The repoctl program helps you manage a local repository of Pacman packages (as found on Arch Linux and derivatives).
In the following video you can see a whirlwind tour of what repoctl can do for
someone who is just starting out with local repositories: We will search for an
extension for the pass tool and add it to a new local repository.
This isn't all repoctl can do; veterans might find they use the status and
update commands more for day-to-day managing of local repositories.
A look at the available commands may help give an overview:
- add - Copy and add packages to the repository.
- conf - Create, edit, or show the repoctl configuration.
- down - Download and extract tarballs from AUR.
- host - Host repository on a network.
- list - List packages that belong to the managed repository.
- query - Query package information from AUR.
- remove - Remove and delete packages from the database.
- reset - (Re-)create repository database.
- search - Search for packages on AUR.
- status - Show pending changes and packages that can be upgraded.
- update - Update database in repository to match filesystem.
See the NEWS for the latest changes in repoctl!
The recommended method is to install the repoctl package from AUR,
as this package installs other useful files, such as the completion scripts.
Alternatively, if you have Go installed:
git clone https://github.com/cassava/repoctl.git
cd repoctl
# Install repoctl to $GOPATH/bin, or specify -o OUTPUT
go install
# Get help on where to install completion files to:
repoctl completion --helpYou may want to switch to the devel branch if you want the bleeding edge.
Before you can use really use repoctl, you need to create a configuration file, but there's a lot you can do without any configuring.
-
Search AUR:
$ repoctl search tomb- aur/mediatomb-git 7ab7616-1 (2) Free UPnP/DLNA media server mediatomb aur/gtomb-git 0.7.1-3 (2) GUI wrapper for Tomb, the crypto undertaker aur/tomb-git 2.6.r7.g6f2ce59-1 (6) simple tool to manage encrypted storage aur/tomb-kdf-git 2.6.r7.g6f2ce59-1 (6) Crypto Undertaker extensions to improve password security aur/mediatomb-samsung-tv 0.12.1-12 (8) Free UPnP/DLNA media server with Samsung TV compatibility aur/tomb-kdf 2.7-2 (45) Crypto Undertaker extensions to improve password security
-
Query specific packages on AUR:
$ repoctl query tomb aur/tomb 2.7-2 (45) Name: tomb Version: 2.7-2 Description: Crypto Undertaker, a simple tool to manage encrypted storage URL: https://www.dyne.org/software/tomb/ Licenses: GPL3 Dependencies: bc cryptsetup gnupg sudo zsh e2fsprogs inetutils Optional Dependencies: steghide dcfldd qrencode swish-e Snapshot URL: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/tomb.tar.gz Maintainer: parazyd Votes: 45 Popularity: 0.355983 First Submitted: 2011-04-15 17:20:00 +0200 CEST Last Updated: 2020-01-03 13:57:47 +0100 CET Out-Of-Date: false
-
Download packages from AUR, including their dependencies:
$ repoctl down -r pass-tomb Downloading: pass-tomb Downloading: tomb
Before we can actually start managing a local repository, repoctl needs to know where it is. No one really enjoys working with configuration files, so repoctl will help you out a little here.
-
Create a new configuration, with our repo in
~/pkgs:$ repoctl conf new ~/pkgs/sirius.db.tar.zst Writing new configuration file at: /home/you/.config/repoctl/config.toml
-
Initialize the repository:
$ repoctl reset Creating database: /home/ben/pkgs/sirius.db.tar.zst
Now you should be set to start adding packages to your repository.
If you want to fine-tune the configuration values or just see what's there,
repoctl will show you your configuration (repoctl conf show) as well as
launch you into it with your favorite editor (repoctl conf edit), as set in
the environment variable EDITOR.
-
Inspect your configuration.
$ repoctl conf show Current configuration: columnate = false color = "auto" quiet = false current_profile = "" default_profile = "default" [profiles.default] repo = "/home/you/pkgs/sirius.db.tar.zst" add_params = [] rm_params = [] ignore_aur = [] require_signature = false backup = false backup_dir = "" interactive = false pre_action = "" post_action = ""
-
Edit your configuration:
$ repoctl conf edit
Now, we can add and manipulate packages in the specified local repository.
-
Add packages to the repository:
$ repoctl add <tab> $ repoctl add pass-extension-tail-1.2.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst Copying and adding to repository: pass-extension-tail-1.2.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst Adding package to database: /home/you/pkgs/pass-extension-tail-1.2.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
If you installed the completion, you really should take advantage of it, unless of course you are automating the procedure.
-
Remove packages from the repository:
$ repoctl rm <tab> $ repoctl rm pass-extension-tail Removing package from database: pass-extension-tail Deleting: pass-extension-tail-1.2.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
Yes, package names from your repository are also completed.
Of course, the initial compilation and adding of packages isn't the trouble, it's keeping them all up-to-date. This is what repoctl was originally made for: to tell me which packages have been updated on AUR and get them for me.
-
Show which packages have updates on AUR:
$ repoctl status -a On repo sirius krop: upgrade(0.4.11-1 -> 0.6.0-1) spotify: upgrade(1.0.98.78-1 -> 1:1.1.10.546-4) tmuxinator: upgrade(0.8.1-1 -> 2.0.1-1) ttf-ms-win10: upgrade(10.0.14393-3 -> 10.0.18362.116-2) ttf-ms-win10-japanese: upgrade(10.0.14393-3 -> 10.0.18362.116-2) ttf-ms-win10-korean: upgrade(10.0.14393-3 -> 10.0.18362.116-2) ttf-ms-win10-other: upgrade(10.0.14393-3 -> 10.0.18362.116-2) ttf-ms-win10-sea: upgrade(10.0.14393-3 -> 10.0.18362.116-2) ttf-ms-win10-thai: upgrade(10.0.14393-3 -> 10.0.18362.116-2) ttf-ms-win10-zh_cn: upgrade(10.0.14393-3 -> 10.0.18362.116-2) ttf-ms-win10-zh_tw: upgrade(10.0.14393-3 -> 10.0.18362.116-2)
You can't see it here, but this is all nicely colored in your terminal.
-
Download all updated packages:
$ repoctl down -u -o build-order.txt Downloading: tmuxinator Downloading: krop Downloading: python-poppler-qt5 Downloading: ttf-ms-win10 Downloading: ruby-xdg Downloading: ruby-erubis $ cat build-order.txt ruby-erubis ruby-xdg ttf-ms-win10 python-poppler-qt5 krop tmuxinator
What's the build-order.txt file for, you say? I'm glad you asked. Some
packages, such as tmuxinator up there, have dependencies on other packages
(in this case, ruby-xdg and ruby-erubis). If these packages are in AUR,
then we need to fetch them too. This is what the -r (--recursive) flag is
good for, and if we specify the -o flag (--order) it is implied.
We can use this list to our advantage, and with some Bash fu compile the whole lot of packages and add them to the repository:
#!/bin/bash
set -e
repoctl down -u -o build-order.txt
for pkg in $(cat build-order.txt); do
(
cd "$pkg"
makepkg -cs
repoctl add *.pkg.tar.zst
cd ..
rm -rf "$pkg"
)
done-
Using
PKGDESTin/etc/makepkg.confYou can configure makepkg to put all generated packages into a directory of your choosing. If you want, you can set
PKGDESTto your repository directory, and then just runrepoctl updateto do the rest. -
Auto-completion for everything!
Since version 0.21, auto-completion depends strongly on the repoctl tool itself. This lets us do some pretty wild things, like query AUR, read your configuration, or even read the repository database specified in the profile you just added to the command-line invocation.
Make sure you install the completions for your shell if you haven't done so yet. There is a hidden command for exporting the shell completion:
$ repoctl completion ... -
Configuring multiple repositories
Configuration profiles are supported since version 0.21. These let you have more than one profile that you can then choose at runtime.
The important configuration settings are:
default_profile = "default" [profiles.default] repo = "/home/you/pkgs/sirius.db.tar.zst" [profiles.release] repo = "/home/you/public/pkgs/sirius-release.db.tar.zst" require_signature = true backup = true backup_dir = "backup/"See the
confcommand for more information on this. -
Migrating your configuration file
The configuration file has changed significantly since version 0.21 in order to support profiles. This means that some configuration values are deprecated and no longer supported and the format in general is different.
Fear not! Not only is your old configuration auto-migrated, but you can make this migration permanent with the
conf migratecommand:$ repo conf migrate Backing up current configuration to: /home/ben/.config/repoctl/config.toml.bak.3 Writing new configuration file to: /home/ben/.config/repoctl/config.toml
-
Caching obsolete packages
Sometimes you might want to hold on to the obsolete packages and leave them in the directory at the same time, and use a tool like paccache to manage them. You can easily enable this in your config:
[profiles.default] backup = true backup_dir = ""
Now, obsolete packages will be ignored. They will also be ignored when removing packages from the database.
-
Packages on a remote filesystem
If you have a super fast internet connection and want your packages on a remote server, you can try to get repoctl to play along with the
pre_actionandpost_actionoptions in the configuration file:[profiles.default] pre_action = "sshfs server:location ~/localmnt" post_action = "fusermount -u ~/localmnt"
This will definitely break auto-completion and if some error happens, the
post_actionmight not be executed, so I don't recommend this. Instead, it's much better to simply rsync your packages at the end.
These are not the only things that repoctl can do, to get a fuller picture,
have a look at the help, which you can always get by using the --help flag or
by running:
$ repoctl help [cmd]
[...]Chances are good you might encounter errors or have a bright idea about how to improve repoctl. If you do, I would love to hear about it!
Have a look at the existing issues or create a new issue at GitHub.
Enjoy!
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