How-To: See Exactly What Your Last Omarchy Update Changed

When something acts weird after an update, the first thing I want to know is what changed. Omarchy is Arch underneath, so pacman keeps a log.

1. When did the last upgrades run?

grep 'starting full system upgrade' /var/log/pacman.log | tail -n 5

2. What got upgraded, installed or removed?

grep -E '\[ALPM\] (upgraded|installed|removed)' /var/log/pacman.log | tail -n 50

Each upgraded line shows old and new versions, like upgraded foo (1.2-1 -> 1.3-1). Filter a day with grep '2026-11-13' /var/log/pacman.log.

3. Check for config files that need merging

find /etc -name '*.pacnew' 2>/dev/null

A .pacnew means the package shipped a new default config and kept yours. Compare them by hand (pacdiff from pacman-contrib helps).

4. Roll one package back if you must

ls /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ | grep '^foo-'
sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/foo-1.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Use the exact file name you see. Downgrades are a stopgap; partial upgrades aren’t supported on Arch, so get back to current once the bug’s fixed. And take a snapshot before you start poking.

God Bless, and Use the Source!

References & Further Reading

• pacman(8) manual page (Arch Linux)
• pacman (ArchWiki)
• Pacman/Pacnew and Pacsave (ArchWiki)
• Omarchy