Archie: Fast & Easy Package Management for Arch Linux

📋 Project Status

This project is no longer actively maintained due to disagreements among the original development team.

Recommended Alternatives

This project is no longer maintained. The tools below carry the torch.

Both are independently maintained, actively developed, and keep the original Archie idea intact: short commands, fast startup, less typing. They just take very different approaches.

🌟 Archium by Keiran

A faithful continuation of classic Archie. Same foundation, steadily improved and expanded.

• Native C binary, tiny and extremely fast
• Works with yay, paru, or plain pacman
• Readline editing and proper bash/fish/zsh completions
• Built-in config, logs, and cache handling
• Plugin system for custom commands and extensions
• Lots of features, lots of knobs, very customizable
• Mature, stable, and regularly updated

If you want “Archie, but bigger and more capable”, this is the natural upgrade.

Think: the original, refined and reinforced.

🦀 Archie-ng by Gurov

A full rewrite from scratch in Rust. Not a fork with fixes. A clean break.

• Memory-safe by design: no leaks, no overflows, no shell injection
• No dependency on yay or paru: ships its own pacman+AUR backend
• Instant startup, non-blocking tab completion with a warm cache
• Fully declarative TOML config: every command, prompt, and keybinding is user-defined
• Per-command confirmation, prompts, and completion source control
• Custom commands via shell: prefix for anything outside the builtins
• Minimal runtime dependencies
• Very active development

Same single-key workflow, but the internals are completely different. Less legacy, fewer sharp edges.

If you want something lean, modern, and built right from the start, this is the forward-looking option.

Think: Archie rebuilt from the ground up, not patched.

Features

• System Updates: Quickly update your entire system
• Package Management:
  • Install packages
  • Remove packages
  • Purge packages
• System Maintenance:
  • Clean package cache
  • Remove orphaned packages
• Package Search: Easily find packages in repositories

Installation

Method 1: Manual Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/TuxForge/archie.git
   cd archie

2. Compile the program:

   make

3. Install the binary (requires root permissions):

   sudo make install

Method 2: AUR Installation

Archie is available on the Arch User Repository (AUR). Install using your preferred AUR helper:

yay -S archie
# Or
paru -S archie

Usage

Interactive Mode

When you run archie, you'll see an interactive prompt:

Welcome to Archie, type "h" for help
$

Available Commands

Command	Action
u	Update the system
i	Install a package
r	Remove a package
p	Purge a package
c	Clean cache
o	Clean orphaned packages
s	Search for a package
h	Display help
q	Quit the application

Command-Line Arguments

Execute Specific Commands

Run Archie with a specific command using --exec:

archie --exec <command>

Supported commands: u, i, r, p, c, o, s, h

Example:

archie --exec u  # Updates the system directly

Version Information

Display version details:

archie --version

Dependencies

• gcc: GNU Compiler Collection
• yay or paru: AUR helpers
• git: Version control system
• readline: Command-line input library
• ncurses: Text-based user interface library

Important Notes

AUR Helper Selection

• Archie uses yay by default
• If only paru is installed, it will use paru
• To force paru when both are available, create a file:

  touch $HOME/.archie-use-paru

Upgrade Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues upgrading Archie, try:

yay -Scc --noconfirm && yay -S archie --noconfirm

License

Archie is licensed under the GNU General Public License. See the LICENSE file for complete details.

Credits

• Created & maintained by Gurov
• Contributors: scklss, Keiran

Support

For issues, feature requests, or contributions, please visit the GitHub repository.