Install Software On Arch Linux OS

Install Software On Arch Linux OS

Hi everyone,

This guide demonstrate you how to install a software on Arch based linux OS. I have also using on BBQLinux based on Arch Linux. There are some way to install a software on Arch Linux. First of all is pacman, second one is AUR and my favorite one is yaourt. These three ways are my mostly used methods.

Pacman

Pacman is one of the main simple library-based package manager tool for Arch Linux. Pacman is easy to use for package management. Also their goal is to make it possible to easily manage packages. With pacman you can easily add, remove and upgrade packages in the system and also handle dependencies from remote server.

Pacman has developed with C programming language.

Pacman usage.

Install Packages

To install simple package or more than one package you can simply type below commands.

pacman -S pkg_name or pacman -S pkg_name1 pkg_name2

For example you want to install geany to your system. Type pacman -S ge and then press TAB to list all repository include ge expression like geary, gearmand, geany etc. then type geany and install geany to your system.

Removed Packages

To remove simple package and not removed its dependencies installed.

pacman -R pkg_name

If you would like to remove a package and its not required installed package,

pacman -Rs pkg_name

If you remove a package and its all dependencies you simply type

pacman -Rsc pkg_name

Updating Packages

To update all packages with pacman is easy with one command. This command synchronizes the repository databases and updates the system’s packages.

pacman -Syu

For more information about Pacman you can type

pacman -h

and find out how to use it.

[coderkan@coderkanpc ~]$ pacman -h

usage: pacman <operation> […]

operations:

pacman {-h — help}

pacman {-V — version}

pacman {-D — database} <options> <package(s)>

pacman {-F — files} [options] [package(s)]

pacman {-Q — query} [options] [package(s)]

pacman {-R — remove} [options] <package(s)>

pacman {-S — sync} [options] [package(s)]

pacman {-T — deptest} [options] [package(s)]

pacman {-U — upgrade} [options] <file(s)>

use ‘pacman {-h — help}’ with an operation for available options

AUR ( Arch User Repository)

The Arch User Repository also know AUR is a community-driven repository for Arch users. The AUR has also have PKGBUILDs that allow you to compile from source with makepkg and then install via pacman.

The AUR has number of packages that contribute users own packages. It has PKGBUILD and related files. So that it is a huge community I have seen.

Before using AUR we need to know how to manage PKGBUILD files so that need to explain you makepkg.

makepkg

makepkg is a script to build packages. We can use it with PKGBUILD. This is provided by the pacman package.

First of all you need to control required dependencies. To build the package and install you needed dependencies with makepkg -s -s/ — syncdeps is the same.

All required dependencies is well and package builds successfully, we can install package files with makepkg -i -i/ — install (same as pacman -U pkgname-pkgver.pkg.tar.xz).

To clean files and folder you can use makepkg -c -c/ — clean.

After learned makepkg we can continue. If you would like to a program or software you need, you visit AUR web site and search on the right top Package Search label. If you find out a program you need. You will see detailed information on aur repository web page.

If you are a git user you can just install files from git repository.

git clone [https://aur.archlinux.org/package_name.git](https://aur.archlinux.org/package_name.git)

you can update this repository with git pull.

After installed package from git we can sync and install. You can check PKGBUILD and .install files for malicious command. These contains bash scripting functions. So you can easily see how to install and prepare program before install it. I have use less command for it.

cd package_name

less PKGBUILD

less package_name.install

makepkg -si

If there is no error, you successfully install a software to your system. With AUR is so large community and you can easily find what you need.

The last one my favorite is yaourt.

Yaourt

Yaourt is a command line interface program to install software with pacman. So yaourt is a pacman frontend.

Firstly you can easily install yaourt to your system with AUR or pacman. More information has descripted above documentation. After installed yaourt, I can explain how to use it.

To use yaourt is so simple. If you would like to install a program with yaourt. For example atom. open terminal and type

yaourt atom

and press enter. You will see lots of program that name inclues atom. Some programs are in community some programs are aur repository. Like below images you see how to look.

After listed programs in terminal, select which one want to use. For example we select 12. Type 12 and press enter.

If needs extra dependencies, ask you to install and to download. You need to answer questions to install. After typed needed answers, you will see successfully installed program on terminal.

Just type atom terminal and press enter then Atom will ready to use on the screen.

I hope you enjoy reading.

Have a nice coding…