Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

augur · 2026-10-31 19:07:21

I can get it from AUR, according to this page: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Android

Arch warns that packages from AUR are completely unofficial and that they have not been thoroughly vetted.

Is there another, safer way to get apksigner on Arch?

mpan · 2026-10-31 19:14:35

The warning doesn’t imply you should not touch AUR. It means you should not treat PKGBUILDs in AUR as trusted. “Not trusted” is not a synonym of “unusable.”

You are expected to understand the PKGBUILD. Whether you write it yourself or take it from somebody else. AUR or elsewhere. And you have to establish trust, regardless of the software source: again, AUR or anywhere else.

augur · 2026-11-01 00:37:18

I took a look at the PKGBUILD and I didn't understand a lot. I chose to trust Arch, and Arch doesn't trust AUR.

Debian seems to have an official apksigner package. I think I trust Debian more than I trust AUR. Maybe I'll try something in a virtual machine first. Maybe I'll end up using AUR. Of course, I would be grateful if somebody shared other ideas on this.

cryptearth · 2026-11-01 02:30:52

all the aur package does is to download the android sdk from google and unpacks it into the system
if you don't trust it just download it into your user directory and unzip it there
the only difference is that you have it only available in you user instead of a system wide package for all users on the machine (which likely doesn't matter anyway)
it's safe to use

seth · 2026-11-01 09:27:21

I took a look at the PKGBUILD and I didn't understand a lot.

This one? https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/ … uild-tools
Did you *try* to understand it? Which commands do you not understand? Have you considered looking up what they do in general and specifically?

augur · Yesterday 16:48:17

I have looked up some of the commands and found nothing that would look suspicious to me, but I can't be sure until I learn more about shell, and I can't dedicate enough time to that right now.

Apksigner seems to work in Debian trixie.

I haven't tried downloading and unzipping the package. That would be ideal, but I'm having some trouble verifying (finding independently) the download link which is provided in the PKGBUILD.

cryptearth · Yesterday 18:08:40

let me re-arange your post a bit

augur wrote:

but I'm having some trouble verifying (finding independently) the download link which is provided in the PKGBUILD.
...
and I can't dedicate enough time to that right now.

it took me less than 10 minutes to figure out (and write this post):

1. ask google for "android sdk manager source" -> first link -> https://developer.android.com/tools/sdkmanager
2.

The sdkmanager tool is provided in the Android SDK Command-Line Tools package.

-> https://developer.android.com/tools#tools-sdk
3.

If you are not using Android Studio, you can download the command-line tools package.

-> https://developer.android.com/studio#co … tools-only
4. commandlinetools-linux-15859902_latest.zip -> click on it -> some licence dialog opens -> at the very bottom the button resolves to: https://dl.google.com/android/repositor … latest.zip

the "regular" way is to use the Android SDK Manager - which is also open source and if you search for just https://dl.google.com/android/repository/ you find git gists as old as 2015 - and although i gave it a quick look but didn't found it as sdk manager is somehow able to get the current list of the current versions and download them the url sure is somewhere in there

sorry - but if you can't spent 10 minutes to figure out if some link is legit (which HAS to as it's part of googles own domain structure used by its own tools) and rather trust some other distro - which all it does is to provide exactly THAT what results from the aur pkgbuild in thier repos - then please: don'T waste OUR time

if you don'T trust the AUR blindly - ok, that's a good habbit
BUT: if you're not willing to invest 10 minutes to figure something out yourself don't bother others to do that for you (which we already did upfront)

i wonder how your app developement will end up without learning java and the android api (which both can take years to master) - oh, let me guess: you use A-not-I to write it for you but failed to ask something like "and how do i build a running app on arch linux?"

this should be moved to TNG

seth · Yesterday 18:51:26

Which lines do you feel unsure about?
Lerning some basic bash and coreutils is about the best time investment possible on posix systems because that will cross your way all the time for sure.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-10-31 19:07:21

Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

#2 2026-10-31 19:14:35

Re: Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

#3 2026-11-01 00:37:18

Re: Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

#4 2026-11-01 02:30:52

Re: Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

#5 2026-11-01 09:27:21

Re: Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

#6 Yesterday 16:48:17

Re: Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

#7 Yesterday 18:08:40

Re: Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

#8 Yesterday 18:51:26

Re: Getting the apksigner tool without AUR

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