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+A quick overview of usage of the Pacaman package manager
+========================================================
+:copyright 2013 Luke Shumaker
+
+This was originally published on [Hacker News][1] on 2013-01-23.
+
+[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5101416
+
+Note: I've over-done quotation marks to make it clear when precise
+wording matters.
+
+`pacman` is a little awkward, but I prefer it to apt/dpkg, which have
+sub-commands, each with their own flags, some of which are
+undocumented. pacman, on the other hand, has ALL options documented in
+one fairly short man page.
+
+The trick to understanding pacman is to understand how it maintains
+databases of packages, and what it means to "sync".
+
+There are several "databases" that pacman deals with:
+
+ * "the database", (`/var/lib/pacman/local/`)<br>
+   The database of currently installed packages
+ * "package databases", (`/var/lib/pacman/sync/${repo}.db`)<br>
+   There is one of these for each repository.  It is a file
+   that is fetched over plain http(s) from the server; it
+   is not modified locally, only updated.
+
+The "operation" of pacman is set with a capital flag, one of "DQRSTU"
+(plus `-V` and `-h` for version and help). Of these, "DTU" are "low-level"
+(analogous to dpkg) and "QRS" are "high-level" (analogous to apt).
+
+To give a brief explanation of cover the "high-level" operations, and
+which databases they deal with:
+
+ * "Q" Queries "the database" of locally installed packages.
+ 
+ * "S" deals with "package databases", and Syncing "the database" with 
+   them; meaning it installs/updates packages that are in package
+   databases, but not installed on the local system.
+
+ * "R" Removes packages "the database"; removing them from the local
+   system.
+
+The biggest "gotcha" is that "S" deals with all operations with
+"package databases", not just syncing "the database" with them.
+
+