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ALPM-1.01
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/ ALPM

NAME

ALPM - ArchLinux Package Manager backend library.

VERSION

1.01

This version of ALPM is compatible with pacman 3.4.

SYNOPSIS

use ALPM ( root        => '/',
           dbpath      => '/var/lib/pacman/',
           cachedirs   => [ '/var/cache/pacman/pkg' ],
           logfile     => '/var/log/pacman.log',
           xfercommand => '/usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp -c -O %o %u' );

# It's easier just to load a configuration file:
use ALPM qw(/etc/pacman.conf);

# My new favorite way to get/set options.  A tied hash.  (TMTOWTDI)
my %alpm;
tie %alpm, 'ALPM';
$alpm{root} = '/';
printf "Root Dir = %s\n", $alpm{root};
my ($root, $dbpath, $cachedir) = @alpm{qw/root dbpath cachedir/};

# Callback options...
$alpm{logcb} = sub { my ($lvl, $msg) = @_; print "[$lvl] $msg\n" };

# Querying databases & packages
my $localdb = ALPM->localdb;
my $pkg     = $localdb->find('perl');

# Lots of different ways to get package attributes...
my $attribs_ref    = $pkg->attribs_ref;
my $name           = $pkg->name;
my ($size, $isize) = $pkg->attribs('size', 'isize');
print "$name $attribs_ref->{version} $attribs_ref->{arch} $size/$isize";

my $syncdb   = ALPM->register( 'extra',
                               'ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/$repo/os/i686' );
my @perlpkgs = $syncdb->search('perl');
printf "%d perl packages found.\n", scalar @perlpkgs;

# Search all databases/repos.
print map { sprintf "%10s: %s %s\n", $_->db->get_name, $_->name,
            $_->version } ALPM->search('perl');

# Find a database by name of repository.
my $coredb = ALPM->db('core');

# Transactions
my $trans = ALPM->action( type => 'sync' );
$trans->sync( 'perl', 'perl-alpm', 'pacman' );
$trans->prepare;
$trans->commit;
undef $trans; # this forces releasing the transaction

DESCRIPTION

Archlinux uses a package manager called pacman. Pacman internally uses the alpm library for handling its database of packages. This module is an attempt at creating a perlish object-oriented interface to the libalpm C library.

IMPORT OPTIONS

There are a few different options you can specify after use ALPM. These help to set configuration options for ALPM. These options are global for everyone who is using the module. You can specify either:

1. The path to a pacman.conf configuration file.

Example:

use ALPM qw( /etc/pacman.conf );

This is particularly useful on the command-line:

perl -MALPM=/etc/pacman.conf -e '
print qq{%s\n}, $_->name for ALPM->localdb->pkgs'
2. A hash of options to use for ALPM.

Example:

use ALPM qw( root        => '/',
             dbpath      => '/var/lib/pacman/',
             cachedirs   => [ '/var/cache/pacman/pkg' ],
             logfile     => '/var/log/pacman.log' );

It is important to set options as soon as possible. Or stuff breaks.

ALPM OPTIONS

ALPM has a number of options corresponding to the alpm_option_get_... and alpm_option_set... C functions in the library. Options which take multiple values (hint: they have a plural name) expect an array reference as an argument. Similarly the same options return multiple values as an array reference.

Read-write options

root

root directory of entire system

dbpath

path to the ALPM/pacman database

cachedirs*

paths containing package caches

logfile

path to the pacman logfile

usesyslog

if true, log to the system log as well

noupgrades*

a list of package names to not upgrade

noextracts*

a list of package names to not extract

ignorepkgs*

a list of package names to ignore for upgrade

holdpkgs*

a list of package names to hold off upgrading

ignoregrps*

a list of groups to ignore for upgrade

xfercommand

shell command to use for downloading (ie wget)

nopassiveftp+

if true, do not use passive ftp mode

usedelta+

should you use deltas? not really sure, never tried it...

Read-only options

lockfile

path to the lockfile

localdb

the ALPM::DB object representing the local database

syncdbs*

an array-ref of sync databases as ALPM::DB objects

* = the option is set with (and returns) an arrayref
+ = the option is boolean and is either 0 or 1

Callback options

Callbacks can only be set to code references.

logcb - Generic logging

The log message and level are passed to the provided code ref as arguments. level can be: error, warning, debug, function, or unknown.

dlcb - Download callback

The filename, bytes transfered, and bytes total are passed to the provided code ref as arguments.

totaldlcb - Total download callback

The total number of bytes downloaded so far is passed to the provided code ref as the only argument.

TIED OPTION HASH

This is probably the easiest way to manipulate ALPM's options. Perl has an old mechanism which allows reading or writing to hashes act sort of like objects. Basically, you can tie ALPM's options to a hash variable and any changes to that hash change the same option.

# Taken from SYNOPSIS
tie my %alpm, 'ALPM';
$alpm{root} = '/';
print "Root Dir = $alpm{root}\n";
my ($root, $dbpath, $cachedir) = @alpm{qw/root dbpath cachedir/};

But you cannot delete a key or empty the hash. In fact assigning undef also does not work for options that don't use arrayrefs.

# Doesn't work!
delete $alpm{root};
undef $alpm{root};
%alpm = ();

CLASS METHODS

ALPM has all its package specific and database specific functions inside the package and database classes as methods. Everything else is accessed through class methods to ALPM.

As far as I can tell you cannot run multiple instances of libalpm. Class methods help remind you of this. The class method notation also helps to differentiate between globally affecting ALPM functions and package or database-specific functions.

version

Usage   : print ALPM->version(), "\n";
Returns : The version of libalpm being used, a string.

set_options

Params  : Pass set_options a hash or hashref to set many options at
          once.
Returns : 1

set_opt

Usage   : ALPM->set_opt( 'root', '/' );
Params  : An option name and new option value.
Returns : 1

get_options

Usage   : my %alpm_opts = ALPM->get_options();
          my ($root, $dbpath) = ALPM->get_options( 'root', 'dbpath' );
Params  : * When no params are given, returns a hash of all options.
          * Otherwise, return a list of option values in the same order
            as the parameters.
Notes   : Unset options are undefined.
Returns : A hashref or list.

get_opt

Usage   : my $root = ALPM->get_opt('root');
Params  : An option name.
Returns : The given option's value or undef if it is unset.

register

Usage   : my $localdb = ALPM->register;
          my $syncdb  = ALPM->register
              ( 'core' => 'ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/$repo/os/i686' );
Params  : No parameters will return the local database.
          Two parameters will register a sync database:
          1) The name of the repository to connect to.
          2) The URL to the repository's online files.
             Like with pacman's mirrorlist config file, $repo will be
             replaced with the repository name (argument 1) ...
             use single quotes!
Precond : You must set options before using register_db.
Throws  : An 'ALPM DB Error: ...' message is croaked on errors.
Returns : An ALPM::DB object.

register is a shorter alias for register_db.

See ALPM::DB

localdb

Usage   : my $db = ALPM->localdb;
Returns : The local system database as an ALPM::DB object.
Precond : You must set certain options first.
Notes   : This is what is called by register_db without arguments.

syncdbs

Usage   : my @dbs = ALPM->syncdbs;
Purpose : Nicer looking wrapper to ALPM->get_option('syncdbs');
Params  : None.
Returns : A list (not an arrayref) of sync databases.

db

Usage   : my $comm_db = ALPM->db('community');
          my $comm_db = ALPM->repodb('community');
Params  : The name of a repository.
Returns : An ALPM::DB object matching the repo name.

db is a shorter alias for the method repodb.

dbs

Usage   : my @dbs = ALPM->dbs;
          my @dbs = ALPM->databases;
Params  : None
Returns : A list of each database that is registered.

dbs is a shorter alias for the method databases.

See ALPM::DB

load_pkgfile

Usage   : my $pkgfile = ALPM->load_pkgfile('perl-alpm-0.2.pkg.tar.gz');
Params  : The path to a package tarball.
Returns : An ALPM::Package object.
Notes   : Technically we return an ALPM::PackageFree object that will
          automatically free itself from memory when it goes out of scope.

See ALPM::Package

load_config

Usage   : ALPM->load_config('/etc/pacman.conf');
Params  : The path to a pacman.conf configuration file.
Returns : 1

See also ALPM::LoadConfig for more advanced needs.

transaction

Usage   : my $t = ALPM->action( flags    => 'nodeps force',
                                event    => sub { ... },
                                conv     => sub { ... },
                                progress => sub { ... } );
Purpose : Initializes a transaction
Params  : A hash of the transaction settings
Throws  : An 'ALPM Error: ...' is thrown if a transaction is
          already active.
Returns : An ALPM::Transaction object.

action is a shorter alias for the transaction method. See also ALPM::Transaction.

transaction Parameters

Transactions have many named parameters, passed as a hash.

flags - A string of flags, each separated by whitespace.

  • nodeps

  • force

  • nosave

  • cascade

  • recurse

  • dbonly

  • alldeps

  • dlonly

  • noscriptlet

  • noconflicts

  • printuris

  • needed

  • allexplicit

  • unneeded

  • recurseall

event - A coderef, used as an event callback.

When an event occurs, the coderef is passed a hashref representing the event.

conv - A coderef, used as a conversation callback.

This callback is called when a question should be asked to the user. It is passed a hashref representing the question. The callback returns 1 or 0 to answer yes or no.

progress - A coderef, used as a progress callback.

This callback is called to report on the progress of the operations of the transaction.

Callbacks are explained in greater detail in the ALPM::Transaction document.

ERRORS

Global ALPM errors are thrown with croak. The error messages match the errors that the C library provides. These errors are prefixed with ALPM Error:. Errors that occur when using a ALPM::DB object are prefixed with ALPM DB Error:.

Transaction errors are prefixed with ALPM Transaction Error:. These are described fully at ALPM::Transaction.

TROUBLESHOOTING

TODO: Common error messages and how to fix them?

TODO

Unimplemented functions:

alpm_depcmp, alpm_checkdeps, alpm_deptest, alpm_dep_compute_string,
alpm_trans_interrupt, alpm_checkconflicts, alpm_compute_md5sum,
alpm_sync_newversion, alpm_delta_... functions

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

Justin Davis, <juster at cpan dot org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2010 by Justin Davis

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.10.0 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.