aura(8)

NAME
aura - A package manager for Arch Linux and the AUR.

SYNOPSIS
aura <operation> [options] [package(s)]

DESCRIPTION

aura is a secure, multilingual package manager for Arch Linux written in Haskell. It connects to both the official Arch repositories and to the Arch User Repositories (AUR), allowing easy control of all packages on an Arch system. Aura can also be used to build Arch Build System (ABS) packages from source. Aura allows all pacman operations and provides new custom ones for dealing with AUR and ABS packages.

OPERATIONS

-A, --aursync [package(s)]
    Perform actions involving the [A]UR. Default action installs packages from the AUR. During building, makepkg output is not shown by default. After building, the built .pkg.tar.xz file is moved to the package cache and installed from there. This allows for easy AUR package downgrading.

-B, --save
    Manage the saving and restoring of the global package state. Default action stores a record of all currently installed packages and their versions.

-C, --downgrade [package(s)]
    Perform actions involving the package [C]ache. Default action downgrades specified packages. This process is interactive, allowing the user to choose from any previous version they have available in the package cache.

-L, --viewlog
    Perform actions involving the pacman [L]ogfile. Default action opens the log for read-only viewing.

-M, --abssync
    Perform actions involving the ABS Tree. Allows you to [M]anually build repository packages.

-O, --orphans [package(s)]
    Perform actions involving [O]rphan packages. Orphan packages are packages installed as dependencies, but are no longer required by any other package. -O's default action can do one of two things. If no extra argument is given, the current orphan packages installed are displayed. If a package name is given, it is `adopted`. This changes the package's install reason to `As Explicit`. This is a shortcut for `-D --asexplicit`.

AUR SYNC OPTIONS (-A)

-a, --delmakedeps
    Uninstalls build dependencies that are no longer required after installing the main package. This prevents the creation of orphan packages. Also note that while the package itself will be uninstalled, its package file will remain in the cache.

-d, --deps <package(s)>
    View all the dependencies of a package. This process is recursive for AUR packages, so all dependencies of dependencies (and so on) will also be shown. This can aid the pre-install package research process.

-i, --info <package(s)>
    View information about a package in the AUR.

-k, --diff
    Shows PKGBUILD diffs. When upgrading, using this option will compare the most and second-most recent PKGBUILDs and output changes in colour.

-p, --pkgbuild <package(s)>
    Outputs an AUR package's PKGBUILD. Use this before installing new packages to confirm that the build scripts aren't doing anything fishy.

-q, --quiet
    Display less information about certain aursync operations (this is useful when processing Aura's output in a script). In particular, search and view dependencies will only show uncoloured package names.

-s, --search <word(s)>
    Search the AUR via words only (no regex). Results are sorted by vote. Suboptions:
        --abc : Sorts results alphabetically.

        --head=n : Only show the first n results. Default n = 10

        --tail=n : Only show the last n results. Default n = 10

-u, --sysupgrade
    Upgrade all installed AUR packages. -Au is -Su for AUR packages.

-w, --downloadonly <package(s)>
    Download the source tarball. This doesn't contain source code, but instead the PKGBUILD and .install file for the requested package. Running makepkg in a directory with these files in it would build the package manually.

-x, --unsuppress
    Unsuppress makepkg output during building. By default this output is suppressed for a more silent install. Note that when this option isn't used, makepkg output is actually collected and printed if any errors occur.

--aurignore=<package>(,<package>,...)
    Ignore the given packages when installing and upgrading. Must be run like:
        "aura -A foo --aurignore=bar" or "aura -A foo --aurignore=bar,baz,biff"

--build=/path/
    Specify build path when building AUR packages. Only the full path of a pre-existing directory can be used. Example:
        "aura -A foo --build=/full/path/to/build/location/"

--builduser=username
    Specify the user to build packages as. This can be useful when logged in as root and a build user is available.

--custom
    Run customizepkg on packages before building. Note that you need customizepkg installed and set up correctly for this to work.

--devel
    When ran with -Au, adds all development packages to the queue of packages to upgrade. Devel packages are those pulled directly from online repositories, via git / mercurial / etc.

--dryrun
    When ran with -A or -Au, update checks, PKGBUILD diffs, and dependency checks will be performed, but nothing will be built. Also usable with -M.

--hotedit
    Prompt the user immediately before dependency checks to ask if they wish to view/edit the PKGBUILD. This is not default behavior and thus does not have a single-letter option. Research into packages (and by extension, their PKGBUILDs) should be done before any building occurs. Please use -Ap and -Ad for this, as they will be much faster at presenting information than searching the AUR website manually. Note that, since aura is run through sudo, your local value of $EDITOR may not be preserved. Run as "sudo -E aura -A --hotedit ..." to preserve your environment. To always allow environment variables to be passed, have a look at the env_reset and env_keep options in sudoers(5).

GLOBAL PACKAGE STATE OPTIONS (-B)

-c, --clean <states-to-retain>
    Saves a given number of the most recently saved package states and removes the rest.

-r, --restore
    Restores a record kept with -B. Attempts to downgrade any packages that were upgraded since the chosen save. Will remove any that weren't installed at the time.

DOWNGRADE OPTIONS (-C)

-b, --backup <path>
    Backup the package cache to a given directory. The given directory must already exist. During copying, progress will be shown. If the copy takes too long, you may want to reduce the number of older versions of each package by using -Cc.

-c, --clean <versions-to-retain>
    Saves a given number of package versions for each package and deletes the rest from the package cache. Count is made from the most recent version, so using:
        aura -Cc 3
    would save the three most recent versions of each package file. Giving the number 0 as an argument is identical to -Scc. Pass c twice to remove only those package files which are not saved in a package record (a la -B).

-s, --search <regex>
    Search the package cache via a regex. Any package name that matches the regex will be output as-is.

LOGFILE OPTIONS (-L)

-i, --info <package(s)>
    Displays install / upgrade history for a given package. Under the `Recent Actions` section, only the last five entries will be displayed. If there are less than five actions ever performed with the package, what is available will be printed.

-s, --search <regex>
    Search the pacman log file via a regex. Useful for singling out any and all actions performed on a package.

ABS TREE OPTIONS (-M)

-a, --delmakedeps
    The ABS equivalent of -Aa.

-c, --clean
    Delete the local ABS Tree.

-d, --deps <package(s)>
    The ABS equivalent of -Ad. Will silently fail if the package is not present in the local tree.

-i, --info <package(s)>
    Search the local ABS Tree for package info. Will silently fail if the package is not present in the local tree.

-k, --diff
    The ABS equivalent of -Ak.

-p, --pkgbuild <package(s)>
    The ABS equivalent of -Ap. Will silently fail if the package is not present in the local tree.

-s, --search <regex>
    Search the local ABS Tree via a regex.

-t, --treesync <package(s)>
    Given package names, syncs them to the local ABS Tree. -Mt is thus a more specialised version of -My.

-x, --unsuppress
    The ABS equivalent of -Ax.

-y, --refresh
    Sync all packages present in the local ABS Tree to their latest version. This is different from just "sudo abs", which pulls down the entire tree as available from the repositories.

--absdeps
    All repository (pacman) dependencies not yet installed will also be manually built. Also usable with -A.
--dryrun
    Same as with -A. No building/installation will be performed.

--hotedit
    Same as with -A. Edit PKGBUILDs before building.

ORPHAN PACKAGE OPTIONS (-O)

-j, --abandon
    Uninstall all orphan packages.

PACMAN / AURA DUAL FUNCTIONALITY OPTIONS

--noconfirm
    Never ask for any Aura or Pacman confirmation. Any time a prompt would appear, say before building or installation, it is assumed the user answered in whatever way would progress the program.

--needed
    Don't rebuild/reinstall packages that are already up to date.

EXPOSED MAKEPKG OPTIONS

--ignorearch
    Ignores processor architecture when building packages.

--allsource
    Creates a .src file containing all the downloaded sources (code, etc) and stores it at /var/cache/aura/src/.

MISC. OPTIONS

These options do not require a superordinate flag, such as -A.

--auradebug
    Display settings information when running aura.

--languages
    Display the available output languages.

--no-pp
    Don't use powerpill, even if you have it installed.

--viewconf
    View the pacman configuration file in read-only mode.

LANGUAGE OPTIONS

Aura is available in multiple languages. As options, they can be used with either their English names or their real names written in their native characters. The available languages are, in option form:

--english (default)

--japanese, --日本語

--polish, --polski

--croatian, --hrvatski

--swedish, --svenska

--german, --deutsch

--spanish, --español

--portuguese, --português

--french, --français

--russian, --русский

--italian, --italiano

--serbian, --српски

--norwegian, --norsk

PRO TIPS

1. If you build a package and then choose not to install it, the built package file will still be moved to the cache. You can then install it whenever you want with -C.

2. Research packages using -Ad, -Ai, and -Ap!

3. When upgrading, use -Akua instead of just -Au. This will remove make deps, as well as show PKGBUILD diffs before building.

4. If you want to search both the Repos and the AUR at the same time, you can use the following shell functions:
    Bash => function search() {
              aura -Ss $1 && aura -As $1
            } Fish => function search
              aura -Ss $argv
              aura -As $argv
            end

SEE ALSO

pacman(8), pacman.conf(5), makepkg(8)

BUGS

It is not recommended to install non-ABS, non-AUR packages with pacman or aura. Aura will assume they are AUR packages during a `-Au` and attempt to upgrade them. If a name collision occurs (that is, if there is a legitimate AUR package with the same name as the one you installed) previous installations could be overwritten.

AUTHOR

Colin Woodbury <colingw@gmail.com>

CONTRIBUTORS

Kyle Raftogianis

Nicholas Clarke <nicholas.clarke@sanger.ac.uk>

Denis Kasak <denis.kasak@gmail.com>

TRANSLATORS

( Polish ) Chris "Kwpolska" Warrick <kwpolska@kwpolska.tk>

( Croatian ) Denis Kasak <denis.kasak@gmail.com>

( Croatian ) "stranac"

( Swedish ) Fredrik Haikarainen

( German ) Lukas Niederbremer <Lukas.Niederbremer@HS-Osnabrueck.de>

( Spanish ) Alejandro Gómez <alejandroogomez@gmail.com>

( Portuguese ) Henry "Ingvij" Kupty <hkupty@gmail.com>

( Portuguese ) Thiago "thiagowfx" Perrotta

( French ) Ma Jiehong

( French ) Fabien Dubosson

( Russian ) Kyrylo Silin <kyrylosilin@gmail.com>

( Italian ) Bob Valantin

( Serbian ) Filip Brcic

( Norwegian ) "chinatsun"

( Indonesian ) "pak tua Greg"