How to Make Arch Linux Pacman Even Faster

Arch Linux’s default package manager, Pacman, is one of the best in the Linux ecosystem. Its sturdiness and easy way of managing packages provides the core of Arch Linux and other arch-based distros.

Although it’s fast by default with worldwide mirrors available, there are a couple of improvements you can make to speed it up even further.

1. Parallel Downloads

Edit pacman’s main config file, pacman.conf:

sudo vim /etc/pacman.conf

Under [options], find ParallelDownloads and set it to 6:

ParallelDownloads = 6

This enables 6 simultaneous downloads for your next package updates.

Bonus: Enable eye candy

While editing the config, enable Color and ILoveCandy under Misc Options:

# Misc options
#UseSyslog
Color
ILoveCandy
#NoProgressBar
CheckSpace
#VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 6
DownloadUser = alpm
#DisableSandbox

2. Mirror List

Choosing the nearest mirrors can greatly speed up package downloads. Pacman provides a rankmirrors script to rank mirrors by speed.

Install the pacman-contrib package:

sudo pacman -Syy pacman-contrib

Back up your current mirrorlist:

sudo cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup

Fetch a new mirrorlist filtered by country and ranked by speed (replace country codes with your own):

curl -s "https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/?country=FR&country=GB&protocol=https&use_mirror_status=on" | sed -e 's/^#Server/Server/' -e '/^#/d' | rankmirrors -n 5 -

Check the Mirrors wiki page for more tools.

3. Optimize AUR Builds

If you use AUR packages through yay or paru, you can enable parallel compilation.

Edit /etc/makepkg.conf and add:

MAKEFLAGS="--jobs=$(nproc)"

This uses all available CPUs during the build process. Some packages may override this due to race conditions — if you encounter build issues, report them to the package maintainer per the Makepkg wiki.

Conclusion

These small changes can significantly improve pacman’s speed without affecting functionality. If you know other improvements, leave them in the comments.