The Aura Package Manager

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Welcome to the main repository for Aura, a secure, multilingual package manager for Arch Linux.

Table of Contents

• 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

What is Aura?

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.

The Aura Philosophy

Aura is Pacman

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.

Arch is Arch - AUR is AUR

-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.).

All Together

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).

Quiet Building

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.

Run as Root, Build as a User

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.

Know your System

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.

Downgradibility

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.

No Orphans

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.

Arch Linux for Everyone

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.

Haskell

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)
• Logging (rio)

Installation

Prebuilt Binaries

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>

Building from Source

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/.

Sample Usage

Installing Packages

Command	Function
aura -A <package>	Install an AUR package.
aura -Au	Upgrade all installed AUR packages.
aura -Akuax	Author’s favourite (upgrades, removes makedeps, shows PKGBUILD diffs, shows progress)
aura -Ai <package>	Look up information on an AUR package.
aura -As <regex>	Search the AUR via a regex.
aura -Ap <package>	Display a package’s PKGBUILD.

Package Set Snapshots

Command	Function
aura -B	Store a JSON record of all installed packages.
aura -Br	Restore a saved record. Rolls back and uninstalls as necessary.
aura -Bc <n>	Delete all but the most recent n saved states.

Downgrading via the Package Cache

Command	Function
aura -C <package>	Downgrade a package.
aura -Cs <regex>	Search the package cache for files that match a regex.
aura -Cc <n>	Delete all but the most recent n versions of each cached package.

Searching the Pacman Log

Command	Function
aura -L	View the Pacman log.
aura -Li <package>	View the install / upgrade history of a package.
aura -Ls <regex>	Search the Pacman log via a regex.

Managing Orphan Packages

Orphan packages are those whose install reason is marked as “As Dependency”, but are not actually depended upon by any installed package.

Command	Function
aura -O	Display orphan packages.
aura -O --adopt <package>	Change a package’s install reason to Explicitly installed.
aura -Oj	Uninstall all orphan packages.

Localisation

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 and Cristian Tentella
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

The aur Haskell Library

A library for accessing the AUR, powered by Servant.

The aur-security Tool

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