TheArch User Repository (AUR) is a community-driven repository forArch Linux users. It contains package descriptions (PKGBUILDs) that allow you to compile a package from source withmakepkg and then install it viapacman. The AUR was created to organize and share new packages from the community and to help expedite popular packages' inclusion into theextra repository. This document explains how users can access and utilize the AUR.

A good number of new packages that enter the official repositories start in the AUR. In the AUR, users are able to contribute their own package builds (PKGBUILD and related files). The AUR community has the ability tovote for packages in the AUR. If a package becomes popular enough—provided it has a compatible license and good packaging technique—it may be entered into theextra repository (directly accessible bypacman or from theArch build system).

Users can search and downloadPKGBUILDs from theAUR Web Interface. ThesePKGBUILDs can be built into installable packages usingmakepkg, then installed usingpacman.

• Ensurebase-devel isinstalled.
• Glance over the#Frequently asked questions for answers to the most common questions.
• You may wish to adjust/etc/makepkg.conf 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 theMAKEFLAGS variable, by using multiple cores for compression, or by using different compression algorithm. Users can also enable hardware-specific compiler optimizations via theCFLAGS variable. Seemakepkg#Optimization for more information.

if you have set upAUR SSH authentication then it is also possible to interact with the AUR through SSH: typessh aur@aur.archlinux.org help for a list of available commands.

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

1. Acquire the build files, including thePKGBUILD and possibly other required files, likesystemd units and patches (often not the actual code).
2. Verify that thePKGBUILD and accompanying files are not malicious or untrustworthy.
3. Runmakepkg in the directory where the files are saved. This will download the code, compile it, and package it.
4. Runpacman -Upackage_file to install the package onto your system.

First, ensure that the necessary tools areinstalled by installingbase-devel; thismeta package hasmake and other tools needed for compiling from source, listed as dependencies.

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

Locate the package in the AUR. This is done using the search field at the top of theAUR 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 itsgit 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 viagit pull.

$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/package_name.git

• 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:

$ curl -L -O https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/package_name.tar.gz

Note The snapshot file is compressed, and must be extracted (preferably in a directory set aside for AUR builds):tar -xvfpackage_name.tar.gz

• Use the read-only mirrorarchlinux/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:
  • Usegit clone --single-branch:

    $ git clone --branchpackage_name --single-branch https://github.com/archlinux/aur.git

  • Do apartial clone of this repository (git clone --depth=1) andadd branches selectively:

$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/archlinux/aur.git; cd aur
$ git remote set-branches --add originpackage_name
$ git fetch
$ git switchpackage_name

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

Change directories to the directory containing the packagePKGBUILD.

$ cdpackage_name

View the contents of all provided files. For example, to use the pagerless to viewPKGBUILD, do:

$ less PKGBUILD

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

• -s/--syncdeps automatically resolves and installs any dependencies withpacman before building. If the package depends on other AUR packages, you will need to manually install them first.
• -i/--install installs the package if it is built successfully. This lets you skip the next step that is usually done manually.
• -r/--rmdeps 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/--clean 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.

The package can now be installed with pacman:

# pacman -Upackage_name-version-architecture.pkg.tar.zst

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

$ git pull

then follow the previous build and install instructions.

The AUR is unsupported, so any packages you install areyour responsibility to update, not pacman's. If packages in the official repositories are updated, you will need to rebuild any AUR packages that depend on those libraries. Thecheckrebuild tool andrebuild-detectorhook fromrebuild-detector can help find packages needing rebuilt.

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

• Login tohttps://aur.archlinux.org
• Receive notifications
• Interact with the git interface

When editing your own account or another as aPackage Maintainer, 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 activePackage Maintainer based on their inactivity for new proposals

TheAUR Web Interface has a comments facility that allows users to provide suggestions and feedback on improvements to thePKGBUILD contributor.

Python-Markdown provides basicMarkdown syntax to format comments.

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

Sign up on theAUR website to get a "Vote for this package" option while browsing packages. After signing up, it is also possible to vote from the commandline withaur-auto-vote-git^AUR.

Alternatively, if you have set upAUR 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 votepackage_name

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

You should also try to reach out to the maintainer directly by email. If there is no response from the maintainer aftertwo weeks, you can file anorphan request. SeeAUR submission guidelines#Requests for details.

1. Ensure your build environment is up-to-date byupgrading before building anything.
2. Ensure you havebase-devel installed.
3. Use the-s option withmakepkg to check and install all dependencies needed before starting the build process.
4. Try the defaultmakepkg configuration.
5. SeeMakepkg#Troubleshooting for common issues.

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

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

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

SeeCreating packages#Checking package sanity about usingnamcap. If you would like to have aPKGBUILD reviewed, post it on theaur-general mailing list to get feedback from thePackage Maintainers and fellow AUR members, or theCreating & Modifying Packages forum. You could also seek help in theIRC channel#archlinux-aur on theLibera Chat network.

Users can sharePKGBUILDs using the Arch User Repository. SeeAUR submission guidelines for details.

Seei18n.md in the AUR source tree for information about creating and maintaining translation of theAUR Web Interface.

In the beginning, there wasftp://ftp.archlinux.org/incoming, and people contributed by simply uploading thePKGBUILD, the needed supplementary files, and the built package itself to the server. The package and associated files remained there until a "Trusted user" (renamed asPackage 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 were referred to as TUs (Trusted Users) until the change in naming to Package Maintainers.

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 thePKGBUILDs.Existing packages were dropped unless manually migrated to the new infrastructure by their maintainers.

TheAUR Archive on GitHub has a repository for every package that was in AUR 3 at the time of the migration.Alternatively, there is theaur3-mirror repository which provides the same.

The packages on the AUR are merely "build scripts", i.e. recipes to build binaries forpacman. For most cases, everything is permitted, subject tousefulness 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.

See#Voting for packages.

SeeArch terminology#Package maintainer.

The Arch User Repository is where allPKGBUILDs that users submit are stored, and must be built manually withmakepkg. WhenPKGBUILDs receive enough community interest and the support of aPackage Maintainer, they are moved into theextra repository (maintained by the Package Maintainers), where the binary packages can be installed withpacman.

See#Flagging packages out-of-date.

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

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

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

Consult theAUR submission guidelines#Rules of submission, then seecreating packages.

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

Usually, at least 10 votes are required for something to move intoextra. However, if aPackage Maintainer 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 package maintainer willing to maintain the package. Package Maintainers are not required to move a package into theextra 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-submittedPKGBUILDs.AUR helpers areunsupported by definition.

See alsoRules for Packages Entering the extra repository

SeeMakepkg#Improving build times.

Many AUR packages come in "stable" release and "unstable" development versions. Development packages usually have asuffix denoting theirVersion 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 executemakepkg, theirpkgver() in the AUR does not reflect upstream changes. Likewise, these packages cannot perform an authenticity checksum on anyVCS source.

See alsoSystem maintenance#Use proven software packages.

It is possible the package has been adopted by aPackage Maintainer and is now in theextra repository.

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

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

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

• https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.gz
• Useaurpkglist frompython3-aur^AUR
• New AUR Metadata Archives

• AUR Web Interface
• AUR Mailing List

• About Arch
• Package development
• Package management