AUR helpers

Warning: None of these tools are officially supported by Arch Linux, therefore it is recommended to become familiar with the manual build process in order to be prepared to troubleshoot problems on one's own.

AUR Helpers are written to make using the Arch User Repository more comfortable.

Uploading

Script Description
bbidulock's script Migrate from a .backup directory with all packages.
aur4_import.sh Splits a package from a git repository with multiple packages, adding/updating .SRCINFO for every commit.

aur4_make_submodule.sh
subaur4

Replaces a package in a bigger git repository with an AUR 4 submodule, including .SRCINFO.
import-to-aur4 Splits an existing git repository into multiple AUR 4 packages, all at once, including .SRCINFO for every commit.

Build and search

This is a list of helper utilities that search, download and/or build packages.

  • apacman — A fork of packer.
https://github.com/oshazard/apacman || apacmanAUR
  • aura — A package manager for Arch Linux written in Haskell.
https://github.com/aurapm/aura || auraAUR or aura-binAUR (binary)
  • aurel — Search, vote and download AUR packages from Emacs. (Forum page)
https://github.com/alezost/aurel || aurelAUR[broken link: archived in aur-mirror]
  • aurget — pacman-like interface to the AUR, without wrapping pacman commands.
http://github.com/pbrisbin/aurget/ || aurgetAUR
  • aurquery — Caching wrapper around the AUR's RPC interface using the python3-aur library.
http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/python3-aur || python3-aurAUR
  • aurutils — Helper tools for the AUR.
https://github.com/AladW/aurutils ||
  • bauerbill — Powerpill/pacman extension with support for building packages from ABS and AUR.
http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/bauerbill || bauerbillAUR
  • burgaur — A front-end for cower written in Python.
https://github.com/m45t3r/burgaur || burgaurAUR
  • cower — AUR search and download agent written in C, which also checks for updates and package dependencies. (Forum page)
https://github.com/falconindy/cower || cowerAUR
  • pacaur — An AUR helper that minimizes user interaction. (Forum page)
https://github.com/rmarquis/pacaur || pacaurAUR
  • packer — Wrapper for pacman and the AUR. (Forum page)
https://github.com/keenerd/packer || packerAUR
  • pbget — Retrieve source files from the Arch SVN and CVS web interface, the AUR, and the ABS rsync server.
http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/pbget || pbgetAUR
  • PKGBUILDer — An AUR helper with dependency support written in Python 3.
https://github.com/Kwpolska/pkgbuilder || pkgbuilderAUR
  • prm — An AUR and ABS helper.
https://git.fleshless.org/prm/ || PKGBUILD
  • trizen — A wrapper for the AUR written in Perl.
https://github.com/trizen/trizen || trizenAUR
  • wrapaur — A pacman and AUR wrapper written in bash.
|| wrapaurAUR
  • yaah — Yet another AUR helper
https://bitbucket.org/the_metalgamer/yaah || yaahAUR
  • yaourt — A wrapper for the AUR and regular packages.
http://archlinux.fr/yaourt-en || yaourtAUR

Maintenance

  • pkgbuild-watch — Looks for changes on the upstream web pages
http://kmkeen.com/pkgbuild-watch || pkgbuild-watchAUR
  • pkgbuildup — Helps AUR package maintainers automatically update PKGBUILD files. Supports a template variable syntax.
Repository: GitHub || pkgbuildup-gitAUR
  • pkgcheck — Uses rules in PKGBUILDs to parse upstream version information or looks for changes by checksumming the web page
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=162816 || Repository: GitHub
  • pkgoutofdate — Parses the source URL from PKGBUILDs and tries to find new versions of packages by incrementing the version number and sending requests to the web server
Repository: GitHub || pkgoutofdate-gitAUR

Libraries

  • haskell-archlinux — Library to access the AUR and package metadata from the Haskell programming language
http://hackage.haskell.org/package/archlinux || haskell-archlinuxAUR
  • python3-aur — Python 3 modules for accessing AUR package information and automating AUR interactions.
http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/python3-aur || python3-aurAUR

Graphical

  • Aarchup — Fork of archup. Has the same options as archup plus a few other features. For differences between both please check changelog.
https://github.com/aericson/aarchup/ || aarchupAUR
  • PkgBrowser — Application for searching and browsing Arch packages, showing details on selected packages.
https://bitbucket.org/kachelaqa/pkgbrowser/wiki/Home || pkgbrowserAUR
  • kalu — Small C application that adds an icon in the systray and can show notifications for Arch Linux News, Upgrades, AUR upgrades, and watched (AUR) upgrades (upgrades for packages not installed). Also includes a GUI system upgrader.
https://github.com/jjk-jacky/kalu || kaluAUR (or kalu-kdeAUR for auto-hide in KDE's panel)
  • Yapan — Written in C++ and Qt. It shows an icon in the system tray and popup notifications for new packages and supports AUR helpers.
https://github.com/fluxer/arch-yapan || yapanAUR

Comparison table

Tango-inaccurate.pngThe factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.Tango-inaccurate.png

Reason: Not all these values have been thoroughly checked yet, or bug reports filed to the respective projects (Discuss in Talk:AUR helpers#)

The columns have the following meaning:

  • Secure: does not source, by default, the PKGBUILD at all, or, before doing so, reminds the user and offers him the opportunity to inspect it manually. Some helpers are known to source PKGBUILDs before the user can inspect them, allowing malicious code to be executed. Optional means that there is a command line flag or configuration option to prevent the automatic sourcing before viewing.
  • Clean build: does not export new variables that can prevent a successful build process.
  • Reliable parser: ability to handle complex packages by using the provided metadata (RPC/.SRCINFO) instead of PKGBUILD parsing, such as aws-cliAUR.
  • Reliable solver: ability to correctly solve and build complex dependency chains, such as plasma-git-metaAUR.
  • Split packages: ability to correctly build and install split packages independently, such as python-nikolaAUR.
  • Git clone: uses git clones instead of downloading tarballs (deprecated since AUR 4).
Name Written In Secure Clean build Reliable parser Reliable solver Split packages Git clone Shell completion Syntax Specificity
apacman Bash No Yes No No No No None Pacman-like Fork of packer
aura Haskell Yes Yes No [1] No No No bash/zsh Pacman-like Backup, downgrade, ABS and powerpill support, multilingual
aurel Emacs Lisp Yes N/A Yes N/A N/A No N/A Specific Emacs integration, no automatic builds
aurget Bash Optional Yes No No No [2] No bash/zsh Pacman-like -
bauerbill Python3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No bash/zsh Pacman-like/Specific Trust management, ABS support, extends Powerpill
burgaur Python3 Optional, with mc Yes No No No No None Pacman-like Wrapper for cower
cower C Yes N/A Yes N/A N/A No bash/zsh Specific No automatic builds, regex support
pacaur Bash/C Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes bash/zsh Pacman-like/specific Minimizes user interaction, multilingual
packer Bash No Yes No No No No None Pacman-like -
pbget Python3 Yes N/A Yes N/A N/A No None Specific No automatic builds
PKGBUILDer Python3 Optional Yes Yes Yes Partial [3] Yes None Pacman-like Automatic builds by default, use -F to disable; multilingual
prm Bash Yes [4] N/A Yes N/A N/A Yes None Specific No automatic builds, ABS support
trizen Perl Yes Yes No No No No None Pacman-like -
wrapaur Bash Yes Yes No No No Yes None Specific Mirror updates, print news and AUR comments
yaah Bash Yes N/A Yes N/A N/A Optional bash Specific No automatic builds
yaourt Bash/C No [5] No [6] No No No Optional bash/zsh/fish Pacman-like Backup, ABS support, AUR comments, multilingual