Where did this name “Octopi” come from?
The project has this name as a tribute to Pacman – the arcade game. As (once) stated in Wikipedia: “The enemies in Pac-Man are known variously as ‘ghosts’, ‘goblins’, ‘octopi’ and ‘monsters’.
Why haven’t you used libALPM instead of calling pacman’s binary directly?
There are two main reasons. First, if we were to make that decision, we’d have to duplicate lots of pacman code (to ensure the rock solid stability users are used to expect) as well as deal with API breakages, which may arrive in newer versions. And second because we really appreciate pacman software. We think it’s a hell of a good package management tool: fast, feature rich and well tested!
UPDATE: Since version 0.9.0, every read-only package operation is run with the help of an ALPM library wrapper called alpm_octopi_utils. This is work kindly offered by Pamac’s developer Guillaume Benoit.
How can I install Octopi?
It is likely your distro already has it in the repos, so you just need to issue a “pacman -S octopi”. Otherwise, you’ll have to grab it using your preferred AUR tool: aurtool [-S] octopi.”
Where is the source code located?
Octopi’s source code is available on Github.
How is Octopi licensed?
The project is GPL v2 based.
In which language is it written?
Octopi is written in C++ with the help of Qt toolkit.
Which size is the source code?
The source code is around 22.000 lines distributed among octopi, notifier, cache-cleaner and repository editor.
Where can I file bugs?
Bugs are filed on Github project issues page.
Does Octopi support AUR or my distro specific foreign repository? How can I enable it?
Running inside Arch based distros, Octopi supports pacaur, pikaur, trizen and yay out of the box! If your Linux distro does not have any installed, whenever you click on the green alien icon on the toolbar, the program will ask if you want to install an AUR helper, which by default will be the yay-bin. In KaOS, KCP is supported out of the box by clicking on the alien icon. The same is true with CCR in Chakra Linux.
Why offcial releases take so long to happen?
Release cycle is slow because I have a job that takes up most of my day. And I do value stable code as well.
Is it safe to use the Github code since releases are so scarce?
Upstream code is relatively safe to use since it is unlikely to result in data loss for the user. But keep in mind that it is development code and may contain runtime errors and security holes. While we strive to keep it free from compile time errors, there is also no guarantee that this is true.
Why do I keep getting a “octopi-helper[aborted]: Suspicious execution method” error?
That’s because you need to run Octopi, Octopi-Notifier and Octopi-CacheCleaner using their full path commands: “/usr/bin/octopi”, “/usr/bin/octopi-notifier” and “/usr/bin/octopi-cachecleaner” respectively.
Why are there lags when I click on a package in Octopi’s package list?
Well, if you happen to click in a package and the selected tab are “Info” or “Files”, there may be a little lag before the correct information is shown. This is just a penalty of using pacman’s binary for collecting information about packages (plus further computations to present it in a better way). If you’re not believing us, just do a little test: open a console (do not need to be root) and write: “pacman -Si <any package name here>”. If you use to have a lag in Octopi you’ll surely have a lag doing that.
Why did sometimes I get conflict errors and my actions are aborted when upgrading some outdated packages?
Good one! This may occur due to the package you’re trying to update being part of a chain of necessary updates. Normally this can be fixed just doing a system upgrade in Octopi using the “Run in terminal” option.
Why Octopi icon keeps changing from green to yellow to red?
This is just a reminder for you! When Octopi’s icon is green it means NO package installed in your system is outdated. When it is yellow, it means there are some outdated AUR packages. Otherwise, when it’s red, this indicates SOME official packages need an upgrade. To see which packages are outdated, just click the statusbar red label in the lower right corner of the screen. After your next successful system upgrade, Octopi’s icon will return to it’s greenish (or yellowish) form.
How can I help the project?
There are several ways to help Octopi:
- You can “Star” the project on the Github page
- You can vote in the AUR package available on AUR site
- You can translate it to your mother language on Transifex
- You can buy author’s technical book (currently in portuguese) about Octopi and Qt5 on Amazon
- You can buy author’s poem book (currently in portuguese) on meditation, Buddhism, cosmology and other subjects on Amazon
- You can write a review about it (text / video)
- You can donate money to the project Paypal
- You can join the project
