Packrat is a desktop app for browsing everything installed on an Arch Linux system: repo packages, AUR packages, and Flatpaks, all in one list.
I wanted an easier way to see what's actually on my machine. pacman -Q gives you about two thousand lines with no real way to tell an app from a library, so Packrat sorts everything into categories you can click through, with search and a details panel for each package.
You can also remove packages from it. Anything that changes your system runs as a real command in a terminal pane at the bottom of the window, so you always see exactly what's running and answer the password and [Y/n] prompts yourself. You can update from it and install new packages from it too.
- Lists every installed pacman package and Flatpak (apps and runtimes)
- Marks where each one came from: the repo name, AUR, or Flatpak
- Sorts packages into categories like Development, Games, Command Line, Libraries, Fonts, and Kernel & Drivers
- Shows Apps (anything with a launcher), Installed by You, and Orphans (leftover dependencies nothing needs anymore)
- Filters by source and sorts by name, size, or install date
- Searches names, app names, and descriptions as you type
- Shows each package's version, size, install date, license, website, dependencies, what needs it, and optional dependencies
- Click any dependency to jump straight to it
- Remove a package (repo, AUR, or Flatpak), or clear out every orphan at once
- See pending updates for repo packages, AUR packages, and Flatpaks, and update them
- Search the repos, the AUR, and Flatpak remotes for new packages, and install them
- A built-in terminal pane, which you can also open as a normal shell
Arch doesn't tag packages by type, so Packrat works it out:
- If a package ships a desktop launcher, it's an app, and the launcher's own category (Network, Graphics, Game, and so on) decides where it goes.
- Otherwise the name and installed files decide.
python-*goes to Python,ttf-*to Fonts, anything with kernel modules or firmware to Kernel & Drivers,lib*to Libraries, packages with systemd services to Services, and anything else that installs to/usr/binto Command Line. - What's left (configs, keyrings, mirror lists, meta packages) lands in Config & Data.
It's a heuristic, so a few packages will end up somewhere slightly odd. Search covers those.
Select a package and click Remove in the details panel. Before anything runs, Packrat asks pacman for a dry run (pacman -Rsp, no root needed) and shows you every package that would go, including dependencies nothing else needs, plus how much space you'd get back and the exact command it's about to run.
Click Remove in that dialog and the command runs in the terminal pane:
sudo pacman -Rns <package>You type your password in the pane, and pacman still asks its own [Y/n], so there's one last chance to back out. If pacman won't remove something (because other packages need it), you get its reason instead and nothing runs.
In the Orphans view, Remove All does the same thing for every orphan in one go.
In Flatpak Runtimes, Remove Unused runs flatpak uninstall --unused for your user and system installations. Flatpak lists what it's about to remove and asks before doing anything, so this one goes straight to the pane.
Flatpaks use flatpak uninstall. System-wide Flatpaks get sudo in front, which keeps them working on setups without a polkit agent (Niri, for example).
When a command finishes successfully, the package list reloads and the pane closes itself after a moment. If something fails, the pane stays open so you can read the error.
Packrat checks for updates once when it starts. The Updates view in the sidebar lists everything with a newer version waiting, and every row shows the version change (1.0.8 → 1.0.9). Click Check in that view to look again.
The checks don't touch your real package databases:
- Repo packages come from
checkupdates(part ofpacman-contrib), which syncs a throwaway copy of the databases - AUR packages come from
paru -Quaoryay -Qua - Flatpaks come from
flatpak remote-ls --updates, one remote at a time, so one broken remote doesn't hide the rest
Update All runs everything in the terminal pane, one step after another, stopping if a step fails:
sudo pacman -Syu && paru -Sua && flatpak update --user && sudo flatpak update --systemPackrat only includes the steps that have something to update. The pane stays open afterwards, because pacman sometimes prints things worth reading (like new .pacnew files).
You can also update a single package from the details panel. AUR packages get rebuilt with paru -S --aur <package> and Flatpaks run flatpak update <id>. Repo packages show Update System instead, which runs a full sudo pacman -Syu. Updating one repo package by itself is a partial upgrade, which Arch doesn't support and which can break things in fun ways.
Click the gear in the title bar to choose your AUR helper. Packrat saves the choice to ~/.config/packrat/settings.json. If you never pick one, it uses paru, or yay when paru isn't installed.
Click Find at the top of the sidebar and type in the search box. Instead of filtering what you already have, it searches three places at once:
- The repos, with
pacman -Ss. This reads the package databases already on your disk, so it doesn't touch the network - The AUR, through its official RPC API (fetched with
curl, which pacman already depends on) - Every Flatpak remote you have set up, with
flatpak search
You need at least two characters before it searches, since the AUR refuses anything shorter. Every word you type has to show up somewhere in the name or description, in any order, and dashes count as spaces, so "muse code" finds muse-code-bin. The AUR and Flatpak only search for exact phrases on their own, so for those Packrat searches the longest word and filters the rest itself. Results are ranked by how well the name matches, then repo packages come first, then Flatpaks, then AUR packages (most votes first). The source buttons in the header filter results the same way they filter your library.
Things you already have get an Installed tag, and Show in Library jumps to them. Everything else gets an Install button. Hover it to see the exact command:
| Source | Command |
|---|---|
| Repo | sudo pacman -S <package> |
| Repo, with updates waiting | sudo pacman -Syu <package> |
| AUR | paru -S --aur <package> (or yay) |
| Flatpak | sudo flatpak install --system flathub <app-id> |
The second row is on purpose. If Packrat's last update check found repo updates, your package databases are behind the mirrors, and installing against them can fail or leave you with mismatched library versions. So the install rides along with a full upgrade instead. Packrat never runs pacman -Sy <package>, since that's a partial upgrade. If a plain pacman -S install fails anyway, Packrat suggests updating the system first.
Flatpaks install system-wide when the remote is set up for the system installation, and to your user installation when it only exists there. pacman, your AUR helper, and Flatpak all show what they're about to do and ask before doing it, so you get the final say in the pane.
Press Ctrl+` to open or hide it, and drag its top edge to resize it. With nothing running, Open Shell starts your normal shell ($SHELL) in it.
It's a real terminal, using the same emulator as Alacritty, so colors, progress bars, and tab completion all work. Select text with the mouse, copy with Ctrl+Shift+C, and paste with Ctrl+Shift+V. After a program exits, press Enter or Esc to close the pane, or click New Shell.
- Arch Linux or an Arch-based distro (I use CachyOS)
- A GPU with a working Vulkan driver, since GPUI draws with Vulkan
sudoset up for your user, since installs, removals, and updates runsudo pacmanpacman-contribfor repo update checks (checkupdates)paruoryayif you want to install or update AUR packages- Flatpak is optional. Without it you just won't see a Flatpak section.
The AUR package pulls in the required pieces and lists pacman-contrib, paru, yay, and flatpak as optional.
Packrat is on the AUR as packrat. With paru or yay:
paru -S packratOr
yay -S packratOr build it by hand:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/packrat.git
cd packrat
makepkg -siIt builds from source, so the first install takes a few minutes. You get packrat on your PATH and a Packrat entry in your app launcher.
If you'd rather build from the repo, you need Rust 1.92 or newer.
git clone https://github.com/pinkpixel-dev/packrat.git
cd packrat
cargo run --release| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
Ctrl+F |
Jump to search |
/ |
Jump to search (from the list) |
Enter |
From search, move to the list |
Ctrl+L |
Focus the list |
↑ ↓ or k j |
Move through the list |
Home End |
First or last package |
Alt+↑ Alt+↓ |
Previous or next sidebar view |
Ctrl+` |
Open or hide the terminal pane |
Ctrl+R or F5 |
Reload packages |
Ctrl+Q |
Quit |
While the terminal pane has focus, Tab, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+F and Ctrl+L go to the program running in it instead of Packrat.
Packrat reads pacman's local database files in /var/lib/pacman/local directly instead of linking libalpm. That keeps it working when pacman bumps its library version, and it means Packrat never needs root just to show you what's installed. Root only comes in through sudo in the terminal pane, for commands you confirm. Repo names come from pacman -Sl, which only reads the sync databases already on disk, and Flatpaks come from flatpak list.
AUR and orphan detection match what pacman -Qm and pacman -Qdt report.
Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.
Made with 💖 by Pink Pixel