pak

A small fish shell wrapper around paru that exposes a simpler, easier-to-remember subcommand surface for everyday Arch Linux package management.

pak upgrade             # paru -Syu (and flatpak upgrade if available)
pak maintain [args]     # full Cachy-Update maintenance run (cachy-update)
pak check               # list pending updates without applying them
pak update              # paru -Sy (refresh package DB only)
pak search <pkg>        # paru -Ss <pkg>
pak install <pkg>...    # paru -S <pkg>
pak remove <pkg>...     # paru -Rns <pkg>
pak info <pkg>          # paru -Si <pkg>
pak owns <file>         # pacman -Qo <file>
pak files <pkg>         # pacman -Ql <pkg>
pak list                # explicitly installed packages (pacman -Qe)
pak aur                 # AUR/foreign packages (pacman -Qm)
pak clean               # paru -Sc
pak autoremove          # remove orphaned packages (pacman -Qdtq | paru -Rns)

Tab completion is wired up for every subcommand: repo packages for install / search, repo + installed for info, installed packages for remove / files, and filesystem paths for owns.

Requirements

• fish shell
• paru (AUR helper)
• pacman (Arch / Arch-derived distro)
• flatpak — optional; pak upgrade runs flatpak upgrade only if flatpak is on your PATH

Install

git clone git@github.com:nielsonrolim/pak.git
cd pak
./install.fish

This copies functions/pak.fish and completions/pak.fish into ~/.config/fish/, creating the directories if needed. The script is idempotent: re-running it skips files that haven't changed and backs up local edits to *.bak before overwriting.

Remove with ./uninstall.fish.

If you'd rather track the repo and pick up changes with a git pull, symlink instead:

ln -s (pwd)/functions/pak.fish    ~/.config/fish/functions/pak.fish
ln -s (pwd)/completions/pak.fish  ~/.config/fish/completions/pak.fish

Either way, open a new fish shell (or source ~/.config/fish/functions/pak.fish) and pak is ready.

Usage

Run pak with no arguments to print a help summary.

Upgrade everything

pak upgrade

Runs paru -Syu and, if flatpak is on your PATH, follows up with flatpak upgrade. On systems without flatpak the second step is silently skipped.

Run a full maintenance pass

pak maintain

Delegates to cachy-update (falling back to arch-update) for a complete maintenance flow: repo + AUR updates plus news, orphan removal, cache cleanup, pacnew handling, and kernel/reboot and service-restart checks. Any extra arguments are passed straight through, e.g. pak maintain --devel or pak maintain --news 10. If neither tool is installed, it prints how to install cachy-update and exits.

Check for pending updates

pak check

Lists available updates without applying them. Uses cachy-update --list (or arch-update --list) when available, otherwise falls back to paru -Qu.

Refresh the package database

pak update

Runs paru -Sy — useful before searching to make sure suggestions reflect the latest repo state. Doesn't upgrade anything.

Search the repos and AUR

pak search firefox

Install one or more packages

pak install neovim ripgrep fd

Tab completion suggests package names from the official repos.

Show package info

pak info neovim

Tab completion offers both repo and installed packages, so AUR packages you've already installed show up.

Remove packages (with their unused deps and config)

pak remove neovim

Uses paru -Rns, so unused dependencies and saved configs are removed alongside the package. Tab completion here is restricted to installed packages.

Find which package owns a file

pak owns /usr/bin/fish

Equivalent to pacman -Qo. Tab-completes filesystem paths.

List the files installed by a package

pak files fish

Equivalent to pacman -Ql. Tab completion is restricted to installed packages.

List explicitly installed packages

pak list

Equivalent to pacman -Qe — packages you asked for, as opposed to dependencies pulled in transitively. Useful for auditing your install or capturing it for replication.

List installed AUR / foreign packages

pak aur

Equivalent to pacman -Qm — handy for auditing what came from outside the official repos.

Clean the package cache

pak clean

Remove orphaned packages

pak autoremove

Finds unrequired dependencies via pacman -Qdtq and removes them with paru -Rns. Prints a friendly message and exits cleanly when there's nothing to remove.

Subcommand aliases

Most subcommands have shorter aliases:

Subcommand	Aliases
upgrade	up
maintain	cu, full, full-upgrade
check	co
update	refresh
search	s
install	add, i
remove	rm, uninstall
list	explicit
aur	aur-list
autoremove	orphans

License

Apache License 2.0