AUR helpers - ArchWiki

# AUR helpers

Warning: None of these tools are officially supported by Arch Linux. 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 automate certain tasks for the Arch User Repository.

## Uploading

- 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.
- aurpublish — Manage AUR packages as git subtrees. The generation of `.SRCINFO` files, `PKGBUILD` checking and the creation of a per package commit message template is left to the git hooks in the same repo.

## 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 || aurel-gitAUR

- aurget — pacman-like interface to the AUR, without wrapping pacman commands.

  https://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. (Forum page)

  https://github.com/AladW/aurutils || aurutilsAUR

- bauerbill — Powerpill/pacman extension with support for building packages from ABS and AUR. (Forum page)

  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

- cylon — pacman and pacaur wrapper, and is also a wrapper for cower and provides it a backend. Includes various other maintenance functions and extras.

  https://github.com/gavinlyonsrepo/cylon || cylonAUR

- owlman — pacman and cower wrapper (Forum page)

  https://github.com/baskerville/owlman || owlmanAUR

- 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

- repoctl — Tool to help manage local repositories (AUR support).

  https://github.com/cassava/repoctl || repoctlAUR

- spinach — An AUR helper written in Bash

  http://www.floft.net/code/spinach/ || spinachAUR

- 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.

  https://archlinux.fr/yaourt-en || yaourtAUR

- yay — AUR helper written in Go.

  https://github.com/Jguer/yay || yayAUR or yay-binAUR (binary)

## 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.

  https://github.com/fasheng/pkgbuildup || 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

  https://github.com/anatol/pkgoutofdate || pkgoutofdate-gitAUR

- aur-check — Uses the AUR API to find newer versions of your foreign packages

  https://gist.github.com/felipec/94752ddd08e1adfb80ac57947982443c || not packaged? search in AUR

- updpkgver — Detects upstream releases and updates the PKGBUILD automatically

  https://github.com/renatosilva/pactoys/tree/master/source/updpkgver || not packaged? search in AUR

## 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

- Argon — Graphical frontend to pacaur, featuring package installation, removal, and updating; and update notifications for both official repository and AUR packages.

  https://github.com/14mRh4X0r/arch-argon || argonAUR

- PkgBrowser — Application for searching and browsing Arch packages, showing details on selected packages.

  https://bitbucket.org/kachelaqa/pkgbrowser/wiki/Home || pkgbrowserAUR

## Comparison table

The columns have the following meaning:

- Secure: does not source the PKGBUILD at all by default; or, alerts the user and offers the opportunity to inspect the PKGBUILD manually before it is sourced. 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-cli-gitAUR.
- 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).
- Syntax: P stands for Pacman-like, S for specific.

Name | Written In | Secure | Clean build | Reliable parser | Reliable solver | Split packages | Git clone | Shell completion | Syntax | Specificity
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
apacman | Bash | No [1] | No [2] | No | No | No | No | None | P | Fork of packer
aura | Haskell | Yes | Yes | No [3] | No | No [4] | No | bash/zsh | P | Downgrade, ABS, powerpill support, multilingual, requires ArchHaskell
aurel | Emacs Lisp | Yes | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A | No | N/A | S | Emacs integration, no automatic builds
aurget | Bash | Optional | Yes | No | No | No [5] | No | bash/zsh | P | sort by votes
aurutils | Bash/C | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | zsh | S | vifm, PCRE, local repository, package signing, systemd-nspawn support
bauerbill | Python3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | bash/zsh | P/S | Trust management, ABS support, extends Powerpill
burgaur | Python3/C | Optional, with mc | Yes | No | No | No | No | None | P | Wrapper for cower
cower | C | Yes | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A | No | bash/zsh | S | No automatic builds, regex support, sort by votes/popularity
owlman | Bash/C | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial | No | None | S | Wrapper for cower
pacaur | Bash/C | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | bash/zsh | P/S | Minimizes user interaction, multilingual, sort by votes/popularity
packer | Bash | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | None | P | -
pbget | Python3 | Yes | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A | Yes | None | S | No automatic builds
PKGBUILDer | Python3 | Optional | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial [6] | Yes | None | P | Automatic builds by default, use `-F` to disable; multilingual
prm | Bash | Yes [7] | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A | Yes | None | S | No automatic builds, ABS support
repoctl | Go | Yes | N/A | Yes [8] | N/A | N/A | No | zsh | S | No automatic builds, local repository support
spinach | Bash | No [9] | Yes | No | No | No | No | None | S | -
trizen | Perl | Yes | Yes | Yes [10] | Yes | Yes [11] | Yes [12] | None | P | AUR comments
wrapaur | Bash | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | None | S | Mirror updates, print news and AUR comments
yaah | Bash | Yes | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A | Optional | bash | S | No automatic builds
yaourt | Bash/C | No (yaourt -Si) [13] [14] | No [15] | No | No [16] | No [17] | Optional | bash/zsh/fish | P | Backup, ABS support, AUR comments, multilingual
yay | Go | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial | No | bash/zsh/fish | P | sort by votes

Note: Pacman 4.2. introduced architecture specific fields. [18] However, as of 06 April 2016, AurJson combines all entries in a single field: FS#48796. Helpers relying on the RPC may use the below workarounds to retrieve dependencies:

- bauerbillAUR [19], pkgbuilderAUR [20]: Retrieve specific fields from .SRCINFO
- aurutilsAUR [21], pacaurAUR [22], trizenAUR [23]: Strip the `lib32-` prefix on `i686` systems

Category:

- Package management

Hidden category:

- Pages with missing package links