Pacman and Yay Commands for Arch Linux [Cheat Sheet]

Every Arch Linux user lives in the terminal, and pacman is the command you type most. This cheat sheet covers every pacman operation you will need, from basic installs and updates to cache management, file queries, and AUR packages with yay. Every command below was tested on a live Arch Linux system running Pacman 7.1.0 and kernel 6.19.

Original content from computingforgeeks.com - post 610

Bookmark this page. It works as a quick reference when you forget a flag, and as a learning resource when you want to understand what each option actually does. For the full Arch Linux setup from scratch, see our Arch Linux installation guide with archinstall.

Verified working: March 2026 on Arch Linux (kernel 6.19.8, Pacman 7.1.0, yay 12.5.7)

Update the System

Arch is a rolling release. Running a full system upgrade regularly is the single most important maintenance task.

Synchronize package databases and upgrade all packages:

sudo pacman -Syu

If the system is already current, pacman reports there is nothing to do:

:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core downloading...
 extra downloading...
:: Starting full system upgrade...
 there is nothing to do

Force a database refresh even if recently synced (useful after switching mirrors):

sudo pacman -Syyu

Check which packages have updates available without installing them:

pacman -Qu

Install Packages

Install a package from the official repositories:

sudo pacman -S htop

Pacman resolves dependencies automatically:

:: Processing package changes...
installing htop...
Optional dependencies for htop
    lm_sensors: show cpu temperatures
    lsof: show files opened by a process
    strace: attach to a running process
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...

Install multiple packages in one command:

sudo pacman -S vim nginx git curl wget

Install from a specific repository (when a package exists in multiple repos):

sudo pacman -S extra/nginx

Download a package without installing it (saves to /var/cache/pacman/pkg/):

sudo pacman -Sw vim

Install a local .pkg.tar.zst package file (Arch packages use zstd compression since 2020):

sudo pacman -U /path/to/package.pkg.tar.zst

Install a package directly from a URL:

sudo pacman -U https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/h/htop/htop-3.4.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Remove Packages

Remove a package but keep its config files and dependencies:

sudo pacman -R htop

Remove a package along with its unused dependencies:

sudo pacman -Rs htop

Remove a package, its dependencies, and its config files (the most thorough removal):

sudo pacman -Rns htop

This is the recommended way to cleanly remove software. The -n flag prevents pacman from saving backup copies of config files, and -s removes dependencies that nothing else needs.

Remove orphaned packages (installed as dependencies but no longer required by anything):

sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq)

If there are no orphans, pacman -Qtdq returns nothing and the command is safe to run.

Search and Query Packages

Search for a package in the official repositories:

pacman -Ss nginx

Results show the repository, package name, version, and description:

extra/nginx 1.28.3-1
    Lightweight HTTP server and IMAP/POP3 proxy server
extra/nginx-mainline 1.29.7-1
    Lightweight HTTP server and IMAP/POP3 proxy server, mainline release

View detailed info about a package in the repos (before installing):

pacman -Si nginx

This shows the repository, version, dependencies, download size, installed size, and packager:

Repository      : extra
Name            : nginx
Version         : 1.28.3-1
Description     : Lightweight HTTP server and IMAP/POP3 proxy server
Architecture    : x86_64
Depends On      : glibc  pcre2  zlib  openssl  mailcap  libxcrypt
Download Size   : 603.28 KiB
Installed Size  : 1604.81 KiB

Search installed packages on the local system:

pacman -Qs htop

View detailed info about an installed package:

pacman -Qi htop

List all files installed by a package:

pacman -Ql htop

The output lists every file the package installed:

htop /usr/bin/htop
htop /usr/share/applications/htop.desktop
htop /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/htop.svg
htop /usr/share/man/man1/htop.1.gz
htop /usr/share/pixmaps/htop.png

Find which package owns a specific file:

pacman -Qo /usr/bin/htop

Pacman identifies the owning package and version:

/usr/bin/htop is owned by htop 3.4.1-1

Search for a file across all repository packages (even uninstalled ones). Sync the file database first:

sudo pacman -Fy
pacman -F nginx

The file database shows which packages provide files matching the search term:

extra/nginx 1.28.3-1
    usr/bin/nginx
extra/nginx-mainline 1.29.7-1
    usr/bin/nginx

List Packages

List all installed packages:

pacman -Q

List only explicitly installed packages (not pulled in as dependencies):

pacman -Qe

List packages installed from the AUR or manually (foreign packages not in official repos):

pacman -Qm

List packages installed from official repos only (native):

pacman -Qn

List orphaned packages (dependencies no longer needed):

pacman -Qtd

Manage the Package Cache

Pacman stores every downloaded package in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/. Over time this grows to several gigabytes. Check current cache size:

du -sh /var/cache/pacman/pkg/

Remove cached packages that are no longer installed (keeps the latest version of installed packages):

sudo pacman -Sc

Remove all cached packages (frees the most space but prevents downgrading without re-downloading):

sudo pacman -Scc

For more granular control, install paccache from the pacman-contrib package. Keep only the 3 most recent versions of each package:

sudo pacman -S pacman-contrib
sudo paccache -r

Keep only 1 version:

sudo paccache -rk1

AUR Packages with yay

The Arch User Repository (AUR) contains community-maintained packages not available in the official repos. yay is the most popular AUR helper (12.5.7 as of March 2026). It wraps pacman and adds AUR support, so yay commands feel familiar if you know pacman.

Install yay from the AUR (bootstrap with makepkg since yay itself is an AUR package):

sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-bin.git
cd yay-bin
makepkg -si

After installation, yay works as a drop-in replacement for pacman with AUR support added:

Update all packages including AUR:

yay -Syu

Search the AUR:

yay -Ss google-chrome

Results include both official repo and AUR packages, with vote count and popularity:

aur/google-chrome-canary 147.0.7700.0-1 (+7 0.68)
    The popular web browser by Google (Canary Channel)
aur/chromedriver 146.0.7680.165-1 (+51 0.04)
    Standalone server that implements the W3C WebDriver standard

Install an AUR package:

yay -S google-chrome

Remove an AUR package (same flags as pacman):

yay -Rns google-chrome

List installed AUR packages:

yay -Qm

On a fresh system with only yay installed from AUR:

yay-bin 12.5.7-1

Show system and package statistics:

yay -Ps

The output gives a useful overview of your system’s package state:

==> Yay version v12.5.7
===========================================
==> Total installed packages: 211
==> Foreign installed packages: 2
==> Explicitly installed packages: 16
==> Total Size occupied by packages: 1.2 GiB
==> Size of pacman cache: 285.2 MiB
===========================================

Pacman Quick Reference Table

All essential pacman commands at a glance:

Command	What It Does
`pacman -Syu`	Sync databases and upgrade all packages
`pacman -S pkg`	Install a package from repos
`pacman -Ss term`	Search repos for a package
`pacman -Si pkg`	Show repo package details
`pacman -R pkg`	Remove a package (keep configs)
`pacman -Rns pkg`	Remove package, configs, and unused deps
`pacman -Q`	List all installed packages
`pacman -Qe`	List explicitly installed packages
`pacman -Qm`	List foreign/AUR packages
`pacman -Qtd`	List orphaned packages
`pacman -Qi pkg`	Show installed package details
`pacman -Ql pkg`	List files owned by a package
`pacman -Qo /path`	Find which package owns a file
`pacman -F file`	Search all repos for a file
`pacman -Sw pkg`	Download without installing
`pacman -U file.pkg.tar.zst`	Install a local package file
`pacman -Sc`	Clean old package cache
`pacman -Scc`	Clean all package cache
`pacman -Qu`	List packages with available updates

Yay Quick Reference Table

Yay mirrors pacman’s flags and adds AUR support:

Command	What It Does
`yay -Syu`	Update all packages (repos + AUR)
`yay -S pkg`	Install from repos or AUR
`yay -Ss term`	Search repos and AUR
`yay -Rns pkg`	Remove package cleanly
`yay -Qm`	List installed AUR packages
`yay -Ps`	Print system/package statistics
`yay -Sc`	Clean yay and pacman cache
`yay -Sua`	Update AUR packages only

Useful Shell Aliases

Add these to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to save keystrokes. The aliases use yay since it handles both repo and AUR packages:

# System update (repos + AUR)
alias update='yay -Syu'

# Install
alias install='yay -S'

# Remove cleanly
alias remove='yay -Rns'

# Search
alias search='yay -Ss'

# Package info
alias info='yay -Si'

# List explicitly installed
alias installed='pacman -Qe'

# List orphans
alias orphans='pacman -Qtd'

# Clean cache
alias cleanup='yay -Sc && yay -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq) 2>/dev/null'

After adding them, reload your shell: source ~/.bashrc.

Pacman Configuration

The main pacman config file is /etc/pacman.conf. A few useful settings to enable:

sudo vi /etc/pacman.conf

Uncomment or add these lines in the [options] section:

# Enable colored output
Color

# Show package sizes during install
VerbosePkgLists

# Enable parallel downloads (significantly faster updates)
ParallelDownloads = 5

# Show a Pac-Man animation during downloads (cosmetic)
ILoveCandy

The ParallelDownloads setting makes a noticeable difference on system updates. Set it to 5-10 depending on your bandwidth. The default Arch repos configured in /etc/pacman.conf are [core] and [extra]. The Arch Wiki pacman page has the full reference for all configuration options.