[arch-general] scripts to analyze and manage /var/cache/pacman/pkg for installed/uninstalled & gen install scr for uninstalled

[David C. Rankin]

Guys,

With a number of arch boxes now, I routinely rsync the package cache from box to box for updates, etc. Today what started out as a "1-liner" to show what scripts in /var/cache/pacman/pkg were installed, uninstalled (what I called orphaned) and then to create summary files and create a script to install the orphans -- well -- turned into somewhat of a longer script that I thought I would pass along.

The script 'chkinstpkgs.sh' does just that. Check the installed packages and give you a summary of what is going on with your package cache. I'm sure I just reinvented the wheel, but it was fun nonetheless. The script is at:

http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/scripts/chkinstpkgs.sh

I left all my development commented out at the end of the file -- there were some neat parse parameter substitutions, etc.. that I ultimately didn't use that might be helpful for anyone wanting to mess with managing their package cache, or at least provide a "go-by" for anyone interested in learning a bit more bash.

The -h | --help option displays a short help:

18:30 alchemy:~/scr/arch> sh chkinstpkgs.sh -h

  Usage:  chkinstpkgs.sh [package-dir] [orphans-file] [installed-file] [install-orphans-file]

  chkinstpkgs.sh checks all packages in 'package-dir' to see whether the file is
  installed or whether the package is an orphan (exists in 'package-dir' but
  isn't installed). Results are printed to the screen and saved in the users
  home directory as shown below:

  Where the defaults are:
                 package-dir=/var/cache/pacman/pkg/
                orphans-file=~/pkgs-orphans.txt
              installed-file=~/pkgs-installed.txt
        install-orphans-file=~/pkgs-install-orphans.sh

  Options:
  -h | --help      display usage help and exit
  -s | --summary   display packages totals, installed, orphaned and exit

The -s | --summary just gives a numeric summary of the installed/orphaned:

18:30 alchemy:~/scr/arch> sh chkinstpkgs.sh -s

  Determining installed/orphaned packages in /var/cache/pacman/pkg...

    Initializing the package-information arrays
    Checking installed packages

    Total Number of Packages : 2072
    Total Number Installed   : 1626
    Total Number Orphaned    : 446

Just running the whole script produces a complete summary on the screen and also creates the summary files shown above under the defaults:

18:31 alchemy:~/scr/arch> head ~/pkgs-orphans.txt
error: package "a2ps" not found
error: package "acct" not found
error: package "acpi" not found
error: package "acpid" not found
<snip>

18:42 alchemy:~/scr/arch> head ~/pkgs-installed.txt

Installed Packages - 12/07/09

a2ps-4.14-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz
a52dec-0.7.4-4-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz
aalib-1.4rc5-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz
abs-2.3.3-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz
acct-6.3.2-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz
<snip>

18:42 alchemy:~/scr/arch> head ~/pkgs-install-orphans.sh
pacman -Sy a2ps acct acpi acpid acpitool acpitool agg archlinux-menus archlinux-menus b43-fwcutter bc bind blas bridge-utils capi4k-utils cyrus-sasl cyrus-sasl-plugins db4.5 dbus-qt3 ddcxinfo-arch dhcp dmapi dmraid dovecot dvd-slideshow filelight flashplugin font-bitstream-speedo font-bitstream-speedo foomatic-db foomatic-db-nonfree <snip>

Just delete the ones you don't want to install (beats creating the list from scratch)

The script takes ~ 30 seconds per 1000 packages to run. It took about a minute to complete on my laptop. Enjoy.

Other package cache scripts available:

http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/scripts/fduparchpkg
http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/scripts/fduppkg

The above scripts remove duplicate packages from the package cache and move them to /home/backup/pkg-old and /home/backup/pkg-older. The workhorse is fduppkg and fduparchpkg is just a wrapper that calls fduppkg. I just create links to the files in /usr/local/bin:

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root     30 Dec  7 18:22 fduparch -> /home/david/scr/pm/fduparchpkg
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root     26 Nov  5 02:21 fduppkg -> /home/david/scr/pm/fduppkg

then just call fduparch and it will move all duplicates from /var/cache/pacman/pkg to /home/backup/pkg-old and then remove all duplicates (newly created) from /home/backup/pkg-old and move them to /home/backup/pkg-older. That way you always have current packages in /var/cache/pacman/pkg, a clean set of the next most recent packages in /home/backup/pkg-old and the package dump of /home/backup/pkg-older where you can keep as many as you want.

One primary benefit of moving the packages to /home/backup is it frees up space on your / partition as well as cleaning up /var/cache/pacman. I have posted the dup scripts before, but these have a few updates that optimize things better to cut down on runtime. Even with several thousand packages, the scripts run in about a minute as well.

Last note: for any Archers who would like to dig into bash scripting a little more. I like to think these scripts have a lot of cool stuff in them (at least I think so...) and provide a good reference for loops, arrays, array and loop index manipulation for optimizations, redirection, subshells, functions, parameter substitution and substring extraction that are fairly good tools to put in your *nx toolbox. Believe it or not, I actually take some time to comment the scripts with that purpose in mind. (and so I can remember what the hell I was thinking a year from now...)

For all you gurus out there, if you happen to look at the scripts and see things I could do better, I welcome the feedback because I'm always open to adding new tools to my toolbox as well ;-)

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com