Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/EnigmaCurry/arch-ppa

Create and maintain personal Arch linux package repositories
https://github.com/EnigmaCurry/arch-ppa

Last synced: 21 days ago
JSON representation

Create and maintain personal Arch linux package repositories

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
arch-ppa

========



arch-ppa is a tool that easily creates and maintains your own Arch

Linux package repositories. Kind of like the Personal Package Archives

(PPA) that Ubuntu has, but way easier.



The [Arch User Repository](https://aur.archlinux.org/) (AUR) is

convenient, has tons of software, is generally awesome, but is

inherently insecure. Anyone can upload anything they want to the

AUR. This is why I don't like to use AUR helpers like `yaourt` or

`pacaur`. Using the AUR with a helper requires you to be diligent in

reviewing the PKGBUILDs it downloads, in order to make sure it doesn't

include things like viruses or trojans, or downloading from a weird

URL.



This tool builds packages from a directory tree of PKGBUILD files. The

idea is that you put this directory into a version control system only

after having verified the PKGBUILD files are correct and

non-malicious. Additionally, the packages are signed with your own gpg

key (and verified by the client on installation.) This resolves the

insecurity of the AUR in my mind.  This gives me the full power of the

AUR, but allows me to automate my package installs in a way that I

never felt comfortable with before. Seriously, why does pacaur have a

`--noconfirm` option? That's scary. Worse than 10 toolbars on your

mother's web browser scary.



The packages this tool builds can be hosted as a regular arch

repository, either on your local filesystem or on a webserver. The

added convenience here is that although the packages came from the

AUR, your clients install it through regular-old pacman.



Usage

-----



Clone this repo somewhere. Everything will be self contained in this

directory wherever you put it.



arch-ppa should not be run as root, but the user needs to have sudo

privileges as the underlying devtools need it. (If you know how to

make arch-nspawn create files with the current uid, please let me

know.)



Run setup:



    ./arch-ppa setup



The setup installs a few dependencies like `devtools`. It

also creates a chroot directory which is a container that will be used

to build packages in a completely clean environment using

`systemd-nspawn`.



Add packages from the AUR:



    ./arch-ppa add cower curlbomb pasystray

	

This downloads PKGBUILDs from the AUR for the listed packages: cower,

curlbomb, pasystray, as well as all of their AUR dependencies, and

placed into the `src` directory. You can manually put any PKGBUILDs

you have into the `src` directory; they don't have to be from the

AUR. Note that any PKGBUILD that lists a dependency of another

package, that is not found in one of the arch repositories, needs to

have it's own PKGBUILD in the `src` directory too. (The `add` command

does this for you automatically, thanks to `cower -d -d`)



Build everything:



    ./arch-ppa clean ryan

    ./arch-ppa build ryan



The build process operates on a single repository, in this example

called `ryan`. You can maintain several repositories, each containing

different sets of packages. Just make sure to give each repository a

unique name.



The clean process removes the repository directory containing all the

built packages. It also deletes the chroot for the repository from the

`chroot` directory.



The build process creates a new package repository called `ryan` (or

whatever you called yours.) It finds PKGBUILD files in the `src`

directory and figures out the dependency chain and builds all the

packages in the correct order. Additionally, you can specify

individual package names after the repository name if you only wish to

build certain packages. 



Update packages:



    ./arch-ppa update [optional package names]

	

The update command will download new PKGBUILDs for the specified

packages (or all if not specified.) The update will complain if you

haven't added the existing packages to a git repository or have

uncommited changes. Always review changes to PKGBUILD files before

committing them. That's the point of this thing. Use `git diff src`.



The repository directory can be listed in your `/etc/pacman.conf` like this:



    [ryan]

	Server = file:///home/ryan/git/arch-ppa/ryan

	SigLevel = Required TrustedOnly

	

This is the full path to the ryan repository just created. Replace the

name in brackets with your chosen repository name and use the path

appropriate for your machine. Run `pacman -Sy` and you should see

pacman synchronize with the new repository name. Alternatively, upload

the directory to a webserver to share it with all your friends.



The SigLevel option specifies how pacman should trust our

repository. `Required TruestedOnly` is a strict rule that the key must

be in the local pacman keyring and be assigned a trust level. Pacman

will usually download the key without a problem, but you will still

need to locally sign the key to trust it. 



See the next section if you're having problems with package signatures

not working.



Mini gpg tutorial

-----------------

View your key information:



    gpg -K 



This should output something like this:



    /home/ryan/.gnupg/pubring.kbx

    -----------------------------

    sec   rsa2048/4BAACCF8 2016-04-15 [SC]

    uid         [ultimate] test guy 

    ssb   rsa2048/C22BDAA5 2016-04-15 [E]



My public key ID is 4BAACCF8. Always omit the part before the

slash. If it didn't output any key information at all, this means you

don't have a key yet. If that's the case, create one and follow the

prompts:



    gpg --gen-key



Send your public key to the keyserver (replace with your ID):



    gpg --send-keys 4BAACCF8



On each machine you plan to use your package repository, run the

following to import the key and to locally sign it (meaning to trust

it from pacman's perspective. Like before, replace with your key ID):



    sudo pacman-key -r 4BAACCF8

	sudo pacman-key --lsign-key 4BAACCF8



If you don't sign the key, pacman will complain that your packages are

not trusted.



License

-------



    Copyright (c) <2016> 



    Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person

    obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation

    files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without

    restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy,

    modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies

    of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is

    furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:



    The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be

    included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.



    THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,

    EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF

    MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND

    NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT

    HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,

    WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,

    OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER

    DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.