par_tui – Arch Linux Update Manager

A TUI wrapper for safe Arch Linux system updates with selective package exclusion.

Features

• Async TUI Loading – Immediate startup with background package scanning
• Real-time Progress – Animated spinner and status updates during scan
• Selective Updates – Exclude packages temporarily or permanently
• Dual Update Modes
  • Full system update (paru)
  • Official repositories only (pacman)
• Permanent Exclusions – Save package ignore list to config
• Scan Failure Handling – Graceful degradation on partial scan failures
• Smart Scrolling – Navigate through large package lists with centered cursor

Requirements

• pacman-contrib (for checkupdates)
• paru (optional, for AUR support)

Install / Build

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/ry2x/par_tui.git
cd par_tui

# Build & run (debug)
cargo run

# Build release
cargo build --release

# Install manually
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/par_tui /usr/bin/par_tui

# For Arch Linux, this project has PKGBUILD
makepkg -si

Usage

Simply run:

par_tui

The app will:

1. Launch TUI immediately
2. Scan for updates in background
3. Display available updates with real-time progress
4. Allow you to select packages to exclude
5. Execute the update command with your selections

Key Bindings

Key	Action
j / k / ↑ / ↓	Navigate package list
Space	Toggle temporary ignore for this session
p	Toggle permanent ignore (saved to config)
Enter	Update entire system (paru)
o	Update official repositories only (pacman)
?	Show help modal with GitHub link
q	Quit

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/par_tui/config.toml

[exclude]
# Always ignored packages
permanent = ["my-custom-kernel-bin", "experimental-driver-git"]

[behavior]
# Warn if AUR updates are attempted while official repos are stale (>3 days)
warn_stale_system = true

# Arguments always passed to pacman / paru
extra_args = []

Permanent Exclusions

Press p on any package in the TUI to toggle permanent exclusion. Changes are saved immediately to config.toml.

Notes

• The TUI uses viewport scrolling – only visible items are rendered for performance
• Retry mechanism: checkupdates will retry up to 3 times on failure
• Thread safety: Background scan thread is properly cleaned up on quit
• Configuration directory is created automatically on first run

Architecture

Built with strict layer separation for maintainability:

• models/ – Pure data structures
• io/ – System interactions (commands, files, terminal)
• parser/ – String → Model transformation
• core/ – Business logic (filtering, planning)
• ui/ – Presentation layer (TUI rendering)

See .github/instructions/directory.instructions.md for details.

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or PRs on GitHub.

Tech

• ratatui + crossterm (TUI framework)
• serde + toml (configuration)
• std::thread + mpsc (async scanning)

License

Licensed under either of:

• MIT License
• Apache License, Version 2.0

at your option.