Usage

💡 Did you know? Aura has a manpage with every flag explained in detail. Check it out in your terminal with man aura.

Pacman Commands

First and foremost, Aura is compatible with pacman. This gives us access to the following Commands:

  • -S: Search and install official packages.
> sudo aura -S firefox
  • -Q: Query the database of installed packages.
> aura -Qi firefox
Name            : firefox
Version         : 76.0.1-1
Description     : Standalone web browser from mozilla.org
... etc ...
  • -R: Remove installed packages.
> sudo aura -R firefox
  • -U: Install a manually built package.
> makepkg
... building ...
> sudo aura -U aura-bin-3.1.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
  • -D: Interact with Pacman's database directly.
> aura -Dk
No database errors have been found!
  • -F: Make queries regarding files owned by packages.
> aura -Fl firefox
firefox usr/
firefox usr/bin/
firefox usr/bin/firefox
firefox usr/lib/
firefox usr/lib/firefox/
firefox usr/lib/firefox/Throbber-small.gif
firefox usr/lib/firefox/application.ini
... etc ...
  • -T: Check if a dependency is satisfied.
> aura -T firefox "qt>100"
qt>100
  • -V: Display a fun version message.

See the next page for a list of common Pacman idioms.

Aura Commands

Aura also provides a number of new Commands:

  • -A: Search and install packages from the AUR.
> sudo aura -A zoom
  • -B: Create and restore snapshots of installed packages.
> sudo aura -B
aura >>= Saved package state.
  • -C: Downgrade installed packages.
> sudo aura -C aura-bin
aura >>= What version of aura-bin do you want?
1. /var/cache/pacman/pkg/aura-bin-2.3.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
2. /var/cache/pacman/pkg/aura-bin-3.0.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
3. /var/cache/pacman/pkg/aura-bin-3.0.0-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
4. /var/cache/pacman/pkg/aura-bin-3.1.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
>>
  • -L: Search and inspect the Pacman log.
> aura -Li firefox
Package        : firefox
First Install  : 2016-05-03 08:46
Upgrades       : 75
Recent Actions :
[2020-04-08T14:26:09-0700] [ALPM] upgraded firefox (74.0-2 -> 75.0-1)
[2020-05-04T09:20:53-0700] [ALPM] upgraded firefox (75.0-1 -> 75.0-2)
[2020-05-18T08:39:43-0700] [ALPM] upgraded firefox (75.0-2 -> 76.0.1-1)
  • -O: Handle "orphans" - dependencies whose parent package is no longer installed.
> aura -O
ruby-bundler
vim
  • -P: Perform security analysis of PKGBUILDs.
> aura -Ap myget | aura -P

    sudo pacman -S aurvote

aura >>= sudo indicates that someone may be trying to gain root access to your machine.
aura >>= Potential PKGBUILD vulnerabilities detected.