03 Update Sources

3. Update sources

3.1 The package domain

A package domain is one kind of package. Two tools in the same domain install the same updates. Two tools in different domains never install the same update.

bs-updater has six package domains.

Domain	Heading in the list output	Name for the user
repo	Pacman	repository packages
aur	AUR	AUR packages
rpm	RPM	RPM packages
deb	APT	Debian packages
flatpak	Flatpak	Flatpak applications and runtimes
appimage	AppImage	AppImages

3.2 The tools and their domains

Source	Tool	Domain	Distribution	Default state
Repository packages	pacman	repo	Arch Linux	off
Repository packages	paru	repo	Arch Linux	on
AUR packages	paru	aur	Arch Linux	on
RPM packages	dnf	rpm	Fedora	off
RPM packages and the Nobara fixups	nobara-sync	rpm	Nobara	off
Debian packages	apt	deb	Debian, Ubuntu	off
Flatpak applications and runtimes	flatpak	flatpak	all	on
AppImages	Gear Lever	appimage	all	on

paru is in the table two times. paru updates two kinds of package, and the user can select one kind without the other.

3.3 The conflict rule

Two enabled tools in one domain would install the same updates two times and count them two times. bs-updater prevents this at two places:

1. In the settings page. The page shows a warning when two selected tools have the same domain. The page also shows a warning when no tool is selected.
2. In the command. resolve_tools holds the first tool of a domain and removes each subsequent tool of that domain. It sends a message to the error output for each removal.

The message has this form:

bs-update: pacman and paru (repository packages) both update repository packages; using pacman

The sequence in the tool table gives the priority. pacman is before paru-repo, so a selection of both tools uses pacman.

3.4 The two pairs that can conflict

Domain	Tools	Reason
repo	pacman and paru-repo	paru updates repository packages already.
rpm	dnf and nobara-sync	nobara-sync installs its RPM updates with DNF.

pacman, dnf and apt are in three different domains, so they do not conflict. A system has one of these three tools.

3.5 The default selection

The defaults suit Arch Linux. Without a configuration file, bs-update enables these four tools:

paru-repo paru-aur flatpak gearlever

pacman is off by default, because paru-repo covers the same domain. On another distribution, the user selects the correct tool in the settings page. Chapter 9 gives the selection for each distribution.

3.6 The count command of each tool

Each count command runs without root privileges.

Tool	Count command	Method
pacman, paru-repo	checkupdates	Counts the output lines.
paru-aur	paru -Qua	Counts the output lines.
dnf, nobara-sync	dnf -q check-update	Counts the package lines.
apt	apt-get -q -s upgrade	Counts the Inst lines.
flatpak	flatpak remote-ls --updates	Counts the output lines.
gearlever	gearlever --list-updates	Counts the output lines.

The command ignores the exit code of each count command. dnf check-update gives the exit code 100 when updates are available, and checkupdates gives a non-zero exit code when no updates are available. A count of zero is the correct result in each of these conditions.

3.7 The update command of each tool

Tool	Update command
pacman	sudo pacman -Syu
paru-repo	paru -Syu --repo
paru-aur	paru -Sua
paru-repo and paru-aur together	paru -Syu
dnf	sudo dnf upgrade
nobara-sync	nobara-sync cli
apt	sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
flatpak	flatpak update
gearlever	gearlever --update --all --yes

When the user enables both paru entries, bs-update runs paru -Syu one time. paru updates the repository packages and the AUR packages in one transaction, so two runs are not necessary.