Pamac: Set build environment variable

[gustavonow]

Greetings, I was wondering if the pamac developers will consider this feature:

• Develop a Build environment variables option in Settings/AUR so that users can set their own build environment variables to be used with AUR packages. It could be a CSS TextArea or a button to a new window with such area.

Explanation:

In the Archlinux community, the prevalent opinion is that the instalation of AUR packages should be static:
That is, the installation files should come with configurations pre-selected for the user, for automation reasons; and if the user wishes he can edit the installation to suit his needs.
That can be done in two ways that I know of:

• The user edits the installation files directly, such as PKGBUILD, and runs makepkg -si;
• The package maintainer has set the package in such a way that it accepts environment variables. So the user just runs env variable=key to have a personalized installation.

This happens, for example, for me, in the package linux-manjaro-xanmod, it says in the PKGBUILD that if one wants to use microarchictecture optimizations in gcc compiler, he should set an environment variable running:
env _microarchitecture=99

But that can command can only be run in the terminal, so forces the usage of pamac’s cli; It could be solved by setting an environment variable in .bashrc, or some of these files that linux checks on login, but it doesn’t seem right to me to be setting a permanent variable in some global config file which has no direct connection with Pamac, and so I if I need to check which variable is active and where, I’d have to search. It seems more intuitive to me that this kind of variable should be in the pamac gui.

It’s important to point out that, with Pamac’s current behavior, if it edit one of the installation files using the Compile files tab in the Package Details, when a new version of the package appears, the edited files are reset to default.

[bogdancovaciu]

Hello,

@gustavonow

Develop a Build environment variables option in Settings/AUR

As a reminder Arch User Repository - Manjaro the first block of instructions, the top note:

No support will be provided by the Manjaro team for any issues that may arise relating to software installations from the AUR.

And now you ask for a facilitation to edit the PKGBUILD, without actually editing it, make Pamac “guess” if there is or not a env option and let you overwrite it/add your own, store it somewhere for later build/update …
Actually i’m quite curios about the outcome of this

[gustavonow]

Greetings! I appreciate the attention!

I understand now the project’s stance on AUR support.

Since I still wonder what is the intended pamac behaviour on edited PKGBUILD files and AUR updates (not asking for an AUR package support, just wondering if the pamac software creates a drop-in, as in systemctl edit, or if it edits the package directly) , I’ll open a question for pamac.

Cheers.