What kind of packaging system used by arch-linux?

Question

What kind of packaging system used/recommended by Arch-based distributions? Is it possible to use pre-compiled archives like deb or rpm on Arch-based distributions?

Solution

Arch linux is a bare bones Linux distro that provides you with a base skeleton along with the Linux Kernel(with some adjustments for modern computers) to customize and change according to your preference.

Hence, you will have to install a utility that does whatever you require for you. In this manner, you can install a package from almost any distribution onto Arch Linux. It is best to use the pacman package manager that comes along with Arch Linux, as it it's the most reliable tool for installing packages in Arch.

Here are guides to installing rpm and deb packages on Arch Linux:

• RPM: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/115245/install-rpm-file-on-arch-linux
• DEB: https://www.maketecheasier.com/install-deb-package-in-arch-linux/

Comments

[tripleee]

The Arch package manager is called pacman (of course!)

[N Randhawa]

So it means pacman compiles every source code file to a its own binary?

[Razetime]

@NRandhawa yes, pacman can do offline installation as well if you have the package and its dependencies.

[iBug]

@RaghuRanganathan I think APT does offline installation, too. sudo apt install ./something.deb