ArchLinux Pacman and AUR

Most projects that don’t have packages available in ArchLinux packaging manager pacman can be found in ArchLinux AUR. However, sometimes the project only provides a Debian deb package to download. Here’s how you install a deb package in ArchLinux.

Install debtap

The solution is found in the AUR package debtap. Download the deptap snapshot.

Extract and make:

$ tar zvxf ~/Downloads/debtap.tar.gz -C ~/arch
$ cd ~/arch/debtap
$ makepkg -s
$ sudo pacman -U debtap-3.1.4-2-any.pkg.tar.xz

Convert Debian package to pacman package

Create a directory where you put the deb package and convert to pacman package like in the following example:

$ mkdir ~/tmp/
$ cp ~/Download/<deb-package.deb> ~/tmp
$ cd ~/tmp
$ debtap <deb-package.deb>

Now you need to answer some questions. Name the package and enter a licence (I just write GPL).

There should now be a pacman package in the directory named deb-package-x.y.z-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

Install the pacman package

$ sudo pacman -U <deb-package>-x.y.z-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

Package is installed and you’re done!