operation. To exit from Pacli, type 0(zero) and hit ENTER key. Similarly, you can use other options as described above.

That's all for now. Hope this helps. If you find this guide useful, please share it on your social networks and support OSTechNix.

Cheers!

Resource:

• Pacli on Git Repository