expac - alpm data extraction utility

Usage: expac [options] <format> targets...

expac is a data extraction tool for alpm databases. It features printf-like flexibility and aims to be used as a simple tool for other pacman based utilities which don't link against the library. It uses pacman.conf as a config file for locating and loading your local and sync databases.

Invoking expac consists of supplying a format string, which is generally described by one to many of the formatting tokens (see the FORMATTING section), any relevant options and zero to many targets. The format string must be the first non-option argument. Targets can be a simple package name, a query string (in the case of a search), or in repo/package syntax when the -sync option is supplied.

-Q, --query

Search the local database for provided targets. This is the default behavior.

-S, --sync

Search the sync databases for provided targets.

-s, --search

Search for packages matching the strings specified by targets. This is a boolean AND query and regex is allowed.

-g, --group

Return packages matching the specified targets as package groups.

--config <file>

Read from file for alpm initialization instead of /etc/pacman.conf.

-H, --humansize <size>

Format package sizes in SI units according to size. Valid options are:

B, K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y, R, Q

You can also specify auto, will determine a suitable unit for each result.

-1, --readone

Stop searching after the first result. This only has an effect on -S operations without -s.

-d, --delim <string>

Separate each package with the specified string. The default value is a newline character.

-l, --listdelim <string>

Separate each list item with the specified string. Lists are any interpreted sequence specified with a capital letter. The default value is two spaces.

-p, --file

Interpret targets as paths to local files.

-t, --timefmt <format>

Output time described by the specified format. This string is passed directly to strftime(3). The default format is %c.

-v, --verbose

Output more. `Package not found' errors will be shown, and empty field values will display as 'None'.

-V, --version

Display version information and quit.

-h, --help

Display the help message and quit.

The format argument allows the following interpreted sequences:

%a    architecture

%B    backup files

%b    build date

%C    conflicts with (no version strings)

%D    depends on

%d    description

%E    depends on (no version strings)

%e    package base

%f    filename (only with -S)

%F    files (only with -Q)

%g    base64 encoded PGP signature (only with -S)

%G    groups

%H    conflicts with

%h    sha256sum

%i    has install scriptlet (only with -Q)

%k    download size (only with -S)

%l    install date (only with -Q)

%L    licenses

%m    install size

%M    modified backup files (only with -Q)

%n    package name

%N    required by

%O    optional deps

%o    optional deps (no descriptions)

%p    packager name

%P    provides

%R    replaces (no version strings)

%r    repo

%s    md5sum

%S    provides (no version strings)

%T    replaces

%u    project URL

%V    package validation method

%v    version

%w    install reason (only with -Q)

%!    result number (auto-incremented counter, starts at 0)

%%    literal %

Note that for any lowercase tokens aside from %m and %k, full printf support is allowed, e.g. %-20n. This does not apply to any list based, date, or numerical output.

Standard backslash escape sequences are supported, as per printf(1).

Emulate pacman's search function:

$ expac -Ss '%r/%n %v\n    %d' <search terms>

List the oldest 10 installed packages (by build date):

$ expac --timefmt=%s '%b\t%n' | sort -n | head -10

Dave Reisner <d@falconindy.com>