Managing packages with pacman

CatOS uses pacman for Arch Linux and CatOS repository packages.

Search repositories and installed packages:

pacman -Ss keyword
pacman -Qs keyword

Inspect repository or installed metadata:

pacman -Si package_name
pacman -Qi package_name

Install a package:

sudo pacman -S package_name

Perform a complete upgrade:

sudo pacman -Syu

Never run pacman -Sy as a standalone daily operation. Refreshing package databases without upgrading installed packages creates an unsupported partial-upgrade state.

Remove a package and unused dependencies:

sudo pacman -Rns package_name

List orphaned dependencies and review them before removal:

pacman -Qdtq

With pacman-contrib, keep recent package-cache versions using:

sudo paccache -r

Do not run pacman, Discover, yay, and paru concurrently. Before touching /var/lib/pacman/db.lck, confirm that no package transaction is still active.