informant

Arch Linux news reader and pacman hook

TLDR

Check for unread news items

$ informant check

Read all unread news interactively

$ sudo informant read

Mark all news as read without printing

$ sudo informant read --all

List latest news titles

$ informant list

List only unread news items

$ informant list --unread

List news in reverse order (newest first)

$ informant list --reverse

informant is a tool for reading Arch Linux news from the archlinux.org website. It helps users stay informed about important package updates, manual intervention requirements, and system changes.The tool can be integrated with pacman hooks to prevent updates when unread news items exist, ensuring users review important announcements before proceeding with system updates.

PARAMETERS

check

Check for unread news items (exit code equals number of unread items). Prints and marks as read if only one unread.

read

Loop through unread items, printing each and prompting to continue. Specify an item by index or title match.

read --all

Mark all items as read without printing them.

list

List recent news titles (read and unread).

--unread

Only show unread items (with `list`).

--reverse

Show items newest first (with `list`).

-n, --count NUM

Number of items to display.

-h, --help

Display help message.

INSTALL

yay -S informant

CAVEATS

Specific to Arch Linux. Requires network access to fetch news. Some operations require root privileges to mark news as read in system-wide cache.

HISTORY

informant was created to address a common issue in Arch Linux: users updating their systems without reading important news announcements that may require manual intervention. It can block pacman updates until news is acknowledged.