Install yay on Arch Linux

2020-02-27| Updated 2021-05-21

This guide will walk through the steps for installing yay (Yet another Yogurt) which is an AUR Helper. This will let you install packages from the AUR (Arch User Repository) in the same way you install packages from the Arch Repo with pacman.

Update 2021-05-21: There is a new AUR Helper that has got a lot of traction. It’s called paru and works mostly the same but is written in Rust! I have a guide for installing it as well.

yay - GitHub

Installation

Do not run makepkg -si as root.

pacman -S git binutils make gcc fakeroot
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-bin.git
cd yay-bin
makepkg -si

Usage

Command	Function
yay -Ss foo	Searches for package foo on the repos or the AUR.
yay -Si foo	Get information about a package.
yay -S foo	Installs package foo from the repos or the AUR.
yay -Rns foo	Remove package, its dependencies and config files.
yay -Syu	Update package list and upgrade all installed repo and AUR packages.
yay -Sua	Update all currently installed AUR packages.
yay -Qua	Print available AUR updates.
yay -Yc	Uninstall unneeded dependencies.