I’ve been using Arch on all my daily driver devices for years now. One of the main reasons for this is the AUR. It’s very convenient for installing all kinds of software, since it can build a full, native package from a simple build script written in bash. I personally have packages on the AUR and use it daily.
Anyway, I’ve thought many times of such a simple and easy solution being missing from other distros, but have never had the experience and motivation to create it. Recently, I used goreleaser to automatically build and release my project, ITD, for several distros at the same time. While doing so, I had an idea, so I went to check what goreleaser uses to build packages, and it turns out they have a separate library for this purpose: nfpm. This was the only thing missing for me to be able to build an AUR-like system.
I did notice one issue. It didn’t support Arch Linux packages, so I created a PR adding support for them. The PR is completely working and it has been reviewed and approved. So, I started working on my idea, and so far, it’s going really well. I’ve already been able to build and install multiple packages using my program on my Arch system and inside a Fedora and Debian docker container. I just uploaded my program now that I’ve finished implementing the basic features and testing them. I hope it ends up being useful.
Link to the repo with my new program: https://gitea.arsenm.dev/Arsen6331/lure
The README is very small right now, I’m working on making a better one.
deleted by creator
I’ve just finished updating the README
xbps-srcon Void is very similar to Arch’sPKGBUILD. The only thing Void doesn’t have is a user repository akin to the AUR, but it’s entirely possible if the community wanted to created a “VUR” of some sort.I’d add support for void, but
nfpmdoesn’t have support for making xbps packages. I might look into making a PR for it once my current PR for arch is merged, if xbps’ packaging format is simple enough.
cool idea. arch was home for me for a long time, and aur was great for a lot of things. wondering of this handles patch files for building things? and wondering if this sets up a proper chroot for building?
wondering of this handles patch files for building things
Not yet, though I plan to eventually add this functionality. This is just my very first version that I uploaded right after I implemented the most basic features.
wondering if this sets up a proper chroot for building
No, and
makepkgfor AUR doesn’t either. That’s why most AUR helpers allow you to view the file before running so you can ensure it doesn’t do anything malicious, which is something I am going to add as well.was not a fan of the aur helpers tbh, but i did use a couple over the years. consider adding an option for a proper chroot! maybe down the road if anything. this is cool tho
I still use arch. I wish containers were fully featured enough to support virtual graphics (vulkan/opengl in a dedicated window). That would make package management/sys admin so much nicer.
