[Solved] aur helpers, which one?

NuclearFusion · 2018-11-03 21:38:33

Hello,

I'm new to archlinux and to these forums. It was a bit of a search here and there in the wiki pages but
I was able to install archlinux. Liking it so far, but will have to get used to using a different package manager,
I'm more used to apt-get, and yum; But in time I will get the hang of pacman. I read that AUR is the place which
is a place where there are alot of packages available, however it seems kind of a lot of work to manually download,
build, and install packages. I came across the wiki page AUR helpers
Now the pacman wrappers seem to do all those things at once so I think that's what I need to make it easier to install packages
from AUR.I read somewhere that pacaur is a good one, but looking at the wiki page it seems it has been discontinued. So that
one isn't an option, I was wondering what pacman helpers are recommended or popular here so that I can try those out instead
of having to try all of them out.

Last edited by NuclearFusion (2020-03-05 15:31:00)

loqs · 2018-11-03 21:45:30

None until you can build packages from AUR using just makepkg.

ewaller · 2018-11-03 21:47:25

Learn to do it by hand using git and makepkg
Then learn how to do it in in a clean chroot.

When you understand it, then ask this question.
Look at the comparison chart on the page you linked. Pick one with a lot of 'green space'

I used to use pacuar. Now I use aurutils. When things go pear shaped, I use git/makepkg

Oh -- Welcome to Arch Linux

mpan · 2018-11-03 21:48:53

NuclearFusion:

Your own solution based on alad’s aurutils. But, I guess, at this level any question would be good.

Do not, ever, forget that AUR is not the 9th Arch repository! The medium itself is hosted by Arch staff, but is nearly unmoderated by anyone (unless a serious attack or otherwise malicious behaviour occurs) and bears approximately zero relationship to what staff provides. It’s like a public, anonymous forum on which anyone can pot any opinion on building software; “any” as long as it is in computer-readable format (PKGBUILD) and follows some basic rules.

I nearly forgot the classic about the alots.

afader · 2018-11-03 21:55:29

I use "yay" and also have used "trizen" and "pacaur" in the past

Trilby · 2018-11-03 22:00:47

NuclearFusion wrote:

I was wondering what pacman helpers are recommended or popular here

None of them are.

NuclearFusion · 2018-11-03 22:06:01

Thanks for all the replies so far So I will learn to to it by hand first with git and makepkg, and in a clean chroot, and do some reading on the Arch Build System.
OK will keep that in mind that AUR is not the 9th Arch repository, so far I've been able to install all my needed packages from the official repositories except for
one package. And are some of the "Unofficial user repositories" any better than AUR?

And thanks for the welcomes!

Trilby · 2018-11-03 22:16:16

NuclearFusion wrote:

OK will keep that in mind that AUR is not the 9th Arch repository

I'm not sure where the number 9 comes from, but discouraging the use of aur helpers is not the same as discouraging the use of the AUR. Definitely do use AUR packages when appropriate (but keep in mind they are not officially supported, user created, and may have problems).

NuclearFusion wrote:

are some of the "Unofficial user repositories" any better than AUR?

Generally, no. Some unofficial repos are maintained by very highly skilled and respected members of the community, but just build packages from the AUR when you have the option - this is a much better practice. Frankly the only purpose I see for unoffical repos is for very large and/or hard to build packages (e.g., custom kernels, firefox variants) that may be impractical to build on some hardware.

loqs · 2018-11-03 22:25:29

community-testing community core extra multilib-testing multilib testing 7
gnome-unstable kde-unstable 2
community-staging multilib-staging staging 3

mpan · 2018-11-03 22:27:08

There are 8 official repositories. Some people treat AUR as if it was the 9th of them.

I don’t want my opinion to be taken as an attempt to dscurage use of AUR in general. It is maintained for a reason. But I’ve already seen hosting companies demanding intallation of unofficial packages, based on AUR, because “it is in AUR and AUR is Arch repository”. Mainain a sane relationship with it; don’t see it as something it is not.

eschwartz · 2018-11-04 04:05:41

loqs wrote:

community-testing community core extra multilib-testing multilib testing 7
gnome-unstable kde-unstable 2
community-staging multilib-staging staging 3

gnome-unstable is one of the staging repositories, kde-unstable is one of the testing repositories.

Any of the staging repositories are *utterly* forbidden to any and all use, on pain of ironically having your computer stop working.

It is therefore correct to say that there are only 8 (public) repositories.

NuclearFusion wrote:

I read that AUR is the place which is a place where there are alot of packages available, however it seems kind of a lot of work to manually download, build, and install packages. I came across the wiki page AUR helpers Now the pacman wrappers seem to do all those things at once so I think that's what I need to make it easier to install packages from AUR.I read somewhere that pacaur is a good one, but looking at the wiki page it seems it has been discontinued. So that one isn't an option, I was wondering what pacman helpers are recommended or popular here so that I can try those out instead of having to try all of them out.

The only real benefit AUR helpers provide is 1) searchability of finding packages using the terminal instead of opening a browser, 2) being able to elegantly handle AUR packages that depend on other AUR packages.

If your AUR packages don't depend on other AUR packages, it's actually super easy to just

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/foo.git
cd foo
less PKGBUILD # read this and make sure it doesn't contain anything stupid
makepkg -i

...

Doing the recursive dependency dance is annoying though. This is why it's a good idea to first learn how the AUR works by installing a few AUR packages you want, using the basic makepkg process, and then if you need the convenience of an AUR helper, choosing one after you understand how makepkg works.

Last edited by eschwartz (2018-11-04 04:11:30)

NuclearFusion · 2020-03-05 15:30:24

I know it has been a long time since I asked this. I just thought I would give an update to what I ended up doing.
I end cloning the aur packages which I needed to a location with git, then I wrote a script which checks if there
are updates in those the git repos of those aur packages. If there are updates I use makepkg to create and install
the new version of the package. This way I am able to keep the aur packages updated with my own solution without
the need for an aur helper. Sorry if this is necro bumping but I wanted to thank you all for the advice you gave me on
Aur helpers. Thanks for all the advice on telling me to learn how to do it manually first that really helped me understand
how package building works a bit better. I'll mark it now as solved, just to wrap it up.

Last edited by NuclearFusion (2020-03-05 15:38:41)

Arch Linux

#1 2018-11-03 21:38:33

[Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#2 2018-11-03 21:45:30

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#3 2018-11-03 21:47:25

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#4 2018-11-03 21:48:53

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#5 2018-11-03 21:55:29

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#6 2018-11-03 22:00:47

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#7 2018-11-03 22:06:01

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#8 2018-11-03 22:16:16

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#9 2018-11-03 22:25:29

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#10 2018-11-03 22:27:08

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#11 2018-11-04 04:05:41

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

#12 2020-03-05 15:30:24

Re: [Solved] aur helpers, which one?

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