Pamac, a graphic tool to manage Arch Linux packages

A graphical tool to manage your Arch Linux packages can be useful. In this post, I will show you the installation and usage of “pamac ” and its dependence package-query, needed to search packages.

Easy to use, this tool is something practical in a daily use of your PC. If no already done, you need to install some tools to prepare the compilation. Next, we’ll clone the repository and start the set-up.

Pamac installation#

The recommended method is to use an AUR helper like yay or paru (see YAY installation guide ):

yay -S pamac-aur

Or manually from AUR:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git
cd /tmp && git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/pamac-aur.git
cd pamac-aur && makepkg -si

When installation is done, pamac will be accessible in the application launcher, or in a terminal when you type pamac.

Pamac is usable when you are a standard user, you do not need admin rights or sudo, unless you start an installation of a package. Search for package doesn’t need admin rights.

Do you use Gnome environment ? Install the package gnome-software-packagekit-plugin. This plugin let you access directly the gnome app store to view and search for Arch Linux packages.

Manjaro already use this tool (wiki Manjaro), and today it’s one of the most used tool for a graphical package manager.