upkeep

A terminal user interface (TUI) for managing Arch Linux system updates, installed packages, orphans, and rebuild issues.

Arch updates are easy until they aren't — a Python upgrade breaks half your AUR packages, an orphan you forgot about pulls in a dependency chain, and the news post you didn't read needed manual intervention. upkeep puts all of that in one TUI so you can see what's broken, what's stale, and what needs attention before you hit Enter.

Features

• Updates Tab - View and install pending pacman and AUR updates
• Installed Tab - Browse explicitly installed packages, uninstall or reinstall
• Orphans Tab - Find and remove packages no longer needed as dependencies
• Rebuilds Tab - Detect and fix ABI/version mismatch issues (e.g., after Python/Qt updates) and track custom-patched packages against upstream
• Search Tab - Search and install packages from official repos and AUR
• News Tab - View Arch Linux news with smart highlighting:
  • ! (yellow) - Items requiring manual intervention
  • * (blue) - Items related to your installed packages
• Info Pane - Toggle detailed package/article info with ? key (works on all tabs)
• Filtering - Filter package lists by name on Updates and Installed tabs
• Batch Operations - Select multiple packages with Space, select all/none with a/n

Installation

AUR (recommended)

yay -S upkeep-git

Prebuilt binary

Download from GitHub Releases:

tar -xzf upkeep-v*.tar.gz
sudo mv upkeep /usr/local/bin/

From source

git clone https://github.com/jakeb-grant/upkeep.git
cd upkeep
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/upkeep /usr/local/bin/

Dependencies

• An AUR helper (yay by default, configurable)
• pacman-contrib — provides checkupdates (update checking) and paccache (cache cleanup)
• wl-clipboard or xclip (optional) — clipboard export of package lists

Usage

upkeep

Keybindings

Key	Action
Tab / Shift+Tab	Switch tabs
j / k or ↓ / ↑	Navigate list
Space	Toggle selection
a / n	Select all / none
f	Enter filter mode (Updates/Installed)
F or Esc	Exit filter mode
?	Toggle info pane
r	Refresh current tab
q	Quit

Updates Tab

Key	Action
u	Update selected packages
Enter	Update all packages
c	Clean package cache

Installed Tab

Key	Action
d	Remove package(s)
D	Remove with dependencies
i	Reinstall package(s)
I	Reinstall from source (AUR rebuild)
c	Export package lists to files
C	Copy package list to clipboard

Orphans Tab

Key	Action
d	Remove package(s)
D	Remove with dependencies

Rebuilds Tab

Key	Action
Enter	Run rebuild command

Search Tab

Key	Action
Type	Search packages
Enter	Install selected
Esc	Clear search

News Tab

Key	Action
Shift+↑ / Shift+↓	Scroll article
PgUp / PgDn	Scroll article (fast)
r	Refresh news

Configuration

Configuration files are stored in ~/.config/upkeep/.

config.toml

# AUR helper to use (default: yay)
aur_helper = "yay"

checks.toml

Define rebuild checks for applications that break after system updates:

# Error-pattern check: runs a command and looks for error strings in stderr
[[check]]
name = "obs-studio"
command = ["timeout", "3", "obs", "--help"]
error_patterns = ["ABI mismatch", "symbol lookup error"]
rebuild = "yay -S --rebuild obs-studio"

You can also track custom-patched packages against their upstream counterparts. When the upstream version is newer than your installed version, the check triggers:

# Version-track check: compares installed version against official repo
[[check]]
name = "libadwaita-custom"
tracks = "libadwaita"
rebuild = "libadwaita-rebuild bump"

All configured checks are shown in the Rebuilds tab with their current status (passing or triggered).

License

MIT