aur-makepkg

name	aur-makepkg
description	Configure and use makepkg to build Arch Linux packages. Covers flags, options arrays, environment variables, and chroot builds. Use when building packages, troubleshooting build failures, or configuring build settings.
license	MIT

Skill: aur-makepkg

Purpose

Build Arch Linux packages with makepkg, configure build options, and troubleshoot failures.

Basic Usage

makepkg                 # build package
makepkg -s              # sync + install dependencies
makepkg -i              # build + install
makepkg -r              # clean after build
makepkg --check         # run check() function
makepkg -o              # download + prepare only
makepkg -e              # skip extract, resume build
makepkg -c              # clean up leftover files
makepkg --printsrcinfo  # generate .SRCINFO

Options Array in PKGBUILD

options=('!emptydirs'   # remove empty dirs (default: keep)
         '!strip'       # keep debug symbols (default: strip)
         '!libtool'     # remove .la files (default: keep)
         '!ccache'      # disable ccache (default: use if installed)
         'zipman'       # compress man pages
         '!debug')      # disable debug package

Environment Variables

PKGDEST=~/packages      # where .pkg.tar.zst files go
SRCDEST=~/sources       # where downloaded sources are cached
SRCPKGDEST=~/srcpkg     # where .src.tar.gz goes
MAKEFLAGS="-j$(nproc)"  # parallel build jobs

Set in ~/.makepkg.conf (user) or /etc/makepkg.conf (system).

Chroot Builds

pkgctl build            # builds in clean chroot via systemd-nspawn

Use chroot builds to verify the package builds from scratch in a clean environment.

Common Failures

• Missing deps: add to makedepends or depends
• Network required at build: unacceptable for official repos; note in comments for AUR
• Outdated checksums: run updpkgsums
• Parallel build failure: set MAKEFLAGS="-j1" or add !parallelsmake to options

Reproducible Builds

makerepropkg *.pkg.tar.zst   # from devtools — verify a package is reproducible
repro -f *.pkg.tar.zst       # from archlinux-repro

If the build embeds timestamps, export SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH (UNIX epoch seconds) — see reproducible-builds.org.

Related

• aur-pkgbuild — PKGBUILD structure
• aur-audit — validation after build