How to search only 'not-installed' packages in Arch Linux?

Question

How to search only 'not-installed' packages in Arch Linux?

What flags can one use with pacman -S to show only those packages, that aren’t yet installed?

Will accept shell script if it can’t be done by design. Thx.

Asked By: hks

||

Answer 1

After first try was the inverse answer, thanks Jeff Schaller. Here’s a little script that filters out installed packages and only displays not installed packages.

#!/bin/sh

installed=$(pacman -Q | cut -d ' ' -f 1 | tr 'n' '|')
pacman -Ssq | egrep -v '${installed}'

Answered By: Thomas

Answer 2

here is a script with 3 different methods, all keeping the one line description. also it lets you do search terms with command line arguments

#!/bin/bash
#pacman -Ss "$@" | pcregrep -Mv '.*[installed.*n'
#pacman -Ss "$@" | sed -n -e '/[installed/!p;: m' -e '//{' -e '$!{' -e 'n;b m' -e '}' -e'}'
pacman -Ss "$@" | awk '/[installed/ { getline; next } 1'

example:

pacman-search-exclude-installed.sh search terms

my research:

How to grep -v and also exclude the next line after the match?

How to `grep -v` and also exclude 'n' lines after the match?

Answered By: haasosaurus

Answer 3

expanding on @thomas answer here are some ready to go functions you can source and use to achieve OPs question

pmig () {
  pacman -Q | grep $1 | cut -d ' ' -f 1 
}

pmrg () {
pacman -Ssq | grep $1
}

pmnig () {
local installed="|$(pmig $1 | tr 'n' '|')"
pmrg $1 | grep -E -v '${installed}'
}

pmnigv () {
  pacman -Ss $1 | grep -v "$(pacman -Ss $1 | grep "[installed]" -A1 )" | grep -v "[installed]" 
}

then trying out.

echo "==installed =="; pmig disk; echo "==in repos=="; pmrg disk; echo "===in repos but not installed==="; pmnig disk

results in

==installed ==
gnome-disk-utility
gptfdisk
udiskie
udisks2
==in repos==
gnome-disk-utility
gptfdisk
plasma-disks
testdisk
udisks2
xfce4-diskperf-plugin
deepin-diskmanager
diskonaut
diskus
haskell-disk-free-space
kdiskmark
udiskie
udisks2-qt5
xdiskusage
yubikey-full-disk-encryption
===in repos but not installed===
plasma-disks
testdisk
xfce4-diskperf-plugin
deepin-diskmanager
diskonaut
diskus
haskell-disk-free-space
kdiskmark
xdiskusage
yubikey-full-disk-encryption

an pmnigv is a verbose version

pmigv disk

extra/cdrdao 1.2.5-1
    Records audio/data CD-Rs in disk-at-once (DAO) mode
extra/filelight 22.12.2-1 (kde-applications kde-utilities)
    View disk usage information
extra/kdf 22.12.2-1 (kde-applications kde-utilities)
    View Disk Usage
extra/libisofs 1.5.4-1
    Library to pack up hard disk files and directories into a ISO 9660 disk image
extra/mtools 1:4.0.42-1
    A collection of utilities to access MS-DOS disks
extra/partitionmanager 22.12.2-1 (kde-applications kde-system)
    A KDE utility that allows you to manage disks, partitions, and file systems
extra/plasma-disks 5.26.5-1 (plasma)
    Monitors S.M.A.R.T. capable devices for imminent failure
extra/qemu-img 7.2.0-3
    QEMU tooling for manipulating disk images
....

Answered By: DKebler