How to Install Yay AUR Helper in Arch Linux and Manjaro

James KiarieLast Updated: February 24, 2023 Arch Linux, Manjaro 22 Comments

The two commonly used AUR helpers in Arch Linux are Yaourt and Packer. You can easily use them for Arch Linux package management tasks such as installing and updating packages.

However, the two have been discontinued in favour of yay, short for Yet Another Yaourt. Yay is a modern AUR helper written in the GO language. It has very few dependencies and supports AUR tab completion so that you don’t have to type the commands in full. Just type the first few letters and hit ENTER.

In this article, we demonstrate how you can install Yay AUR helper on Arch Linux or Manjaro which is based on Arch, and see a few examples of how you can use Yay.

Installing Yay AUR Helper in Arch Linux and Manjaro

To start off, log in as a sudo user and run the command below to download the git package.

$ sudo pacman -S git

Next, clone the yay git repository.

$ cd /opt
$ sudo git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-git.git

Change the file permissions from the root to the sudo user.

$ sudo chown -R tecmint:tecmint ./yay-git

To build the package from PKGBUILD, navigate into the yay folder.

$ cd yay-git

Next, build the package using the makepkg command below.

$ makepkg -si

How to Use Yay in Arch Linux and Manjaro

Once you have yay installed, you can upgrade all the packages on your system using the command.

$ sudo yay -Syu

To include development packages during the upgrade run.

$ yay -Syu --devel --timeupdate

As with any other AUR helpers, you can install the packages using the command.

$ sudo yay -S gparted

To remove a package using yay use the command.

$ sudo yay -Rns package_name

To clean up all unwanted dependencies on your system, issue the command.

$ sudo yay -Yc

If you want to print system statistics using yay, run.

$ sudo yay -Ps

And this sums up this brief tutorial on how you can install the yay AUR helper in Arch Linux and Manjaro.

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James Kiarie

This is James, a certified Linux administrator and a tech enthusiast who loves keeping in touch with emerging trends in the tech world. When I'm not running commands on the terminal, I'm taking listening to some cool music. taking a casual stroll or watching a nice movie.

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22 thoughts on “How to Install Yay AUR Helper in Arch Linux and Manjaro”

grzbiet

September 19, 2021 at 7:31 am

“The two commonly used AUR helpers” :)

can’t believe nobody noticed that before me?
Reply
Chris S

September 2, 2021 at 6:25 pm

You need to add sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel

Can’t run makepage -si without the base packages to run this command

Otherwise, end up with
==> ERROR: Cannot find the fakeroot binary.
==> ERROR: Cannot find the strip binary required for object file stripping.
Reply
- Chris S
  
  September 2, 2021 at 6:29 pm
  Ops forgot.
```
$ sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel
```
  Must add all 12 in order for this to work.
  1) autoconf 2) automake 3) binutils 4) bison 5) fakeroot 6) flex
  7) gcc 8) m4 9) make 10) patch 11) pkgconf
  Reply
WyekS

August 31, 2021 at 1:38 pm
Hi, my recommendation:
1. Don’t install yay under “opt” directory, use your home directory.c
2. Then, “chown” commands are not needed.
4. Don’t use “sudo” with yay like when you use “pacman” (increses security).
Install yay is very easy and secure under your home directory:
```
$ sudo pacman -S git [optional if you have installed it]
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-git.git
$ cd yay-git/
$ makepkg -si
$ cd .. && sudo rm -r yay-git
```
6. Enjoy yay!
Reply
- James Kiarie
  
  September 1, 2021 at 2:59 pm
  
  Thank you for your insights WyekS.
  Reply
- filipe
  
  March 25, 2022 at 4:07 pm
  Was gonna say that, don’t use sudo with AUR helpers. The only thing I would add to your steps is:
```
$ sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel
```
  Reply
it-guy

August 8, 2021 at 1:02 pm
Why the hell “sudo” the build? this is utterly wrong, useless, dangerous, and a bad habit.
(just like building things in “/opt”)
1. git clone in your home dir as a regular user.
2. makepkg -s from there (note : without the “i”).
3. THEN only install the package with pacman : it’s the only moment root privileges are required. : pacman -U.
Reply
- jjurak
  
  August 7, 2022 at 11:37 am
  
  Probably a good point…
  
  Anyway working excellent howto good for newcomer my type, thanks.
  Reply
farzad

May 27, 2021 at 11:59 pm

Hi and thanks for the article! Is yay install dependencies are needed for a package? for example, MPV is a dependency for smplayer; If I type yay -S smplayer, It will install MPV as well or I have to install it manually?

thanks for your respond
Reply
- Ravi Saive
  
  May 28, 2021 at 12:15 pm
  
  @Farzad,
  
  All package managers are created to install dependency packages automatically…
  Reply
  - farzad
    
    May 28, 2021 at 2:47 pm
    
    Thank you so much for your response.
    Reply
gadzhi

March 3, 2021 at 1:59 pm
```
$ sudo chown -R tecmint:tecmint ./yay-git
```
chown: invalid user: “tecmint: tecmint”
Reply
- James Kiarie
  
  March 4, 2021 at 2:47 pm
  Hey gadzhi, tecmint is a Linux user with a corresponding group called tecmint. So in your case, this could be something else.
```
$ sudo chown -R tecmint:tecmint yay-git
```
  In your case use the syntax:
```
$ sudo chown -R user:group yay-git
```
  Reply
Prayag

January 8, 2021 at 7:50 pm

Thanks for the article! I’m new to Manjaro (I was using Kubuntu before). I can say that the switch was worth it! It is very fast when compared to Kubuntu and other Ubuntu-based distros. I was able to install yay without any issues. Just needed to tell something that the package base-devels are needed for this to work. I had to run sudo pacman -S base-devels before I could install yay.
Reply
Herfen

May 4, 2020 at 7:54 pm

Yeah good guide but there’s a Typo /yay-git is yay actually.
Reply
- Matt
  
  June 4, 2020 at 4:27 pm
  ‘yay‘ is for releases, whereas ‘yay-git‘ is the package for the git upstream repo.
  
  This is a standard AUR convention.
  
  The typo is putting the forward-slash before the directory name in the chown command.
```
$ sudo chown -R tecmint:tecmint /yay-git
```
  should be:
```
$ sudo chown -R tecmint:tecmint ./yay-git
```
  or just
```
$ sudo chown -R tecmint:tecmint yay-git
```
  Reply
  - Ravi Saive
    
    June 4, 2020 at 4:43 pm
    
    @Matt,
    
    Corrected the command in the article.
    
    Thanks :)
    Reply
MarkDubya

February 4, 2020 at 4:59 am
DO NOT use sudo with yay. Pacman will prompt for privileges as needed.

FYI, yay is in the Manjaro community repo and can be installed with:
```
$ sudo pacman -S yay 
Or
$ pamac install yay
```
Reply
- Meol
  
  April 13, 2020 at 2:10 pm
  
  I’m a new manjaro user and I was stuck following the above steps. Thank you for this!
  Reply
  - wes
    
    June 24, 2020 at 9:42 pm
    With manjaro, just:
    
    $ sudo pacman -Syyu $ sudo pacman -S yay
    Reply
- Akissel
  
  May 15, 2021 at 6:15 pm
  
  You’re my hero. thanks
  Reply
  - James Kiarie
    
    May 17, 2021 at 1:27 pm
    
    Most welcome , Akissel.
    Reply

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22 thoughts on “How to Install Yay AUR Helper in Arch Linux and Manjaro”

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