[arch-general] Is it possible to update 3rd party repo index without updating all?

[Buce]

On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 11:45 AM, David C. Rankin <
drankinatty at suddenlinkmail.com> wrote:

> All,
>
>   I would like to update a 3rd party repo index WITHOUT updating any other
> index. Like adding a --repo option to 'Pacman -Sy'. e.g.
>
>   Pacman -Sy -r somerepo
>
>   This would be handy when you want to update a 3rd party index and install
> updated packages WITHOUT updating core, community, extra... to avoid
> having to
> do a full system update just to get new packages from a non-arch repo.
> There are
> times when I just want to install a new external package or set of
> packages but
> not do a full update involving the kernel, etc.
>
>   I've looked at all the pacman options and there does not seem to be a
> way to
> do this. (Yes - I do understand why all Arch repos must be updated
> together in
> order to avoid the partial-update issues) But, with a 3rd party repo, that
> isn't
> a concern.
>

I do this with my own internal repo by configuring it in its own separate
config file, Include'ing that file from the main pacman config, and using
pacman's --config option pointed to the custom repo file to only sync that
one repository when needed.


>
>   Is there a way to do this via pacman, and if not, is there a way to
> manually
> download the new 3rd party index and add it to the cache to accomplish the
> same
> thing? Like just replacing the current .db index in
> /var/lib/cache/pacman/sync
> with the new one?[1]
>
>   What say the experts?
>
> Footnotes:
> [1]  I am asking before trying to avoid screwing something up, so no, I
> haven't
> tried it yet.
>
> --
> David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
>