Switching Branches

Overview

Manjaro specific packages downloaded and installed from the Testing branch or Unstable branch will, by nature, not have been fully tested, and may be unstable. Please refer to System Maintenance Section for important maintenance information.

One of the many features that sets Manjaro apart from other Arch-based distributions is that it uses its own dedicated software branches, rather than relying on those provided by Arch itself. In fact, to ensure continued stability and reliability, Manjaro actually uses three distinct branches:

Summing up, Manjaro packages start their lives in the unstable branch. Once they are deemed stable, they are moved to the testing branch, where more tests will be conducted to ensure the package is ready to be submitted to the stable branch.

Remember for Unstable branch: Manjaro specific packages such as kernels, kernel modules and Manjaro applications enter the repo on unstable branch and it is those packages which are considered unstable when they enter.

Unmodified packages synced from Arch repo are considered stable as they have already been vetted by Archlinux Community.

Changing to another branch

Have you considered?
Why not become an active part of the Manjaro community by becoming a tester?

In order to access a branch, you need to change your pacman-mirrors configuration.

You should substitute the value colored in green (for illustrative purposes only) to one of the following: stable, testing or unstable.

sudo pacman-mirrors --api --set-branch {branch}

After you changed the branch, rebuild the mirrorlist and update your packages:

sudo pacman-mirrors --api --set-branch {branch}

Questions

How do I go back after changing to one of the testing branches?

Going back to the stable branch is easy. All you have to do is to repeat the above, and use stable as the branch value.

Be aware that after switching to a more stable branch you will receive messages from pacman, informing about newer packages installed than available in the repo. Don't be alarmed as the situation will resolve itself when the packages reach your current branch.

If for whatever reason you do wish to also 'downgrade' packages while changing branches add an extra 'u' to the pacman command:

sudo pacman -Syuu

How do I check which branch I am currently on?

pacman-mirrors -G

Revision #2
Created 17 May 2024 15:58:04 by Roman
Updated 17 May 2024 16:11:07 by Roman