libraries and dependenciesĬomplicated applications often depends on functionality provided in libraries which are then provided by a dependency package.ĭebian and Arch does not provide the libraries in packages with the same name and therefore some leg-work must be done in order to correctly identify the Arch counterparts of Debian packages. The file(s) may be owned by another package or it has been placed there by a user, perhaps as a result of a local make and the subsequent sudo make install and as such they are legit but pacman needs you to resolve the conflict. When pacman - during the initial processing of a package - encounters a file in filesystem - which is not known to exist as recorded by pacman - the package manager will refuse to continue. This is used to ensure that the system - the distribution part - is kept in a manageable manner. Pacman uses these instructions to execute various actions when installing or removing a package and to keep track of files and their locations, thereby knowing precisely which file belongs to what package and where it resides. Pacman uses a native package format which is a compressed archive providing the complete folder/file structure and some simple instructions instructions used by pacman. The native package manager is called pacman. deb packages as it is - it must be mogrified to match an Arch based system. deb packages are created for Debian and derivatives and there is a major difference in what is provided inside a package or in dependencies. There is a lot of work involved … and if you continue reading you also have some insight into the work of a package maintainer. Perhaps then you will appreciate the work done by the team voluntering their free time to maintain the current packages and you will also know why requests for added packages is often rejected. Think of the work if the package is compiled from source … If you reach the bottom of this thread - you also get an idea of how much work there is for a package maintainer to keep up with upstream changes.

One could consider the topic title clickbait but the question surfaces from time to time

Install deb package