{"slug": "pacman", "name": "pacman", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "Package manager for Arch Linux, installing and updating packages from official repositories.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 6, "warners": 0, "score": 4.763, "rising": -0.31, "first": "2026-01-27", "latest": "2026-08-02", "why": "HN commenters like pacman for installing from vetted official Arch repositories and for simple one-command installs that they rate above Homebrew.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Simple installs", "Vetted repositories"], "caveat": "No AUR support", "short_quote": "pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://archlinux.org/pacman/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["pacman"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like pacman for installing from vetted official Arch repositories", "cites": [{"id": 777684272, "item_id": 48605267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605267", "by": "zbentley", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default.", "excerpt": "The AUR is not the Arch package manager or repository. The main Arch package repos are managed similarly to Debian, or Fedora, or whatever--caveat Arch's nature as a rolling release, but in terms of vetting and ownership/security, the approaches are similar. pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default. pacman will never install from the AUR. pacman is the official Arch package manager and the o", "context": "Arch daily driver for years", "use_case": "Arch package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks"}, {"id": 786356545, "item_id": 49147284, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49147284", "by": "embedding-shape", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I obviously don't review stuff when I use pacman and official Arch package repositories", "excerpt": "> That would be every day that I run apt-get, pkg add, brew install, or download a random .exe/.dmg to update my machine. Everything except that last part, are not \"random strangers on the internet\", those are maintainers who maintain the registry/repository you've chosen to use. And when you use those, they use \"mirrors\" hosted on their own infrastructure. AUR is a very different thing from this, where essentially a", "context": "", "use_case": "installing packages on Arch", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pushes to arch AUR are suspendended right now."}]}, {"text": " and for simple one-command installs that they rate above Homebrew.", "cites": [{"id": 751470657, "item_id": 46966916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966916", "by": "alias_neo", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "`sudo pacman -S 7zip` and it installs it for me after I hit enter to confirm", "excerpt": "You seem to have missed a couple of things that have caused you a bit of a headache here, I'm hoping I can encourage you to try again with a little bit of info. I've been using Linux for as long as it has existed, I'm also a backend-dev that works on a Linux machine and targets Linux-based platforms for deployment, even my kids use Linux. Windows went downhill for me after about Windows 2000 and Linux has only gotten", "context": "Linux user since the beginning, backend dev", "use_case": "package installs", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey"}, {"id": 748507808, "item_id": 46781738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781738", "by": "conorbergin", "date": "2026-01-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If I install it from pacman or manage to get an AUR build working, my life is pretty good.", "excerpt": "I use a lot of obscure libraries for scientific computing and engineering. If I install it from pacman or manage to get an AUR build working, my life is pretty good. If I have to use a Python library the faff becomes unbearable, make a venv, delete the venv, change python version, use conda, use uv, try and install it globally, change python path, source .venv/bin/activate. This is less true for other languages with ", "context": "uses obscure scientific computing and engineering libraries", "use_case": "installing scientific computing libraries", "switched_from": "", "story": "The C-Shaped Hole in Package Management"}, {"id": 784471760, "item_id": 49029485, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029485", "by": "didriksg", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt.", "excerpt": "I'm actually in the opposite position. I've used Linux for 10 years until I recently had to switch to Mac due to work. I started off in Ubuntu in 2016 and moved to Arch in 2018. I ran it until I started in a new job. One thing that Linux just gets right compared to macos and windows is the package managers. Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt. I also miss it for the window managers. Coming f", "context": "former Linux user now on Mac for work", "use_case": "package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?"}]}, {"text": " It suits Arch Linux users, though it never installs from the AUR directly", "cites": [{"id": 777684272, "item_id": 48605267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605267", "by": "zbentley", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default.", "excerpt": "The AUR is not the Arch package manager or repository. The main Arch package repos are managed similarly to Debian, or Fedora, or whatever--caveat Arch's nature as a rolling release, but in terms of vetting and ownership/security, the approaches are similar. pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default. pacman will never install from the AUR. pacman is the official Arch package manager and the o", "context": "Arch daily driver for years", "use_case": "Arch package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks"}]}, {"text": ", so commenters use separate tooling such as aurutils for that.", "cites": [{"id": 776313889, "item_id": 48519618, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519618", "by": "zenoprax", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "can use `pacman` to install and manage them", "excerpt": "People continue to criticize Arch for being elitist or gate-keeping to keep casuals out but there are clear benefits by not allowing dangerous things to be simple. This is true in many aspects of life. After using Void Linux I switched to `aurutils` to get a similar separation on Arch. I can easily maintain a local AUR repo by compiling/making my own binaries and can use `pacman` to install and manage them which impr", "context": "", "use_case": "installing and managing packages", "switched_from": "", "story": "Arch Linux Now Believes Malware Incident Under Control: More Than 1,500 Packages"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Simple installs", "summary": "Installing software, even obscure libraries, is a single confirmed command.", "quotes": [{"id": 751470657, "item_id": 46966916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966916", "by": "alias_neo", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "`sudo pacman -S 7zip` and it installs it for me after I hit enter to confirm", "excerpt": "You seem to have missed a couple of things that have caused you a bit of a headache here, I'm hoping I can encourage you to try again with a little bit of info. I've been using Linux for as long as it has existed, I'm also a backend-dev that works on a Linux machine and targets Linux-based platforms for deployment, even my kids use Linux. Windows went downhill for me after about Windows 2000 and Linux has only gotten", "context": "Linux user since the beginning, backend dev", "use_case": "package installs", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey"}, {"id": 748507808, "item_id": 46781738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781738", "by": "conorbergin", "date": "2026-01-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If I install it from pacman or manage to get an AUR build working, my life is pretty good.", "excerpt": "I use a lot of obscure libraries for scientific computing and engineering. If I install it from pacman or manage to get an AUR build working, my life is pretty good. If I have to use a Python library the faff becomes unbearable, make a venv, delete the venv, change python version, use conda, use uv, try and install it globally, change python path, source .venv/bin/activate. This is less true for other languages with ", "context": "uses obscure scientific computing and engineering libraries", "use_case": "installing scientific computing libraries", "switched_from": "", "story": "The C-Shaped Hole in Package Management"}, {"id": 776313889, "item_id": 48519618, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519618", "by": "zenoprax", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "can use `pacman` to install and manage them", "excerpt": "People continue to criticize Arch for being elitist or gate-keeping to keep casuals out but there are clear benefits by not allowing dangerous things to be simple. This is true in many aspects of life. After using Void Linux I switched to `aurutils` to get a similar separation on Arch. I can easily maintain a local AUR repo by compiling/making my own binaries and can use `pacman` to install and manage them which impr", "context": "", "use_case": "installing and managing packages", "switched_from": "", "story": "Arch Linux Now Believes Malware Incident Under Control: More Than 1,500 Packages"}]}, {"label": "Vetted repositories", "summary": "It installs from reviewed official repositories by default, so users trust it without checking packages themselves.", "quotes": [{"id": 777684272, "item_id": 48605267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605267", "by": "zbentley", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default.", "excerpt": "The AUR is not the Arch package manager or repository. The main Arch package repos are managed similarly to Debian, or Fedora, or whatever--caveat Arch's nature as a rolling release, but in terms of vetting and ownership/security, the approaches are similar. pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default. pacman will never install from the AUR. pacman is the official Arch package manager and the o", "context": "Arch daily driver for years", "use_case": "Arch package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks"}, {"id": 786356545, "item_id": 49147284, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49147284", "by": "embedding-shape", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I obviously don't review stuff when I use pacman and official Arch package repositories", "excerpt": "> That would be every day that I run apt-get, pkg add, brew install, or download a random .exe/.dmg to update my machine. Everything except that last part, are not \"random strangers on the internet\", those are maintainers who maintain the registry/repository you've chosen to use. And when you use those, they use \"mirrors\" hosted on their own infrastructure. AUR is a very different thing from this, where essentially a", "context": "", "use_case": "installing packages on Arch", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pushes to arch AUR are suspendended right now."}]}, {"label": "Beats Homebrew", "summary": "A former Arch user found Homebrew no match for pacman.", "quotes": [{"id": 784471760, "item_id": 49029485, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029485", "by": "didriksg", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt.", "excerpt": "I'm actually in the opposite position. I've used Linux for 10 years until I recently had to switch to Mac due to work. I started off in Ubuntu in 2016 and moved to Arch in 2018. I ran it until I started in a new job. One thing that Linux just gets right compared to macos and windows is the package managers. Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt. I also miss it for the window managers. Coming f", "context": "former Linux user now on Mac for work", "use_case": "package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "No AUR support", "summary": "pacman won't install AUR packages, so users add tools like aurutils to build and serve them locally.", "quotes": [{"id": 777684272, "item_id": 48605267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605267", "by": "zbentley", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default.", "excerpt": "The AUR is not the Arch package manager or repository. The main Arch package repos are managed similarly to Debian, or Fedora, or whatever--caveat Arch's nature as a rolling release, but in terms of vetting and ownership/security, the approaches are similar. pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default. pacman will never install from the AUR. pacman is the official Arch package manager and the o", "context": "Arch daily driver for years", "use_case": "Arch package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks"}, {"id": 776313889, "item_id": 48519618, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519618", "by": "zenoprax", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "can use `pacman` to install and manage them", "excerpt": "People continue to criticize Arch for being elitist or gate-keeping to keep casuals out but there are clear benefits by not allowing dangerous things to be simple. This is true in many aspects of life. After using Void Linux I switched to `aurutils` to get a similar separation on Arch. I can easily maintain a local AUR repo by compiling/making my own binaries and can use `pacman` to install and manage them which impr", "context": "", "use_case": "installing and managing packages", "switched_from": "", "story": "Arch Linux Now Believes Malware Incident Under Control: More Than 1,500 Packages"}]}], "who": [{"by": "didriksg", "context": "former Linux user now on Mac for work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029485", "date": "2026-07-23"}, {"by": "zbentley", "context": "Arch daily driver for years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605267", "date": "2026-06-19"}, {"by": "alias_neo", "context": "Linux user since the beginning, backend dev", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966916", "date": "2026-02-10"}, {"by": "conorbergin", "context": "uses obscure scientific computing and engineering libraries", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781738", "date": "2026-01-27"}], "tags": ["for Arch Linux users", "for scientific computing libraries", "for local AUR repos"], "use_cases": ["installing packages on arch", "package management", "arch package management", "installing and managing packages", "package installs", "installing scientific computing libraries"], "compared": [{"slug": "aur", "name": "AUR", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "arch-linux", "name": "Arch Linux", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49146238", "title": "Pushes to arch AUR are suspendended right now.", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029345", "title": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48600593", "title": "AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48516379", "title": "Arch Linux Now Believes Malware Incident Under Control: More Than 1,500 Packages", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46964159", "title": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46778123", "title": "The C-Shaped Hole in Package Management", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 786356545, "item_id": 49147284, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49147284", "by": "embedding-shape", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I obviously don't review stuff when I use pacman and official Arch package repositories", "excerpt": "> That would be every day that I run apt-get, pkg add, brew install, or download a random .exe/.dmg to update my machine. Everything except that last part, are not \"random strangers on the internet\", those are maintainers who maintain the registry/repository you've chosen to use. And when you use those, they use \"mirrors\" hosted on their own infrastructure. AUR is a very different thing from this, where essentially a", "context": "", "use_case": "installing packages on Arch", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pushes to arch AUR are suspendended right now."}, {"id": 784471760, "item_id": 49029485, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029485", "by": "didriksg", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt.", "excerpt": "I'm actually in the opposite position. I've used Linux for 10 years until I recently had to switch to Mac due to work. I started off in Ubuntu in 2016 and moved to Arch in 2018. I ran it until I started in a new job. One thing that Linux just gets right compared to macos and windows is the package managers. Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt. I also miss it for the window managers. Coming f", "context": "former Linux user now on Mac for work", "use_case": "package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?"}, {"id": 777684272, "item_id": 48605267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605267", "by": "zbentley", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default.", "excerpt": "The AUR is not the Arch package manager or repository. The main Arch package repos are managed similarly to Debian, or Fedora, or whatever--caveat Arch's nature as a rolling release, but in terms of vetting and ownership/security, the approaches are similar. pacman installs from regular, real, vetted repositories by default. pacman will never install from the AUR. pacman is the official Arch package manager and the o", "context": "Arch daily driver for years", "use_case": "Arch package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks"}, {"id": 776313889, "item_id": 48519618, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519618", "by": "zenoprax", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "can use `pacman` to install and manage them", "excerpt": "People continue to criticize Arch for being elitist or gate-keeping to keep casuals out but there are clear benefits by not allowing dangerous things to be simple. This is true in many aspects of life. After using Void Linux I switched to `aurutils` to get a similar separation on Arch. I can easily maintain a local AUR repo by compiling/making my own binaries and can use `pacman` to install and manage them which impr", "context": "", "use_case": "installing and managing packages", "switched_from": "", "story": "Arch Linux Now Believes Malware Incident Under Control: More Than 1,500 Packages"}, {"id": 751470657, "item_id": 46966916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966916", "by": "alias_neo", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "`sudo pacman -S 7zip` and it installs it for me after I hit enter to confirm", "excerpt": "You seem to have missed a couple of things that have caused you a bit of a headache here, I'm hoping I can encourage you to try again with a little bit of info. I've been using Linux for as long as it has existed, I'm also a backend-dev that works on a Linux machine and targets Linux-based platforms for deployment, even my kids use Linux. Windows went downhill for me after about Windows 2000 and Linux has only gotten", "context": "Linux user since the beginning, backend dev", "use_case": "package installs", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey"}, {"id": 748507808, "item_id": 46781738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781738", "by": "conorbergin", "date": "2026-01-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If I install it from pacman or manage to get an AUR build working, my life is pretty good.", "excerpt": "I use a lot of obscure libraries for scientific computing and engineering. If I install it from pacman or manage to get an AUR build working, my life is pretty good. If I have to use a Python library the faff becomes unbearable, make a venv, delete the venv, change python version, use conda, use uv, try and install it globally, change python path, source .venv/bin/activate. This is less true for other languages with ", "context": "uses obscure scientific computing and engineering libraries", "use_case": "installing scientific computing libraries", "switched_from": "", "story": "The C-Shaped Hole in Package Management"}]}