Chaotic-AUR PKGBUILDs

This is the right place to submit package requests, bug reports, or outdated packages of Chaotic-AUR 📜

⚠️ We switched to our entirely new infra 4.0 on October 18, which means we now operate on GitLab CI! While we still accept issues and bug reports on our previous packages repo, on GitHub, all the pipelines, updates and insights in general ongoings will majorly be happening on the other side. Still, the old repo will be kept around as a push-only mirror.

Some packages we have already built

• Variations of the Linux kernel such as
  • Cachyos / Cachyos-BORE,
  • Clear,
  • Nitrous,
  • VFIO,
  • XanMod / XanMod-RT / XanMod-LTS,
  • Mainline,
  • AMD / AMD Znver2 / AMD Znver3,
  • LQX
  • and a few architecture-specific variants of the previously mentioned kernels
• Emulators and gaming utilities
• A lot of browsers like Firedragon, Firefox-wayland-hg, Floorp, Icecat, and Ungoogled Chromium
• ... a lot more ...

Every folder in this repository will be built by our build system, for information about currently queued up packages and build logs check out our build status page! 🕵️‍♀️

A complete list of packages with their current versions is additionally available here.

Modified packages

While we would prefer to build AUR packages without modification, doing so is often not practical or possible.

• Depends, options or commands may be missing.
• Erroneous options or commands may be present.
• Packages may not build or function without changes.
• Packages may not meet packaging standards.

To address such issues:

• Toolbox automatically corrects some common errors.
• Manual corrections may be applied with Interfere.
• The original package may be forked as a custom package.

Special packages

• chaotic-keyring: Public keys to verify the Chaotic-AUR package signatures.
• chaotic-mirrorlist: List of servers mirroring Chaotic-AUR packages.
• chaotic-interfere: Marker indicating manually applied interferes. This package is not intended to be installed.

Banished and rejected packages 📑

This is a list of packages that we will reject for good reasons:

• snapd: We didn't know how to help our users with it since it breaks A LOT. We recommend using native packages or FlatPak instead. Also, there are a lot of other reasons to not use Snaps.

• lib32-*: The difficulty of maintaining 32-bit packages is increasing as their usefulness decreases. They may be considered to keep existing packages working, like wine-*. Otherwise, use 64-bit packages when available.

• gst-plugins-{ugly,bad}: These need to be rebuilt too frequently, which can't be dealt with as we don't control the packages pkgrel. Ultimately this would result in a bad user experience.

• ffmpeg-{full,headless}: These need to be rebuilt too frequently, which can't be dealt with as we don't control the packages pkgrel. Ultimately this would result in a bad user experience.

• mpv-amd, ffmpeg-amd: This is just MPV/FFMPEG without CUDA and NVENC to achieve shorter build times without actual end-user benefit.

• unreal-engine (and -git): Some mirrors don't have sufficient storage space.

• python2: Has been EOL for a couple of years and was removed from Arch repositories. Requests for packages that depend on it in any way will be rejected ( see #1958).

• linux-ck: Other kernels contain the same optimizations, and official pre-built binaries are available from repo-ck.

• Packages that use EOL, non-standard, or modified versions of Electron. Packages that use Electron as a web browser. The consecutive cluster of Electron versions available from the extra repository are acceptable.

• Dependencies without any dependents: Such packages are useless by themselves. Maintaining them wastes effort that is better spent elsewhere.

Banned due to licensing issues 🛑

• AMDGPU PRO Drivers. Redistribution of both software and documentation is prohibited.

• aseprite{-git}: Redistribution is explicitly prohibited in its FAQ.

• feishu: Unauthorized redistribution of their applications is explicitly prohibited per ToS.

• multimc*: Redistribution of custom binaries that include their API keys and trademarked assets is explicitly prohibited.

• rider: Redistribution disallowed per ToS.

• tlauncher: Legal gray area, as it potentially allows playing Minecraft in a reduced capacity without a license.

Build system details

Our previous build tools, the so-called toolbox was initially created by @pedrohlc to deal with one issue: having a lot of packages to compile while not having many maintainers for all the packages. Additionally, Chaotic-AUR has quite inhomogeneous builders: servers, personal devices, and one HPC which all need to be integrated somehow. The toolbox had a nice approach to this - keeping things as KISS as possible and using Git to distribute package builds between builders. These would then grab builds according to their activated routines. While this works fairly well, it had a few problems which we tried to get rid of in the new version. A few key ideas about this new setup:

• Since we like working with CI a lot besides it providing great enhancement for automating boring tasks as well as making the whole process more transparent to the public as well, it was clear CI should be a major part of it.
• The system should have a scheduler that distributes build tasks to nodes, which prevents useless build routines and enables nodes to grab jobs whenever they are queued.
• The tools should be available as Docker containers to make them easy to use on other systems than Arch.
• All logic besides the scheduler (which is written in TypeScript using BullMQ) should be written in Bash

How it works

The new system consists of three integral parts:

• The CI (which can be both GitLab CI and GitHub Actions!) handles PKGBUILDs, their changes, and figuring out what to build, utilizing a Chaotic Manager container to schedule packages via the central Redis instance.
• The central Redis instance storing information about currently scheduled builds.
• The Chaotic Manager which is used to add new builds to the queue and execute them via the main manager container. All containers have SSH-tunneled access to the Redis instance, enabling the build containers to grab new builds whenever they enter the queue.

Compared to Infra 3.0, this means we have the following key differences:

• We no longer have package lists but a repository full of PKGBUILD folders. These PKGBUILDs are getting pulled either from AUR once a package has been updated or updated manually in case a Git repository and its tags serve as a source.
• No more dedicated builders (might change in the future, e.g. for heavy builds?) but a common build queue.
• Routines are no longer necessary - CI determines and adds packages to the schedule as needed. The only "routine-like" thing we have is the CI schedule, executing tasks like PKGBUILD or version updates.
• The actual logic behind the build process (like interfere.sh or database management) was moved to the builder container of Chaotic Manager - this one updates daily/on-commit and gets pulled regularly by the Manager instance.
• Live-updating build logs will be available via CI - multiple revisions instead of only the latest.
• The interfere repo is no longer needed, instead, package builds can be configured via the .CI folder in their respective PKGBUILD folders. All known interfere types can be put here (e.g. PKGBUILD.append or prepare.sh), keeping existing interferes working.
• The CI's behavior concerning each package can be configured via a config file in the .CI folder: this file stores information like PKGBUILD source (it can be AUR or something different), PKGBUILD timestamp on AUR, most recent Git commit as well as settings like whether to push a PKGBUILD change back to AUR.
• PKGBUILD changes can now be reviewed in case of major (all changes other than pkgver, hashes, pkgrel) updates - CI automatically creates a PR containing the changes for human review.
• Adding and removing packages is entirely controlled via Git - after adding a new PKGBUILD folder via commit, the corresponding package will automatically be deployed. Removing it has the opposite effect.

The following will contain information to understand how it all works together, the full build system API documentation can be found here.

Workflows and information

Adding packages

Adding packages is as easy as creating a new folder named after the $pkgbase of the package. Put the PKGBUILD and all other required files in here. Adding AUR packages is therefore as simple as cloning its repo and removing the .git folder. CI relies on .SRCINFO files to parse most information, therefore, it is important to have them in place and up-to-date in case of self-managed packages. Finally, add a .CI folder containing the basic config (CI_PKGBUILD_SOURCE is required in case its external package, self-managed PKBUILDs don't need it), commit any changes, and push the changes back to the main branch. Please follow the conventional commit convention while doing so (cz-cli can help with that!). This means commits like:

• feat($pkgname): init
• fix($pkgname): fix xyz
• chore($pkgname): update PKGBUILD
• ci(config): update

This not only helps with having a uniform commit history, it also allows automatic changelog generation.

Removing packages

This can be done by removing the folder containing a package's PKGBUILD. A cleanup job will then automatically remove any obsolete package via the on-commit pipeline run. This will also consider any split packages that a package might produce. Renaming folders does also count as removing packages.

On-commit pipeline

Whenever pushing a new commit, the CI pipeline will carry out the following actions:

• Checking when the last scheduled tag was created. This is used to determine which packages need to be scheduled.
• It parses each commit for a [deploy $foldername] string, only accepting valid values derived from the existing PKGBUILD folders. [deploy all] is a valid parameter as well. Misspelling $pkgname is a fatal error here. Any issues must be fixed and force-pushed.
• Then, the changed files are parsed. This also includes removed packages. Any changed relevant folder content will cause a package deployment of the corresponding package.
• The final action is to build the schedule parameters (handing it over to the scheduled job via artifacts) and remove all obsolete packages in case an earlier step is detected.
• In case all of these actions succeed, the scheduled tag gets updated, so we can refer to it on a later pipeline run.

On-schedule pipelines

Half-hourly

Every half an hour, the on-schedule pipeline will carry out a few tasks:

• Updating the CI template from the template repository (in case this is enabled via .ci/config)
• Check if the scheduled tag does not exist or scheduled does not point to HEAD (in this case abort mission!)
• Check whether the .state worktree containing the state of the packages exists, if it does, it sets it up. Otherwise, it re-creates it from scratch (e.g., on force push)
• Check whether the last commit is automated (containing "chore(packages): update packages [skip ci]"), if yes, the commit resulting from the schedule will overwrite it to keep the commit history clean.
• Collect AUR timestamps of packages to determine whether a PKGBUILD changed
• Loop through each valid package and carry out the following actions:
  • Read the .CI/config file to gain information about the package configuration (e.g., whether to manage the AUR repository, the source of the PKGBUILD, etc.)
  • Update PKGBUILD in the following cases:
    • CI_PKGBUILD_SOURCE is set to gitlab: Updates the PKGBUILD from the GitLab repository tags
    • CI_PKGBUILD_SOURCE is set to aur: Updates the PKGBUILD from the AUR repository, pulling in the git repo and replacing the existing files with the new ones. If the AUR timestamp could not be collected earlier, the package update gets skipped.
    • CI_PKGBUILD_SOURCE is not set to gitlab or aur: tries to update the PKGBUILD by pulling the repository specified in CI_PKGBUILD_SOURCE. In case cloning was not successful after 2 tries, the update process gets skipped.
  • In case CI_GIT_COMMIT is set in the packages configuration variables, the latest commit of the git URL set in the source section of the PKGBUILD is updated. If it differs, schedule a build.
  • In case a custom hook exists (.CI/update.sh inside the package directory), it gets executed - this can be used for updating PKGBUILDs with a custom script.
  • Writing needed variables back to .CI/config (eg. Git hash)
• Either update the PKGBUILD silently in case of minor changes, create a PR for review in case of major updates (and only if CI_HUMAN_REVIEW is true)
  • Updates are only considered if diff actually reports changes between current PKGBUILD folder and AUR PKGBUILD repo
  • Any change made to the source files is detected, this however does not detect malicious changes in the upstream project source that the package builds
• The state worktree gets updated with new information
• Schedule parameters are getting built and handed over to the scheduled job via artifact
• Obsolete branches (eg. merged review PRs) are getting pruned
• The scheduled tag gets updated again

Daily

A daily pipeline schedule has been added for specific packages which generate their pkgver dynamically. To make use of it, set CI_ON_TRIGGER=daily inside the .CI/config file of the package.

Manual scheduling

Scheduling packages without git commits

Packages can be added to the schedule manually by going to the pipeline runs page, selecting "Run pipeline" and adding PACKAGES as a variable with the package names as its value. The pipeline will then pick up the packages and schedule them. PACKAGES can also be set to all to schedule all packages. In case one or many packages are getting scheduled, it needs to follow the format pkgname1:pkgname2:pkgname3.

Running scheduled pipelines on-demand

This can be done by going to the pipeline runs page, selecting "Run pipeline" (the play symbol). A link to the pipeline page will be provided, where the pipeline logs can be obtained.

Adding interfere

Put the required interfere file in the .CI folder of a PKGBUILD folder:

• prepare: A script that is being executed after the building chroot has been set up. It can be used to source environment variables or modify other things before compilation starts.
  • If something needs to be set up before the actual compilation process, commands can be pushed by inserting eg. $CAUR_PUSH 'source /etc/profile'. Likewise, package conflicts can be solved, eg. as follows: $CAUR_PUSH 'yes | pacman -S nftables' (single quotes are important because we want the variables/pipes to evaluate in the guest's runtime and not while interfering)
• interfere.patch: a patch file that can be used to fix either multiple files or PKGBUILD if a lot of changes are required. All changes need to be added to this file.
• PKGBUILD.prepend: contents of this file are added to the beginning of PKGBUILD.
• PKGBUILD.append: contents of this file are added to the end of PKGBUILD. Fixing build() as is easy as adding the fixed build() into this file. This can be used for all kinds of fixes. If something needs to be added to an array, this is as easy as makedepend+=(somepackage).
• on-failure.sh: A script that is being executed if the build fails.
• on-success.sh: A script that is being executed if the build succeeds.

Bumping pkgrel

This is now carried out by adding the required variable CI_PACKAGE_BUMP to .CI/config. See below for more information.

Dependency trees

The CI builds dependency trees automatically. They are passed to the Chaotic manager as a CI artifact and read whenever a schedule command is being executed. No manual intervention is needed.

.CI/config

The .CI/config file inside each package directory contains additional flags to control the pipelines and build processes with.

• CI_MANAGE_AUR: By setting this variable to true, the CI will update the corresponding AUR repository at the end of a pipeline run if changes occur (omitting CI-related files)
• CI_PACKAGE_BUMP: Controls package bumps for all packages which don't have CI_MANAGE_AUR set to true. The format this needs to follow is either 1:1.2.3-1/1 (full current version and bump count after the slash) or 1.2.3 (full current package version, resolves to bump count 1).
• CI_PKGBUILD_SOURCE: Sets the source for all PKGBUILD-related files, used for pulling updated files from remote repositories. Valid values as of now are:
  • gitlab: Pulls the PKGBUILD from the GitLab repository tags. It needs to follow the format gitlab:$PROJECT_ID. The ID can be obtained by browsing the repository settings general section.
  • aur: Pulls the PKGBUILD from the AUR repository, pulling in the git repo and replacing the existing files with the new ones.
• CI_ON_TRIGGER: Can be provided in case a special schedule trigger should schedule the corresponding package. This can be used to schedule packages daily, by setting the value to daily. Since this checks whether "$TRIGGER == $CI_ON_TRIGGER", any custom schedule can be created using pipeline schedules and setting TRIGGER to midnight, adding a fitting schedule and setting CI_ON_TRIGGER for any affected package to midnight. Packages having this variable set will not be scheduled via the regular on-schedule pipeline, hence this one can also be used to prevent wasting builder resources, e.g. useful for huge -git packages with a lot of commit activity, like llvm-git.
• CI_REBUILD_TRIGGERS: Add packages known to be causing rebuilds to this variable. A list of repositories to track package versions for is provided via the repositories' CI_LIB_DB parameter. Each package version is hashed and dumped to .ci/lib.state. Each scheduled pipeline run compares versions by checking hash mismatches and will bump each affected package via CI_PACKAGE_BUMP. It needs to follow the format package1:package2:package3.
• BUILDER_CACHE_SOURCES: Can be set to true in case the sources should be cached between builds. This can be useful in case of slow sources or sources that are not available all the time. Sources will be cleared automatically after 1 month, which is important in case packages are getting removed or the source changes.
• BUILDER_EXTRA_TIMEOUT: If set, will multiply the global BUILDER_TIMEOUT value with the given multiplier. If e.g., the default timeout value of 3600 is used, setting this to 2 would increase the build timeout to 7200.

Known state variables

State will be kept in the .state worktree. It can be viewed by browsing the state branch of a PKGBUILD repository. Each package will have their own file named after the package name. The following variables are known to be stored:

• CI_GIT_COMMIT: Used by CI to determine whether the latest commit changed. Used by fetch-gitsrc to schedule new builds. Needs to be provided in case the package should be treated as a git package. CI will automatically update the latest available commit of the git URL set in the source section of the PKGBUILD. If it differs, schedule a build. -CI_PKGBUILD_TIMESTAMP: The last modified date of the PKGBUILD on AUR. This is used to determine whether the PKGBUILD has changed. If it differs, schedule a build. Will be maintained automatically.

Managing AUR packages

AUR packages can also be managed via this repository in an automated way using .CI_CONFIG. This means that after each scheduled and on-commit pipeline, the AUR repository will be updated to reflect the changes done to the PKGBUILD folder's files. Files not relevant to AUR maintenance (e.g. .CI folders) will be omitted. The commit message reflects the fact that the commit was created by a CI pipeline and contains the link to the source repository's commit history and the pipeline run which triggered the update commit.

Updating the CI's scripts

This is done automatically via the CI pipeline. Once changes have been detected on the template repository, all files will be updated to the current version.

Issues and pipeline failures

Last on-commit pipeline failed

This can happen in case of a few reasons, for example having provided an invalid package name. This causes the scheduled tag to not be updated. In this case, the on-schedule pipeline will not be able to run. The last on-commit pipeline needs to be fixed before the on-schedule pipeline can run again. Build failures however are not accounted as the scheduled tag would be updated already as soon as the scheduling parameters were generated. Force pushing a fixed up commit is actively encouraged in such a case, as pushing another commit will cause the CI to evaluate the previous commits it missed, leading to noticing the same issue again and bailing out instead of silently continuing. This has been a design decision to prevent failures from being overlooked.

Resetting the build queue

There might be rare cases in which a reset of the build queue is needed. This can be done by shutting down the central Redis instance, removing its dump, and restarting its service. This will, however, also wipe any logs stored inside Redis.

Live-updating logs

Logs are live-updating and can be viewed in real-time via the web server. In case GitLab is used and PACKAGE_REPOS_NOTIFIERS is set, an external CI stage will be created for every package scheduled during the CI run, linking to the log.

Prometheus metrics

Prometheus metrics are available at the /metrics endpoint of the web server. Currently, we collect default prom-client metrics as well as statistics about total event count of each build status (failed, successful, already-built, timed out) as well as metrics about overall build times. These can be collected via a Prometheus instance and then be visualized using Grafana.

Development setup

This repository features a NixOS flake, which may be used to set up the needed things like pre-commit hooks and checks, as well as needed utilities, automatically via direnv. This includes checking PKGBUILDs via shellcheck and shfmt. Needed are nix (the package manager) and direnv, after that, the environment may be entered by running direnv allow.