View notes for certain package in ArchLinux without package removal?

Question

I've installed couple of packages and forget what they recommended. Now i want to view their notes, recommendations. Only way i know how to do this is remove it and install it again:

# pacman -Rdd <package>
# pacman -S <package>

I'd like to find direct way to see notes.

Answer 1

All of the packages can be viewed online in the Arch Package Database. Once you have located your package, simply view it in svntogit.

If you use surfraw, there is even an elvis for the package database...

Another alternative to Chris' answer is, if you have ABS installed, is just to read the PKGBUILD or $pkg-install file from your /var:

For example, if you wanted to read the mplayer files, you could just:

vim /var/abs/extra/mplayer/PKGBUILD

^{Note: running Arch without using ABS is like swimming fully clothed; you can do it, it's just not as much fun...}

Answer 2

The notes you see are part of the PKGBUILD and/or installation script, you can get it without having to reinstall.

Firstly, download the package tarball (fakeroot pacman -b . -Syy && fakeroot pacman -b . --cachedir . -Sw package, or if you don't care about being root, pacman -Sw package) and extract it (tar xvzf package-*.tar.gz). Then you may view the PKGBUILD and .install files (if any), these will contain the information that you are looking for, and more.