Aura - 4.0.4 - The Multilingual Package Manager

fosskers · 2013-01-07 09:32:16

Hi everyone, I'm happy to announce the release of Aura 4.

Aura is a package manager for Arch Linux. Its original purpose was in supplementing Pacman to support the building of AUR packages, but since its creation in 2012 it has evolved to enable a variety of use cases.

Aura 4 represents a signicant body of work to port Aura from Haskell to Rust. The full motivations for this rewrite are discussed here (https://fosskers.github.io/aura/faq.htm … ra-in-rust). Overall, Aura is now much more performant, has a 4x smaller binary, and is much easier to install.

Give it a shot: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/aura

Features

`aura` can be used in place of `pacman` in all situations. At the very least, this is two fewer letters to type! Otherwise, Aura adds a few new commands:

- `-A`: AUR package installation.
- `-B`: Package state snapshots.
- `check`: Various system validation checks.
- `deps`: Dependency analysis.
- And more!

You can explore all of Aura's features in the online Manual (https://fosskers.github.io/aura/), Aura's man page, or its new `info` entry.

Migration from Aura 3

The normal `aura` package is now the recommended installation method. For everyone who used to use `aura-bin`, please consider switching to `aura` (unless you're unable to build it yourself for some reason).

It is no longer necessary to run `aura` with `sudo`. Aura is now internally aware of when sudo is necessary and will prompt you as needed.

Aura's configuration format has also changed and it is much more customisable in general. You can generate a new config file via:

aura conf --gen > ~/.config/aura/config.toml

For more details, see the Migration Guide (https://fosskers.github.io/aura/migration.html).

FAQ

Why Rust?

Haskell is an excellent language, but Rust offered some specific advantages for a system tool like Aura. Further, being a Rust project (an approachable, modern language) hosted on Github (the largest FOSS platform) allows for many more people to participate in the package management world.

I thought Aura was an AUR helper?

In 2012 Aura started as just another way to install AUR packages, but since then has evolved to handle many more use cases. Projects like Pacman, Aura, and Manjaro's Pamac are all called "libalpm frontends", and perform a variety of system management tasks. These days, only about 30% of Aura's code is actually related to AUR handling.

How is this different from Yay or Paru?

Alongside Yaourt and pacaur, Aura is one of the originals, about 4 years older than Yay. Paru's author made a number of innovations in handling Arch packages with Rust, some of which Aura now uses as well.

Otherwise, Aura has the smallest binary of the three yet offers unique features. Historically Aura has also kept all AUR operations to `-A`, while Yay and Paru mix that into `-S`. Aura makes no modifications to existing Pacman commands.

Aura utilises its own metadata server for extremely fast package lookups and dependency resolution.

Aura is localised through Mozilla's Project Fluent (https://projectfluent.org/) system, which is easy to extend. If you're interested in translating Aura into your language, see the Localisation Guide (https://fosskers.github.io/aura/localisation.html).

Links

- Github: https://github.com/fosskers/aura
- Online Manual: https://fosskers.github.io/aura/
- CHANGELOG: https://github.com/fosskers/aura/blob/m … 2024-07-31

Last edited by fosskers (2024-08-24 02:27:16)

drcouzelis · 2013-01-07 14:26:02

fosskers wrote:

* `--save` option. Stores a record of all installed packages.
* `--restore` option. Restores a state stored with `--save`. Good for reversing system breakage.

That... is GENIUS.

fosskers · 2013-01-07 22:10:23

Came up with the idea when a kernel update broke my system. At the time I didn't know it was the kernel, and had done an update of maybe 15 packages or so. I knew one of them had to be the culprit, and I thought to myself "I wish I could just reverse all this at once".

Last edited by fosskers (2013-01-07 22:10:35)

Mindstormscreator · 2013-01-08 01:33:10

yaourt -S aura
yaourt -Rs yaourt

Also, how do I get zsh completions working right?

Last edited by Mindstormscreator (2013-01-08 01:49:52)

ngoonee · 2013-01-08 05:22:11

fosskers wrote:

Came up with the idea when a kernel update broke my system. At the time I didn't know it was the kernel, and had done an update of maybe 15 packages or so. I knew one of them had to be the culprit, and I thought to myself "I wish I could just reverse all this at once".

Sounds like you'd have to manually save before update though. Wouldn't it make sense to automatically 'checkpoint' each full update?

fosskers · 2013-01-08 09:00:48

Thanks for the install

Mindstormscreator wrote:

Also, how do I get zsh completions working right?

They're not working...?
They install and work on my end...

Is the file _aura present in /usr/share/zsh/site-functions?

---

ngoonee wrote:

Wouldn't it make sense to automatically 'checkpoint' each full update?

Yes. Yes it would.

Spyhawk · 2013-01-08 14:29:03

drcouzelis wrote:

fosskers wrote:
* `--save` option. Stores a record of all installed packages.
* `--restore` option. Restores a state stored with `--save`. Good for reversing system breakage.
That... is GENIUS.

I haven't checked out 1.1 now, but is the --save/--backup option similar to the Backing_up_and_retrieving_a_list_of_installed_packages commands?

Mindstormscreator · 2013-01-08 20:04:42

fosskers wrote:

They're not working...?
They install and work on my end...
Is the file _aura present in /usr/share/zsh/site-functions?

That file is present.

On a second check, completions work for the Official repos but not the aur.

sudo aura -S python-[tab]
python-atspi              python-logilab-astng      python-pyro             
python-beaker             python-logilab-common     python-pyserial         
python-beautifulsoup4     python-lxml               python-pytools          
python-bottle             python-lxml-docs          python-pytz             
...

sudo aura -A yaou[tab]
No matches for: `arguments', `corrections', or `file'

fosskers · 2013-01-08 21:59:50

@Spyhawk: I didn't know that existed, and it looks kind of complicated.

@Mindstormcreator: As of yet, you can't do AUR package completions, but you can complete option flags as well as repo packages, as you've seen.

Mindstormscreator · 2013-01-08 23:08:42

I've also noticed that performing a

aura -Ayu

syncs the official repos before checking for upgrades from the aur. However, only

aura -Syu

upgrades the system from the official repos after syncing. Isn't this unnecessary?

Last edited by Mindstormscreator (2013-01-08 23:12:47)

fosskers · 2013-01-09 10:02:53

Mindstormscreator wrote:

Isn't this unnecessary?

I'm afraid I don't understand.

Mindstormscreator · 2013-01-09 18:04:23

fosskers wrote:

Mindstormscreator wrote:
Isn't this unnecessary?
I'm afraid I don't understand.

Is it necessary for aura to sync the official repos when performing a

aura -Ayu

when only AUR packages are being updated?

Last edited by Mindstormscreator (2013-01-09 22:27:15)

Sirsurthur · 2013-01-09 19:36:09

Hello fosskers,

Aura looks great. I have the following output when using pacman-colors. Where is the color.conf file ?

aura -Qdt
"(color.conf)" (line 47, column 1):
unexpected end of input
expecting space, "#" or valid colour variable name
Raw shell command call failed.

Best regards,

Sirsurthur

rutgerr · 2013-01-09 21:27:01

Sirsurthur wrote:

Hello fosskers,
Aura looks great. I have the following output when using pacman-colors. Where is the color.conf file ?
aura -Qdt
"(color.conf)" (line 47, column 1):
unexpected end of input
expecting space, "#" or valid colour variable name
Raw shell command call failed.
Best regards,
Sirsurthur

I was having the same problem, solved by adding a "#" in line 47 in color.conf file at /etc/pacman.d

Sorry for bad english

litemotiv · 2013-01-09 21:39:21

Mindstormscreator wrote:

Is it necessary for aura to sync the official repos when performing a
aura -Ayu
when only AUr packages are being updated?

AUR packages may depend on other packages in the repositories, so it seems like a good idea to be fully synced before doing an update.

fosskers · 2013-01-09 22:11:09

@Mindstormcreator: litemotiv is right. AUR packages often have repo deps. If your repo database isn't up to date, there could be version conflicts. Typically I run an -Syu once, then -Auak, though.

@Sirsurther: This is a known problem and I will be fixing it. You have to make sure there are no extra newlines at the end of color.conf.

fosskers · 2013-01-10 09:49:35

@Sirsurther: The bug has been fixed. It'll be included in this coming Sunday's release.

fosskers · 2013-01-13 10:10:17

1.1.1.0 Release
-------
- New option `--devel`. Rebuilds all devel packages installed.
- Italian translation added! Thank you Bob Valantin!
- Support for `powerpill` added. It will be used if installed, unless
the PACMAN variable is specifically set to something different.
- Aura can now handle PKGBUILDs that produce multiple .pkg.tar files.
- Bug fixes

BubuIIC · 2013-01-18 16:26:20

Hey,
I've recently started using aura and I really like it. I have a few questions though:

1. How does aura know what AUR packages I've installed? Does it keep an internal list or does it use pacman -Qm or something? Can I upgrade AUR packages installed before aura (and aura itself) through aura?
2. Previously I have used PKGDEST in makepkg.conf to use a central package directory. Is this recommended with aura or is it completely unnecessary as aura keeps it's own package cache (where?)?
3. Has anyone got package signing to work with aura? It doesn't work for me, although it does with makepkg, I've describe the problem in detail here.

Last edited by BubuIIC (2013-01-18 16:26:46)

fosskers · 2013-01-21 09:26:53

BubuIIC wrote:

Hey,
I've recently started using aura and I really like it. I have a few questions though:
1. How does aura know what AUR packages I've installed? Does it keep an internal list or does it use pacman -Qm or something? Can I upgrade AUR packages installed before aura (and aura itself) through aura?
2. Previously I have used PKGDEST in makepkg.conf to use a central package directory. Is this recommended with aura or is it completely unnecessary as aura keeps it's own package cache (where?)?
3. Has anyone got package signing to work with aura? It doesn't work for me, although it does with makepkg, I've describe the problem in detail here.

Hey BubullC, thanks for using aura and reporting that bug.
Here are the answers to your questions:
1. It parses the `pacman -Qm` output. Using `aura -Au` upgrades all your foreign packages, even if they weren't installed with aura.
2. Using PKGDEST would actually break aura horribly. After building, Aura automatically puts built package files into /var/cache/pacman/pkg, then installs it from there.
3. Let's keep working at that signing issue. We'll figure it out eventually.

Last edited by fosskers (2013-01-21 09:27:07)

bslackr · 2013-01-23 19:39:31

I get this error and then aura exits with -Au:

aura >>= Determining dependencies...
aura: Parse error. Uninitialized var: ${_pkgbasename}

Might be something wrong with the PKGBUILD itself, but there are several being upgraded and aura doesn't say which or skip that package. Ideally aura would tell me which package gave this error and ask me if I want to skip it or quit.

fosskers · 2013-01-25 11:40:28

bslackr wrote:

I get this error and then aura exits with -Au:
aura >>= Determining dependencies...
aura: Parse error. Uninitialized var: ${_pkgbasename}
Might be something wrong with the PKGBUILD itself, but there are several being upgraded and aura doesn't say which or skip that package. Ideally aura would tell me which package gave this error and ask me if I want to skip it or quit.

I've actually almost completely rewritten the Bash parser, and it should be included in this Sunday's release. It should clear up problems like this.

fosskers · 2013-01-27 08:11:23

1.1.2.0
-------
- Bash parser completely rewritten.
- Bug fixes (thanks to the new parser)

JohnnyDeacon · 2013-01-30 14:45:07

Hi all,

What is the method to search packages in official repositories?

  ╒══[ /home/jairo/Downloads ]════╕
  └> aura -Ss python
error: no argument for option -s
aura >>= Please check your input.

Reading the Aura wiki says:

Aura is Pacman - All pacman operators and their sub-options are allowed.

fosskers · 2013-02-03 00:37:18

@JohnnyDeacon That shouldn't be happening... Does `-Si` work?

Arch Linux

#1 2013-01-07 09:32:16