AUR helpers

Warning AUR helpers are not supported by Arch Linux. You should become familiar with the manual build process in order to be prepared to troubleshoot problems and vet the sources of the package before installation.

Notice for editors Please use the discussion page prior to making edits to this article: Talk:AUR helpers.

AUR helpers automate usage of the Arch User Repository. In particular, they may automate the following tasks:

searching for packages published on the AUR,
resolving of dependencies between AUR packages,
retrieve and build AUR packages,
retrieve web content, such as user comments,
submission of AUR packages.

Pacman only handles updates for pre-built packages in its repositories. AUR packages are redistributed in form of PKGBUILDs and need an AUR helper to automate the rebuild process. However, keep in mind that a rebuild of a package may be required when its shared library dependencies are updated, not only when the package itself is updated.

Legend

The #Comparison tables columns have the following meaning:

File review

Does not source the PKGBUILD file at all by default; or alerts the user and offers the opportunity to inspect the PKGBUILD file manually before it is sourced. Some helpers are known to source PKGBUILDs before the user can inspect them, allowing malicious code to be executed.

Diff view

Ability to view package differences on inspection. Besides the PKGBUILD file, this includes changes to files such as .install or .patch files.

Git clone

Uses git-clone(1) by default to retrieve build files from the AUR.

Reliable parser

Ability to handle complex packages by using the provided metadata (RPC/.SRCINFO) instead of the PKGBUILD file parsing, such as aws-cli-git ^AUR.

Reliable solver

Ability to correctly solve and build complex dependency chains, such as liri-git-meta ^AUR.

Split packages

Ability to correctly build and install:

Multiple packages from the same package base, without rebuilding or reinstalling multiple times, such as clion ^AUR.
Split packages which depend on a package from the same package base, such as samsung-unified-driver ^AUR.
Split packages independently, such as nxproxy ^AUR and nxagent ^AUR.

Shell completion: Tab completion is available for the listed shells.

Note

Optional means that a feature is available, but only through a command-line argument or configuration option.
Partial means that a feature is not fully implemented, or that it partially deviates from the given criteria.

Comparison tables

Search and download

Name	Written in	File review	Diff view	Git clone	Reliable parser	Reliable solver	Shell completion	Specificity
auracle-git ^AUR	C++	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	bash	print build order
repoctl ^AUR	Go	Yes	No	No	Yes	–	bash, zsh, fish	local repository

Search and build

Name	Written in	File review	Diff view	Git clone	Reliable parser	Reliable solver	Split packages	Shell completion	Specificity
aurutils ^AUR	Bash	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	bash, zsh	local repository, local patch application, package signing, clean chroot (via systemd-nspawn)
pat-aur-host-git ^AUR pat-aur-client-git ^AUR	Elvish	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	bash, zsh, elvish	local repository, local patch application, package signing, clean chroot (via bubblewrap), cross-compilation

Pacman wrappers

Warning pacman(8) wrappers abstract the work of the package manager. They may (optionally or by default) introduce unsafe flags, or other unexpected behavior leading to a defective system.

Note The following pacman wrappers support batch (rather than on-demand) operations: pikaur ^AUR, yay ^AUR, aura ^AUR, paru ^AUR

Name	Written in	File review	Diff view	Git clone	Reliable parser	Reliable solver	Split packages	Unsafe flags	Shell completion	Specificity
aura ^AUR	Rust	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	–	bash, fish, zsh	clean chroot
pakku ^AUR	Nim	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-Sy	bash, zsh	–
paru ^AUR	Rust	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-Sy --ask	bash, fish, zsh	local repository, clean chroot
pikaur ^AUR	Python	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-Sy	bash, fish, zsh	dynamic users
trizen ^AUR	Perl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	–	bash, fish, zsh	–
yay ^AUR	Go	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	--ask	bash, fish, zsh	–

Graphical

Warning Usage of graphical AUR helpers may lead to a defective system, for example through unattended partial upgrades.

Argon — GTK 3 pacman wrapper written in Python.

https://github.com/14mRh4X0r/arch-argon || argon ^AUR

Bauh — Qt5 Python application supporting AppImage, Debian and Arch packages (including AUR), Flatpak, Snap and native Web applications.

https://github.com/vinifmor/bauh || bauh ^AUR

Cylon — TUI pacman wrapper written in Bash.

https://github.com/gavinlyonsrepo/cylon || cylon ^AUR

Kalu — Systray notification icon using libalpm and PolicyKit, with optional updater

https://github.com/Thulinma/kalu || kalu ^AUR

Octopi — Qt 5 pacman wrapper written in C++.

https://tintaescura.com/projects/octopi || octopi ^AUR

Pacsea — A fast, keyboard-friendly TUI for browsing and installing Arch and AUR packages written in Rust.

https://github.com/Firstp1ck/Pacsea || pacsea-bin ^AUR

Pacseek — A terminal user interface for searching and installing Arch Linux packages.

https://github.com/moson-mo/pacseek || pacseek ^AUR

Pamac — Standalone GTK 4 (or terminal) package manager written for Manjaro using libalpm(3) with tray integration.

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php/Pamac || pamac-aur ^AUR

Pakku GUI — GTK 3 frontend for pakku written in Python.

https://gitlab.com/mrvik/pakku-gui || pakku-gui ^AUR

PkgBrowser — Qt 5 read-only browser for repository packages and AUR written in Python.

https://osdn.net/projects/pkgbrowser/ || pkgbrowser ^AUR

SPM — A TUI wrapper for pacman and yay that makes package management visual and interactive.

https://github.com/adelmonte/Simple_Package_Manager || spm-arch ^AUR

Yup — Ncurses TUI pacman wrapper written in Go.

https://github.com/ericm/yup || yup ^AUR

Maintenance

aur-out-of-date — Uses hoster APIs to check AUR packages for upstream changes.

https://github.com/simon04/aur-out-of-date || aur-out-of-date ^AUR

aurpublish — Helper script to manage and upload AUR packages using git-subtree(1) . Uses githooks(5) to verify the PKGBUILD file integrity, generate the .SRCINFO file automatically, and create a commit message template.

https://github.com/eli-schwartz/aurpublish || aurpublish

devtools — Build packages in a clean environment (systemd-nspawn container) to ensure their correctness. Wrapped by aura ^AUR, aurutils ^AUR, clean-chroot-manager ^AUR and paru ^AUR.

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/devtools || devtools

pkgoutofdate — Parses the source URL from PKGBUILDs and tries to find new versions of packages by incrementing the version number and sending requests to the web server.

https://github.com/anatol/pkgoutofdate || pkgoutofdate-git ^AUR