# Another AUR Helper (incomplete) AUR is the Arch User Repository, where anyone can upload a PKGBUILD and supplementary sources to allow others to build their own packages for use in the Arch Linux distribution. I made an incomplete AUR Helper in Python, and decided to put it in a public repository. It's messy, and it requires a significant amount of set-up, but it works for me. It always builds in a CHROOT, and it lets the user check the PKGBUILD (by default) prior to building. There is no automatic dependency management. That must be done in the config. An example config is provided. # Things to know before using the helper Sometimes if a package prompts a user to select between alternate package dependencies, makechrootpkg will fail to select one by default (it will constantly output "y" to stdin when a selection requires an integer). This means you will need to check the logs as it is building a package to make sure this kind of soft-lock doesn't happen. Use `tail -f LOG_FILE` for example. If such a soft-lock happens, Ctrl-C the helper, and explicitly set a dependency in the TOML config file in a "other\_deps" array for the package like so: [[entry]] name = "sway-git" aur_deps = [ "wlroots-git", "swaybg-git" ] other_deps = [ "mesa" ] # Setting up the AUR Helper The AUR Helper requires several things: - A CHROOT to build in. - A "checking GNUPG" directory that contains the GPG public keys that will be checked when building the PKGBUILD. - A "singing GNUPG" directory that contains the GPG private key that will sign the built packages and repository database. - SUDO privileges to be able to use `makechrootpkg`. - `/etc/pacman.conf` must be configured to use the custom repository's packages if `pacman -U` will not be used. ## Dependencies The `devtools` package is required. The `python-toml` package is required for the Python script to run. ## Create the CHROOT Use `/usr/bin/mkarchroot` to create your CHROOT in a directory. mkarchroot $HOME/mychroot/root base base-devel ccache sccache cmake ninja You must refer to the CHROOT as `$HOME/mychroot` if you used the same name as in the previous example. ## Set up the GNUPG dirs ### Checking GNUPG Just create the directory anywhere, and store it in the `config.toml`. You must manually add public keys to it if a package requires checking source files with GNUPG. GNUPGHOME=$HOME/myCheckingGNUPGDir gpg --recv-keys A_DEV_KEYS_FINGERPRINT Note that gpg may not automatically create the GNUPGHOME directory. ### Signing GNUPG You will need to set up a GPG public/private key pair. GNUPG always respects the `GNUPGHOME` environment variable as the `.gnupg` dir, so set the variable first, create the directory, then set up your keys. The keys will be used to sign the packages you build and the custom repository that stores the package metadata. Set the `signing_gpg_key_fp` variable in the config to the output fingerprint from of: GNUPGHOME=mySigningGNUPGDir gpg --fingerprint Note that you must remove the spaces between each part of the fingerprint, like in the example config. Keep note of the password you store for this GNUPG key, as you will enter it every time you use the Python script. ## Set up the config dir See the `example_config.toml` for more configuration. It should be commented enough for figuring out how to use it. # Setting up the Repository Create a directory for where you will store built packages and the repository. The name of the repo must be similar to the `repo` specified in the config. For example, if your repo's name is `MyAURRepo`, then `repo` should be set to `.../MyAURRepo.db.tar`. You must also create symlinks such that `MyAURRepo.db` points to `MyAURRepo.db.tar` and `MyAURRepo.files` points to `MyAURRepo.files.tar`. The Python script should automatically make a relative (not absolute) symlink to `MyAURRepo.db.tar.sig` with the name `MyAURRepo.db.sig` after signing (which should happen after each package is built and signed). Note the name doesn't have to be `MyAURRepo`, but is based on the `repo` variable set in the config. To use the repository, you can add an entry to your `/etc/pacman.conf` with the following: [MyAURRepo] SigLevel = Required TrustAll Include = file:///home/MyAURRepoDirectory Note that `SigLevel` is set expecting the `MyAURRepo.db` file to be signed (the Python script usually signs the `.db` file after a package has been successfully built). # Making your system trust the new Repository Export the public key from your `signingGPGDirectory`. GNUPGHOME=mySigningGNUPGDir gpg --export MySigningKeyName > $HOME/MySigningKey.pub Use `pacman-key` to add and trust it. sudo pacman-key -a $HOME/MySigningKey.pub First check that the name is unique: sudo pacman-key --finger MySigningKeyName Then trust it: sudo pacman-key --lsign-key MySigningKeyName After these steps, `pacman` should now trust the packages and repository signed by the GPG key you set up. # Using the AUR Helper Typically, you will invoke: ./update.py --config my_config.toml If you want to build in the CHROOT without updating the CHROOT, add the `--no-update` flag. If you want to check only specific packages in the list of packages in the config use something like `-p `. You can use `-p ` multiple times if you want to check a handful of packages only. If you want to not skip a package marked with `skip_branch_up_to_date` in the config, then use `--no-skip `, and the script will act as if `skip_branch_up_to_date` was not specified for the named package. When building, the script will not directly output to the terminal it is run in, but rather appends to log files in the log directory specified in the config. To see the output while building, you can use something like: tail -f $MY_LOG_DIR/google-chrome_stdout_2022-06-02_05-27-49_UTC It may be helpful to periodically clear out the logs directory in between invocations of the AUR Helper script. It is recommended to use the script with a prepared config. # Other Notes ~~By default, `makechrootpkg` does not verify integrity of files in the PKGBUILD. Use the `makechrootpkg_noskipinteg.hook` to modify the `makechrootpkg` script to not skip integrity checks.~~ `update.py` now does integrity checks before building with `makechrootpkg`. It is no longer necessary to modify the `/usr/bin/makechrootpkg` because the integrity checks are done separately. If the hook was used previously, remove it from `/etc/pacman.d/hooks` and reinstall `devtools`. ## `link_cargo_registry` If you have `.cargo/registry` and `.cargo/git` in your home directory, and you don't want to re-download the Rust registry every time you update a Rust package, you can specify `link_cargo_registry = true` for a package in your config (see `ion-git` in the `example_config.toml`) and that will bind-mount these two directories into the chroot, which will share your local Rust cache with the chroot.