Pacman & General Help

shyanel · 2008-03-29 12:50:31

Hi All

I'm new to Linux and I've decided to opt for Arch as my first bash at it. I've installed and set up Arch with no problems, the system is running stably and everything is fine and dandy.

The only issue I'm having is with installing programs that aren't in one of the pacman repos already.

If I download a source .tar i can't figure out how to install it from there.

If I tell pacman to install directly from a URL (using pacman -U <link>) I keep getting various errors about missing package metadata.

I suppose my question is, are there any apps that will allow me to install straight from a downloaded archive? A la windows style?

And if so how do I install them?

I apologise in advance for the unprecedented noobishness of my request.

Stu

Allan · 2008-03-29 12:53:14

pacman -U <file> only works when <file> is a pacman package.

To learn about making packages that are not in the repos look up AUR and makepkg in the wiki:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AUR
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Makepkg

shyanel · 2008-03-29 13:13:06

Okay started looking into that, working through it I now have a new problem - When I use makepkg, i'm getting a "PKGBUILD does not exist" error...

Any ideas?

Stu

Ramses de Norre · 2008-03-29 13:43:34

Read the links again, the PKGBUILD file tells makepkg what to do, it's the only file you should make/download/adjust when you want to build a package.

Misfit138 · 2008-03-29 13:47:34

shyanel wrote:

Okay started looking into that, working through it I now have a new problem - When I use makepkg, i'm getting a "PKGBUILD does not exist" error...
Any ideas?
Stu

Have a look here too.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS

Arch Linux

#1 2008-03-29 12:50:31

Pacman & General Help

#2 2008-03-29 12:53:14

Re: Pacman & General Help

#3 2008-03-29 13:13:06

Re: Pacman & General Help

#4 2008-03-29 13:43:34

Re: Pacman & General Help

#5 2008-03-29 13:47:34

Re: Pacman & General Help

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