checkpac

A fast and simple package checking tool for Arch Linux. Quickly find installed packages, check versions, and discover available packages using simple keyword searches. Get a clean, colorful overview of package status, update availability, and repository sources - all in one place. Perfect for when you need to quickly check what's on your system or find new packages to install.

Features

• Simple package checking - find packages using keywords, no exact names needed
• Check multiple packages at once - checkpac firefox chrome vim
• Fast results - efficient parallel searching for quick lookups
• Clear, readable output - color-coded information shows status at a glance
• Version checking - easily see available updates. Arch repos check against synced package caches, while AUR check against AUR RPC Endpoint
• AUR support - No aur helper needed to be installed. Paginates requests to AUR to be able to return large lists of results if required

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/zeroz/checkpac.git
cd checkpac

Install dependencies:

pacman -S expac flock jq

Make the script executable if not:

chmod +x bin/checkpac

You can either:

1. Create an alias in your .bashrc

   alias checkpac='/path/to/checkpac.bash'

2. Or copy to a directory in your PATH:

   sudo cp bin/checkpac.bash /usr/local/bin/checkpac

Basic Usage

Default search is case insensitive, and uses your package arguments as keywords to search for package names containing it. You may also search for exact package name matches, or choose to search and list packages where your keywords match the description

Check a single package:

checkpac wine

Check multiple packages at once:

checkpac firefox minecraf vim

Include remote packages (not installed):

checkpac -r firefox chromium brave

or

checkpac firefox chromium brave -r

List all installed lib packages containing "lib"

checkpac lib

View the help menu :)

checkpac -h

Advanced Features

Search Options

Flag	Description
-r, --remote	Include packages from repositories
-d, --desc	Search package descriptions
-e, --exact	Match package names exactly
--exclude-aur	Skip AUR packages
--exclude-arch	Skip official repository packages

Advanced Examples

Search through descriptions and remote packages for multiple terms:

checkpac -rd docker kubernetes podman container

Search for exact package matches:

checkpac -e wine wine-staging wine-mono

Check ONLY AUR packages locally installed:

checkpac --exclude-arch paru yay aurutils

Check ONLY AUR packages, remote and installed:

checkpac paru yay aurutils -r --exclude-arch

Features in Detail

Version Checking

• Color-coded version comparisons (installed vs detected in package cache)
• Highlights version differences
• Shows available updates
• Detects development packages (-git, -svn, etc.)

Repository Information

• Shows package source (core, extra, community, etc.)
• Color-coded repository types
• AUR package identification
• Development package detection

Search Capabilities

• Parallel search processing
• Optional description searching
• Case-insensitive by default
• Exact matching option
• Paginated API searches
• Multiple package search support

Processing

• Support for sub processes and process management for speed
• Allows caching for packages to process and print more efficiently/simulataneously
• Process interruption. Always be able to kill the program with Ctrl^C or interrupts

About

Created by zeroz/tj

Licensed under GPLv3