brenekh / must

AUR helper with apt-like syntax

This repository is archived and no longer being maintained.

Must

AUR helper with apt-like syntax

Usage

Install

must install <packages to install>

Uses git to clone the AUR repo for each package and runs makepkg against each PKGBUILD.

Remove

must remove <packages to remove>

Runs pacman -Rns for each provided package and removes any leftover AUR files from the filesystem.

Update

must update

Uses git to download new PKGBUILDs from the AUR.

Upgrade

must upgrade

Runs makepkg -si against packages which are known to have an upgrade available. The upgrade list can be updated using must update.

Installing

To install Must, first clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/BrenekH/must.git

Then change directory into the project folder.

cd must

Finally install using makepkg.

makepkg -sci

Note: If you're unfamiliar with makepkg, "-sci" will install any required dependencies, clean up after itself and install the package when it is finished packaging using pacman -U.

Why did I even make this?

Before building Must, I only used git, makepkg, and pacman to manage any software I used from the AUR.

I was fairly happy with my setup except for one pain point, updates. Changing directory into each repository and running git pull was a very tedious process, especially when there were lots of updates to complete.

I first considered using a popular AUR helper such as yay but I decided that I really don't like the way pacman uses single-letter options as commands. I mean seriously, who thought that -Syu and -Syyu should do different things?*

Plus, I'm one of those crazy guys who likes to create their own tools rather than relying on someone else to build them for them.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU Public License version 3, a copy of which can found in the LICENSE file.

* Pacman is a very powerful and versatile tool, thanks in part to the single-letter commands. However, everyone has a right to like what they want, so while I prefer the subcommand structure of apt, I can't fault anyone for preferring the Pacman syntax. This project is just not for them.

must's Issues

-git packages get marked as upgradable when they are already the latest version

I have betterdiscordctl-git and snapper-gui-git which keep getting marked as upgradable when the current version is already installed. There is likely just an issue with the version extraction and comparison which is causing this problem.

list sub command (list upgradeable packages)

I'm not sure what all apt can list but the most important one for me is being able to list the upgradeable packages.

Optimize update command

The update command currently pulls each package repository when determining whether a package can be updated, which is not an efficient method.

Instead, must should query the AUR API to get the current version and then compare it to the version installed on the system.

Add --help and --version

Doesn't automatically create ~/.must

Rebuild system

Must should notify the user if a dependency of an installed package has been updated so that the package can be rebuilt. Some packages may not need a rebuild, but better safe than sorry.