Using pacman

From https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_Tips

Finding what pacman installs

This is what I actually was looking for was how to show what pacman installs for a given package. I didn't find it on the wiki page, but at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=89448

$ pacman -Qql packagename

Remove packages with dependencies

If a package has dependencies, pacman will not allow you to remove it saying it is required for the dependencies. Use the -Rdd option to remove it anyway and leave the dependencies. This allows upgrading versions etc...

$ pacman -Rdd packagename

Remove old cached packages with paccache (from package "pacman-contrib") 

Packages are cached in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/. By default "paccache -rv"  deletes all but the most recent 3 versions of packages, I have no idea why I would ever want to go back 3 versions of something. Adding -k n allows you to specify the number of versions. (this freed over a gigabyte for me, and I just installed arch about 2 months ago)

$ paccache -rv -k 1

Install from a package file

$ sudo pacman -U filename.pkg.tar.xz

Remove package along with unneeded dependencies and configuration files

$ sudo pacman -Rns packagename

Show detailed information on package

Installed package:

$ pacman -Qi packagename

From repository:

$ pacman -Si packagename

Remove orphans recursively

$ pacman -Rs $(pacman -Qtdq)