How to install a package from AUR which further need dependent AUR packages

Question

So. I am using ArchLinux with i3 window manager (In short no proper Desktop Environment). I am new to Arch Linux

I am trying to install this package called "shutter" which will help me to take a screenshot.

Now, i tried installing "shutter"

sudo pacman -S shutter

Unfortunately, shutter is not available in the pacman repository (Or whatever it is called, sorry) I knew its not available, yet I just wanted to try and went ahead and gave it a try.

The reason why I knew it was not available was cause it was listed in AUR. Now packages in AUR are the one which are not there in the main repository. Fine. I download the package from its git and tried "making" it.

git clone aur.blah.blah.shutter.git
cd shutter
makepkg -s

Now this is the error I faced.

[pc@PC shutter]$ makepkg -s
==> Making package: shutter 0.93.1-11 (Thu May 18 19:05:21 UTC 2017)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Installing missing dependencies...
[sudo] password for pc:
error: target not found: gnome-perl
error: target not found: perl-gnome2-wnck
error: target not found: perl-gtk2-imageview
error: target not found: perl-gtk2-unique
warning: skipping target: perl-xml-simple
==> ERROR: 'pacman' failed to install missing dependencies.

Now, I saw this list carefully and realised that these dependency packages, for example, gnome-perl and other, are themselves not available in pacman's main repo but are present in AUR. So it makes sense why pacman is not able to locate the target.

To verify I tried :

[pc@PC shutter]$ sudo pacman -S gnome-perl
error: target not found: gnome-perl

So Yes, this "gnome-perl" and the other dependencies too are a part of AUR and hence when "makepkg" tells pacman to install it, pacman simple fails.

So, How am I suppose to install such packages from AUR which are further dependent so heavily on other AUR packages?

Thank You in advance. If my concepts are wrong. Please guide. Thanks again.

PS : I did sudo pacman -Syyu, but not luck, afterall these packages are not the part of main repo and are in AUR so updating pacman mirrorlist and system update should not fix it.

Answer 1

You can tell Cower to recursively download AUR dependencies of an AUR package by specifying the download option -d twice like so -dd, -d -d or --download --download

From man cower : OPERATIONS -d, --download Download target. Pass this option twice to fetch uninstalled dependencies (done recursively).

It would be much clearer if AUR had been inserted : Pass this option twice to fetch uninstalled AUR dependencies (done recursively). But to be fair Cower only deals with the AUR. ;)

(Main Arch Repo dependencies (non-AUR) are already taken care of underwater by the makepkg command of course.)

When installing it's probably better to download all AUR packages to one dedicated folder and leave them there. Cower keeps track of where packages were downloaded to and installed from. (My AUR packages are all downloaded into /home/myUsername/AUR-packages because I'm the only user.) It all depends on your situation though.

You first have to run makepkg -sic (or whatever options) in the folder of each AUR dependency. Then in the folder of the main AUR package.

Updating :

To easily check if there are updates for installed AUR packages :

• cower -u

• then combine -u with -dd to also check and recursively download all AUR dependencies : cower -udd (or do this right away)

• then first cd into the folder of each AUR dependency and run makepkg -sic (or whatever options that you normally use)

• then go into the folder of each top/main AUR package (non-dependency the one that you actually installed and want to use) and run makepkg -sic (or whatever options that you normally use).

Don't forget that there is also a verbosity option -v which will also let you see all other packages which were checked for updates. Not just the ones with updates.

The more AUR packages you have installed, you will realise that this needs automation by one or more scripts.