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

[Karol Blazewicz]

On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Buce <dmbuce at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>>

See also https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/15561