aura(8)

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

SYNOPSIS
aura OPERATION

DESCRIPTION
aura is a multilingual package manager for Arch Linux. 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 allows all pacman operations and provides new custom ones for dealing with AUR packages.

Unlike pacman, it is never necessary to prefix aura with sudo. Aura is internally aware of when sudo is necessary and will prompt the user.

Commands below labeled (Pacman) are wrapped Pacman commands and are not documented further here. See man pacman for those.

This document is strictly a description of Aura's command-line interface. For in-depth usage examples and more detailed discussions of various system management tasks, see info aura.

OPERATIONS

-A, --aursync, aur \*[multi-optional packages]
    Perform actions involving the AUR. Default action installs packages from the AUR. 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.

    Packages are built within a local directory as the user who invoked Aura. However, when Aura is run as the root user, actual package building will occur as the nobody user within /tmp. See --build and --builduser for how to modify this behaviour.

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

-C, --cache, cache \*[multi-optional packages]
    Perform actions involving the package Cache. 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.

-D, --database, database \*[multi-optional packages]
    (Pacman) Operate on the package database.

-F, --files, files \*[multi-optional packages]
    (Pacman) Query the files database.

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

-O, --orphans, orphans \*[multi-optional packages]
    Perform actions involving Orphan packages. Default action is to list the current orphans.

    Orphan packages are packages installed as dependencies, but are no longer required by any other package.

-Q, --query, query \*[multi-optional packages]
    (Pacman) Query the package database.

-R, --remove, remove \*[multi-optional packages]
    (Pacman) Remove packages from the system.

-S, --sync, sync \*[multi-optional packages]
    (Pacman) Synchronize official packages.

-U, --upgrade, upgrade \*[multi-optional packages]
    (Pacman) Upgrade or add packages to the system.

-V, --version
    Print Aura's current version number.

check
    Validate your system.

conf
    View various configuration settings and files. The default action displays all currently loaded settings as a pretty-printed Rust structure.

    Detailed information involving Aura's configuration can be found in the Aura Guide via info aura under the heading Configuration.

deps
    Display a dependency graph of given packages. Useful for identifying why a certain package exists on your system. Outputs a .png file to the current directory by default, but with --open will output to /tmp and open the image in the default viewer instead.

    If the image isn't opening in the viewer you prefer, consider altering it in ~/.config/mimeapps.list. For instance: [Default Applications] image/png=swayimg.desktop

    The available .desktop entries can be found in /usr/share/applications/.

free
    View the state of Free Software installed on the system. This displays a list of packages that have non-FOSS or otherwise unknown licenses. For the purposes of this command, "FOSS License" means anything which has been approved by both the FSF and the OSI.

stats
    View statistics about your machine or about Aura itself. The default action displays various environment values and directory sizes relevant to Aura.

thanks
    The people behind Aura.

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.

-c, --clean
    After a package's tarball has been built and copied to the package cache, delete its build directory immediately.

-i, --info \*[multi          packages]
    View information about AUR packages.

-o, --open \*[multi          packages]
    Open the given package's AUR page in a browser.

-p, --pkgbuild \*[multi          packages]
    View PKGBUILDs of AUR packages. Use this before installing new packages to confirm that the build scripts aren't doing anything fishy.

-s, --search
    Search the AUR for packages containing words (not regex) in their names or descriptions. Multiple terms will narrow down the search. Results are sorted by votes. Suboptions:

    --abc
        Sorts results alphabetically.

    --limit=N
        Only show the first N results.

    -q, --quiet
        Only print matching package names.

    -r, --reverse
        Reverse the order of the search results.

-u, --sysupgrade
    Upgrade all installed AUR packages. Suboptions:

    -d, --dryrun
        Show available upgrades, but do not perform them.

    -k, --diff
        View diffs of PKGBUILDs before building.

    --ignore package
        Don't consider a given package for upgrades. Can be passed more than once. See also the ignores list in Aura's configuration to ensure that certain packages are never upgraded.

    --git
        Rebuild all git/svn/hg/etc. packages as well.

-v, --provides package
    Search the AUR for packages that "provide" some package identity. The same suboptions available for -s also apply here. Example: aura -Av gcc

    This would yield a list of packages that "are" gcc for the purposes of dependency resolution.

-w, --clone \*[multi          packages]
    Clone the repository of the given package(s).

-y, --refresh
    Pull the latest changes for every local copy of an AUR package.

--asdeps
    Give installed packages the "non-explicit" status.

--build path
    Specify build path when building AUR packages.

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

--hotedit
    Before building, prompt the user if they wish to view/edit the PKGBUILD, as well as any .install or .patch files. However, research into packages (and by extension, their PKGBUILDs) should be done by the user before any building occurs. Please use -Ai and -Ap for this, as they will be much faster at presenting information than searching the AUR website manually.

--nocheck
    (Makepkg) Do not consider checkdeps when resolving dependencies, nor run the check() function of the PKGBUILD.

--shellcheck
    Run shellcheck on PKGBUILDs before building.

--skipdepcheck
    Perform no dependency solving. Consider this when using --hotedit to avoid building annoying dependencies that aren't necessary for your special use-case.

--skipinteg
    (Makepkg) Do not perform any verification checks on source files.

--skippgpcheck
    (Makepkg) Do not verify associated PGP signatures.

GLOBAL PACKAGE STATE OPTIONS (-B)

-c, --clean
    Remove all snapshots without matching tarballs in the cache.

-l, --list
    Show all saved package state filenames.

-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.

PACKAGE CACHE 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 Retains 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.

-i, --info \*[multi          packages]
    Look up specific packages for into on their cache entries.

-l, --list
    Print the contents of the package cache.

-m, --missing
    Display packages that don't have a tarball in the cache.

-n, --notsaved
    Delete tarballs which are not saved in any package record (a la -B).

-s, --search
    term Search the package cache via a verbatim search term.

-t, --invalid
    Delete invalid tarballs from the cache. Here "invalid" means "can't be opened by ALPM".

-y, --refresh
    Download tarballs of installed packages that are missing from the cache. This is important for interaction with -Br, which can't function if expected tarballs are missing. Use aura check to confirm the status of both the cache and the saved snapshots.

LOGFILE OPTIONS (-L)

-a, --after YYYY-MM-DD
    When used with -L, only display log entries from after the given date.

-b, --before YYYY-MM-DD
    When used with -L, only display log entries from before the given date.

-i, --info \*[multi          packages]
    Displays install/upgrade history for given packages. 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
    term Search the pacman log file via a search term. Useful for singling out any and all actions performed on a package.

ORPHAN PACKAGE OPTIONS (-O)

-a, --adopt \*[multi          packages]
    Mark packages as being explicitly installed (i.e. it's not a dependency).

-e, --elderly
    Display all explicitly installed, top-level packages. If you notice something that you don't remember installing or perhaps don't need anymore, you can then uninstall it.

-j, --abandon
    Uninstall all orphan packages.

CONFIGURATION (conf)

-a, --aura
    View the contents of ~/.config/aura/config.toml.

-g, --gen
    Output your current, full Aura config as legal TOML. After your first install, you should run the following: aura conf --gen > ~/.config/aura/config.toml

-m, --makepkg
    View the Makepkg configuration file. This respects the value of MAKEPKG_CONF.

-p, --pacman
    View the Pacman configuration file.

DEPENDENCY ANALYSIS (deps)

-l, --limit=N
    The number of layers up or down to allow. Without this, you may notice that calls to deps for certain packages take a long time, or produce a massive, unusable image.

-o, --optional
    Include optional dependencies. These will be referenced with a dotted line in the image.

-r, --reverse
    The opposite of normal operation, this displays packages that depend on the given arguments. Good for answering questions like "What depends on foo?"

--open
    Open the output image automatically.

--raw
    Print the raw DOT output instead of producing an image file.

FREE SOFTWARE LICENSES (free)

--copyleft
    Consider only Copyleft licenses.

--lenient
    Allow FOSS-derived custom licenses.

SYSTEM STATISTICS (stats)

-g, --groups
    View all installed package groups.

--heavy
    View the Top 10 heaviest installed packages.

-l, --lang
    View Aura's localisation statistics. The language codes displayed here can be used in the language field of Aura's configuration.

OTHER GLOBAL OPTIONS

-h, --help
    Display basic help. Can be used with any top-level Operation.

--log-level level
    Minimum level of Aura log messages to display. Available values are debug, info, warn, and error.

--noconfirm
    Do not ask for any confirmation.

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:

--arabic
--bengali | --বাংলা
--croatian | --hrvatski
--czech | --čeština
--dutch | --nederlands
--english | (default)
--esperanto
--french | --français
--german | --deutsch
--hindi | --हिंदी
--indonesian
--italian | --italiano
--japanese | --日本語
--korean | --한국어
--norwegian | --norsk
--polish | --polski
--portuguese | --português
--romanian | --română
--russian | --русский
--serbian | --српски
--simplified-chinese | --简体字
--spanish | --español
--swedish | --svenska
--turkish
--ukranian | --українська
--vietnamese

Note that these flags are not the expected way to alter Aura's language for normal usage. If your locale is set to something that Aura recognizes, it will automatically alter its output language. Otherwise, you're able to set the language field within configuration. The available language codes can be viewed in the output of aura stats --lang.

See the Localisation topic within info aura for instructions on adding a new language to Aura.

PRO TIPS

•   After first installation, run: aura conf --gen > ~/.config/aura/config.toml

    to generate a configuration file that you can customise.

•   Use aura check to keep an eye on some aspects of the health of your system.

•   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.

•   Research packages using -Ai (--info) and -Ap (--pkgbuild)!

•   When upgrading, use -Akua instead of just -Au. This will remove makedeps, as well as show PKGBUILD diffs before building. The effects of -k and -a can however be enabled permanently in Aura's config.

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

Apart from the various flags described here, the Aura Manual is available via info aura and contains more detailed usage information.

BUGS
It is not recommended to install 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.

You may occasionally notice that Aura doesn't detect new package versions immediately after they are updated on the AUR. This is because Aura fetches package metadata from a dedicated server, not the AUR directly. The dedicated server refreshes its database every hour, so in these cases we ask you to be patient.

AUTHOR
Colin Woodbury <colin@fosskers.ca>

CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Warrick
Brayden Banks
Denis Kasak
Edwin Marshall
Jimmy Brisson
Kyle Raftogianis
Nicholas Clarke

TRANSLATORS
Arabic | "Array in a Matrix"
Bengali | Saif Shahriar
Chinese | Kai Zhang
Croatian | Denis Kasak and "stranac"
Czech | Daniel Rosel
Dutch | Joris Blanken and Heimen Stoffels
Esperanto | Zachary Matthews
French | Ma Jiehong and Fabien Dubosson
German | Lukas Niederbremer
Hindi | "@yozachar"
Indonesian | "pak tua Greg"
Italian | Bob Valantin and Cristian Tentella
Japanese | Onoue Takuro and Colin Woodbury
Korean | "Nioden"
Latin | "similin"
Norwegian | "chinatsun"
Polish | Chris Warrick and Michał Kurek
Portuguese | Henry Kupty, Thiago Perrotta, and Wagner Amaral
Romanian | "90" and "benone"
Russian | Kyrylo Silin and Alexey Kotlyarov
Serbian | Filip Brcic
Spanish | Alejandro Gómez, Sergio Conde, and Max Ferrer
Swedish | Fredrik Haikarainen and Daniel Beecham
Turkish | Cihan Alkan
Ukrainian | Andriy Cherniy
Vietnamese | "Kritiqual"