Arch Linux

Rakosn1cek

Member

From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2026-03-21

Posts: 1

Website

Zsh logic check: Mapping missing .so versions to package providers

Hello all,

I am working on a personal Zsh tool called Mend to handle some of the repetitive stuff I run into on Arch.
Mostly PGP keys, stale locks, and missing libraries.

I’m looking for some feedback on how I’m handling shared library version breaks.
When an AUR binary or an old package looks for an outdated version (like libalpm.so.13).

My script:

Checks if the file is actually missing from /usr/lib.
Strips off the version suffix and runs pacman -Fq on the base name.
Maps the package provider using ${${(s:/:)match}[2]} to avoid forking awk or sed.

The logic is here: https://github.com/Rakosn1cek/mend/blob … #L138-L153

I’m worried that stripping the version to find a provider might be too broad on a rolling release.
Is there a more reliable way to map an old soname to whatever the current package is, or am I overthinking a simple problem?

I'm trying to keep this as minimal Zsh plugin. So, I've avoided external dependencies where possible, but I'm curious if this string parsing is too brittle.

Repo: https://github.com/Rakosn1cek/mend

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Mend | The terminal assistant for Arch Linux.
XC-Manager | Curated in Awesome-Zsh-Plugins.
Mend Repo • XC-Manager Repo
Simplifying the Arch Way, one script at a time.