alatools

alatools contains command-line tool working with the Arch Linux Archive (ALA). Well, just one tool at the moment. It is a pacman.conf generator inspired by this thread and some ideas that I have had for a while. It will check the last modification times of the local sync databases and generate a new pacman configuration file that points to repos on ALA from the same days. It can be used to install a package without a full system upgrade even when the package has been upgraded in the repos. It basically lets you continue to install packages as if the repos has not synchronized. It should only be used as a temporary solution in situations where you can’t upgrade (e.g. you’re working on something important with an approaching deadline and suddenly need some package but can’t risk breaking the system with an upgrade until after the deadline).

It can also be used to step through upgrades if you haven’t upgraded the system in a while. Follow the front page news and sync to the dates that require manual intervention in chronological order.

403 Errors

Requests for database files with the .db extension currently return 403 errors since May 18. I am aware of the issue but I cannot do anything about it at the moment because I do not own the site (it supercedes e.g. mod_rewrite rules). I have contacted the host and am waiting for a reply. Follow the discussion on the forum for updates. There is also a script that can be used as a temporary workaround, e.g.

$ pacman -Sy
$ ./xynes_workaround_script.sh
$ pacman -Su alatools
$ pacman -S powerpill ...