Quack, the Qualitative and Usable Aur paCKage helper. Also, it sounds like a duck. Quack Quack.
This is an auditable and readable (at least I tryied) AUR helper. It lets you easily verify that it does nothing wrong. Since it has to gain root privileges at some times, It is very important for me that you stay able to understand what it does.
This script aims to stay only a helper. Nothing more. Thus, it will never include a parser or complex solver. You are intended to play this role and stay in command.
See quack -h
From the AUR Helper page on the Archlinux wiki, here are listed the different features an AUR Helper should implement and which we do:
- Secure
- does not source the PKGBUILD at all by default; or, alerts the user and offers the opportunity to inspect the PKGBUILD manually before it is sourced.
- Clean build
- does not export new variables that can prevent a successful build process.
- Reliable parser
- ability to handle complex packages by using the provided metadata (RPC/.SRCINFO) instead of PKGBUILD parsing, such as
aws-cli-git
.- Reliable solver
- ability to correctly solve and build complex dependency chains, such as
ros-lunar-desktop
.- Split packages
- ability to correctly build and install:
- Multiple packages from the same package base, without rebuilding or reinstalling multiple times, such as
clion
;- Split packages which depend on a package from the same package base, such as
libc++
andlibc++abi
;- Split packages independently, such as
python-pyalsaaudio
andpython2-pyalsaaudio
.- Git clone
- uses
git-clone(1)
by default to retrieve build files from the AUR.- Native pacman
- when used as replacement for pacman(8) commands such as
pacman -Syu
, the following are obeyed by default:
- do not separate commands, for example
pacman -Syu
is not split topacman -Sy
andpacman -S packages
;- use pacman directly instead of manual database manipulation or usage of
libalpm(3)
.- Shell completion
- tab completion is available for the listed shells.
Feature | Support | Comment |
---|---|---|
Secure | YES | |
Clean build | YES | By default Quack run in a docker container. It is also able to run inside a chroot with makechrootpkg . |
Reliable parser | YES | We use AUR RPC and package base name to determine the repo name, then we just call makepkg |
Reliable solver | PARTIAL | See below |
Dependencies | PARTIAL | Most cases are supported. Complex ones depends on pacman itself, thus complex AUR cases are not supported. |
Split packages | PARTIAL | As we use makepkg all builds are currently done. However we offer a way to only install the package of your choice, respecting dependencies from the same package base if they exists. |
Native pacman | YES | Quack cannot be used as pacman replacement and there is no plan to support such a feature. Also, it directly calls pacman for package related operations. |
Shell completion | NO |
_ _ __(.)> __(.)< Quack Quack ~~\___)~~~~~\___)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~