Welcome to the main repository for all things Aura.

• Aura
  • What is Aura?
  • The Aura Philosophy
    • Aura is Pacman
    • Arch is Arch - AUR is AUR
    • All Together
    • Quiet Building
    • Run as Root, Build as a User
    • Know your System
    • Downgradibility
    • No Orphans
    • Arch Linux for Everyone
    • Haskell
  • Installation
    • Prebuilt Binaries
    • Building from Source
  • Sample Usage
    • Installing Packages
    • Package Set Snapshots
    • Downgrading via the Package Cache
    • Searching the Pacman Log
    • Managing Orphan Packages
  • Localisation
• 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:

1. All pacman dependencies (all at once).
2. All AUR dependencies that don’t depend on each other (all at once, in groups).
3. 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:

A library for accessing the AUR, powered by Servant.

Performs a sweep of all PKGBUILDs on the AUR, looking for Bash misuse.