Meet Una, a Full-Featured MPR (AUR Fork) Helper for Debian and Ubuntu-Based Distros

Una

From the creator of Gamebuntu, here comes Una, a complete and full-featured MPR helper for Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu-based distributions to help you install more third-party packages.

If you’re not familiar with MPR, let me tell you that it’s a package distribution platform similar to Arch Linux‘s AUR (Arch User Repository), but designed to work on Debian GNU/Linux and derivatives like Ubuntu, Linux Mint or Pop!_OS Linux.

Just like AUR, the MPR packages use the classic PKGBUILD shell script to provide build information required to build the packages.

In other words, MPR, which was launched a few months ago, will help you install third-party packages (or newer versions of packages) that aren’t available in the software repositories of your Debian or Ubuntu-based distribution.

MPR uses a tool called makedeb for packaging and a MPR helper to install and manage packages. This is where Una steps in as a complete MPR helper and a replacement for tap, the initial helper developed by the creators of MPR.

Una features support for installing, removing and updating packages, support for package dependencies from the MPR, the ability to search for packages, support for showing package information, auto-completion support, as well as support for cloning packages from the MPR, separate from the actual installation.

It even has an auto updater function that automatically installs newer versions of packages, and it supports the installation of -git packages if the main package doesn’t exist.

“There’s only one other helper named ‘tap’ which is currently being maintained for the MPR, and it’s really buggy (can’t handle dependencies properly, for example),” said developer Rudra Saraswat for 9to5Linux.com. “Una is a complete MPR helper written in Bash. Una has many unique features like the ability to show package information from the MPR and auto-update support.”

MPR’s goal it to limit the package fragmentation on Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu based systems, and Una is here to make everything easier. To install Una on your Debian- or Ubuntu-based distro, visit the project’s GitHub page. To check out the packages available in MPR or contribute new one, check out the official website.

Last updated 2 years ago

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