When searching for a package, pacman checks each repo in the list, in order, for a direct match. If it doesn't find one, it then goes back to the top of the list and checks each repo for a providing package.

In some cases, it is preferable to pull providers from a given repo instead of matches from another.

There should be an option for this. Maybe one or both of the following options could be added:

--providers-first
Scan the repo list in order, checking for a match, then checking for a provider before moving on.

--choose-providers
Scan all the repos for matches and providers, then present a dialogue to the user to choose. I think this was discussed before.


I understand that checking for providers requires disk overhead, but as long as their optional then it shouldn't matter.