aurc

A fast, secure package manager wrapper for Arch Linux with automatic AUR fallback.

 
Install
   
Usage
   
Commands
   
Building
 

Features

• Wraps pacman for official repo packages
• Full AUR support — download, inspect PKGBUILD, build with makepkg
• Smart install — aurc install <pkg> checks official repos first, falls back to AUR automatically
• PKGBUILD review prompt before every AUR installation
• Built-in self-update — keeps aurc current without any third-party tools
• Configure your preferred editor for mirrorlist editing

Requirements

Platform: Arch Linux

Runtime dependencies:

Dependency	Purpose
pacman	Official repo operations
sudo	Privilege escalation
base-devel	makepkg for building AUR packages
git	Cloning repos
curl	AUR HTTP requests
json-c	AUR API response parsing
less	PKGBUILD viewer

Build dependencies: gcc, make, libarchive

Installation

Via PKGBUILD (recommended):

curl -L https://github.com/resslr/aurc/releases/latest/download/aurc-pkgbuild.tar.gz -o aurc-pkgbuild.tar.gz
tar xzf aurc-pkgbuild.tar.gz && cd aurc-pkgbuild
makepkg -si

Via pre-built binary:

# Replace ${version} with the release tag, e.g. 1.2.3
wget https://github.com/resslr/aurc/releases/latest/download/aurc-${version}-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
sudo pacman -U aurc-${version}-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

From source:

sudo pacman -S gcc make base-devel curl json-c libarchive git
git clone https://github.com/resslr/aurc.git
cd aurc/src && sudo make install

Updating

Once installed, aurc can update itself:

aurc self-update

This clones the latest source, rebuilds, and reinstalls automatically.

Usage

aurc [command] [package(s)]

Running aurc with no arguments performs a full system upgrade — equivalent to pacman -Syyu followed by an AUR packages update check.

Shorthands

Every command has a short flag alias — same position as the action word:

Short	Full command
-S	install
-Sa	install-aur
-Sl	install-local
-Sf	install-force
-R	remove
-Rs	remove-dep
-Rdd	remove-force
-Rdds	remove-force-dep
-Ro	remove-orp
-Ss	search
-Ssa	search-aur
-Q	query
-Syu	update
-Su	self-update
-Syy	refresh
-Me	modify-repo
-C	clear-aur-cache

aurc -S neovim          # same as: aurc install neovim
aurc -Sa spotify        # same as: aurc install-aur spotify
aurc -Ssa python        # same as: aurc search-aur python
aurc -R firefox         # same as: aurc remove firefox
aurc -Q git             # same as: aurc query git

Commands

Installation

Command	Description
install <pkg...>	Install packages — checks official repos first, falls back to AUR automatically
install-aur <pkg...>	Install AUR packages directly
install-local <path>	Install a local .pkg.tar.zst file
install-force <pkg...>	Force install, skipping dependency checks

Removal

Command	Description
remove <pkg...>	Remove packages
remove-dep <pkg...>	Remove packages and their dependencies
remove-force <pkg...>	Force remove, even if other packages depend on it
remove-force-dep <pkg...>	Force remove with dependencies
remove-orp	Remove orphaned packages

Search & Query

Command	Description
search <query>	Search official repositories
search-aur <query>	Search AUR — results sorted by relevance, interactive filter prompt after results
search-aur -s <name>	Show only the exact package name match
list-aur <query>	List all installed AUR packages, optionally filtered by name
query <pkg>	Check if a package is installed

System

Command	Description
(no args)	Full upgrade — system packages + all AUR packages
update	Update system packages only (pacman -Syyu)
self-update	Update aurc to the latest version
refresh	Refresh repository databases
modify-repo	Edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist in your configured editor
clear-aur-cache	Clear the AUR build cache (~/.cache/aurc/)
config -e <editor>	Set the default editor for modify-repo

Options

Flag	Description
-h, --help	Show help
-v, --version	Show version

Example

# Smart install — finds in repos, or falls back to AUR
aurc install neovim

# Inspect and install an AUR package directly
aurc install-aur spotify

# Search AUR with interactive filter
aurc search-aur python

# Remove multiple packages
aurc remove firefox thunderbird

# Keep aurc up to date
aurc self-update