Ansible AUR helper

Ansible module to use some Arch User Repository (AUR) helpers as well as makepkg.

The following helpers are supported and automatically selected, if present, in the order listed below:

• yay
• pacaur
• trizen
• pikaur
• aurman (discontinued)

makepkg will be used if no helper was found or if it is explicitly specified:

• makepkg

Options

Parameter	Choices/Default	Comments
name		Name or list of names of the package(s) to install or upgrade.
state	present, latest	Desired state of the package, 'present' skips operations if the package is already installed.
upgrade	yes, no	Whether or not to upgrade whole system.
use	auto, yay, pacaur, trizen, pikaur, aurman, makepkg	The tool to use, 'auto' uses the first known helper found and makepkg as a fallback.
use_args	[]	A list of arguments to pass directly to the used tool. Cannot be used unless use is set to something other than 'auto'.
aur_only	yes, no	Limit helper operation to the AUR.
skip_pgp_check	yes, no	Only valid with makepkg. Skip PGP signatures verification of source file, useful when installing packages without GnuPG properly configured. Cannot be used unless use is set to 'makepkg'.
ignore_arch	yes, no	Only valid with makepkg. Ignore a missing or incomplete arch field, useful when the PKGBUILD does not have the arch=('yourarch') field. Cannot be used unless use is set to 'makepkg'.

Note

• Either name or upgrade is required, both cannot be used together.
• In the use=auto mode, makepkg is used as a fallback if no known helper is found.

Installing

AUR package

The ansible-aur-git package is available in the AUR. Note the module is installed in /usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules which is one of the default module library paths.

Manual installation

Just clone the ansible-aur repository into your user custom-module directory:

git clone https://github.com/kewlfft/ansible-aur.git ~/.ansible/plugins/modules/aur

Ansible Galaxy

ansible-aur is available in Galaxy which is a hub for sharing Ansible content. To download it, use:

ansible-galaxy install kewlfft.aur

Note that if this module is installed from Ansible Galaxy, you will need to list it explicitly in your playbook:

# playbook.yml
- hosts: localhost
  roles:
  - kewlfft.aur
  tasks:
  - aur: name=package_name

or in your role:

# meta/main.yml
dependencies:
- kewlfft.aur

# tasks/main.yml
- aur: name=package_name

Usage

Notes

• The scope of this module is installation and update from the AUR; for package removal or for updates from the repositories, it is recommended to use the official pacman module.
• The --needed parameter of the helper is systematically used, it means if a package is up-to-date, it is not built and reinstalled.

Create the "aur_builder" user

While Ansible expects to SSH as root, makepkg or AUR helpers do not allow executing operations as root, they fail with "you cannot perform this operation as root". It is therefore recommended to create a user, which is non-root but has no need for password with pacman in sudoers, let's call it aur_builder.

This user can be created in an Ansible task with the following actions:

- user:
    name: aur_builder
    group: wheel
- lineinfile:
    path: /etc/sudoers.d/11-install-aur_builder
    line: 'aur_builder ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/pacman'
    create: yes
    validate: 'visudo -cf %s'

Examples

Use it in a task, as in the following examples:

# Install trizen using makepkg, skip if it is already installed
- aur: name=trizen use=makepkg state=present
  become: yes
  become_user: aur_builder

# Install package_name using the first known helper found
- aur: name=package_name
  become: yes
  become_user: aur_builder

# Install package_name_1 and package_name_2 using yay
- aur:
    use: yay
    name:
      - package_name_1
      - package_name_2

# Upgrade the system using yay, only act on AUR packages, note that dependency resolving will still include repository packages
- aur: upgrade=yes use=yay aur_only=yes