PKGFILE(1)

NAME
pkgfile - an alpm .files metadata explorer

SYNOPSIS
Usage: pkgfile [operation] [options] target

DESCRIPTION
pkgfile searches the .files metadata created by repo-add(8) to retrieve file information about packages. By default, the provided target is considered to be a filename and pkgfile will return the package(s) which contain this file. The repos which pkgfile searches is determined by those enabled in /etc/pacman.conf.

OPERATIONS

-l, --list
    The target is considered to be a package name rather than a filename, and the contents of the named package are returned. This allows for repo/package style syntax (such as "core/pacman") to limit the breadth of the search, but only when --list is used without the --glob or --regex options.

-s, --search
    Search for packages containing the provided target. This is the default mode of operation.

-u, --update
    Update the stored metadata files. It is recommended to create a daily cron job with this command to ensure accurate results. By default, only repos which are found to be newer on the mirror will be downloaded. Pass this option twice to force all repos to be downloaded.

MATCHING

-b, --binaries
    Return only files which are contained within a bin or sbin directory.

-d, --directories
    Additionally include directories in search results.

-g, --glob
    Enable shell-style glob pattern matching. See glob(7). Note that the shell wildcards * and ? will never match path separators. Thus, this kind of matching is useful for searching for entries within directories, e.g. /usr/bin/*.

-i, --ignorecase
    Disable case sensitivity in matching.

-r, --regex
    Enable regular expression matching. See pcre(3).

-R REPO, --repo=REPO
    Search only the specific repo.

OUTPUT

-0, --null
    Delimit output with null bytes rather than newline characters.

-q, --quiet
    Output less. This applies to the --list operation.

-v, --verbose
    Output more. This applies to the --search operation.

-w, --raw
    Avoid justification of 2 column output.

DOWNLOADING

-z, --compress[=COMPRESSION]
    Repack downloaded repos with the optionally supplied compression method, which may be one of none, gzip, bzip2, lzop, lz4, lzma, xz, or zstd. If this flag is passed without a compression method, this defaults to gzip. If this flag is not passed at all, no compression will be applied. Applying any form of compression will decrease performance, but may be desirable for disk space concerns.

GENERAL OPTIONS

-C FILE, --config=FILE
    Use a config file other than the default of /etc/pacman.conf.

-D DIRECTORY, --cachedir=DIRECTORY
    Use a cache path other than the compile-time default.

-h, --help
    Print help and exit.

-V, --version
    Print the version and exit.

MATCHING HEURISTICS
In --search mode and without the --regex or --glob option, pkgfile will attempt to match the provided target as an exact filename. If the target contains a '/' character, a full path match will be attempted. With --regex and --glob enabled searching, pkgfile will always match against the full pathname.

In --list mode and without the --regex or --glob option, pkgfile will attempt to match the provided target as an exact package name. If the target contains a '/' character, the text before the slash will be assumed to be a repository and the search will be restricted.

COMMAND NOT FOUND HOOKS

/usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.bash
/usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.zsh
/usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.fish
    zsh, bash and fish compatible functions which can be included in shell initalization to run pkgfile when an executed command is not found.

    If the environment variable PKGFILE_PROMPT_INSTALL_MISSING is set, and only one package is found, a prompt to install the package will be shown. NOTE: this feature requires the sudo(8) program, and is currently only supported by the bash implementation.

AUTOMATING UPDATES
It is recommended to use pkgfiled(1) to keep .files DBs up as `pacman -Fy` is issued (either by a user or a cronjob/systemd timer). pkgfiled can be enabled with:

  systemctl enable --now pkgfiled

Alternatively, pkgfile includes systemd timer and service units to automate periodic updates to the .files DBs. Assuming that pkgfile was built with systemd support, this can be enabled with:

  systemctl enable --now pkgfile-update.timer

SEE ALSO
pkgfiled(1), repo-add(8), pcre(3), glob(7), pacman.conf(5)

AUTHOR
Dave Reisner <d@falconindy.com<gt>