Yay
An Introduction to Yay Package Manager
If you’re a Linux user, you’re probably familiar with the concept of package managers. These are tools that make it easy to install software packages and manage dependencies on your system. One such package manager that’s gaining popularity is Yay. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what Yay is, how it works, and why you might want to consider using it.
What is Yay?
Yay is a package manager for Arch Linux and other Arch-based distributions. It’s a fork of the popular Yaourt package manager, which was discontinued in 2018. Yay is written in Go and is designed to be fast, reliable, and easy to use. It’s also fully compatible with the Arch User Repository (AUR), which is a community-driven repository of packages for Arch Linux.
How does Yay work?
Yay works by using the Pacman package manager as its backend. Pacman is the default package manager for Arch Linux and is used to manage packages from the official Arch repositories. Yay extends the functionality of Pacman by adding support for the AUR. This means that you can use Yay to install packages from both the official Arch repositories and the AUR.
To use Yay, you first need to install it on your system. You can do this by running the following command in your terminal:
sudo pacman -S yay
Once Yay is installed, you can use it to search for packages, install and remove packages, and update your system. For example, to search for a package, you can run:
yay -Ss {package name}
To install a package, you can run:
yay -S {package name}
And to remove a package, you can run:
yay -R {package name}
Why use Yay?
So why might you want to use Yay instead of the default Pacman package manager? Here are a few reasons:
AUR support
As mentioned earlier, Yay is fully compatible with the Arch User Repository (AUR). This means that you can use Yay to install packages that aren’t available in the official Arch repositories. The AUR is a great resource for finding and installing packages that aren’t included in the default Arch installation.
Enhanced search functionality
Yay includes some enhancements to the search functionality that make it easier to find the packages you’re looking for. For example, you can use regular expressions to search for packages, and you can search for packages by maintainer or package description.
Improved dependency handling
Yay includes some improvements to the dependency handling that make it easier to manage packages on your system. For example, Yay can automatically resolve dependencies and handle conflicts between packages.
Faster updates
Yay is designed to be fast and efficient. This means that updates are typically faster than with other package managers. Yay also includes a feature called “update all,” which allows you to update all of the packages on your system with a single command.
Conclusion
Yay is a powerful and easy-to-use package manager for Arch Linux and other Arch-based distributions. With its support for the AUR, enhanced search functionality, improved dependency handling, and faster updates, Yay is quickly becoming a popular choice among Linux users. If you’re looking for a package manager that’s easy to use and gives you access to a wide range of packages, Yay is definitely worth checking out.
