The “pacman –deptest” option for the pacman package manager in Arch Linux and its derivatives checks the dependencies specified for each package installed on the system and returns a list of dependencies that are not currently satisfied. It analyzes the packages’ metadata and compares it with the currently installed packages to determine if all the required dependencies are present. If any missing dependencies are found, they will be listed in the output, along with information about the required packages and versions.
This option is useful for troubleshooting dependency issues or verifying that all dependencies are satisfied before updating packages, to avoid potential conflicts or broken packages. It is recommended to run “pacman –deptest” before updating the system to ensure a smooth upgrade process.
pacman –deptest Command Examples
1. Print the package names of the dependencies that aren’t installed:
# pacman --deptest {{package_name1}} {{package_name2}} 2. Check if the installed package satisfies the given minimum version:
# pacman --deptest "{{bash>=5}}" 3. Check if a later version of a package is installed:
# pacman --deptest "{{bash>5}}" 4. Display help:
# pacman --deptest --help