pacman-mirrors

Section: (8)
Updated: April, 2019
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NAME

pacman-mirrors - generate pacman mirrorlist for Manjaro Linux  

SYNOPSIS

pacman-mirrors [-h] [-f [NUMBER]] [-i [-d]] [-m METHOD] [-c COUNTRY [COUNTRY...] | [-g]] [-no-color] [-l] [-lc] [-q] [-s] [-t SECONDS] [-v] [-n] [-api] [-S/-B BRANCH] [-p PREFIX] [-P PROTO [PROTO...]] [-R] [-U URL]  

DESCRIPTION

Generates mirrorlist with up-to-date mirrors for Manjaro Linux. Default is to rank all mirrors by reponse time. If no arguments are given pacman-mirrors lists available options. Pacman-mirrors requires access to files which are read-only so it must be run with su or sudo.

To create a mirrorlist using all default use


pacman-mirrors -f

The mirrorlist generation process can be refined through arguments and arguments with options, for example


pacman-mirrors --country Denmark --timeout 5

 

IMPORTANT

After all operations ALWAYS syncronize and update your system with


sudo pacman -Syyu

 

OPERATION

Pacman-mirrors tries to provide ONLY up-to-date mirrors if they are available in your chosen mirror pool. This means - at any given time - the number of available mirrors will vary depending on when the mirror last syncronized with the master repo server. If no up-to-date mirrors is available in your chosen mirror pool, your mirror list will not be changed. This behavior can be overridden if so desired by using the -s/-no-status switch.  

NETWORK CONNECTION

To be able to download the latest status file from repo.manjaro.org pacman-mirrors verifies network connection by opening up to three different websites. These sites are

1.
wikipedia.org
2.
github.com
3.
bitbucket.org

The sites are chosen due to their generic nature and general availability.  

MIRROR RANKING

The mirrors are ranked by means of downloading a file from the systems core repo. The file defaults to core.db.tar.gz but can be customized using the corresponding entry in the configuration file.  

MODES

1.
The number of mirrors
pacman-mirrors -f [number]
2.
More control (custom mirror pool)
-c COUNTRY[[,COUNTRY]...]
3.
Full control (custom mirror pool)
-i [-d/-default]
 

FILES OVERVIEW

The configuration: /etc/pacman-mirrors.conf
The file holds configuration for pacman-mirrors.
The mirrorlist: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
The file contains a number of servers which pacman uses to update your system.
Manjaro mirror pool: /usr/share/pacman-mirrors/mirrors.json
The worldwide mirrorpool comes with installation.
At runtime the file is downloaded from Github and compared with the systems file.
If the files differs, your local file will be replaced.
Manjaro mirror pool status: /var/lib/pacman-mirrors/status.json
The mirrorpool status file.
It is the data you see displayed at repo.manjaro.org.
The file is downloaded and saved on every run of pacman-mirrors.
Custom mirror pool: /var/lib/pacman-mirrors/custom-mirrors.json
The file is your custom mirror pool
It is created using -i/--interactive or -c/--country argument.

If you are stunned by this message


.: WARNING No mirrors in selection
.: INFO The mirrors has not changed

This is not an error, it is a feature. The reason: You have limited your mirror pool too much and none of your selected mirrors are up-to-date.

Suggested solutions:

Remove limitations on countries and/or protocols
Do a complete reset of your list with pacman-mirrors -c all -aP all
 

GENERAL INFO ABOUT ARGUMENTS

Some options are mutual exclusive and will throw an arguments error:

-country, -fasttrack, -geoip
-fasttrack and -nostatus

Some arguments requires another argument present to have effect. If such conditions rise pacman-mirrors will throw an arguments error.

The arguments can appear in any order except for arguments which takes additional options in which case the options must follow immediately after the argument with or without space, for example


pacman-mirrors -f
pacman-mirrors -f 5
pacman-mirrors -f5

Pacman-mirrors always attempt to download the lastest available data from <http://repo.manjaro.org>. These data is always used during mirrorlist generation to ensure that you connect to a mirror which is up-to-date for your systems branch.  

ARGUMENTS, METHODS AND OPTIONS

 

METHODS

-c, --country COUNTRY [[COUNTRY]...]
Creates a custom mirror pool with supplied countries.
-f, --fasttrack [NUMBER]
Generates a random mirrorlist for the users current selected branch, mirrors are randomly selected from the users current mirror pool, either a custom pool or the default pool, the randomly selected mirrors are ranked by their current access time. The higher number the higher possibility of a fast mirror. If a number is given the resulting mirrorlist contains that number of servers.
-i, --interactive [-default]
This is a function designed to leave full control over countries, mirrors and protocols to the user. This function DOES NOT take into consideration up-to-date mirrors. The optional -default forces pacman-mirrors to load the default mirror file and ignore any preset custom pool, thus allowing for reselecting mirrors for a new custom pool.
 

API

-a, --api
Instructs pacman-mirrors to activate processing of API arguments.
-B, -S, --set-branch BRANCH
Permanent change branch, using stable, testing or unstable.
-p, --prefix PREFIX
Add a path prefix to pacman-mirrors file-handling eg. /mnt/install or $mnt.
-P, --proto, --protocols PROTO [PROTO] ...
Write protocols to configuration, using all or http, https, ftp and ftps.
-R, --re-branch
Replace branch in mirrorlist.
-U, --url URL
Replace mirrorlist with supplied url.
 

MISC

-G, --get-branch
Return branch from configuration.
-g--geoip
Use geolocation if possible, if geoip is not available all mirrors.
-h, --help
Show the help message.
-l, --list, --country-list
Lists available mirror countries.
-lc, --country-config
Lists custom selected countries.
-m, --method METHOD
Default method is rank but random can be selected.
-n, --no-mirrorlist
Use to skip generation of mirrorlist.
--no-color
Suppress colorized messages.
-q, --quiet
Make pacman-mirrors silent.
-s, --no-status
Ignore up-to-date status for system branch.
-t, --timeout SECONDS
Change the number of seconds waiting for a server response, SSL enabled mirrors has this value doubled to compensate for the time spent on exchanging encryption keys.
-v, --version
Show the version of pacman-mirrors.
 

Exit status:


0     : OK
1     : Problem with argument
2     : Problem accessing systemfiles
3     : Missing mirror file
BRANCH: Value from config

 

Configuration flow of pacman-mirrors

At launch an internal default configuration is setup, file configuration is applied then the commandline is parsed and applied.  

API arguments

The arguments modifies key elements of pacman-mirrors configuration according to the users needs.

The actions performed by the API are in strict order and performed before any other actions. This also means that ordinary arguments supplied in conjunction with api might be ignored. Eg. -U argument terminates pacman-mirrors when branch and mirrorlist has been written.

1.
If p PREFIX
add PREFIX to internal file configuration
2.
If -S/-B BRANCH
apply BRANCH to internal configuration
replace branch in pacman-mirrors.conf with BRANCH
3.
If -U URL
apply internal configuration to a mirrorlist with URL
sys.exit(0)
4.
If -P PROTO [PROTO] ...
replace protocols in pacman-mirrors.conf with PROTO
5.
If -R
replace branch in mirrorlist with -S/-B BRANCH

When done pacman-mirrors checks the internet connection and if possible download the latest datafiles for creating the mirrorlist. At this point it is possible to interrupt further processing.

If the -n/-no-mirrorlist argument is present pacman-mirrors will now exit.  

EXAMPLES

Most optional arguments are self explaining others require explanation. The API functions is mainly designed to help packagers and iso-builders. However it can be of use for everyone because it takes the hazzle out of editing your pacman-mirrors configuration.  

Commands

Which countries has mirrors?

pacman-mirrors -country-list

Which countries in my custom mirror pool

*pacman-mirrors -country-config

What branch am I on

pacman-mirrors -get-branch

 

Commands requiring sudo

I want to permanently change branch to unstable, use mirrors from Germany and France, use only https and http protocol in that order

sudo pacman-mirrors -country Germany,France -api -set-branch unstable -procotol https http

Create a mirrorlist with German mirrors

sudo pacman-mirrors -country Germany

If you want more countries in your mirrorlist add them they will be written to your custom mirror pool

sudo pacman-mirrors -country Germany France Denmark

Create a mirrorlist with 5 mirrors up-to-date on your branch

sudo pacman-mirrors -fastrack 5

I want to choose my mirrors

sudo pacman-mirrors -interactive

I have a custom mirror list and I want to create a new custom mirror list?

sudo pacman-mirrors -interactive -default

I have a custom mirror list - can I reset it?

sudo pacman-mirrors -country all

 

Advanced use samples - BEWARE OF THE DRAGONS

Change system branch and dont change the mirrorlist

sudo pacman-mirrors -naS unstable

Change system branch and replace branch in mirrorlist and quit

sudo pacman-mirrors -naRS unstable

Change protocols you will accept but dont touch the mirrorlist

sudo pacman-mirrors -naP https http

A packager can write directly to a mounted systems datafiles using either a path or an environment variable replacing the branch in both configuration and mirrorlist leaving the mirrors as is

sudo pacman-mirrors -anR -p $prefix -S $branch -P https

It is also possible to specify a mirror in which case the mirrorlist is created and pacman-mirrors terminate

sudo pacman-mirrors -ap $prefix -S $branch -U $url

 

DEFAULT CONFIGURATION


##
## /etc/pacman-mirrors.conf
##

## Branch Pacman should use (stable, testing, unstable)
# Branch = stable

## Generation method
## 1) rank   - rank mirrors depending on their access time
## 2) random - randomly generate the output mirrorlist
# Method = rank

## Filename to use when ranking mirrors
## The file must be present in core repo
# TestFile = core.db.tar.gz

## Define protocols and priority
##   separated by comma 'https,http' or 'http,https'
## ATM available protocols are: http, https, ftp
## Not specifying a protocol will ban the protocol from being used
## If a mirror has more than one protocol defined only the first is written to the mirrorlist
## Empty means all in reversed alphabetic order
# Protocols =

## When set to False - all certificates are accepted.
## Use only if you fully trust all ssl-enabled mirrors.
# SSLVerify = True

 

MORE INFO

<https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Pacman-mirrors>
<https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Create_your_own_Custom_Mirrorlist>
 

REPORTING BUGS

<https://gitlab.manjaro.org/applications/pacman-mirrors/issues>  

SEE ALSO

The pacman-mirrors source code and all documentation may be downloaded from <https://gitlab.manjaro.org/applications/pacman-mirrors/>  

AUTHORS


Esclapion <esclapion@manjaro.org>
philm <philm@manjaro.org>
Ramon Buldó <rbuldo@gmail.com>
Hugo Posnic <huluti@manjaro.org>
Frede Hundewadt <echo ZmhAbWFuamFyby5vcmcK | base64 -d>


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
IMPORTANT
OPERATION
NETWORK CONNECTION
MIRROR RANKING
MODES
FILES OVERVIEW
GENERAL INFO ABOUT ARGUMENTS
ARGUMENTS, METHODS AND OPTIONS
METHODS
API
MISC
Exit status:
Configuration flow of pacman-mirrors
API arguments
EXAMPLES
Commands
Commands requiring sudo
Advanced use samples - BEWARE OF THE DRAGONS
DEFAULT CONFIGURATION
MORE INFO
REPORTING BUGS
SEE ALSO
AUTHORS