Not sure why noone has pointed this out but if you use paru or yay instead of pacman, installing/searching the AUR is the same as if they are in the main repo. It does all the building etc for you.
To search for a package, in the main repo or the AUR:
$ paru -Sssearch-term
With the search results, it clearly labels if something is from the AUR or extras or the main repo, and you can make it show AUR results first or last in the config.
Not sure why noone has pointed this out but if you use paru or yay instead of pacman, installing/searching the AUR is the same as if they are in the main repo. It does all the building etc for you.
hmm okay thanks I will check those out maybe that is the missing piece.
so paru is the equivalent to apt-build install
but unlike Debian the Repo is outside the distribution.
i think I’m getting it thank you while I have no interest in leaving debian but this will be fun in distrobox.
To be specific…
Install something from the main repo:
$ paru -S package
Install something from the AUR:
$ paru -S package
To search for a package, in the main repo or the AUR:
$ paru -Ss search-term
With the search results, it clearly labels if something is from the AUR or extras or the main repo, and you can make it show AUR results first or last in the config.
https://github.com/Morganamilo/paru
I don’t actually use pacman directly at all, I use paru for everything and it’s seamless.