What is yaourt

Yaourt is a utility for Arch Linux that provides an easy way to install programs from AUR (Arch User Repository). Pacman cannot search the AUR for programs so if you want to install a program from AUR you have to do it manually. I have already describe how to install an AUR program manually at a previous article .

Yaourt searches AUR for programs, downloads them, install the missing dependencies and then compiles and installs them. Because yaourt uses pacman it can also install packages from the repositories or upgrade them.

How to install yaourt with pacman

You can install yaourt with pacman but first you have to add the proper repository to pacman.conf. So, you must edit the file /etc/pacman.conf. To do this you can use nano, vim or gedit:

sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf or gksudo gedit /etc/pacman.conf

Then you have to add to the end of the pacman.conf the archlinuxfr repository:

[archlinuxfr]
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

After that, save and refresh the packages lists with the command:

sudo pacman -Syy

Now you can install yaourt with pacman:

sudo pacman -S yaourt

How to use yaourt

If you want to search and install a program from AUR you can use yaourt:

yaourt program

For example if you want to install qbittorrent (like the previous article):

yaourt qbittorrent

Yaourt will return a list of programs with the word qbittorrent in their name or in their description. To install one (or more) enter their number (for qbittorrent we enter the number 1). Yaourt prompt us to see the PKGBUILD file for information about the installation. We choose if we want to see it (I usally don’t).

You can use yaourt to upgrade the installed packages because it describes more efficient than pacman the upgrades:

yaourt -Syu

Yaourt’s update list is more efficient than Pacman’s.

If you want to upgrade the programs you have installed from AUR (like qbittorrent) you have to use the command:

yaourt -Syua