When to use yay, when to build yourself?

Support AUR
1

Hi all,

I just had a “fun” time installing this application from the AUR
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rstudio-desktop-bin

Eventually I stumbled upon a page which informed me to install using yay. I am curious how me being a n00b is supposed to know when to use yay or when to just go ahead and use makepkg?

3

Officially, AUR helpers such as yay are unsupported. The “proper” procedure involves manually building the package with makepkg.

Practically, most AUR helpers now simply automate the steps – some time ago, a few helpers actually added custom steps that could contribute to fail builds.
You can prefer using a AUR helper, though if a build fails, it may be worth trying the proper way.

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4

Thanks for the response. I seemed to have forgotten that makepkg -i does the same thing as pacman -u pkgname.tar… . I was getting caught there, thank you for your guide too. I bookmarked it in case I run into the same problem.