REFLECTOR(1)

📦 version 2023, in arch rolling

✨ REFLECTOR(1) ✨

bestie, welcome to the reflector manual page 💅 this is the part where i explain what this iconic little tool does and how to use it without breaking your system (or your vibe).

okay so real quick — the manual name is reflector, it's a User Manual, and it's literally your new best friend for keeping your Pacman mirrorlist fresh and slay.

🌸 NAME 🌸

reflector — retrieve and filter the latest Pacman mirrorlist ✨

no cap, that's the whole job. it gets mirrors. it filters them. it serves.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

reflector [arguments]

that's it. you run reflector, you give it some arguments (if you want), and it does its thing. simple. elegant. main character energy. 💅

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

okay so reflector is a Python script and an associated Python module (yes, it's both — multitasking queen 👑) that can retrieve up-to-date Arch Linux mirror data from the Mirror Status web interface over at https://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/.

literally all it does is go get the latest mirror info for you so you don't have to. it's giving "errand friend who actually follows through." 🫶

🌈 ARGUMENTS 🌈

bestie i'm gonna be so fr with you: for the full arguments list, just check

reflector --help

that's what the manual says and i'm not about to invent options that aren't there. respect the source. periodt. 💀

🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

okay this is the part where it gets good. these are straight-up, character-for-character, do-not-touch examples and they all ate:

print the latest mirrorlist to STDOUT ✨

reflector

just... run it. that's it. output goes to STDOUT. iconic minimalism.

sort the five most recently synchronized mirrors by download speed and overwrite the local mirrorlist 🔥

reflector --latest 5 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

five freshest mirrors, sorted by speed, saved right over /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist. so clean.

select the 200 most recently synchronized HTTP or HTTPS mirrors, sort them by download speed, and overwrite the file /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist 💖

reflector --latest 200 --protocol http,https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

200 mirrors. both protocols. speed-sorted. overwritten. she's thorough and she's not sorry.

select the HTTPS mirrors synchronized within the last 12 hours and located in either France or Germany, sort them by download speed, and overwrite the file /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist with the results 🦋

reflector --country France,Germany --age 12 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

geo-targeted, time-limited, HTTPS-only, speed-sorted. this is the "curated playlist" of mirror commands honestly.

⭐ SYSTEMD INTEGRATION ⭐

okay so this is lowkey the best part: reflector includes systemd service and timer units that can be used to automatically update Pacman's mirrorlist. automatic. hands-off. self-care. 🧖‍♀️

to use the timer, first edit the configuration file at /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf, and then enable the timer with:

systemctl enable reflector.timer
systemctl start reflector.timer

boom. scheduled. check that status with systemctl list-timers 👀

and if you're impatient (valid) and want to update the mirrorlist immediately instead of waiting for the scheduled operation, just run:

systemctl start reflector.service

done and dusted. 💜

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

  • pacman(8) — the main character this whole thing exists to support 🫡

💀 AUTHORS 💀

Xyne. that's the author. one name. no notes. respect. 🙌

and that's the whole page, bestie! you made it to the end, which means you're officially a reflector understander now 🌟

this little rewrite was brought to you by the reflector User Manual, dated 2020-08-19 — go give the original some love 💖

bye bestie, go sort those mirrors 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from