# Reflector

Related articles

- Mirrors
- Pacman

Reflector is a script which can retrieve the latest mirror list from the MirrorStatus page, filter the most up-to-date mirrors, sort them by speed and overwrite the file `/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist`.

## Installation

Install the reflector package.

## Usage

Warning:

- Back up the `/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist` file first:

  -     # cp -vf /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup

- Make sure /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist does not contain entries that you consider untrustworthy before syncing or updating with Pacman.

To see all of the available commands, run the following command:

    # reflector --help

### Examples

#### Example 1

The following command will filter the first five mirrors, sort them by download rate and overwrite the file `/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist`:

    # reflector --verbose -l 5 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

#### Example 2

The following command will verbosely rate the 200 most recently synchronized HTTP servers, sort them by download rate, and overwrite the file `/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist`:

    # reflector --verbose -l 200 -p http --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

#### Example 3

This command will verbosely rate the 200 most recently synchronized HTTP servers located in the US, sort them by download rate, and overwrite the file `/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist`:

    # reflector --verbose --country 'United States' -l 200 -p http --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

#### Example 4

Create an automated script, and run the script each time you want to refresh your mirrors. Using example 2 from above in this script:

    #!/bin/bash

    #This will run reflector on mirrorlist, copying from backup first, overwriting

    curl -o /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/all/
    cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    reflector --verbose -l 200 -p http --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Now set the proper permissions on the script.

    chown root:users reflect_mirrors
    chmod ug+wx reflect_mirrors

Run the script everytime you want to refresh your mirror list

    ./reflect_mirrors

#### Systemd Service

    /etc/systemd/system/reflector.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Pacman mirrorlist update

    [Service]
    Type=oneshot
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/reflector --protocol http --latest 30 --number 20 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Then `# systemctl start reflector` will update your mirrorlist.

To update your mirrorlist every time your computer boots you can enable the following service definition.

    /etc/systemd/system/reflector.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Pacman mirrorlist update
    Requires=network-online.target
    After=network-online.target

    [Service]
    Type=oneshot
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/reflector --protocol http --latest 30 --number 20 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

    [Install]
    RequiredBy=multi-user.target

Make sure you activate the appropriate services so that `network.target` really reflects your network status.

#### Systemd Timer

If you want to run `reflector.service` on a weekly basis:

    /etc/systemd/system/reflector.timer

    [Unit]
    Description=Run reflector weekly

    [Timer]
    OnCalendar=weekly
    AccuracySec=12h
    Persistent=true

    [Install]
    WantedBy=timers.target

And then just start the timer:

    # systemctl enable reflector.timer

Category:

- Package management