PACTREE(8)

💅 PACTREE — the pactree(8) glow-up (pacman-contrib manual, bestie edition)

okay so you opened pactree(8) and you're like "what is this tree situation" — don't worry, i got you. this is the pactree page from the pacman-contrib manual, and we're gonna make it make sense. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

pactree — literally just a package dependency tree viewer. that's her job. that's what she does. 👑

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

pactree [options] <package>

one package, a bunch of options, go off. ✨

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

pactree produces a dependency tree for a package. like, the whole family tree of what needs what. 🌳

By default, a tree-like output is generated — very demure, very branchy. but with the --graph option, a Graphviz description is generated instead. switching aesthetics, iconic. 🔥

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

• -a, --ascii — Use ASCII characters for tree formatting. By default, pactree will use Unicode line drawing characters if it is able to detect that the locale supports them. so if your terminal is being weird about the pretty lines, this is your girl. 🫶
• -c, --color — Colorize output. rainbow-ify it. 🌈
• --config <file> — Specify an alternate pacman configuration file. you're not stuck with the default one, bestie. 🗂️
• -b, --dbpath — Specify an alternative database location. 📁
• --debug — Print log messages produced by libalpm. for when you wanna see the receipts. 🔍
• -d, --depth <num> — Limits the number of levels of dependency to show. A zero means show the named package only, one shows the packages that are directly required. so 0 = just her, 1 = her plus her direct circle. 🎯
• --gpgdir <dir> — Specify an alternate GnuPG directory for verifying database signatures (default is /etc/pacman.d/gnupg). 🔐
• -g, --graph — Generate a Graphviz description. If this option is given, the --color and --linear options are ignored. so like, those two are getting unfollowed for this one. 💀
• -h, --help — Display syntax and command-line options. the classic "wait what were the flags again" save. 🆘
• -l, --linear — Prints package names at the start of each line, one per line. no tree, just a clean little list. 📋
• -o, --optional[=depth] — Additionally prints optional dependencies up to a certain depth, default 1 for immediate optional dependencies. When used in conjunction with -r it shows which packages it is optional for. In Graphviz mode, produce dotted lines. Negative values mean infinite depth. so yeah, optional deps get their own dotted-line moment ✨
• -r, --reverse — Show packages that depend on the named package. flipping the whole tree around, main character energy. 🔄
• -s, --sync — Read package data from sync databases instead of local database. 📡
• -u, --unique — List dependent packages once. Implies --linear. no duplicates, we said what we said. 💅
• -V, --version — Display the version. 🏷️

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

pacman(8), pacman.conf(5), makepkg(8) — go read your cousins' pages too, iykyk. 📚

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💀 BUGS 💀

Bugs? You must be kidding; there are no bugs in this software. 😌

But if we happen to be wrong — and like, hypothetically 👀 — file an issue with as much detail as possible at https://gitlab.archlinux.org/pacman/pacman-contrib/-/issues/new. details, screenshots, the whole vibe. the more the better, fr fr. 🙈

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🧚 AUTHORS 🧚

Current maintainers:

• Johannes Löthberg <johannes@kyriasis.com>
• Daniel M. Capella <polyzen@archlinux.org>

For additional contributors, use git shortlog -s on the pacman-contrib.git repository. give the whole squad their credit. 🫶

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aaand that's the page, bestie — brought to you by Pacman-contrib 1.13.1, dated 2025-12-11. slay, go read your dependency trees. 🌟💜