Arch User Repository

Getting started

Users can search and download PKGBUILDs from the AUR Web Interface. These s can be built into installable packages using makepkg, then installed using pacman.

Ensure the base-devel package group is installed in full ().
Glance over the #FAQ for answers to the most common questions.
You may wish to adjust to optimize the build process to your system prior to building packages from the AUR. A significant improvement in package build times can be realized on systems with multi-core processors by adjusting the variable, by using multiple cores for compression, or by using different compression algorithm. Users can also enable hardware-specific compiler optimizations via the variable. See makepkg#Tips and tricks for more information.

It is also possible to interact with the AUR through SSH: type for a list of available commands.

History

In the beginning, there was , and people contributed by simply uploading the PKGBUILD, the needed supplementary files, and the built package itself to the server. The package and associated files remained there until a Package Maintainer saw the program and adopted it.

Then the Trusted User Repositories were born. Certain individuals in the community were allowed to host their own repositories for anyone to use. The AUR expanded on this basis, with the aim of making it both more flexible and more usable. In fact, the AUR maintainers are still referred to as TUs (Trusted Users).

Between 2015-06-08 and 2015-08-08, the AUR transitioned from version 3.5.1 to 4.0.0, introducing the use of Git repositories for publishing the s. Existing packages were dropped unless manually migrated to the new infrastructure by their maintainers.

Git repositories for AUR3 packages

The AUR Archive on GitHub has a repository for every package that was in AUR 3 at the time of the migration. Alternatively, there is the aur3-mirror repository which provides the same.

Installing and upgrading packages

Installing packages from the AUR is a relatively simple process. Essentially:

Acquire the build files, including the PKGBUILD and possibly other required files, like systemd units and patches (often not the actual code).
Verify that the and accompanying files are not malicious or untrustworthy.
Run in the directory where the files are saved. This will download the code, compile it, and package it.
Run to install the package onto your system.

Prerequisites

First ensure that the necessary tools are installed by installing the base-devel group in full which includes make and other tools needed for compiling from source.

Next choose an appropriate build directory. A build directory is simply a directory where the package will be made or "built" and can be any directory. The examples in the following sections will use as the build directory.

Acquire build files

Locate the package in the AUR. This is done using the search field at the top of the AUR home page. Clicking the application's name in the search list brings up an information page on the package. Read through the description to confirm that this is the desired package, note when the package was last updated, and read any comments.

There are several methods for acquiring the build files for a package:

Clone its git repository, labeled "Git Clone URL" in the "Package Details" on its AUR page. This is the preferred method, an advantage of which is that you can easily get updates to the package via .

Download a snapshot, either by clicking the "Download snapshot" link under "Package Actions" on the right hand side of its AUR page, or in a terminal:

Use the read-only mirror archlinux/aur on GitHub, where every package is located in a branch. It is recommended to clone only a single branch (the whole repository is too big and performance would be low). You can do this with one of the following two methods:
- Use :
- Do a partial clone of this repository (git clone --depth=1) and add branches selectively:

Acquire a PGP public key if needed

Check if a signature file in the form of .sig or .asc is part of the PKGBUILD source array. If that is the case, then acquire one of the public keys listed in the PKGBUILD validpgpkeys array. Refer to makepkg#Signature checking for more information.

Build the package

Change directories to the directory containing the package's PKGBUILD.

$ cd package_name

View the contents of all provided files. For example, to use the pager less to view , do:

$ less PKGBUILD

Tip: If you are updating a package, you may want to look at the changes since the last commit.

To view changes since the last git commit, you can use git show.
To view changes since the last commit using vimdiff, do git difftool @~..@ vimdiff. The advantage of vimdiff is that you view the entire contents of each file along with indicators on what has changed.

Make the package. After manually confirming the contents of the files, run makepkg as a normal user. Some helpful flags:

/ automatically resolves and installs any dependencies with pacman before building. If the package depends on other AUR packages, you will need to manually install them first.
/ installs the package if it is built successfully. This lets you skip the next step that is usually done manually.
/ removes build-time dependencies after the build, as they are no longer needed. However, these dependencies may need to be reinstalled the next time the package is updated.
-c/ cleans up temporary build files after the build, as they are no longer needed. These files are usually needed only when debugging the build process.

Install the package

The package can now be installed with pacman:

# pacman -U package_name-version-architecture.pkg.tar.zst

Upgrading packages

In the directory containing the package's PKGBUILD, you must first update the files and changes by using the command

$ git pull

then follow the previous build and install instructions.

Account status

Suspension

When editing a user as a Trusted User, the Suspended field can be set, which suspends the target user. When a user is suspended, they cannot:

Login to https://aur.archlinux.org
Receive notifications
Interact with the git interface

Inactivity

When editing your own account or another as a Trusted User, the Inactive field can be set. Inactive accounts are used for two reasons:

Display the date someone was marked inactive on their account page
Generate a current count of active Trusted Users based on their inactivity for new proposals

Feedback

Commenting on packages

The AUR Web Interface has a comments facility that allows users to provide suggestions and feedback on improvements to the PKGBUILD contributor.

Python-Markdown provides basic Markdown syntax to format comments.

Note:

This implementation has some occasional differences with the official syntax rules.
Commit hashes to the Git repository of the package and references to Flyspray tickets are converted to links automatically.
Long comments are collapsed and can be expanded on demand.

Voting for packages

One of the easiest activities for all Arch users is to browse the AUR and vote for their favourite packages using the online interface. All packages are eligible for adoption by a TU for inclusion in the community repository, and the vote count is one of the considerations in that process; it is in everyone's interest to vote!

Sign up on the AUR website to get a "Vote for this package" option while browsing packages. After signing up, it is also possible to vote from the commandline with , or .

Alternatively, if you have set up ssh authentication, you can directly vote from the command line using your ssh key. This means that you will not need to save or type in your AUR password.

$ ssh aur@aur.archlinux.org vote package_name

Flagging packages out-of-date

First, you should flag the package out-of-date indicating details on why the package is outdated, preferably including links to the release announcement or the new release tarball.

You should also try to reach out to the maintainer directly by email. If there is no response from the maintainer after two weeks, you can file an orphan request. See AUR submission guidelines#Requests for details.

Debugging the package build process

Ensure your build environment is up-to-date by upgrading before building anything.
Ensure you have the base-devel group installed.
Use the option with to check and install all dependencies needed before starting the build process.
Try the default makepkg configuration.
See Makepkg#Troubleshooting for common issues.

If you are having trouble building a package, first read its PKGBUILD and the comments on its AUR page.

It is possible that a PKGBUILD is broken for everyone. If you cannot figure it out on your own, report it to the maintainer (e.g. by posting the errors you are getting in the comments on the AUR page). You may also seek help in the AUR Issues, Discussion & PKGBUILD Requests forum.

The reason might not be trivial after all. Custom , and can cause failures. To avoid problems caused by your particular system configuration, build packages in a clean chroot. If the build process still fails in a clean chroot, the issue is probably with the PKGBUILD.

See Creating packages#Checking package sanity about using . If you would like to have a PKGBUILD reviewed, post it on the aur-general mailing list to get feedback from the TUs and fellow AUR members, or the Creating & Modifying Packages forum. You could also seek help in the IRC channel #archlinux-aur on the Libera Chat network.

Submitting packages

Users can share PKGBUILDs using the Arch User Repository. See AUR submission guidelines for details.

Web interface translation

See i18n.txt in the AUR source tree for information about creating and maintaining translation of the AUR Web Interface.

FAQ

What kind of packages are permitted on the AUR?

The packages on the AUR are merely "build scripts", i.e. recipes to build binaries for pacman. For most cases, everything is permitted, subject to usefulness and scope guidelines, as long as you are in compliance with the licensing terms of the content. For other cases, where it is mentioned that "you may not link" to downloads, i.e. contents that are not redistributable, you may only use the file name itself as the source. This means and requires that users already have the restricted source in the build directory prior to building the package. When in doubt, ask.

How can I vote for packages in the AUR?

See #Voting for packages.

What is a Trusted User / TU?

A Trusted User, in short TU, is a person who is chosen to oversee AUR and the community repository. They are the ones who maintain popular PKGBUILDs in community, and overall keep the AUR running.

What is the difference between the Arch User Repository and the community repository?

The Arch User Repository is where all PKGBUILDs that users submit are stored, and must be built manually with makepkg. When PKGBUILDs receive enough community interest and the support of a TU, they are moved into the community repository (maintained by the TUs), where the binary packages can be installed with pacman.

Foo in the AUR is outdated; what should I do?

See #Flagging packages out-of-date.

In the meantime, you can try updating the package yourself by editing the PKGBUILD locally. Sometimes, updates do not require changes to the build or package process, in which case simply updating the or array is sufficient.

Foo in the AUR does not compile when I run makepkg; what should I do?

You are probably missing something trivial; see #Debugging the package build process.

ERROR: One or more PGP signatures could not be verified!; what should I do?

Most likely, you do not have the required public key(s) in your personal keyring to verify downloaded files. See Makepkg#Signature checking for details.

How do I create a PKGBUILD?

Consult the AUR submission guidelines#Rules of submission, then see creating packages.

I have a PKGBUILD I would like to submit; can someone check it to see if there are any errors?

There are several channels available to submit your package for review; see #Debugging the package build process.

How to get a PKGBUILD into the community repository?

Usually, at least 10 votes are required for something to move into community. However, if a TU wants to support a package, it will often be found in the repository.

Reaching the required minimum of votes is not the only requirement; there has to be a TU willing to maintain the package. TUs are not required to move a package into the community repository even if it has thousands of votes.

Usually, when a very popular package stays in the AUR, it is because:

Arch Linux already has another version of a package in the repositories
Its license prohibits redistribution
It helps retrieve user-submitted PKGBUILDs. AUR helpers are unsupported by definition.

How can I speed up repeated build processes?

See Makepkg#Improving compile times.

What is the difference between foo and foo-git packages?

Many AUR packages come in "stable" release and "unstable" development versions. Development packages usually have a suffix denoting their Version Control System and are not intended for regular use, but may offer new features or bugfixes. Because these packages only download the latest available source when you execute , their in the AUR does not reflect upstream changes. Likewise, these packages cannot perform an authenticity checksum on any VCS source.

Why has foo disappeared from the AUR?

It is possible the package has been adopted by a TU and is now in the community repository.

Packages may be deleted if they did not fulfill the rules of submission. See the aur-requests archives for the reason for deletion.

If the package used to exist in AUR3, it might not have been migrated to AUR4. See the #Git repositories for AUR3 packages where these are preserved.

How do I find out if any of my installed packages disappeared from AUR?

The simplest way is to check the HTTP status of the package's AUR page:

$ comm -23 <(pacman -Qqm | sort) <(curl https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.gz | gzip -cd | sort)

How can I obtain a list of all AUR packages?

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.gz
Use aurpkglist from