Arch Linux - Enabling Testing Repositories

1) Add to /etc/pacman.conf the testing repositories. Check the list of Arch repositories to enable the desired.

2) As recommended the testing repositories should be added before the stable ones as seen on the file below.

# The testing repositories are disabled by default. To enable, uncomment the
# repo name header and Include lines. You can add preferred servers immediately
# after the header, and they will be used before the default mirrors.

#[testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[core-testing]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[extra-testing]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[core]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[extra]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

#[community-testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[community]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# If you want to run 32 bit applications on your x86_64 system,
# enable the multilib repositories as required here.

3) To install a package from a specific repository use the below command.

┬─[root@minecraft:/h/minecraft]─[22:12:48]
╰─>$ pacman -S extra-testing/mariadb
warning: mariadb-11.1.2-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (1) mariadb-11.1.2-1

Total Installed Size:  211.38 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:        0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 

Resources

How to install packages from testing on Arch Linux by Josh Sherman

The reason I have stuck with Arch Linux and have looked past the issues I’ve had with it, is because of the availability of newer packages without the need of additional package mangers. That said, I started working on a new project recently, and wasn’t quite ready to move things

Josh Sherman