Flagged Out Of Date AUR Packages

General system
1

This is probably stupid question, but I would like to know is it safe to continue using packages that are flagged out of date? When I was doing updates this morning pacman warned me that dropbox is flagged out of date. What choice do I actually have? The fact is I need dropbox.

2

Dropbox is pretty popular it is probably a packager (note unknown) oversight.

$ yay -Qi dropbox
Name            : dropbox
Version         : 102.4.431-1
Description     : A free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily.
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://www.dropbox.com
Licenses        : custom
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : libsm  libxslt  libxmu  libxdamage  libxrender  libxxf86vm  libxcomposite  fontconfig  dbus
Optional Deps   : ufw-extras: ufw rules for dropbox
                  perl-file-mimeinfo: opening dropbox folder on some desktop environments
                  xdg-utils: for "Launch Dropbox Website" and file manager integration [installed]
                  libappindicator-gtk3: make tray icons themed under some desktop environments like KDE plasma [installed]
Required By     : None
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 192.79 MiB
Packager        : Unknown Packager
Build Date      : Sat 25 Jul 2020 12:39:01 PM MDT
Install Date    : Sat 25 Jul 2020 12:39:07 PM MDT
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : None
3

Well, I got information about that dropbox package from here:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dropbox/

1 Like
4

It just means a newer version is available. Keep in mind that Arch is rolling release so the instant something new is released that package is considered out of date. I would not consider it an issue unless the package was seriously out of date. A few days is nothing to be concerned about.

2 Likes
5

OK, thanks. :smiley:

6

As additional info on what @alenbasic said, everyone can flag a package out-of-date in the AUR. With popular apps like Dropbox, people will flag it sooner than with other packages. It kind of keeps the maintainer of that particular package on his toes. :wink:

5 Likes
7

It’s reversed question, but still connected…

I wonder, what should AUR package maintainer do to get into main Arch repos, except:

  • Being really good software
  • Have a lot of upvotes

? :thinking:

8

Have someone willing to maintain it and fit within the Arch philosophy (so e.g. yay will never be in the main repos because of that).

1 Like
9

Essentially, it comes down to whether an Arch dev or TU uses it and wants to maintain it (and that’s also the main reason something gets promoted to community anyway :wink:).

1 Like
10

Thx :slight_smile:

Surely they won’t tolerate 0,01% out there :face_with_monocle: :sweat_smile:

11

It really seem I was too hasty. Dropbox was updated today to a newer version… :smile:

1 Like
12

Slighty OT but nice to know.

The Packager info in a package is created from /etc/makepkg.conf on the system building the package. So unless you copy this makepkg.conf to your home as .makepkg.conf and edit the packager entry the entry will always bee Unknown Packager as this is the default.

3 Likes