Pacupdate is a small application that notifies that user about new updates for Arch Linux (pacman). If pacupdate find out that a update is available it will display a notification in SystemTray.

Features:

• Programmed in Python and pygtk
• Fetches ArchLinux package lists using pacman -Sy and parses output of pacman -Qu
• Displays a tray icon, with distinct icons for being up-to-date and for having pending updates
• Informs of new updates by displaying a message next to the tray icon and blinking the icon
• Allows forcing the check by clicking the icon at any time

pacupdate in action

pacupdate tray icon:

pacupdate actions:

pacupdate notification:

How to install

pacupdate is already available in the community repository. Install it using:

# pacman -Sy pacupdate

How to use

To allow pacupdate synchronize the databases you must:

1. Run visudo as root:

# visudo

2. Add the following line at the end of the file:

user    ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/pacman -Sy

Example:

darthvader    ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/pacman -Sy

1. Run 'pacupdate' from the command line or use your desktop environment menu

$ pacupdate

TO DO

• Add an option to allow pacupdate update the system (probably using gksu)
• Add support for translations
• Add an option to read news from Arch web site (official and communities)