How to view package information in Arch Linux (BlackArch, Manjaro)

For each package in the system, you can find out such information as: version number, description, developer site, dependencies, recommended dependencies, packages with which there is a conflict, size, etc.

The commands described in this post work the same in Arch Linux, as well as all distributions based on it, such as BlackArch, Manjaro and others.

If you are interested in very brief information about the package - description, version number, and whether the package is installed, then you can use a command like this:

pacman -Ss PACKAGE-NAME

To display all available information about a package, use a command like:

pacman -Si PACKAGE_NAME

To view information about a package installed from the AUR, use a command like:

pikaur -Si PACKAGE NAME

For pikaur see the detailed article “Automatic installation and update of AUR packages”.

In addition to the usual information such as version, description, site address, dependencies, and more, the pikaur command will also show information typical of the AUR: ratings, popularity, when it was first presented, and so on.

So, using the -Si option and pacman or pikaur commands, you can display information about any package.