Set up your workstation

Prerequisites

• An x86_64 machine (or VM) with at least 30 GB free disk space and 8 GB RAM for comfortable ISO builds (4 GB works for packaging).
• Parch GNU/Linux or Arch Linux installed. For Parch, download an edition from parchlinux.com and install with Calamares. For Arch, follow the official installation guide.
• A standard user account with sudo/wheel access.

Update fully first

All commands in this portal assume a fully updated system. A partial upgrade breaks builds in confusing ways.

$ sudo pacman -Syu

Add the world repository

The world repository carries Parch-built packages. On an installed Parch system it is already configured; on plain Arch, add it to /etc/pacman.conf above the Arch repos:

[world]
SigLevel = Never
Server = https://github.com/parchlinux/world/raw/refs/heads/main/x86_64/

$ sudo pacman -Syu

To follow testing packages as well, enable the Void repository the same way with its Server = https://github.com/parchlinux/Void/raw/refs/heads/main/x86_64/. Expect breakage there; that is what it is for.

Install the core toolchain

$ sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git

base-devel is the meta-package with makepkg, gcc, make, and friends. Add the tools for your paths:

Path	Packages
Packaging	pkgctl namcap (clean chroot builds and linting)
ISO building	archiso p7zip rsync (plus the profile's own deps)
GTK apps	gtk4 libadwaita plus language bindings you use
Qt/KDE apps	qt6-base extra-cmake-modules kcoreaddons ki18n
VM testing	qemu-full (or qemu-desktop)

Editor and git configuration

$ git config --global user.name "Your Name"
$ git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
$ git config --global init.defaultBranch main

Generate an SSH key and add it to your GitHub account to work with the organization repositories (see Git workflow).

Verify your setup

$ makepkg --version
pacman v7.x - libalpm v15.x
$ git --version
git version 2.x
$ pacman -Sl world | head -3

If pacman -Sl world lists packages, the repository is live. You are ready for the first package tutorial.