- Basic guidelines for the Arch User Repository. -
- -
- The AUR
-is a community of Arch users, where packages outside of the core Arch
-distribution are maintained. The AUR Community Repo is a supplement to
-the EXTRA and CURRENT repositories; less popular packages will be
-maintained as a service to the general Arch-using population. Packages
-in the AUR will depend on EXTRA and CURRENT.
The AUR was
-created to lift the burden on the developers. They should be allowed to
-focus on adding new features, rather than doing the mundane job of
-package maintenance. Therefore, all packages start inside the AUR, and
-as developers consider them crucial to the distribution, they will be
-adopted into EXTRA/CURRENT. The AUR was also created to allow easy
-participation. Arch is completely volunteer-based, and needs help from
-its users. Lastly, the AUR helps to further the Arch philosophy of
-KISS. The Arch Core (EXTRA/CURRENT/UNSTABLE) is a complete
-distribution, but it does not attempt to provide every single package.
-The AUR helps by maintaining less popular packages; but the AUR also
-follows KISS, and only popular packages from UNSUPPORTED will make it
-into the official AUR repository.
Users of the
-AUR can do many things, the main function being to download and use
-packages. One can access the AUR by adding this to their pacman.conf
-file:
- [community]
Server = ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/community/os/i686/
-But a user can also help with package maintenance, by: submitting
-packages (and then maintaining them while they remain in UNSUPPORTED),
-filing bug reports, reporting out-of-date packages, helping with other
-user-submitted PKGBUILDs, and voting for packages that should be
-maintained by the TUs. Once a user account has been created, all
-functions can be performed inside the web interface.
-Inside the web interface, a user can submit a tarball (tar.gz) of a
-directory containing build files for a package. The directory inside
-the tarball should contain a PKGBUILD, any .install files, patches, etc
-(no binaries). Examples of what a directory looks like can be seen inside /var/abs.
- When submitting a package, observe the following rules:
-
-The TU -or Trusted User- is a member of the community charged with -keeping the AUR in working order. He maintains popular packages, and -votes in administrative matters. A TU is elected from active community -members by current TUs in a democratic process. TUs are the only -members who have a final say in the direction of the AUR.
-
-TUs are only added as needed, and applications will only be accepted at
-certain times. Check the AUR website for details on whether
-applications are being accepted.
-TUs are elected democratically. If you would like to become a TU, a
-sponsor (another TU) is needed. You must solicit requests for a sponsor
-privately before posting on the mailing list. After this is received, a
-request must be made on the AUR Mailing List by the sponsor. Ideally, a
-TU should have a specific subset of packages he wishes to maintain.
-Four other votes must be received from other TUs or developers for an
-applicant to be accepted. Once these have been received, the user will
-be given the proper passwords, and a TU will upgrade the user's status
-on the web interface.
-Once an application has been published on the mailing list, it is open
-for voting for 3 weeks. If the applicant does not receive enough votes
-within that time period, he must wait 3 months to submit another
-application, with vote tallies being reset.
-
-
-There is a basic sanctioning system for TUs. If a TU breaks a rule,
-either official or through "community standards" when he was already
-aware of this rule, one can request a sanction. If two other votes from
-TUs are received, a sanction will be added. After two sanctions, the TU
-will automatically come up for a removal vote.
If a TU is not working out, for any reason, one can
-request him to be expelled. Someone requesting a removal of a TU must
-state a valid reason, and why immediate removal is necessary. Almost
-always, previous sanctions will be needed. With four additional votes,
-that TU will be immediately removed and his packages will have to be
-adopted by a different TU.
-All other duties (changing rules, adding new regulations, new features, -etc) should be discussed openly on the AUR Mailing List and voted on. -Various pieces of documentation and code can have specified -"maintainers" that can perform basic updates (typo/bug fixes) without a -vote, but any changes should be reported on the mailing list. Any major -changes should receive a simple majority vote.
--
-- Follow these instructions for uploading/modifying packages once you have become a TU: -
-A TU may adopt any package at any time. But because the TU's time is
-limited, he should try to only adopt popular packages. The voting
-mechanism in the AUR allows a TU to quickly gage which packages users
-want.
-If a package receives 25 votes, it may be adopted by a TU. A maintainer
-should adopt it via the web interface. That maintainer is then
-responsible for bug fixes and new version updates. Packages must be
-properly cleaned and fixed after adoption.
-If a TU can't or doesn't want to maintain a package any longer, a
-notice should be posted to the AUR Mailing List, so another TU can
-maintain it. A package can still be disowned even if no other TU wants
-to maintain it, but the TUs should try not to drop many packages (they
-shouldn't take on more than they have time for). If a package has
-become obsolete or isn't used any longer, it can be removed completely
-as well.
-If a package has been removed completely, it can be uploaded once again
-(fresh) to UNSUPPORTED, where a regular user can maintain the package
-instead of the TU.
- Adhere to the following rules when building/maintaining packages:
-
-
- Q: What is the difference between the AUR, COMMUNITY, and TUR? Why don't packages I upload to the AUR show up in pacman?
-A: The TUR, or Trusted User Repository, was the old system used to
-manage user submissions. It had a number of flaws, so was discontinued.
-The TUR website is still up, but is dead and will be removed shortly.
-AUR is the official replacement for the TUR. It is a web system that
-allows users to submit their own PKGBUILDs for both the TUs and the
-general community to see. COMMUNITY is a new Arch repository, run by
-the TUs, that is available via pacman.
-User submitted PKGBUILDs are available from the AUR, but because they
-have not been reviewed, packages are not available. If a PKGBUILD is
-reviewed, and receives many votes, it may "graduate" into the COMMUNITY
-repo. There it will easily be retrievable from pacman.
-If you are a new user, it is safe to use the COMMUNITY repo, as
-packages have been verified. Any PKGBUILDs in the UNSUPPORTED section
-of the AUR have not been tested, and could be dangerous or broken. Use
-at your own risk.