Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects
Select Git revision
  • makepkg
  • master default protected
2 results
Compare
fhdk's avatar
updated changelog
Frede H authored
a32fef3c
History
fhdk's avatar a32fef3c
History
Code owners
Assign users and groups as approvers for specific file changes. Learn more.
Name Last commit Last update
..
index.md
installation.md
usage.md
index.md

% pacman-mirrors(8) Pacman-Mirrors 4.8.x User Manual
%
% March, 2018

NAME

pacman-mirrors - generate pacman mirrorlist for Manjaro Linux

SYNOPSIS

pacman-mirrors [-h] [-f [NUMBER]] [-i [-d]] [-m METHOD] [-c COUNTRY [COUNTRY...] | [--geoip]] [-l] [-lc] [-q] [-t SECONDS] [-v] [-n] [--api] [-S/-B BRANCH] [-p PREFIX] [-P PROTO [PROTO...]] [-R] [-U URL]

DESCRIPTION

Generates mirrorlist with up-to-date mirrors for Manjaro Linux. Default is to rank all mirrors by reponse time. If no arguments are given pacman-mirrors lists available options. Pacman-mirrors requires access to files which are read-only so it must be run with su or sudo. To create a mirrorlist using all default use

pacman-mirrors -f

The mirrorlist generation process can be refined through arguments and arguments with options, for example

pacman-mirrors --country Denmark --timeout 5

IMPORTANT

After all operations ALWAYS syncronize and update your system with

sudo pacman -Syyu

OPERATION

Pacman-mirrors tries to povide ONLY up-to-date mirrors if they are available in your chosen mirror pool This means - at any given time - the number of available mirrors will vary depending on when the mirror last syncronized with the master repo server. But if no up-to-date mirrors is available in your chosen mirror pool, your mirror list will not be changed.

Network connection

To be able to download the latest status file from repo.manjaro.org pacman-mirrors verifies network connection by opening up to three different websites. The sites are

  1. wikipedia.org
  2. github.com
  3. bitbucket.org

The sites are chosen due to their generic nature and general availability.

MODES

  1. The number of mirrors
    • pacman-mirrors -f [number]
  2. More control (custom mirror pool)
    • -c COUNTRY[[,COUNTRY]...]
  3. Full control (custom mirror pool)
    • -i [-d/--default]

FILES OVERVIEW

  • The configuration: /etc/pacman-mirrors.conf
    • The file holds configuration for pacman-mirrors.
  • The mirrorlist: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    • The file contains a number of servers which pacman uses to update your system.
  • Manjaro mirror pool: /usr/share/pacman-mirrors/mirrors.json
    • The worldwide mirrorpool comes with installation. It is compared against the file located at Github in manjaro-web-repo. If the repofile has changed, your local file will be updated with said file.
  • Manjaro mirror pool status: /var/lib/pacman-mirrors/status.json
    • The mirrorpool status file. It is the data you see displayed at repo.manjaro.org. The file is downloaded on every run of pacman-mirrors and saved in.
  • Custom mirror pool: /var/lib/pacman-mirrors/custom-mirrors.json
    • The file is your custom mirror pool and is created by -i/--interactive [-d/--default] argument or the -c/--country argument.

If you are stunned by this message

.: WARNING No mirrors in selection
.: INFO The mirrors has not changed

This is not an error, it is a feature. The reason: You have limited your mirror pool too much and none of your selected mirrors are up-to-date.

Suggested solutions:

  • Remove limitations on countries and/or protocols
  • Do a complete reset of your list with pacman-mirrors -c all -aP all* and then pacman-mirrors -f

GENERAL INFO ABOUT ARGUMENTS

Some options are mutual exclusive and will throw an arguments error:

  • --country, --fasttrack, --geoip

Some arguments requires another argument present to have effect. E.g., this command will ignore --default argument

The -d/--default argument tells -i/--interactive to force load all mirrors from the mirrorfile

pacman-mirrors --interactive --default

Or

pacman-mirrors -id

API specific arguments. For those to have effect the -a/--api argument must be present.

pacman-mirrors -aB unstable

The arguments can appear in any order except for arguments which takes additional options in which case the options must follow immediately after the argument with or without space, for example

pacman-mirrors -f
pacman-mirrors -f 5
pacman-mirrors -f5

Pacman-mirrors always attempt to download the lastest available data from http://repo.manjaro.org. These data is always used during mirrorlist generation to ensure that you connect to a mirror which is up-to-date for your selected branch. Should you decide to temporarily switch branches you will still connect to an up-to-date mirror.

ARGUMENTS, METHODS AND OPTIONS

METHODS

-c, --country COUNTRY [[COUNTRY]...]
Creates a custom mirror pool with supplied countries.
-f, --fasttrack [NUMBER]
Generates a random mirrorlist for the users current selected branch, mirrors are randomly selected from the users current mirror pool, either a custom pool or the default pool, the randomly selected mirrors are ranked by their current access time. The higher number the higher possibility of a fast mirror. If a number is given the resulting mirrorlist contains that number of servers.
-i, --interactive [--default]
This is a function designed to leave full control over countries, mirrors and protocols to the user. This function DOES NOT take into consideration up-to-date mirrors. The optional --default forces pacman-mirrors to load the default mirror file and ignore any preset custom pool, thus allowing for reselecting mirrors for a new custom pool.

API

-a, --api [-p PREFIX] [-R] [-S/-B BRANCH] [-P PROTO [PROTO] ...] [-U URL]
Instructs pacman-mirrors to activate processing of API arguments
-B, -S, --set-branch BRANCH
Permanent change to branch config, using stable, testing or unstable
-p, --prefix PREFIX
Add a path prefix to pacman-mirrors file-handling eg. /mnt/install or $mnt
-P, --proto, --protocols PROTO [PROTO] ...
Write protocols to configuration, using all or http, https, ftp and ftps
-R, --re-branch
Replace branch in mirrorlist
-U, --url URL
Replace mirrorlist with supplied url

MISC

-G, --get-branch
Return branch from configuration.
-g--geoip
Use geolocation if possible, if geoip is not available all mirrors.
-h, --help
Show the help message
-l, --list, --country-list
Lists available mirror countries.
-lc, --country-config
Lists custom selected countries.
-m, --method METHOD
Default method is rank but random can be selected.
-n, --no-mirrorlist
Use to skip generation of mirrorlist
-q, --quiet
Make pacman-mirrors silent
-t, --timeout SECONDS
Change the number of seconds waiting for a server response, SSL enabled mirrors has this value doubled to compensate for the time spent on exchanging encryption keys
-v, --version
Show the version of pacman-mirrors

Exit status:

0     : OK
1     : Problem with argument
2     : Problem accessing systemfiles
3     : Missing mirror file
BRANCH: Value from config

Configuration flow of pacman-mirrors

At launch an internal default configuration is setup, file configuration is applied and the commandline is parsed and applied.

API arguments

These arguments modifies key elements of pacman-mirrors configuration according to the packagers needs.

The actions performed by the API are in strict order and performed before any other actions. This also means that ordinary arguments supplied in conjunction with api might be ignored. Eg. -U argument terminates pacman-mirrors when branch and mirrorlist has been written.

  1. If p PREFIX
    • add PREFIX to internal file configuration
  2. If -S/-B BRANCH
    • apply BRANCH to internal configuration
    • replace branch in pacman-mirrors.conf with BRANCH
  3. If -U URL
    • apply internal configuration to a mirrorlist with URL
    • sys.exit(0)
  4. If -P PROTO [PROTO] ...
    • replace protocols in pacman-mirrors.conf with PROTO
  5. If -R
    • replace branch in mirrorlist with -S/-B BRANCH

When done pacman-mirrors checks the internet connection and if possible download the latest datafiles for creating the mirrorlist. At this point it is possible to interrupt further processing.

If the -n/--no-mirrorlist argument is present pacman-mirrors will now exit.

EXAMPLES

Most optional arguments are self explaining others require explanation. The API functions is mainly designed to help packagers and iso-builders. However it can be of use for everyone because it takes the hazzle out of editing your pacman-mirrors configuration.

Commands

  • Which countries has mirrors?

    pacman-mirrors --list

  • What branch am I on

    pacman-mirrors -G

Commands requiring sudo

  • I want to permanently change branch to unstable, use mirrors from Germany and France, use only https and http protocol in that order

    sudo pacman-mirrors --country Germany,France --api --set-branch unstable --procotol https http

  • Create a mirrorlist with German mirrors and a custom mirror file

    sudo pacman-mirrors --country Germany

  • If you want more countries in your mirrorlist add them they will be written to your custom mirror pool

    sudo pacman-mirrors --country Germany France Denmark

  • Create a mirrorlist with 5 mirrors up-to-date on your branch

    sudo pacman-mirrors --fastrack 5

  • I want to choose my mirrors

    sudo pacman-mirrors --interactive

  • I have a custom mirror list and I want to create a new custom mirror list?

    sudo pacman-mirrors --interactive --default

  • I have a custom mirror list - can I reset it?

    sudo pacman-mirrors --country all

Advanced use samples - BEWARE OF THE DRAGONS

  • Change system branch and dont change the mirrorlist

    sudo pacman-mirrors -naS unstable

  • Change system branch and replace branch in mirrorlist and quit

    sudo pacman-mirrors -naRS unstable

  • Change protocols you will accept but dont touch the mirrorlist

    sudo pacman-mirrors -naP https http

  • A packager can write directly to a mounted systems datafiles using either a path or an environment variable replacing the branch in both configuration and mirrorlist leaving the mirrors as is

    sudo pacman-mirrors -anR -p $prefix -S $branch -P https

  • It is also possible to specify a mirror in which case the mirrorlist is created and pacman-mirrors terminate

    sudo pacman-mirrors -ap $prefix -S $branch -U $url

MORE INFO

REPORTING BUGS

https://github.com/manjaro/pacman-mirrors/issues

SEE ALSO

The pacman-mirrors source code and all documentation may be downloaded from https://github.com/manjaro/pacman-mirrors/archive/master.zip

AUTHORS

Esclapion <esclapion@manjaro.org>
philm <philm@manjaro.org>
Ramon Buldó <rbuldo@gmail.com>
Hugo Posnic <huluti@manjaro.org>
Frede Hundewadt <echo ZmhAbWFuamFyby5vcmcK | base64 -d>