Pacman-mirrors

Pacman-Mirrors

Pacman-mirrors is a Manjaro specific utility for generating and maintaining the system mirrorlist. This article covers current version 4.3. Pacman-mirrors uses the information available on the Mirrorservice

Purpose

Manjaro uses pacman for system maintenance, updates and new installs. For pacman to function, a list of servers, or more commonly known as mirrors, with Manjaro software packages is required. As Manjaro has many mirrors all over the world it is feasible to use the mirrors closest to your location and preferably also up-to-date.

Use

For most functions, a working internet connection is required. From v4, Pacman-Mirrors will check if network is online. It is doing so by querying https://manjaro.org.The app is run by an ordinary user with superuser rights from the console and when no arguments are given it will display a usage description as if -h had been given.

$ sudo pacman-mirrors

Exactly how the app generates the mirrorlist is controlled by supplying arguments on the commandline.

IMPORTANT

It cannot be stressed enough, that every run of pacman-mirrors requires you to syncronize your database

$ sudo pacman -Syy

If you fail to do so, the issue/s which had you make change might not be solved. Furthermore you might run into partial-updated scenario which can cause havoc in your system.

TL:DR

Commands

All commands uses the available mirror pool. The mirror pool can be the default full mirror pool or a customized mirror pool. Commands for info do not require superuser - modifications do.

INFO: List available countries

pacman-mirrors -l

INFO: What branch am I on

pacman-mirrors -aG

DEFAULT: Mirrors for your country only

sudo pacman-mirrors --geoip && sudo pacman -Syy

DEFAULT: create a mirrorlist

sudo pacman-mirrors -f[number] && sudo pacman -Syy

Optional a number can be given to limit the number of mirrors in the mirrorlist

DEFAULT: Limit to 5 mirrors=

sudo pacman-mirrors -f 5 && sudo pacman -Syy

DEFAULT: Temporarily switch to unstable branch

sudo pacman-mirrors -b unstable && sudo pacman -Syy

DEFAULT: Switch back to stable branch

sudo pacman-mirrors -b stable && sudo pacman -Syy

CUSTOMIZE: Customizing mirror pool

You can customize the mirror pool to your preference. BUT Don't limit yourself too much as pacman-mirrors only writes up-to-date mirrors to your mirrorlist.

CUSTOMIZE: Customize mirror pool by countries

sudo pacman-mirrors -cGermany,France,Austria && sudo pacman -Syy

CUSTOMIZE: Customizing the mirror pool by interactive selection

sudo pacman-mirrors -id && sudo pacman -Syy

CUSTOMIZE: Use specific protocols (prioritized)

sudo pacman-mirrors -aPhttps,http && sudo pacman -Syy

CUSTOMIZE: Permanently switch branch and use German mirrors

sudo pacman-mirrors -cGermany -aB unstable && sudo pacman -Syy

CUSTOMIZE: Permanently switch branch and use German mirrors with https

sudo pacman-mirrors -cGermany -aB unstable -P https && sudo pacman -Syy

RESET: Revert all changes

sudo pacman-mirrors -c all -aP all && sudo pacman -Syy

Overview

Available arguments

All available arguments can be viewed by unfolding this block

~ >>> pacman-mirrors  
Version 4.4.0
USAGE:
 pacman-mirrors [-h] [-f NUMBER] [-i [-d]] [-m METHOD]
		[-c COUNTRY [COUNTRY...]] [--geoip] [-l]
		[-b BRANCH | -G | -S/-B BRANCH] [-a] [-p PREFIX]
		[-P PROTO [PROTO...]] [-R] [-U URL]
		[-q] [-t SECONDS] [-v] [-n]

METHODS:
  -f, --fasttrack NUMBER
                        Generate mirrorlist with a number of up-to-date
                        mirrors. Ignores:
  -i, --interactive     Generate custom mirrorlist
  -d, --default         Interactive: Load default mirror file
  -m, --method {rank,random}
                        Generation method

COUNTRY:
  -c, --country COUNTRY [COUNTRY ...]
                        Comma separated list of countries, from which mirrors
                        will be used
  --geoip               Get current country using geolocation
  -l, --country-list, --list
                        List all available countries

BRANCH:
  -b, --branch {stable,testing,unstable}
                        Branch name
  -G, --get-branch      API: Return branch from configuration
  -S, -B, --set-branch {stable,testing,unstable}
                        API: Replace branch in configuration

API:
  -a, --api             [-p PREFIX][-R][-S|-G BRANCH][-P PROTO [PROTO ...]]
  -p, --prefix PREFIX   API: Set prefix to : $mnt | /mnt/install
  -P, --proto, --protocols {all,http,https,ftp,ftps} [{all,http,https,ftp,ftps} ...]
                        API: Replace protocols in configuration
  -R, --re-branch       API: Replace branch in mirrorlist
  -U, --url URL         API: Replace mirror url in mirrorlist

MISC:
  -h, --help
  -q, --quiet           Quiet mode - less verbose output
  -t, --timeout SECONDS
                        Maximum waiting time for server response
  -v, --version         Print the pacman-mirrors version
  -n, --no-mirrorlist   Use to skip generation of mirrorlist

!! Deprecated argument: '-g/--generate'!
   Please use '-f/--fasttrack NUMBER', Use 0 for all mirrors
!! Deprecated argument: '-y/--sync'!
   Please use 'pacman -Syy'

Defaults

PacmanMirrors has some reasonable defaults

- Ranking mirrors with the fastest mirrors on top
- Using stable branch
- Using all mirrors

The -f 0 or --fasttrack 0 argument uses mirrors which are up-to-date for your branch. To limit the number of mirrors you can change the number to eg. 10

Country

Instead of pacman-mirrors probing all mirrors in all countries it is possible to supply a list of countries from which to use the mirrors.

$ sudo pacman-mirrors --country Germany,France,Austria && sudo pacman -Syy

If a supplied country does not offer a mirrorserver the app quits with an error explaining why.

$ sudo pacman-mirrors --country Antarctica && sudo pacman -Syy
.: Info Downloading mirrors from repo.manjaro.org
.: Warning Option '-c/--country' : unknown country: 'Antarctica'
.: Info Available countries are:
Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brasil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia,
Costa_Rica, Czech, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia,
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Singapore, South_Africa, Sweden, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, United_Kingdom, United_States,
Vietnam

Another option for the mirrors closest to your location is --geoip

$ sudo pacman-mirrors --geoip --quiet && sudo pacman -Syy
:: Querying servers, this may take some time
=> Testing mirrors in France
:: Writing mirror list
:: Mirrorlist generated and saved to: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Branch

Situations could exist, in which you want a not yet released to stable software, which contains a desired improvement or bugfix. For such situations it is possible to make a temporary switch to testing or unstable branch

$ sudo pacman-mirrors --branch testing && sudo pacman -Syy

Syncronize your pacman database with the new mirror/branch combination and install whatever software needed from that branch.

$ sudo pacman -S some-software-package-you-need

After installation switch back

$ sudo pacman-mirrors --branch stable && sudo pacman -Syy

Syncronize

$ sudo pacman -Syy

In such a situation, where you have pulled software from another branch, you must be prepared for messages from pacman or pamac about newer packages on the system. These messages can safely be ignored and they dissappear when the installed package(s) reaches stable branch

Customizing the mirror pool

If you, for various reasons, have a preference for specific mirrors, it is possible to create a personal mirror pool. This is done by supplying --interactive [--default] or --country argument.

A more in-depth article is Create your own Custom Mirrorlist

A word of caution

Don't limit yourself too much. Pacman-mirrors will only use up-to-date mirrors in the final mirrorlist.

Customizing pool

The customized pool is saved as /var/lib/pacman-mirrors/custom-mirrors.json

First option is using --interactive. It uses your current mirror pool(wether default or custom)

$ sudo pacman-mirrors -i && sudo pacman -Syy

Second option is using --interactive --default. This force the use of the official mirror pool

$ sudo pacman-mirrors -id && sudo pacman -Syy

Third option is supplying a list of countries with --country

$ sudo pacman-mirrors -cGermany,France,Austria && sudo pacman -Syy

Using Option 1 and 2, pacman-mirrors will process the available mirrors and present you with a list in which you will select your desired mirrors. Option 3 creates a pool from the supplied countries. In either case the pool is saved and used to generate a mirrorlist.

Syncronization status

Pacman-mirrors downloads pool status for the default mirror pool. When you want to regenerate your mirrorlist, your custom pool is updated with the info from the downloaded pool status.

This ensures you will always use up-to-date mirrors.

Resetting custom pool

First option to reset is to default mirror pool

$ sudo pacman-mirrors -call && sudo pacman -Syy

Second option to is to use --default with --interactive

$ sudo pacman-mirrors -id && sudo pacman -Syy

• You will be presented with a list with all and every mirror and you can pick your selection.

Third option is to supply a list of countries

 $ sudo pacman-mirrors -cGermany,France,Austria

• If you supply the same preferred countries on every reset you will get your mirror pool updated with added or removed mirrors.

FAQ

pacman-mirrors.conf

If pacman-mirrors is updated and has a new pacman-mirrors.conf, it will inform you that a new conf is saved as pacman-mirrors.conf.pacnew.

You must manually merge changes/additions into your pacman-mirrors.conf.

Forum posts

• Release of pacman-mirrors 4.4
• Pacman-mirrors in the forum
• pacman-mirrors-manpage