Software Alternatives & Startups

pacaur VS pkgsrc

Compare pacaur VS pkgsrc and see what are their differences

pacaur logo pacaur

An AUR helper that minimizes user interaction.

pkgsrc logo pkgsrc

pkgsrc is a framework for building over 17,000 open source software packages.
  • pacaur Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • pkgsrc Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-30

pacaur features and specs

  • AUR Support
    Pacaur provides seamless integration with the Arch User Repository (AUR), allowing users to easily access and install a wide variety of user-submitted packages.
  • Dependency Management
    Pacaur automatically handles dependencies for AUR packages, ensuring that all necessary components are installed without user intervention.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Pacaur offers a user-friendly interface that simplifies package management, making it easier to search, install, and manage packages.
  • Automation of Tasks
    Pacaur automates many routine tasks such as updates and installations, reducing the time and effort required from the user.

Possible disadvantages of pacaur

  • Maintenance Status
    As of its last updates, Pacaur is no longer actively maintained, which may lead to compatibility issues with newer systems and limits future improvements or bug fixes.
  • Complexity for New Users
    Although it offers advanced features, Pacaur can be complex for new Arch users who are unfamiliar with terminal-based package management tools.
  • Potential for Breakage
    Being an AUR helper means Pacaur installs unsupported packages which might sometimes conflict with official packages, potentially causing system instability.
  • Dependency on AUR
    Pacaur relies heavily on the AUR, which can be unreliable at times due to user-submitted content, including potentially outdated or unmaintained packages.

pkgsrc features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Support
    pkgsrc is designed to be a portable package management system and can be used on a variety of Unix-like operating systems, including NetBSD, Solaris, Linux, and macOS. This cross-platform capability makes it a versatile tool for developers working in diverse environments.
  • Consistency Across Systems
    Using pkgsrc allows for a consistent package management experience regardless of the underlying operating system, reducing the learning curve and maintenance overhead for administrators managing multiple systems.
  • Comprehensive Package Collection
    pkgsrc offers a wide range of software packages, providing a robust collection that can meet diverse user needs from scientific libraries to web applications.
  • Quarterly Releases
    With quarterly releases, pkgsrc provides a balanced approach between stability and keeping software up to date, offering users new features regularly while maintaining reliability.
  • Flexible Build Options
    pkgsrc supports a flexible build system, allowing users to customize package builds with specific options or dependencies, tailored to their specific needs or system requirements.

Possible disadvantages of pkgsrc

  • Smaller Community
    Compared to other popular package management systems like apt (Debian/Ubuntu) or yum (RedHat/CentOS), pkgsrc has a relatively smaller community, which might affect the availability of support and community-driven improvements.
  • Potentially Older Software
    While pkgsrc maintains stable quarterly releases, it may occasionally lag behind other systems in terms of offering the very latest versions of certain software, which might not be ideal for users needing the newest features.
  • Manual Configuration
    Setting up pkgsrc might require manual interventions and configurations, which could pose a hurdle for users unfamiliar with its setup process or those who prefer more automated solutions.
  • Dependency Management
    Although pkgsrc is quite capable in dependency handling, some users may find its dependency resolution to be less automatic or seamless compared to other systems which offer more integrated solutions.
  • Performance Overhead
    Because it is designed to be cross-platform, there can be some performance overhead associated with using pkgsrc compared to native package managers that are optimized for specific operating systems.

pacaur videos

use the AUR? time to get a new helper (pacaur, yaourt, yay)

pkgsrc videos

pkgsrc on ChromeOS

More videos:

  • Review - Using pkgsrc for multi-platform deployments in heterogeneous environments, G Clifford Williams

Category Popularity

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Focus Music
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Developer Tools
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100% 100
Work Music
100 100%
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Package Manager
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User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, pkgsrc seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

pacaur mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of pacaur yet. Tracking of pacaur recommendations started around Mar 2021.

pkgsrc mentions (11)

  • Debian isn't waiting for 2038 to blow up, switches to 64-bit time for everything
    > Most open source software packages are also compiled for BSD variants, they switched to 64 bit time_t a long time ago and reported back upstream any problems. * NetBSD in 2012: https://www.netbsd.org/releases/formal-6/NetBSD-6.0.html * OpenBSD in 2014: http://www.openbsd.org/55.html For packaging, NetBSD uses their (multi-platform) Pkgsrc, which has 29,000 packages, which probably covers a large swath of... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Our Audit of Homebrew
    > https://pkgsrc.smartos.org/install-on-macos/ Note that Pkgsrc is a NetBSD-derived project. * https://pkgsrc.org The Joyent folks leveraged it to allow their customers, who were perhaps not as familiar with Solaris/SmartOS, a larger pool of packages. Pkgsrc was running on Solaris before Joyent, Joyent built on top of it. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Show HN: Brioche – A new Nix-like package manager
    Https://pkgsrc.org/ from netbsd runs on many systems. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Installing packages without an internet connection?
    It seems according to pkgsrc.org that pkgin might follow the PKG_PATH environment variable. You're supposed to set PKG_PATH="http://cdn.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/$(uname -p)/$(uname -r|cut -f '1 2' -d.)/All/", and according to uname(1), -p gives the processor architecture and -r gives the operating system [kernel] release. Source: over 3 years ago
  • pkgsrc.se is no more :(
    It seems like pkgsrc.org hasn’t got the news yet. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing pacaur and pkgsrc, you can also consider the following products

Yay - Yay is an AUR helper written in go, based on the design of yaourt, apacman and pacaur.

Conda - Binary package manager with support for environments.

paru - An AUR helper written in Rust and based on the design of yay. It aims to be your standard pacman wrapping AUR helper with minimal interaction.

Homebrew - The missing package manager for macOS

pikaur - AUR helper with minimal dependencies. Review PKGBUILDs all in once, next build them all without user interaction.Inspired by pacaur, yaourt and yay.

Pamac - Graphical Package Manager for Manjaro Linux (based on libalpm).