Mostly distro agnostic way to install Chrome without AUR

[Bink]

@Matvey_Mochalov

Q: Is it still a real, removable package or does it just dump files into /opt?

A: It’s a real one. The script builds a proper pacman package and installs it with pacman -U, so Chrome shows up in `pacman -Qi google-chrome`, upgrades like any other package, and removes cleanly with `sudo pacman -Rns google-chrome`. Nothing is scattered loose outside pacman’s tracking.

While I was writing my last post I hadn’t realised you’d added extra information. It’s good to hear it’s still using the Arch packaging system

@Matvey_Mochalov

And also to make it slightly more secure, as the AUR package relies on automatically downloading the .deb Chrome package via a link, which can potentially be compromised. My script ensures it’s only a manually downloaded package that’s going to be installed.

In a PKGBUILD, instead of providing a link, you can instead reference a local file. The build will only work if that file has been downloaded manually, and has the correct checksum. For example:

source=("file://some-file_${pkgver}.zip")

It’s perhaps worth noting too, that there are maintainers with higher trust levels operating within the AUR. To use some of the packages you listed for example:

• gtk2 is maintained by City-busz.
• google-chrome is maintained by gromit.
• microsoft-edge-stable-bin is maintained by ptr1337.
• onlyoffice-bin is maintained by dbermond.
• ttf-ms-fonts is maintained by alerque.

All of those packages are maintained by recognised Arch Package Maintainer’s, not random users.

As for any AUR based dependencies they may need, I haven’t checked. But a little perspective should be maintained at the moment.