Configuration

Soar offers flexible configuration options to customize its behavior according to your needs. This section explains how to configure Soar and details all available configuration options.

Configuration File

Soar uses a configuration file located at ~/.config/soar/config.toml. If this file doesn't exist, Soar will use the defaults.

Configuration Options

Default Configuration

# Directory where Soar stores it's core database 
db_path = "~/.local/share/soar/db"
# Directory where Soar stores binary symlinks
bin_path = "~/.local/share/soar/bin"
# Directory where Soar stores repository metadata databases
repositories_path = "~/.local/share/soar/repos"
# Enable/disable parallel downloads
parallel = true
# Maximum number of concurrent downloads
parallel_limit = 4
# Maximum number of concurrent downloads for GHCR package
ghcr_concurrency = 8
# Maximum number of results to show in search
search_limit = 20
# Default profile to use for operations
# Do not change this after first setup, unless you want to do some manual work moving directories
# (we'll introduce a way to change it in future)
default_profile = "default"
# Currently unused, this will be used to identify whether to enable cross-repo updates
cross_repo_updates = false

[[repositories]]
# name of the repository
name = "bincache"
# URL of the metadata database (compressed SQLite)
url = "https://meta.pkgforge.dev/bincache/x86_64-Linux.sdb.zstd"
# Enable or disable desktop integration for installed packages  
# If enabled, it creates desktop entries (shortcuts) for packages that support it
desktop_integration = false
# URL of the Minisign public key used for verifying package signatures
pubkey = "https://meta.pkgforge.dev/bincache/minisign.pub"
signature_verification = true
# How often to synchronize metadata from the repository (e.g., every 3 hours)
sync_interval = "3h"

[[repositories]]
name = "pkgcache"
url = "https://meta.pkgforge.dev/pkgcache/x86_64-Linux.sdb.zstd"
desktop_integration = true
pubkey = "https://meta.pkgforge.dev/pkgcache/minisign.pub"
signature_verification = true
sync_interval = "3h"

# Profile with name `default`
[profile.default]
# Root path for the profile
root_path = "~/.local/share/soar"
# Packages path for the profile. Can be derived from `root_path` if not provided.
packages_path = "~/.local/share/soar/packages"

Create config file

You can create default configuration using command:

soar defconfig

You can also enable external repositories using command:

soar defconfig --external

View/Edit config file

Soar provides a convenient way to view and edit configuration file.

View config file

soar config

Edit config file. You need to have EDITOR environment variable set, or it'll fallback to vi.

soar config -e

Using custom config file

It is possible to use different configuration file using -c flag.

soar -c /path/to/config.toml [subcommand]

Custom Repository Support

You can fully customize the repositories Soar uses:

• You can completely replace the default pkgforge repositories with your own custom repositories
• You can use any metadata format supported by Soar (SQLite or JSON incl. zstd compression support)
• You can mix and match different repository types

This flexibility allows you to build a fully customized package management setup that meets your specific needs and security requirements.

Troubleshooting

Common Configuration Issues

1. Invalid TOML Syntax

   • Unclosed brackets or braces
   • Missing quotation marks around strings

2. Invalid Repository URL

   • Ensure URLs are properly formatted and accessible
   • Check for trailing slashes in URLs

3. Permission Issues

   • Verify write permissions for all the paths
   • Check file permissions for the config file

4. Duplicate Repository/Profile Names

   • Ensure each repository/profile has a unique name
   • Check for case-sensitive duplicates