On 2026-04-24 09:36, Uwe Sauter wrote:
> I'd go as far and say that AUR helpers are for those that have understood the
> process and want it
> automated. Thus for someone installing Arch for the first time, they should
> take the time and learn
> how to build packages before using an AUR helper. Even if it is only the AUR
> helper itself that is
> built manually.
>
> And for someone experienced building the helper is no stress at all.
I think this is more or less the general consensus on this topic,
at least of the devs? It seems to me that this is what I have
mostly been reading on the topic of AUR helpers.
The one place where I can see that this might be a big bother, is
for still somewhat common drivers (I wil use the nvidia-580xx
driver by way of example here). Someone new to Arch Linux would
probably benefit from a GUI, so that they can easily read the
Wiki while attempting to install from the AUR. At the same time,
they might find that their video card is no longer supported by
the nvidia driver in the repo. Building that one from scratch
might be a hurdle.
As an aside: In a VM, for testing purposes, you would not have to
build the nvidia-580 driver (and if someone is capable of setting
up a video card pass-through, then that person is probably okay
building that driver as well).
However, to me this would indicate that we might want to consider
either having some more heavily used drivers back in repos
(nvidia, wifi chips come to mind. which would block a new user
from getting into a working GUI with Internet); or have an
unofficial repo with those drivers, and point new people there
until they have their system set up and could change to AUR
packages.
Back to the general discussion: I don't think AUR helpers should
be in official repos, because AUR software is not supported by
Arch Linux, and not tested, vetted, audited or anything by the
devs. Besides for the reasons brought forward by `kpcyrd`, I
think this is important, too.
Great discussion, thank you for bringing it up, and for all the
contributions.
Kind regards,
Edmund
--
Edmund Lodewijks <[email protected]>
TZ: UCT+2 / GMT+2
