Welcome to the main repository for all things Aura.
- Aura
- The
aur
Haskell Library - The
aur-security
Tool
Aura is a package manager for Arch Linux. It’s main purpose is as an AUR helper, in that it automates the process of installating packages from the Arch User Repositories. It is, however, capable of much more.
Aura doesn’t just mimic pacman
… it is pacman
. All pacman
operations
and their sub-options are allowed. Some even hold special meaning in Aura as
well.
-S
yields pacman packages and only pacman packages. This agrees with the
above. Thus in Aura, the -A
operation is introduced for obtaining AUR
packages. -A
comes with sub-options you’re used to (-u
, -s
, -i
, etc.).
Dependencies and packages are not built and installed one at a time. Install order is as follows:
- All pacman dependencies (all at once).
- All AUR dependencies that don’t depend on each other (all at once, in groups).
- All “top level” AUR packages (all at once).
By default makepkg
output is suppressed. If you want the people behind you to
think you’re a cool hacker, then this suppression can be disabled by using
-x
alongside -A
.
makepkg
gets very upset if you try to build a package as root. That said, a
built package can’t be handed off to pacman and installed if you don’t run as
root. Other AUR helpers ignore this problem, but Aura does not. Even when run
with sudo
, packages are built with normal user privileges, then handed to
pacman and installed as root.
Editing PKGBUILDs mid-build is not default behaviour. An Arch user should know
exactly what they’re putting into their system, thus research into prospective
packages should be done beforehand. However, for functionality’s sake, the
option --hotedit
used with -A
will prompt the user for PKGBUILD editing.
Regardless, as a responsible user you must know what you are building.
Built AUR package files are moved to the package cache. This allows for them to
be easily downgraded when problems arise. Other top AUR helper programs do not
do this. The option -B
will save a package state, and -Br
will restore a
state you select. -Au
also automatically invokes a save, to help you roll back
from problematic updates.
Sometimes dependencies lose their required status, but remain installed on
your system. Sometimes AUR package makedepends
aren’t required at all after
install. Packages like this just sit there, receiving upgrades for no reason.
Aura helps keep track of and remove packages like this.
English is well established as the world’s Lingua Franca, and is also the dominant language of computing and the internet. That said, it’s natural that some people are going to be more comfortable working in their native language. From the beginning Aura has been built with multiple-language support in mind, making it very easy to add new ones.
Aura is written in Haskell, which means easy development and beautiful code. Please feel free to use it as a simple Haskell reference. Aura code demonstrates:
- Parser Combinators (
megaparsec
) - CLI Flag Handling (
optparse-applicative
) - Concurrency (
scheduler
) - Shell Interaction (
typed-process
) - Pretty Printing (
prettyprinter
)
It is recommended to install the prebuilt binary of Aura:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/aura-bin.git
cd aura-bin
makepkg
sudo pacman -U <the-package-file-that-makepkg-produces>
You will need the Stack Tool for Haskell to compile Aura yourself. Then:
git clone https://github.com/fosskers/aura.git
cd aura
stack install -- aura
This may take a while to initially build all of Aura’s dependencies. Once
complete, your aura
binary will be available in /home/YOU/.local/bin/
.
Install an AUR package:
aura -A (package)
Author’s favourite (upgrades, removes make deps, shows PKGBUILD diffs):
aura -Akuax
Just upgrade all installed AUR packages:
aura -Au
Look up information on an AUR package:
aura -Ai (package)
Search the AUR via a regex:
aura -As (regex)
Display an AUR package’s PKGBUILD:
aura -Ap (package)
Store a record of all installed packages:
aura -B
Restore a saved record. Rolls back, uninstalls, and reinstalls packages as necessary:
aura -Br
Downgrade a package (this is interactive):
aura -C (package)
Search the package cache for package files via a regex:
aura -Cs (regex)
Reduce the package cache to contain only ‘x’ of each package file:
aura -Cc x
View the Pacman Log:
aura -L
Display install / upgrade history for a package:
aura -Li (package)
Search the pacman logfile via a regex:
aura -Ls (regex)
Display orphan packages:
aura -O
Change a package’s install reason to Explicitly installed
.
aura -O --adopt (package)
Uninstall all orphan packages:
aura -Oj
As mentioned in the Philosophy above, adding new languages to Aura is quite easy. If you speak a language other than those available and would like it added to Aura, please consult LOCALISATION.md.
Aura is currently translated by these generous people:
Language | Translators |
---|---|
Chinese | Kai Zhang |
Croatian | Denis Kasak and “stranac” |
Esperanto | Zachary “Ghosy” Matthews |
French | Ma Jiehong and Fabien Dubosson |
German | Lukas Niederbremer and Jonas Platte |
Indonesian | “pak tua Greg” |
Italian | Bob Valantin |
Japanese | Colin Woodbury and Onoue Takuro |
Norwegian | “chinatsun” |
Polish | Chris Warrick |
Portuguese | Henry Kupty, Thiago Perrotta, and Wagner Amaral |
Russian | Kyrylo Silin, Alexey Kotlyarov |
Serbian | Filip Brcic |
Spanish | Alejandro Gómez and Sergio Conde |
Swedish | Fredrik Haikarainen and Daniel Beecham |
A library for accessing the AUR, powered by Servant.
Performs a sweep of all PKGBUILDs on the AUR, looking for Bash misuse.