All packages listed here are the names of the packages either in the official Arch package repository or the AUR. The AUR is used sparingly and will be called out when used. They get installed and configured by default for you by DotFriedRice but you can modify the list.

On Arch Linux you can run pkg list to see a list of top level packages you have installed.

Similar packages exist for Debian and macOS but not all packages below are installed in these environments.

System / Service

Package	Description
base	Minimal package set to define a basic Arch Linux installation
base-devel	Basic tools to build Arch Linux packages
bluez	Daemons for the bluetooth protocol stack
dnsmasq	Lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP server
iptables	Linux kernel packet control tool (using nft interface)
iwd	Internet Wireless Daemon
lact	Linux GPU Configuration Tool (supports AMD, NVIDIA and Intel)
libvirt	API for controlling virtualization engines (kvm,qemu,etc)
mpd	Flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music
mpd-mpris	An implementation of the MPRIS protocol for MPD
pacman-contrib	Contributed scripts and tools for pacman systems
pipewire	Low-latency audio/video router and processor
pipewire-alsa	PipeWire ALSA configuration
pipewire-jack	PipeWire JACK replacement
pipewire-pulse	PipeWire PulseAudio replacement
qemu-desktop	A QEMU setup for desktop environments
wireplumber	Session and policy manager for PipeWire

Linux Kernel

This is picked by you during the archinstall script, typically it's the mainline stable kernel which is the default linux package but it's up to you! Other options are linux-lts, linux-zen and linux-hardened.

GPU drivers

If needed, these get automatically installed for you by DotFriedRice.

CLI

Package	Description
aspell	General purpose spell checker
bat	Cat clone with syntax highlighting and git integration
bc	An arbitrary precision calculator language
bind	Provides the host, nslookup and dig commands
brightnessctl	Control monitor and other device brightness
docker	Pack, ship and run any application as a lightweight container
docker-buildx	Docker CLI plugin for extended build capabilities with BuildKit
docker-compose	Fast, isolated development environments using Docker
dust	A more intuitive version of du in rust
eza	A modern replacement for ls (community fork of exa)
fastfetch	A feature-rich and performance oriented neofetch-like system information tool
fd	Simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find
ffmpeg	Complete solution to record, convert and stream audio and video
fontconfig	Library for configuring and customizing font access
git	The fast distributed version control system
git-delta (delta)	Syntax-highlighting pager for git and diff output
go-yq (yq)	Portable command-line YAML processor
inotify-tools	C library and command-line tools providing a simple interface to inotify
jq	Command-line JSON processor
man-db (man)	A utility for reading man pages
man-pages	Linux man pages
mise	The front-end to your dev env
openbsd-netcat (netcat)	TCP/IP swiss army knife (OpenBSD variant)
openssh	SSH protocol implementation for remote login, command execution and file transfer
pwgen	Password generator for creating easily memorable passwords
ripgrep (rg)	Search tool combining the usability of ag with the speed of grep
shellcheck	Shell script analysis tool
shfmt	Shell program formatter
smartmontools (smartctl)	Control and monitor S.M.A.R.T. enabled ATA and SCSI drives
strace	A diagnostic, debugging and instructional userspace tracer
tesseract	An OCR program
timidity++	MIDI to WAVE converter and player
unzip	Extracting and viewing .zip archives
usbutils (lsusb)	USB tools to query connected USB devices
wev	Tool for debugging Wayland events (similar to xev)
wget	Network utility to retrieve files from the web
whois	Intelligent WHOIS client
wl-clipboard	Command-line copy/paste utilities for Wayland
yay-bin (yay)	Pacman wrapper and AUR helper written in Go (pre-compiled)
yay-bin-debug	Detached debugging symbols for yay-bin
zip	Compressor/archiver for creating and modifying zip files
zsh	Advanced and programmable UNIX shell

TUI

Package	Description
bluetui	Manage Bluetooth devices
btop	A monitor of system resources
fzf	Command-line fuzzy finder
impala	Manage Wi-Fi networks
less	A terminal based program for viewing text files
libqalculate (qalc)	Multi-purpose desktop calculator
neovim	Fork of Vim aiming to improve user experience, plugins, and GUIs
rmpc	A beautiful and configurable TUI client for MPD
tmux	Terminal multiplexer
wiremix	Simple audio mixer for PipeWire

GUI

Desktop Environment

Package	Description
mako	Lightweight notification daemon for Wayland
niri	A scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor
swaybg	Wallpaper tool for Wayland compositors
swayidle	Idle management daemon for Wayland
swaylock	Screen locker for Wayland
uwsm	Standalone Wayland session manager
waybar	Highly customizable Wayland bar for wlroots compositors
wlrctl (AUR)	Utility for miscellaneous wlroots extensions
xdg-desktop-portal-gnome	GNOME backend for xdg-desktop-portal
xdg-desktop-portal-gtk	GTK backend for xdg-desktop-portal
xdg-utils	Assist applications with desktop integration tasks
xwayland-satellite	Xwayland outside your Wayland

Launcher

Package	Description
walker-bin (AUR)	Wayland application runner
elephant-bin (AUR)	General purpose datasource and executor
elephant-calc-bin (AUR)	Calc provider for elephant
elephant-clipboard-bin (AUR)	Clipboard provider for elephant
elephant-desktopapplications-bin (AUR)	Desktop applications provider for elephant
elephant-files-bin (AUR)	Files provider for elephant
elephant-menus-bin (AUR)	Menus provider for elephant
elephant-niriactions-bin (AUR)	niriactions provider for elephant
elephant-providerlist-bin (AUR)	Providerlist provider for elephant
elephant-runner-bin (AUR)	Runner provider for elephant
elephant-symbols-bin (AUR)	Symbols provider for elephant
elephant-unicode-bin (AUR)	Unicode provider for elephant
elephant-websearch-bin (AUR)	Websearch provider for elephant
elephant-windows-bin (AUR)	Windows provider for elephant

File manager

Package	Description
thunar	Modern, fast and easy-to-use file manager for Xfce
ffmpegthumbnailer	Lightweight video thumbnailer that can be used by file managers
thunar-archive-plugin	Adds archive operations to Thunar context menus
tumbler	Thumbnail service implementing the thumbnail management D-Bus specification
xarchiver	GTK frontend to command-line archivers

Capture

Package	Description
grim	Screenshot utility for Wayland
satty	Modern screenshot annotation tool inspired by Swappy and Flameshot
slurp	Select a region in a Wayland compositor
hyprpicker	A wlroots-compatible Wayland color picker that does not suck

Fonts

Package	Description
gnu-free-fonts	A free family of scalable outline fonts
noto-fonts-emoji	Google Noto Color Emoji font

Apps

Package	Description
firefox	Fast, Private & Safe Web Browser
ghostty	Fast, native, feature-rich terminal emulator pushing modern features
gimp	GNU Image Manipulation Program
kdenlive	A non-linear video editor for Linux using the MLT video framework
keepassxc	Cross-platform community-driven port of Keepass password manager
libreoffice-fresh	LibreOffice branch containing new features and enhancements
mpv	Free, open source, cross-platform media player
obs-studio	Free, open source software for live streaming and recording
zathura	Minimalistic document viewer
zathura-djvu	DjVu support for Zathura
zathura-pdf-mupdf	Supports PDF, ePub, and OpenXPS for Zathura
virt-manager	Desktop user interface for managing virtual machines