Arch Linux

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Arch Linux (Template:IPAc-en)<ref name="pronunciation-of-archlinux">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn is an open source, rolling release Linux distribution. Arch Linux is kept up-to-date by regularly updating the individual pieces of software that it comprises.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Arch Linux is intentionally minimal, and is meant to be configured by the user during installation so they may add only what they require.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Arch Linux provides monthly "snapshots" which are used as installation media.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Pacman, a package manager written specifically for Arch Linux, is used to install, remove and update software packages.<ref name=pacman>Template:Cite web</ref> Also, the Arch User Repository (AUR), which is the community-driven software repository for Arch Linux provides packages not included in the official repositories and alternative versions of packages; AUR packages can be downloaded and built manually, or installed through an AUR 'helper'.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Arch Linux has comprehensive documentation in the form of a community-run wiki known as the ArchWiki.<ref name="distrowatch_review">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Inspired by CRUX, another minimalist distribution, Judd Vinet began the Arch Linux project in March 2002. The name was chosen because Vinet liked the word's meaning of "the principal," as in "arch-enemy".<ref name="pronunciation-of-archlinux"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Originally only for IA-32 (32-bit x86) CPUs, the first x86-64 installation standard ISO image was released in April 2006.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Vinet led Arch Linux until 1 October 2007, when he stepped down due to lack of time, transferring control of the project to Aaron Griffin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The migration to systemd as its init system began in August 2012,<ref>Template:Cite mailing list</ref> and it became the default on new installations in October 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It replaced the SysV-style init system, used since the distribution's inception.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Better source needed

The end of i686 support was announced in January 2017, with the February 2017 ISO being the last one including i686<ref name="i686-deprecation">Template:Cite web</ref> and making the architecture unsupported in November 2017.<ref name="i686-unsupported">Template:Cite web</ref> Since then, the community derivative Arch Linux 32<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> can be used for i686 hardware.

On 24 February 2020, Aaron Griffin announced that due to his limited involvement with the project, he would, after a voting period, transfer control of the project to Levente Polyak.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This change also led to a new 2-year term period being added to the Project Leader position.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In March 2021, Arch Linux developers were thinking of porting Arch Linux packages to x86_64-v3, roughly correlating to the Intel Haswell era of processors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2021, Arch Linux installation images began including a guided installation script by default.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In late 2021, the Arch Linux developers released Pacman 6.0, which enabled parallel downloads.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In February 2022, the Arch Linux developers began offering debug packages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In September 2024, Valve partnered with Arch Linux developers to support ongoing development efforts with the focus on build service infrastructure and secure signing enclave.<ref> Template:Cite mailing list </ref>

On 14 August 2025, the Arch User Repository, the Arch Linux Forums and the Arch Linux website were hit by a distributed denial-of-service attack.<ref> Template:Cite mailing list</ref> As a result of the attack web services became temporarily unavailable and downloads from the AUR were severely slowed down or impossible.<ref> Template:Cite web </ref><ref> Template:Cite mailing list </ref><ref> Template:Cite web </ref>

Repository security

Until Pacman version 4.0.0,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Arch Linux's package manager lacked support for signed packages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Packages and metadata were not verified for authenticity by Pacman during the download-install process. Without package authentication checking, tampered-with or malicious repository mirrors could compromise the integrity of a system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Pacman 4 allowed verification of the package database and packages, but it was disabled by default. In November 2011, package signing became mandatory for new package builds, and as of March 2012, every official package is signed.<ref name="signed">Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2012, package signing verification became official and is now enabled by default in the installation process.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="2012.07.15">Template:Cite web</ref>

Design and principles

Arch is largely based on binary packages. Packages target x86-64 microprocessors to assist performance on modern hardware. A ports/ebuild-like system is also provided for automated source compilation, known as the Arch build system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Arch Linux focuses on simplicity of design, meaning that the main focus involves creating an environment that is straightforward and relatively easy for the user to understand directly, rather than providing polished point-and-click style management tools Template:Ndash the package manager, for example, does not have an official graphical front-end. This is largely achieved by encouraging the use of succinctly commented, clean configuration files that are arranged for quick access and editing.<ref name="TheArchWay">Template:Cite web</ref> This has earned it a reputation as a distribution for "advanced users" who are willing to use the command-line interface.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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Logo

The current Arch Linux logo was designed by Thayer Williams<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in 2007 as part of a contest to replace the previous logo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Installation

The Arch Linux website supplies ISO images that may be burned to a CD or USB drive. Installation can be accomplished manually by following the instructions on the Arch Wiki, or automatically through the use of the included "archinstall" script.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another command line utility that comes bundled with the installation media, "pacstrap" may be used to install the base system.<ref name="2012.07.15"/> Installation of additional packages which are not part of the base system can be done with either pacstrap, Pacman after booting (or chrooting) into the new installation, or by specifying packages within the guided archinstall script.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=pacman/>

An alternative to using CD or USB images for installation is to use the static version of the package manager Pacman, from within another Linux-based operating system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The user can mount their newly formatted drive partition, and use pacstrap (or Pacman with the appropriate command-line switch) to install base and additional packages with the mountpoint of the destination device as the root for its operations. This method is useful when installing Arch Linux onto USB flash drives, or onto a temporarily mounted device which belongs to another system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Depending on the selected installation type, further actions may need to be taken before the new system is ready for use. Notable configuration includes the installation of a bootloader, configuring the system with a hostname, network connection, language settings, and graphical user interface.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Arch Linux does not schedule releases for specific dates, nor does it provide traditional releases, but instead uses a rolling release model. Packages in the main repositories are updated often, with new updates being pushed far quicker when compared to long-term support (LTS) distributions. This style of package management allows systems to remain updated easily.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Occasionally, manual interventions are needed for certain updates, with instructions posted on the news section of the Arch Linux website.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Package management

PacmanTemplate:Anchor

All packages are managed through pacman, a package manager written specifically for Arch Linux.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Pacman handles package installation, upgrades, downgrades, removal and features automatic dependency resolution.<ref name="Pacman-Arch-Wiki">Template:Cite web</ref> The packages for Arch Linux are obtained from the Arch Linux package tree and are compiled for the x86-64 architecture.

Pacman typically uses binary packages with a .tar.zst extension<ref> Template:Cite web </ref><ref> Template:Cite web </ref><ref> Template:Cite web </ref> (for zstd compression), with .pkg placed before this to indicate that it is a Pacman package (giving .pkg.tar.zst);<ref name="Pacman-Arch-Wiki"/> though other compression formats are also valid, such as .pkg.tar.xz.<ref>"Pacman: Configuration options for makepkg" Template:Webarchive. 2021.</ref>

Packages can be installed via pacman -S Template:Var, and pacman -Syu can be used to perform a full system upgrade.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

As well as Arch Linux, Pacman is also used for installing packages under MSYS2 (a fork of Cygwin) on Windows.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Repositories

The following official binary repositories exist:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

core, which contains all the packages needed to set up a base system. Packages in this repository include kernel packages and shell languages.
extra, which holds packages unneeded for the base system, including desktop environments and programs.
multilib, a centralized repository for x86-64 users to more readily support 32-bit applications in a 64-bit environment. Packages in this repository include Steam.

Also, testing repositories exist which include binary package candidates for other repositories. Currently, the following testing repositories exist:

core-testing, with packages for core.
extra-testing, with packages for extra.
multilib-testing, with packages for multilib.

The core-staging and extra-staging repositories are used for some rebuilds to avoid broken packages in testing. The developers recommend not using these repositories for any reason, stating that any system updating from them will "unquestionably break."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

There are also two other repositories that include the newest version of certain desktop environments.

gnome-unstable, which contains packages of a new version of the software from GNOME before being released into testing.
kde-unstable, which contains packages of a new version of KDE software before being released into testing.

The unstable repository was dropped in July 2008 and most of the packages moved to other repositories.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The community repository was merged with extra in May 2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In addition to the official repositories, there are a number of unofficial user repositories.

The most well-known unofficial repository is the Arch User Repository, or AUR, hosted on the Arch Linux site. The AUR does not host binary packages but instead a collection of build scripts known as PKGBUILDs. PKGBUILD scripts are executed by the makepkg command, which downloads the necessary files from the software's repository and builds them using the Arch build system.

The Arch Linux repositories contain both libre and nonfree software, and the default Arch Linux kernel contains nonfree proprietary blobs, hence the distribution is not endorsed by the GNU project.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The linux-libre kernel can be installed from the AUR or by enabling Parabola's repositories.

Template:AnchorArch build system (ABS)

The Arch build system (ABS) is a ports-like source packaging system that compiles source tarballs into binary packages, which are installed via Pacman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Arch build system provides a directory tree of shell scripts, called PKGBUILDs, that enable any and all official Arch packages to be customized and compiled. Rebuilding the entire system using modified compiler flags is also supported by the Arch build system. The Arch build system makepkg tool can be used to create custom pkg.tar.zst packages from third-party sources. The resulting packages are also installable and trackable via Pacman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:AnchorArch User Repository (AUR)

In addition to the repositories, the Arch User Repository (AUR) provides user-made PKGBUILD scripts for packages not included within the main repositories. These PKGBUILD scripts simplify building from source by explicitly listing and checking for dependencies and configuring the install to match the Arch architecture.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Arch User Repository helper programs can further streamline the downloading of PKGBUILD scripts and associated building process.

However, this comes at the cost of executing PKGBUILDs not validated by a trusted person; as a result, Arch developers have stated that the utilities for automatic finding, downloading and executing of PKGBUILDs will never be included in the official repositories.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Instances of malware have been discovered in the past such as on 19 July 2025 when a modified Firefox build was actually a RAT,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> thus AUR packages should be installed with great care and Arch Linux directs users to avoid AUR helpers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Users can create packages compatible with Pacman using the Arch build system and custom PKGBUILD scripts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This functionality has helped support the Arch User Repository, which consists of user contributed packages to supplement the official repositories.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Arch User Repository provides the community with packages that are not included in the main repositories. Reasons for exclusion from the main repositories include:

Licensing issues: software that cannot be redistributed, but is free to use, can be included in the Arch User Repository since all that is hosted by the Arch Linux website is a shell script that downloads the actual software from elsewhere. Examples include proprietary freeware such as Google Earth and Spotify.
Modified official packages: the Arch User Repository also contains many variations on the official packaging as well as beta versions of software that is contained within the repositories as stable releases.
Popularity of the software: rarely used programs have not been added to the official repositories (yet).
Betas or "nightly" versions of software which are very new and thus unstable. Examples include the "firefox-nightly" package, which gives new daily builds of the Firefox web browser.

PKGBUILDs for any software can be contributed by ordinary users.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Any PKGBUILD that has 10 or more votes or more than 1% usage from pkgstats can be promoted into the extra repository.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Reproducible builds

Arch Linux is working on making all official packages reproducible.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This means that when a package is rebuilt in a different environment it should be bit-by-bit identical. This allows users and researchers to verify the integrity of the packages found in the official repository. The status of this effort can be monitored on the dedicated status page.

Derivatives and other products

Template:See also Template:AnchorThe Arch Linux wiki maintains its own list of Arch-based distributions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

There are several projects working on porting the Arch Linux ideas and tools to other kernels, including PacBSD (formerly ArchBSD) and Arch Hurd,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which are based on the FreeBSD and GNU Hurd kernels, respectively. There is also the Arch Linux ARM project, which aims to port Arch Linux to ARM-based devices, including the Raspberry Pi, as well as the Arch Linux 32 project, which continued support for systems with 32-bit only CPUs after the mainline Arch Linux project dropped support for the architecture in November 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

SteamOS 3.0, the version of SteamOS used in the Steam Deck by Valve, is based on Arch Linux.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Reception

OSNews reviewed Arch Linux in 2002.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> OSNews also has five later reviews about Arch Linux.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

LWN.net wrote a review about Arch Linux in 2005.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> LWN.net also has two later reviews about Arch Linux.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Tux Machines reviewed Arch Linux in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Chris Smart from DistroWatch Weekly wrote a review about Arch Linux in January 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> DistroWatch Weekly reviewed Arch Linux again in September 2009 and in December 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Linux kernel developer and maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman (GKH)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> has stated that he uses Arch Linux and that it "works really really well". He has also praised the Arch Wiki, the distribution's rolling release model, and the feedback loop with the community.<ref>Template:Cite web Template:Cbignore</ref>

In a 2023 DistroWatch poll, about half of the responders maintained that they were running either Arch (17%) or an Arch derivative (30%).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2025, Arch also enjoys the third highest average rating of any Linux distribution on DistroWatch with a rating of 9.18, with only two higher rated distributions (Artix Linux and BigLinux) also being Arch derivatives.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notes

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References

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External links

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Arch Linux

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