Ansible AUR package manager

Ansible module to use some AUR helpers as well as a simple internal implementation as a fallback. The following helpers are supported and automatically selected in the order they are listed:

• pacaur
• trizen
• yaourt
• yay
• internal helper

Options

parameter	required	default	choices	comments
name	no			Name or list of names of the package(s) to install or upgrade.
upgrade	no	no	yes, no	Whether or not to upgrade whole system.
use	no	auto	auto, pacaur, trizen, yaourt, yay, internal	The helper to use, 'auto' uses the first known helper found, 'internal' uses the internal helper.
skip_installed	no	no	yes, no	Skip operations if the package is present.

Note

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

Installing

1. Clone the ansibe-aur repository in your playbook custom-module directory:

mkdir --parents library
cd library
git clone git@github.com:kewlfft/ansible-aur.git

2. Link the script to library/aur:

ln --symbolic ansible-aur/aur.py aur

Usage

Note

• This module aims to cover the AUR only:
  • For package removal or system upgrade with the repositories, it is recommended to use the official pacman module,
  • Searches are limited to the AUR, using the --aur parameter, except for yay and yaourt which do not support the option and systematically also search the repositories.
• A package is reinstalled only if an update is available, using the --needed parameter, except for yay which does not support it and systematically reinstalls.

Examples

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

# Install trizen using the internal helper, skip if trizen is already installed
- aur: name=trizen use=internal skip_installed=true
  become: yes
  become_user: aur_builder

# Install package_name using the first known helper found
- aur: name=package_name
  [..]

# Install package_name_1 and package_name_2 using trizen
- aur:
    use: trizen
    name:
      - package_name_1
      - package_name_2 
  [...]

# Upgrade - using pacaur
- aur: upgrade=yes use=pacaur
  [...]

Create the "aur_builder" user

While Ansible expects to SSH as root, AUR helpers do not allow executing operations as root, they all fail with "you cannot perform this operation as root". It is therefore recommended to create a user, that we will call for example aur_builder, that has no need for password with pacman in sudoers. This can be done in Ansible with the following actions:

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