Arch User Repository

Related articles
AUR Cleanup Day
AUR helpers
AUR submission guidelines
Aurweb RPC interface
Creating packages
Official repositories
Package Maintainer guidelines
Unofficial user repositories
.SRCINFO
The
Arch User Repository
(AUR) is a community-driven repository for
Arch Linux
users. It contains package descriptions (
PKGBUILDs
) that allow you to compile a package from source with
makepkg
and then install it via
pacman
. The AUR was created to organize and share new packages from the community and to help expedite popular packages' inclusion into the
extra
repository. This document explains how users can access and utilize the AUR.
A good number of new packages that enter the official repositories start in the AUR. In the AUR, users are able to contribute their own package builds (
PKGBUILD
and related files). The AUR community has the ability to
vote
for packages in the AUR. If a package becomes popular enough—provided it has a compatible license and good packaging technique—it may be entered into the
extra
repository (directly accessible by
pacman
or from the
Arch build system
).
Warning
AUR packages are user-produced content. These
PKGBUILD
s are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk.
Note
If you plan to use AUR repository, it is
highly recommended
to follow
aur-general Arch mailing list
which has been used for security warnings in the past.
[1]
[2]
Getting started
Users can search and download
PKGBUILD
s from the
AUR Web Interface
. These
PKGBUILD
s can be built into installable packages using
makepkg
, then installed using
pacman
.
Ensure
base-devel
is
installed
.
Glance over the
#Frequently asked questions
for answers to the most common questions.
You may wish to adjust
/etc/makepkg.conf
to optimize the build process to your system prior to building packages from the AUR. A significant improvement in package build times can be realized on systems with multi-core processors by adjusting the
MAKEFLAGS
variable, by using multiple cores for compression, or by using different compression algorithm. Users can also enable hardware-specific compiler optimizations via the
CFLAGS
variable. See
makepkg#Optimization
for more information.
if you have set up
AUR SSH authentication
then it is also possible to interact with the AUR through SSH: type
ssh aur@aur.archlinux.org help
for a list of available commands.
Installing and upgrading packages
Installing packages from the AUR is a relatively simple process. Essentially:
Acquire the build files, including the
PKGBUILD
and possibly other required files, like
systemd
units and patches (often not the actual code).
Verify that the
PKGBUILD
and accompanying files are not malicious or untrustworthy.
Run
makepkg
in the directory where the files are saved. This will download the code, compile it, and package it.
Run
pacman -U
package_file
to install the package onto your system.
Prerequisites
First, ensure that the necessary tools are
installed
by installing
base-devel
; this
meta package
has
make
and other tools needed for compiling from source, listed as dependencies.
Note
Packages in the AUR assume that
base-devel
is installed in the build environment.
Next, choose an appropriate build directory. A build directory is simply a directory where the package will be made or "built" from source, and can be any directory. The examples in the following sections will use
~/builds
as the build directory.
Acquire build files
Locate the package in the AUR. This is done using the search field at the top of the
AUR home page
. Clicking the application's name in the search list brings up an information page on the package. Read through the description to confirm that this is the desired package, note when the package was last updated, and read any comments.
There are several methods for acquiring the build files for a package:
Clone its
git
repository, labeled "Git Clone URL" in the "Package Details" on its AUR page. This is the preferred method, an advantage of which is that you can easily get updates to the package via
git pull
.
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/
package_name
.git
Download a snapshot, either by clicking the "Download snapshot" link under "Package Actions" on the right hand side of its AUR page, or in a terminal:
$ curl -L -O https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/
package_name
.tar.gz
Note
The snapshot file is compressed, and must be extracted (preferably in a directory set aside for AUR builds):
tar -xvf
package_name
.tar.gz
Use the read-only mirror
archlinux/aur on GitHub
, where every package is located in a branch. It is recommended to clone only a single branch (the whole repository is too big and performance would be low). You can do this with one of the following two methods:
Use
git clone --single-branch
:
$ git clone --branch
package_name
--single-branch https://github.com/archlinux/aur.git
Do a
partial clone
of this repository (
git clone --depth=1
) and
add branches
selectively:
$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/archlinux/aur.git; cd aur
$ git remote set-branches --add origin
package_name
$ git fetch
$ git switch
package_name
Acquire a PGP public key if needed
Check if a signature file in the form of
.sig
or
.asc
is part of the
PKGBUILD
source array. If that is the case, then acquire one of the public keys listed in the PKGBUILD
validpgpkeys
array. Refer to
makepkg#Signature checking
for more information.
Build the package
Change directories to the directory containing the package
PKGBUILD
.
$ cd
package_name
Warning
Carefully check the
PKGBUILD
, any
.install
files, and any other files in the package's git repository for malicious or dangerous commands. If in doubt, do not build the package, and
seek advice
on the forums or mailing list. Malicious code has been found in packages before.
[3]
[4]
. A few tools, such as
traur
AUR
and
ks-aur-scanner
AUR
, are available to assist users in scanning PKGBUILD content; however, they are not substitutes for careful manual verification.
View the contents of all provided files. For example, to use the pager
less
to view
PKGBUILD
, do:
$ less PKGBUILD
Tip
If you are updating a package, you may want to look at the changes since the last commit.
To view changes since the last git commit, you can use
git show
.
To view changes since the last commit using
vimdiff
, do
git difftool @~..@ --tool=vimdiff
. The advantage of
vimdiff
is that you view the entire contents of each file along with indicators on what has changed.
Make the package. After manually confirming the contents of the files, run
makepkg
as a normal user. Some helpful flags:
-s
/
--syncdeps
automatically resolves and installs any dependencies with
pacman
before building. If the package depends on other AUR packages, you will need to manually install them first.
-i
/
--install
installs the package if it is built successfully. This lets you skip the next step that is usually done manually.
-r
/
--rmdeps
removes build-time dependencies after the build, as they are no longer needed. However, these dependencies may need to be reinstalled the next time the package is updated.
-c
/
--clean
cleans up temporary build files after the build, as they are no longer needed. These files are usually needed only when debugging the build process.
Tip
Use
git clean -dfx
to delete all files that are not tracked by git, thus deleting all previously built package files.
Install the package
The package can now be installed with pacman:
# pacman -U
package_name
-
version
-
architecture
.pkg.tar.zst
Note
If you have changed your
PKGEXT
in
makepkg.conf
, the name of the package file may be slightly different.
The above example is only a brief summary of the build process. It is
highly
recommended to read the
makepkg
and
Arch build system
articles for more details.
Tip
You can use
makepkg --packagelist
to get a list of package filenames that would be produced without building.
Upgrading packages
In the directory containing the package's
PKGBUILD
, you must first update the files and changes by using the command
$ git pull
then follow the previous build and install instructions.
Updating packages
The AUR is unsupported, so any packages you install are
your responsibility
to update, not pacman's. If packages in the official repositories are updated, you will need to rebuild any AUR packages that depend on those libraries. The
checkrebuild
tool and
rebuild-detector
hook
from
rebuild-detector
can help find packages needing rebuilt.
Account status
Suspension
When editing a user as a
Package Maintainer
, the Suspended field can be set, which suspends the target user.
When a user is suspended, they cannot:
Login to
https://aur.archlinux.org
Receive notifications
Interact with the git interface
Inactivity
When editing your own account or another as a
Package Maintainer
, the Inactive field can be set. Inactive accounts are used for two reasons:
Display the date someone was marked inactive on their account page
Generate a current count of active
Package Maintainer
based on their inactivity for new proposals
Feedback
Commenting on packages
The
AUR Web Interface
has a comments facility that allows users to provide suggestions and feedback on improvements to the
PKGBUILD
contributor.
Tip
Avoid pasting patches or
PKGBUILD
s into the comments section: they quickly become obsolete and just end up needlessly taking up lots of space. Instead, email those files to the maintainer, or even use a
pastebin
.
Python-Markdown
provides basic
Markdown
syntax to format comments.
Note
This implementation has some occasional
differences
with the official
syntax rules
.
Commit hashes to the
Git
repository of the package and references to
Flyspray
tickets are converted to links automatically.
Long comments are collapsed and can be expanded on demand.
Voting for packages
One of the easiest activities for
all
Arch users is to browse the AUR and
vote
for their favourite packages using the online interface. All packages are eligible for adoption by a Package Maintainer for inclusion in the
extra repository
, and the vote count is one of the considerations in that process; it is in everyone's interest to vote!
Sign up on the
AUR website
to get a "Vote for this package" option while browsing packages. After signing up, it is also possible to vote from the commandline with
aur-auto-vote-git
AUR
.
Alternatively, if you have set up
AUR SSH authentication
, you can directly vote from the command line using your ssh key. This means that you will not need to save or type in your AUR password.
$ ssh aur@aur.archlinux.org vote
package_name
Flagging packages out-of-date
First, you should flag the package
out-of-date
indicating details on why the package is outdated, preferably including links to the release announcement or the new release
tarball
.
You should also try to reach out to the maintainer directly by email. If there is no response from the maintainer after
two weeks
, you can file an
orphan
request. See
AUR submission guidelines#Requests
for details.
Note
VCS packages
are not considered out of date when the
pkgver
changes; do not flag them as the maintainer will merely unflag the package and ignore you. AUR maintainers should not commit mere
pkgver
bumps.
Debugging the package build process
Ensure your build environment is up-to-date by
upgrading
before building anything.
Ensure you have
base-devel
installed.
Use the
-s
option with
makepkg
to check and install all dependencies needed before starting the build process.
Try the default
makepkg configuration
.
See
Makepkg#Troubleshooting
for common issues.
If you are having trouble building a package, first read its
PKGBUILD
and the comments on its AUR page.
It is possible that a
PKGBUILD
is broken for everyone. If you cannot figure it out on your own, report it to the maintainer (e.g. by
posting the errors you are getting in the comments on the AUR page
). You may also seek help in the
AUR Issues, Discussion & PKGBUILD Requests forum
.
The reason might not be trivial after all. Custom
CFLAGS
,
LDFLAGS
and
MAKEFLAGS
can cause failures. To avoid problems caused by your particular system configuration, build packages in a
clean chroot
. If the build process still fails in a clean chroot, the issue is probably with the
PKGBUILD
.
See
Creating packages#Checking package sanity
about using
namcap
. If you would like to have a
PKGBUILD
reviewed, post it on the
aur-general mailing list
to get feedback from the
Package Maintainers
and fellow AUR members, or the
Creating & Modifying Packages forum
. You could also seek help in the
IRC channel
#archlinux-aur
on the
Libera Chat
network.
Submitting packages
Users can share
PKGBUILD
s using the Arch User Repository. See
AUR submission guidelines
for details.
Web interface translation
See
i18n.md
in the AUR source tree for information about creating and maintaining translation of the
AUR Web Interface
.
History
In the beginning, there was
ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/incoming
, and people contributed by simply uploading the
PKGBUILD
, the needed supplementary files, and the built package itself to the server. The package and associated files remained there until a "Trusted user" (renamed as
Package Maintainer
) saw the program and adopted it.
Then the Trusted User Repositories were born. Certain individuals in the community were allowed to host their own repositories for anyone to use. The AUR expanded on this basis, with the aim of making it both more flexible and more usable. In fact, the AUR maintainers were referred to as TUs (Trusted Users) until the change in naming to Package Maintainers.
Between 2015-06-08 and 2015-08-08, the AUR transitioned from version 3.5.1 to 4.0.0, introducing the use of Git repositories for publishing the
PKGBUILD
s.
Existing packages were dropped unless manually migrated to the new infrastructure by their maintainers.
Git repositories for AUR3 packages
The
AUR Archive
on GitHub has a repository for every package that was in AUR 3 at the time of the migration.
Alternatively, there is the
aur3-mirror
repository which provides the same.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of packages are permitted on the AUR?
The packages on the AUR are merely "build scripts", i.e. recipes to build binaries for
pacman
. For most cases, everything is permitted, subject to
usefulness and scope guidelines
, as long as you are in compliance with the licensing terms of the content. For other cases, where it is mentioned that "you may not link" to downloads, i.e. contents that are not redistributable, you may only use the file name itself as the source. This means and requires that users already have the restricted source in the build directory prior to building the package. When in doubt, ask.
How can I vote for packages in the AUR?
See
#Voting for packages
.
What is a package maintainer?
See
Arch terminology#Package maintainer
.
What is the difference between the Arch User Repository and the extra repository?
The Arch User Repository is where all
PKGBUILD
s that users submit are stored, and must be built manually with
makepkg
. When
PKGBUILD
s receive enough community interest and the support of a
Package Maintainer
, they are moved into the
extra repository
(maintained by the Package Maintainers), where the binary packages can be installed with
pacman
.
Foo in the AUR is outdated; what should I do?
See
#Flagging packages out-of-date
.
In the meantime, you can try updating the package yourself by editing the
PKGBUILD
locally. Sometimes, updates do not require changes to the build or package process, in which case simply updating the
pkgver
or
source
array is sufficient.
Foo in the AUR does not compile when I run makepkg; what should I do?
You are probably missing something trivial; see
#Debugging the package build process
.
ERROR: One or more PGP signatures could not be verified!; what should I do?
Most likely, you do not have the required public key(s) in your personal keyring to verify downloaded files. See
Makepkg#Signature checking
for details.
How do I create a PKGBUILD?
Consult the
AUR submission guidelines#Rules of submission
, then see
creating packages
.
I have a PKGBUILD I would like to submit; can someone check it to see if there are any errors?
There are several channels available to submit your package for review; see
#Debugging the package build process
.
How to get a PKGBUILD into the extra repository?
Usually, at least 10 votes are required for something to move into
extra
. However, if a
Package Maintainer
wants to support a package, it will often be found in the repository.
Reaching the required minimum of votes is not the only requirement; there has to be a package maintainer willing to maintain the package. Package Maintainers are not required to move a package into the
extra
repository even if it has thousands of votes.
Usually, when a very popular package stays in the AUR, it is because:
Arch Linux already has another version of a package in the repositories
Its license prohibits redistribution
It helps retrieve user-submitted
PKGBUILD
s.
AUR helpers
are
unsupported
by definition.
See also
Rules for Packages Entering the extra repository
How can I speed up repeated build processes?
See
Makepkg#Improving build times
.
What is the difference between foo and foo-git packages?
Many AUR packages come in "stable" release and "unstable" development versions. Development packages usually have a
suffix
denoting their
Version Control System
and are not intended for regular use, but may offer new features or bugfixes. Because these packages only download the latest available source when you execute
makepkg
, their
pkgver()
in the AUR does not reflect upstream changes. Likewise, these packages cannot perform an authenticity checksum on any
VCS source
.
See also
System maintenance#Use proven software packages
.
Why has foo disappeared from the AUR?
It is possible the package has been adopted by a
Package Maintainer
and is now in the
extra repository
.
Packages may be deleted if they did not fulfill the
rules of submission
. See the
aur-requests archives
for the reason for deletion.
Note
The git repository for a deleted package typically remains available. See
AUR submission guidelines#Requests
for details.
How do I find out if any of my installed packages disappeared from AUR?
The simplest way is to check the HTTP status of the package's AUR page:
$ comm -23 <(pacman -Qqm | sort) <(curl
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.gz
| gzip -cd | sort)
How can I obtain a list of all AUR packages?
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.gz
Use
aurpkglist
from
python3-aur
AUR
New AUR Metadata Archives
See also
AUR Web Interface
AUR Mailing List