aur package pointing to a third-party provided package (expressvpn)

GloW_on_dub · 2019-09-29 16:13:28

I discovered that expressvpn as started providing an arch pkg for expressvpn.
https://www.expressvpn.com/latest#linux.

That is very nice of them, but I wonder if that is possible to somehow add it to the aur.
I know that is not the point of the aur at all, but it's just nice to use a single tool to update the system, aka an aur helper like yay.

So is it possible ?

As a side note, they also provide a Arch 32Bit package. Afaik Arch 32Bit does not exist anymore, that is strange to provide it imo.

loqs · 2019-09-29 16:29:19

GloW_on_dub wrote:

I know that is not the point of the aur at all, but it's just nice to use a single tool to update the system, aka an aur helper like yay.
So is it possible ?

As you noted it would be against the intent of AUR.

GloW_on_dub wrote:

As a side note, they also provide a Arch 32Bit package. Afaik Arch 32Bit does not exist anymore, that is strange to provide it imo.

End of i686 support is not equivalent to it no longer existing.

Last edited by loqs (2019-09-29 16:31:37)

Trilby · 2019-09-29 16:55:22

What purpose would a PKGBUILD serve, the package is already built, just install it with `pacman -U <file/url>`. A PKGBUILD will not help keep track of updates either. You'd still have to watch upstream for changes, then update the PKGBUILD, then install the new version. So just cut out the extra step: watch upstream for changes, and install new versions when they are released.

As for arch32, on top of the above, it is not supported by this community, but it has it's own community:
https://archlinux32.org/

Ubuntu isn't supported here either, but it's not odd for upstream to publish a ubuntu package, is it?

WorMzy · 2019-09-29 17:28:50

There is an AUR package (I co-maintain it), but it repackages the .deb package. The reason for that is three fold: 1) the original package submitter used the .deb over the .rpm, and when we merged our PKGBUILDs we stuck with that, 2) the upstream package does a lot in the post-install script which should really be done in package() (or not at all -- notably things involving $HOME and sudo). The expressVPN devs reached out to me before releasing their official Arch packages, but although some of my proposed changes have been made, they still rely on using fpm to convert the rpm package, rather than creating a PKGBUILD to build their software from source), and 3) the upstream Linux update notification system seems borked, so official package or AUR build, you need to keep manually checking upstream for new releases (side note: the latest release is actually 2.3.0, not 2.2.0 which the "latest" page above directs you to...).

GloW_on_dub · 2019-09-30 02:35:44

Thanks all for this great insights.

> So just cut out the extra step: watch upstream for changes, and install new versions when they are released.
The idea was to rely on somebody else to do this, the aur maintainer, and this is what happens when I use the aur package from WorMzy.

> As for arch32, on top of the above, it is not supported by this community, but it has it's own community
Thanks, I had no idea.

@WorMzy, thanks for your answer. It explains a lot and you may want to add that to your sticky post.
How do you monitor for new version ? I can't find the 2.3.0 on their website.

Last edited by GloW_on_dub (2019-09-30 02:35:59)

WorMzy · 2019-09-30 13:34:58

More often than not the package gets flagged OoD by someone who dual boots with Windows (where update notifications consistently work) when there's an update for the client. Beyond that, I periodically log in to the expressvpn site and check the setup page (I wasn't aware that there was a page you could check while not logged in, despite looking for one many times before, so thanks for linking https://www.expressvpn.com/latest#linux!)

The current version (2.3.0) is only currently mentioned on the support pages (possibly because it only really offers improvements for users in China). Thankfully a user flagged it up, because I wouldn't have known about it either otherwise.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-09-29 16:13:28

aur package pointing to a third-party provided package (expressvpn)

#2 2019-09-29 16:29:19

Re: aur package pointing to a third-party provided package (expressvpn)

#3 2019-09-29 16:55:22

Re: aur package pointing to a third-party provided package (expressvpn)

#4 2019-09-29 17:28:50

Re: aur package pointing to a third-party provided package (expressvpn)

#5 2019-09-30 02:35:44

Re: aur package pointing to a third-party provided package (expressvpn)

#6 2019-09-30 13:34:58

Re: aur package pointing to a third-party provided package (expressvpn)

Board footer