📦

Pacman

Pacman is Arch Linux's native package manager, built and maintained by the Arch Linux project, ranking #32 in usage among developer tools at roughly 8.7%. It's known for being fast and simple compared to package managers on other distros, giving users access to the latest upstream software versions almost immediately. Paired with the community-run AUR (Arch User Repository), it exposes an enormous catalog of additional packages beyond the official repos.

Quick facts
Type: System package manager (Arch Linux)
Made by: Arch Linux project
License: Free / open-source (GPL-2.0)
Platforms/Hosting: Arch Linux and Arch-based distributions (Manjaro, EndeavourOS)
Primary use case: Installing, updating, and removing system and application packages on Arch-based Linux

Jump to: Example Getting started Best for

Example

Pacman's core commands are short and memorable: install a package, or sync and upgrade the whole system in one line.

# install a package (Neovim) from the official repos
sudo pacman -S neovim

# sync repo databases and upgrade every installed package
sudo pacman -Syu

# search for a package by name
pacman -Ss ripgrep

Getting started

Pacman comes pre-installed on any Arch Linux system — there's no separate install step. On a fresh install, the first thing most people do is sync and update.

# update the full system right after installing Arch
sudo pacman -Syu

# install an AUR helper (e.g. yay) to access AUR packages
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay && makepkg -si

Best for: Developers and enthusiasts who want a lightweight, rolling-release Linux system with the newest package versions and are comfortable configuring things by hand rather than relying on heavy defaults.