Handbook

First steps

Keeping the system up to date and installing software with zenpac.

Zen Linux’s package manager is zenpac, also installed as zp. Run it as yourself: it shows what it’s going to do, and only then asks for your password, through run0, sudo or doas.

Keeping it up to date

zp update     # refresh the repositories
zp upgrade    # bring every package to its newest version

zp upgrade is always a full upgrade. It shows the plan and asks before it changes anything, and a failed change leaves the system as it was.

Installing software

zp search editor    # packages whose name or description has the words
zp show kate        # the details of one
zp install kate     # install it, and what it needs
zp remove kate      # remove it, and what only it needed

What you install yourself is your world: zp world lists it, and everything else on the system is there because something in the world needs it. Removing a package takes along what nothing needs any more. More in the world.

What changed

zp history lists every change zenpac made, oldest first, and zp history show <n> what one of them did.

Your config files

An upgrade never overwrites a config file you changed. If the package changed it too, its new version goes next to yours as <file>.zpnew; zp diff-config shows the differences and asks which to keep.

pacman

pacman is still installed while zenpac takes over from it, and goes with zenpac 1.0. Use zenpac: the two keep separate records of what is installed.

More