Nepherte’s Unofficial User Repository
Arch Linux has a very decent system for building packages called ABS or Arch Build System. It basically comes down to one file called the pkgbuild where you put all the necessary information to construct a package. Everything else is taken care by makepkg, the tool that reads, compiles and builds the package accordingly. Because of this easy building system, the barrier for users to create their own packages is easily overcome, as demonstrated by AUR or Arch User Repository with over 20000 packages.
Hower, AUR has its limitations. For one, its sole function is to host pkgbuilds. So when you want to install something from AUR, you still have to go through the compile & build process. Depending on the software, this can be very cumbersome and time consuming. Instead you more likely want to install a package that has already been build, much like the regular Arch Linux repositories such as [core], [extra] and [community]. This is where the Unofficial User Repositories come in play. A user can easily set up its own repository with the repo-add script that comes with the package manager pacman. Generally, the user still needs to be very cautious with installing unofficial packages because of the potential dangers it may pose such as malicious software. It is recommended to verify the source of these packages or inspect the packages before installing.
Personally, there a few programs I frequently update myself, i.e. more frequently than then the official repositories, because of new functionality or bug fixes. Therefore I decided to share my efforts and make them available in my own unnoficial user repository. The repository can be accessed at http://www.nepherte.be/repo. To use my repository, add the following lines in /etc/pacman.conf:
[nepherte] Server = http://www.nepherte.be/repo
The packages are for 64bit systems only as I don’t have a 32bit version of Arch installed. All packages are built in a clean chroot environment to avoid library linking problems. If you are interested in the pkgbuilds, you can find them on my svn repo. To access my svn repo, you will have to authenticate yourself with username guest and password guest.
The packages I currently maintain are:
- x264
- ffmpeg
- mplayer
- netembryo
The first three are rebuilt on a monthly base at the very least and whenever there is audio involved, pulseaudio is supported. More packages will be added in the future.