yaylog

yaylog is a CLI util, written in Go / Golang, for arch linux and arch-based linux distros to sort/filter installed packages.

despite the name, it's not limited to yay and works with any package manager that uses ALPM; so it can be used with pacman, yay, paru, aura, pamac, and even yaourt if you're somehow still using it.

yaylog supports optional filters/sorting for install date, package name, install reason (explicit/dependency), size on disk, reverse dependencies, dependency requirements, and more. check usage for all available options.

this package is compatible with the following distributions:

• arch linux
• manjaro
• steamOS
• garuda linux
• endeavourOS
• artix linux
• the 50 other arch-based distros, as long as it has pacman installed

features

• list installed packages with date/timestamps, dependencies, provisions, requirements, size on disk, and version
• display package versions
• filter results by explicitly installed packages
• filter results by packages installed as dependencies
• filter by packages required by a specific package
• sort results by installation date, alphabetically, or by size on disk
• filter results by a specific installation date or date range
• filter results by package size or size range
• filter results by package name (substring match)
• output as a table or JSON

why is it called yaylog if it works with other AUR helpers?

because yay is my preferred AUR helper and the name has a good flow.

is it good?

yes.

roadmap

• rewrite in golang
• additional filters
• list possibly or confirmed stale/abandoned packages
• sort by size on disk
• dependency graph
• concurrent filtering
• filter by size on disk
• asynchronous progress bar
• channel-based aggregation
• concurrent sorting
• search by text input
• package versions
• filter by date range
• concurrent file reading (2x speed boost)
• remove expac as a dependency (3x speed boost)
• package provisions
• optional full timestamp
• add CI to release binaries
• remove go as a dependency
• filter by range of size on disk
• user defined columns
• dependencies of each package
• reverse-dependencies of each package (required-by field)
• package descriptions
• package URLs
• package architecture
• name exclusion filter
• self-referencing column
• JSON output
• no-headers option
• provides filter
• depends filter
• all-columns option
• required-by filter
• key/value output
• list of packages in required-by filter
• config dependency injection for testing
• more extensive testing

installation

from AUR (recommended)

install using AUR helper like yay:

yay -S yaylog

if you prefer to install a pre-compiled binary* using the AUR, use the yaylog-bin package instead.

*note: binaries are automatically, securely, and transparently compiled with github CI when a version release is created. you can audit the binary creation by checking the relevant github action for each release version.

for the latest (unstable) version from git w/ the AUR, use yaylog-git*.

*note: this is not recommended for most users

building from source + manual installation

note: this packages is specific to arch-based linux distributions

1. clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/zweih/yaylog.git
   cd yaylog

2. build the binary:

   go build -o yaylog ./cmd/yaylog

3. copy the binary to your system's $PATH:

   sudo install -m755 yaylog /usr/bin/yaylog

4. copy the manpage:

   sudo install -m644 yaylog.1 /usr/share/man/man1/yaylog.1

usage

yaylog [options]

options

• -n <number> | --number <number>: number of recent packages to display (default: 20)
• -a | all: show all installed packages (ignores -n)
• -e | --explicit: show only explicitly installed packages
• -d | --dependencies: show only packages installed as dependencies
• --date <filter>: filter packages by installation date. Supports:
  • YYYY-MM-DD - show packages installed on the specified date
  • YYYY-MM-DD: - show packages installed on or after the date
  • :YYYY-MM-DD - show packages installed up to the date
  • YYYY-MM-DD:YYYY-MM-DD - show packages installed within a date range
• --size <filter>: filter packages by size on disk. Supports:
  • 10MB - show packages exactly 10MB in size
  • 5GB: - show packages 5GB and larger
  • :20KB - show packages up to 20KB
  • 1.5MB:2GB - show packages between 1.5MB and 2GB
  • valid units: B (bytes), KB, MB, GB
• --name <search-term>: filter packages by name (substring match)
  • example: gtk matches gtk3, libgtk, etc.
• --sort <mode>: sort results by:
  • date (default) - sort by installation date
  • alphabetical - sort alphabetically by package name
  • size:asc / size:desc - sort by package size (ascending or descending)
• --no-headers: omit column headers in table output (useful for scripting)
• --columns <list>: comma-separated list of columns to display (cannot use with --all-columns or --add-columns)
• --add-columns <list>: comma-separated list of columns to add to defaults or all-columns
• --all-columns: show all available columns in the output (overrides defaults)
• --full-timestamp: display the full timestamp (date and time) of package installations instead of just the date
• --json: output results in JSON format (overrides table output and --full-timestamp)
• --no-progress: force no progress bar outside of non-interactive environments
• --required-by <package-name>: show only packages that are required by the specified package
• -h | --help: print help info

available columns

• date - installation date of the package
• name - package name
• reason - installation reason (explicit/dependency)
• size - package size on disk
• version - installed package version
• depends - list of dependencies (output can be long)
• required-by - list of packages required by the package and are dependent (output can be long)
• provides - list of alternative package names or shared libraries provided by package (output can be long)

JSON output

the --json flag outputs the package data as structured JSON instead of a table. this can be useful for scripts or automation.

example:

yaylog --name sqlite --all-columns --json

sqlite is one of the few packages that actually has all the fields populated.

output format:

[
  {
    "timestamp": "2025-02-26T16:33:47Z",
    "name": "sqlite",
    "reason": "dependency",
    "size": 21074944,
    "version": "3.48.0-2",
    "depends": [
      "readline",
      "zlib",
      "glibc"
    ],
    "requiredBy": [
      "docker",
      "gnupg",
      "libsoup3",
      "nss",
      "openslide",
      "tinysparql",
      "util-linux-libs"
    ],
    "provides": [
      "sqlite3=3.48.0",
      "libsqlite3.so=0-64"
    ]
  }
]

tips & tricks

• when using multiple short flags, the -n flag must be last since it consumes the next argument. this follows standard unix-style flag parsing, where positional arguments (like numbers) are treated as separate parameters.

  invalid:

  yaylog -ne 15  # incorrect usage 

  valid:

  yaylog -en 15

• the depends, provides, required-by columns output can be lengthy, packages like glibc are required by thousands of packages. to improve readability, pipe the output to less:

  yaylog --columns name,depends | less

• all options that take an argument can also be used in the --<flag>=<argument> format:

  yaylog --size=100MB:1GB --date=:2024-06-30 --number=100
  yaylog --name=gtk --sort=alphabetical

  boolean flags can also be explicitly set using --<flag>=true or --<flag>=false:

  yaylog --explicit=true --dependencies=false --no-progress=true

  string arguments can also be surrounded with quotes or double-quotes:

  yaylog --sort="alphabetical" --name="vim"

  this can be useful for scripts and automation where you might want to avoid any and all ambiguity.

  note: --no-progress is automatically set to true when in a non-interactive environment, so you can pipe | into programs like cat, grep, or less without issue

• the --no-headers flag is useful when processing output in scripts. It removes the header row, making it easier to parse package lists with tools like awk, sed, or cut:

  yaylog --no-headers --columns name,size | awk '{print $1, $2}'

examples

1. show the last 10 installed packages:

yaylog -n 10

2. show all explicitly installed packages:

yaylog -ae

3. show only dependencies installed on a specific date:

yaylog -d --date 2024-12-25

4. show all packages sorted alphabetically:

yaylog -a --sort alphabetical

5. show the 15 most recent explicitly installed packages:

yaylog -en 15

6. show packages installed between July 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023:

yaylog --date 2023-07-01:2023-12-31

7. show the 20 most recently installed packages larger than 20MB:

yaylog --size 20MB:

8. show all dependencies smaller than 500KB:

yaylog -ad --size :500KB

9. show packages between 100MB and 1GB installed up to June 30, 2024:

yaylog --size 100MB:1GB --date :2024-06-30

10. show all packages sorted by size in descending order, installed after January 1, 2024:

yaylog -a --sort size:desc --date 2024-01-01:

11. search for installed packages containing "python":

yaylog --name python

12. search for explicitly installed packages containing "lib" that are between 10MB and 1GB in size:

yaylog -e --name lib --size 10MB:1GB

13. search for packages containing "linux" that were installed between January 1 and June 30, 2024:

yaylog --name linux --date 2024-01-01:2024-06-30

14. search for packages containing "gtk" that were installed after January 1, 2023, and are at least 5MB in size:

yaylog --name gtk --date 2023-01-01: --size 5MB:

15. show packages with name, version, and size:

yaylog --columns name,version,size

16. show package names and dependencies with less for readability:

yaylog --columns name,depends | less

17. output package data in JSON format:

yaylog --json

18. save all explicitly installed packages to a JSON file:

yaylog -ae --json > explicit-packages.json

19. output all packages sorted by size (descending) in JSON:

yaylog --json -a --sort size:desc

20. output JSON with specific columns:

yaylog --json --columns name,version,size

21. show all available package details:

yaylog --all-columns

22. output all packages with all columns/fields in JSON format:

yaylog -a --all-columns --json

23. show package names and sizes without headers for scripting:

yaylog --no-headers --columns name,size

24. show all packages required by "firefox":

yaylog --required-by firefox

25. show all packages required by "gtk3" that are at least 50MB in size:

yaylog --required-by gtk3 --size 50MB:

26. show packages required by "vlc" and installed after January 1, 2024:

yaylog --required-by vlc --date 2024-01-01: