You have a few methods of installation:
Best Way:
With an AUR Helper. These programs take care of the installation of packages from the AUR for you. I would recommend pikaur or yay. However you have to install these programs the manual way, which we'll get to here too.
Manual Way:
This involves "git clone"ing the source code from the AUR, and building from source. Here is how you install yay, for example...
Code:
$ sudo pacman -S git
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
$ cd yay
$ makepkg -si
Notice how we build with makepkg. It is the special program Arch has to automatically handle the build process of all AUR packages. There is generally no need to use the "make" command, because makepkg runs it anyways. The help of makepkg shows this:
Code:
matthew@Matthew-Netbook ~> makepkg --help
makepkg (pacman) 5.2.2
Make packages compatible for use with pacman
Usage: /usr/bin/makepkg [options]
Options:
-A, --ignorearch Ignore incomplete arch field in PKGBUILD
-c, --clean Clean up work files after build
-C, --cleanbuild Remove $srcdir/ dir before building the package
-d, --nodeps Skip all dependency checks
-e, --noextract Do not extract source files (use existing $srcdir/ dir)
-f, --force Overwrite existing package
-g, --geninteg Generate integrity checks for source files
-h, --help Show this help message and exit
-i, --install Install package after successful build
-L, --log Log package build process
-m, --nocolor Disable colorized output messages
-o, --nobuild Download and extract files only
-p <file> Use an alternate build script (instead of 'PKGBUILD')
-r, --rmdeps Remove installed dependencies after a successful build
-R, --repackage Repackage contents of the package without rebuilding
-s, --syncdeps Install missing dependencies with pacman
-S, --source Generate a source-only tarball without downloaded sources
-V, --version Show version information and exit
--allsource Generate a source-only tarball including downloaded sources
--check Run the check() function in the PKGBUILD
--config <file> Use an alternate config file (instead of '/etc/makepkg.conf')
--holdver Do not update VCS sources
--key <key> Specify a key to use for gpg signing instead of the default
--noarchive Do not create package archive
--nocheck Do not run the check() function in the PKGBUILD
--noprepare Do not run the prepare() function in the PKGBUILD
--nosign Do not create a signature for the package
--packagelist Only list package filepaths that would be produced
--printsrcinfo Print the generated SRCINFO and exit
--sign Sign the resulting package with gpg
--skipchecksums Do not verify checksums of the source files
--skipinteg Do not perform any verification checks on source files
--skippgpcheck Do not verify source files with PGP signatures
--verifysource Download source files (if needed) and perform integrity checks
These options can be passed to pacman:
--asdeps Install packages as non-explicitly installed
--needed Do not reinstall the targets that are already up to date
--noconfirm Do not ask for confirmation when resolving dependencies
--noprogressbar Do not show a progress bar when downloading files
If -p is not specified, makepkg will look for 'PKGBUILD'
Using this documentation, we can see that "s" will sync the dependencies of the packages, "i" will install the package. You
could use the "c" flag to clean up the build after installation, but most people don't do that.
I would recommend using an AUR helper, so you don't have to go to the AUR website to check every time something might have an update (what a hassle!). I would recommend using the pikaur aur helper, I've gotten into it and like it more then yay.
