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Do not update single packages on Archlinux, but
(beehaw.org)
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this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2025
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But
-S packageis not upgrading the ~~package~~ (Edit: I meant system). Installing with that command is supported. That is NOT a partial upgrade of the system.-Sy packageis considered a partial upgrade, because that command updates the package list.This part was a total unnecessary attack, for someone who asks. Especially if you are not entirely correct.
It is OK to use '-S' only if all installed packages are on the same level as the local package info. That is assuming that the cached local version of the package is still available on package servers.
I just think you're being too literal about this, instead of thinking about the reasoning behind that rule.
I disagree. The
-Sflag stands for "sync", which means sync the local version with the remote version. So if there is no local version it just installs the remote version. This is still a partial update, because any dependencies it might have, that you already have installed, might be the wrong version compared to the one the newly installed package expects.pacman -Sshould be discouraged because of this. The correct one ispacman -Syufor installing new packages.If you have not ran a database update (any y after -y), pacman will fetch the version that is compatible with your current installed dependencies. This is not a partial upgrade.
The remote server only has the latest version of the package, and the latest version is always built against the dependencies on the remote server. So if you didn't update the database, then your pacman -S command will fail, because it can't find the package version on the remote server. So you did not install anything.
No,
pacman -S packageis safe. Because the package list is not updated this way, and therefore the system is not updated and nothing else is affected. New packages can be installed with this command, perfectly okay. That is in the spirit of Archlinux.I think my idea would not work because the nature of the command
-S package, as no new version would be synced. This is not a partial upgrade and it does not need to be discouraged.If the package is not in your cache, it needs to download it from the remote server first. The version on the remote server is built against the dependencies on the remote server. So if your local dependency is older, it will be a partial update!
No, because
pacman -Swill use the current package list.And where does it download the newly installed package from? It's not in your cache, because you haven't had it installed before and the remote server only has the newest version.
The download will simply fail if the version pacman wants to download isn't available on the mirror. The version is part of the download URL.
I guess that's the key takeaway for me from this post and replies.