pacman – Manage packages with pacman

Synopsis

  • Manage packages with the pacman package manager, which is used by Arch Linux and its variants.

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
extra_args
-
added in 2.8
 Default:
null
Additional option to pass to pacman when enforcing state.
force
boolean
added in 2.0
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
When removing package, force remove package, without any checks. Same as `extra_args="--nodeps --nodeps"`. When update_cache, force redownload repo databases. Same as `update_cache_extra_args="--refresh --refresh"`.
name
-
Name or list of names of the package(s) or file(s) to install, upgrade, or remove. Can't be used in combination with upgrade.

aliases: package, pkg
recurse
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
When removing a package, also remove its dependencies, provided that they are not required by other packages and were not explicitly installed by a user. This option is deprecated since 2.8 and will be removed in 2.10, use `extra_args=--recursive`.
state
-
    Choices:
  • absent
  • latest
  • present ←
Desired state of the package.
update_cache
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Whether or not to refresh the master package lists.
This can be run as part of a package installation or as a separate step.

aliases: update-cache
update_cache_extra_args
-
added in 2.8
 Default:
null
Additional option to pass to pacman when enforcing update_cache.
upgrade
boolean
added in 2.0
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Whether or not to upgrade the whole system. Can't be used in combination with name.
upgrade_extra_args
-
added in 2.8
 Default:
null
Additional option to pass to pacman when enforcing upgrade.

Notes

Note

  • When used with a loop: each package will be processed individually, it is much more efficient to pass the list directly to the name option.

Examples

- name: Install package foo from repo
  pacman:
    name: foo
    state: present

- name: Install package bar from file
  pacman:
    name: ~/bar-1.0-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
    state: present

- name: Install package foo from repo and bar from file
  pacman:
    name:
      - foo
      - ~/bar-1.0-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
    state: present

- name: Upgrade package foo
  pacman:
    name: foo
    state: latest
    update_cache: yes

- name: Remove packages foo and bar
  pacman:
    name:
      - foo
      - bar
    state: absent

- name: Recursively remove package baz
  pacman:
    name: baz
    state: absent
    extra_args: --recursive

- name: Run the equivalent of "pacman -Sy" as a separate step
  pacman:
    update_cache: yes

- name: Run the equivalent of "pacman -Su" as a separate step
  pacman:
    upgrade: yes

- name: Run the equivalent of "pacman -Syu" as a separate step
  pacman:
    update_cache: yes
    upgrade: yes

- name: Run the equivalent of "pacman -Rdd", force remove package baz
  pacman:
    name: baz
    state: absent
    force: yes

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key Returned Description
packages
list
 when upgrade is set to yes
a list of packages that have been changed

Sample:
['package', 'other-package']


Status

Authors

  • Indrajit Raychaudhuri (@indrajitr)

  • Aaron Bull Schaefer (@elasticdog) <aaron@elasticdog.com>

  • Maxime de Roucy (@tchernomax)

Hint

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