PKGFILE(1)

📦 version 27, in arch rolling

👑 PKGFILE(1) — the pkgfile manual, but make it make sense 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to PKGFILE(1), aka the pkgfile manual page. it's an alpm .files metadata explorer and honestly? it's that girl. let's get into it 💖

✨ NAME ✨

pkgfile — an alpm .files metadata explorer 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Usage: pkgfile [operation] [options] target

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so like, pkgfile goes digging through the .files metadata that repo-add(8) created, to pull up file info about packages 🔍. by default it treats whatever target you handed it as a filename, and gives you back the package(s) that contain that file. and which repos does it search? the ones you've enabled in /etc/pacman.conf, periodt 💅

✨ OPERATIONS ✨

  • -l, --list — now the target is treated as a package name instead of a filename, and you get the contents of that package back 🎀. this one lets you use repo/package style syntax (like "core/pacman") to narrow the search — but only when --list is used without the --glob or --regex options, iykyk.
  • -s, --search — searches for packages containing the target you gave it. this is the default mode, the main character of operations fr fr 👑.
  • -u, --update — updates the stored metadata files. highly recommend setting up a daily cron job with this command so your results stay accurate 💯. by default it only downloads repos that are found to be newer on the mirror — pass this option twice to force all repos to be downloaded. no cap.

✨ MATCHING ✨

  • -b, --binaries — returns only files that live inside a bin or sbin directory 🧚
  • -d, --directories — also includes directories in the search results, because directories deserve love too 🫶
  • -g, --glob — turns on shell-style glob pattern matching. see glob(7). heads up tho: the shell wildcards * and ? will never match path separators 🙈. so this kind of matching is your go-to for searching entries within directories, like /usr/bin/*.
  • -i, --ignorecase — disables case sensitivity in matching. case? never heard of her ✨
  • -r, --regex — turns on regular expression matching. see pcre(3).
  • -R REPO, --repo=REPO — searches only that specific repo. one repo, only vibes 🎯

✨ OUTPUT ✨

  • -0, --null — delimits output with null bytes instead of newline characters.
  • -q, --quiet — outputs less. this one applies to the --list operation.
  • -v, --verbose — outputs more. this one applies to the --search operation.
  • -w, --raw — avoids justification of the 2 column output. raw and unfiltered, just how we like it 💀

✨ GENERAL OPTIONS ✨

  • -C FILE, --config=FILE — use a config file other than the default of /etc/pacman.conf.
  • -D DIRECTORY, --cachedir=DIRECTORY — use a cache path other than the compile-time default.
  • -h, --help — prints help and exits. classic 🎀
  • -V, --version — prints the version and exits.

✨ MATCHING HEURISTICS ✨

okay so in --search mode, and without the --regex or --glob option, pkgfile will try to match your target as an exact filename. and if the target contains a / character, it'll attempt a full path match instead 🔥. but with --regex and --glob enabled searching, pkgfile will always match against the full pathname. that's the rule, that's the vibe check.

in --list mode, and without the --regex or --glob option, pkgfile will try to match your target as an exact package name. and if the target contains a / character, the text before the slash gets assumed to be a repository, and the search gets restricted accordingly 🌸

✨ COMMAND NOT FOUND HOOKS ✨

/usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.bash
/usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.zsh
/usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.fish

these are zsh, bash and fish compatible functions that you can drop into your shell initialization so pkgfile runs whenever an executed command isn't found 😭 — like, the terminal literally goes "idk her" and pkgfile swoops in.

if the environment variable PKGFILE_PROMPT_INSTALL_MISSING is set, and only one package is found, you'll get a prompt to install that package 🫶. NOTE: this feature requires the sudo(8) program, and is currently only supported by the bash and zsh implementations. the fish girlies will have to wait 🐟

✨ AUTOMATING UPDATES ✨

it is recommended that you use pkgfiled(1) to keep the .files DBs up as pacman -Fy is issued (either by a user or a cronjob/systemd timer). you can enable pkgfiled with:

systemctl enable --now pkgfiled

alternatively, pkgfile includes systemd timer and service units to automate periodic updates to the .files DBs ⏰. assuming pkgfile was built with systemd support, you can enable that with:

systemctl enable --now pkgfile-update.timer

slay, your DBs are now self-sufficient 💅✨

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

pkgfiled(1), repo-add(8), pcre(3), glob(7), pacman.conf(5)

✨ AUTHOR ✨

Dave Reisner <d@falconindy.com> — king behavior 👑

and that's the whole page bestie, no skips, no cuts 💖

kisses and goodbye from pkgfile 27, dated 2026-10-24 — that's the version and the date, signed, sealed, delivered, mwah 🎀💋

📦 where this page comes from