Here’s a new tool with strong potential that will appeal to advanced Arch users, especially those who miss a NixOS-style approach to system management (or who are DevOps-oriented). I’m talking about Decman, which has reached its first stable 1.0 release.

Here’s what you can do with it. Decman manages an Arch Linux installation by enforcing a declared system state (written directly in Python) instead of applying changes imperatively.

In a simple configuration, you specify which packages must be installed, which configuration files must exist and their contents, which systemd services must be enabled, and which tools, such as Flatpak or AUR helpers, are in use. This definition is the source of truth.