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Install yay on Arch Linux

Sebastian
Writer

yay

This guide will walk through the steps for installing yay (Yet another Yogurt) which is an AUR Helper. This will let you install packages from the AUR (Arch User Repository) in the same way you install packages from the Arch Repo with pacman.

Update 2021-05-21: There is a new AUR Helper that has got a lot of traction. It's called paru and works mostly the same but is written in Rust! I have a guide for installing it as well.

yay - GitHub

Installation

Do not run makepkg -si as root.

pacman -S git binutils make gcc fakeroot
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-bin.git
cd yay-bin
makepkg -si

Usage

CommandFunction
yay -Ss fooSearches for package foo on the repos or the AUR.
yay -Si fooGet information about a package.
yay -S fooInstalls package foo from the repos or the AUR.
yay -Rns fooRemove package, its dependencies and config files.
yay -SyuUpdate package list and upgrade all installed repo and AUR packages.
yay -SuaUpdate all currently installed AUR packages.
yay -QuaPrint available AUR updates.
yay -YcUninstall unneeded dependencies.