[arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

[Dave Heistand]

Hi,

For various personal reasons including the rolling release model (which is
critical to me), easy package building and availability of binary packages and
build scripts I'm considering changing to arch.  I do have a few questions
that I can't seem to find the answers to, sorry if they are covered in the
forums, I did look there but couldn't find the info I'm looking for.

eix like tool:
Is there a utility similar to gentoos 'eix'?  From the eix man page: eix - a
set of utilities for searching, diffing and updating a binary cache of your 
local portage-trees

What I'm looking for is a way to see a diff of my package cache prior to and
just after syncing, i.e. what packages are out of date (which pacman does 
show), what packages have been removed from the repositories since my last
sync and what packages have been added to the repository since my last sync.

eix does this nicely imho using optional color output, pacman-color (and 
pacman) does some of what I'm looking for but I'm not sure it will do the diff 
part.

PKGBUILD
I've built my own packages for tmpwatch, the oracle instant client and built 
tora with oracle support.  I've found PKGBUILDs for backuppc and a few other
packages that I need via AUR->Packages link off the arch home page.

To me Arch package building is refreshing when compared to my experiences with 
ebuilds and rpm spec files.  I can't seem to find a list of all the varibles
that can be used in a PKGBUILD script though (like $startdir etc), where would
I find that info?

If I end up totally switching I want to make my own repository (like a yum or 
apt repository) of my custom packages for the systems I manage.  I think I've
seen a few pages on how to set that up but if there is an authoritative page 
someone knows of I'd appreciate it.

I've been running arch on my laptop and home system for almost a week now and I
am very happy with the results so far.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Dave