How to add LURE to Ubuntu- and Fedora-based distributions

Jack Wallen walks you through the steps of installing software that gives you access to an Arch Linux AUR-like repository of non-Arch based distributions.

Arch Linux has a community-driven repository that contains software not available in the standard repositories found on Fedora and Ubuntu-based distributions. AUR stands for Arch User Repository, and it’s particularly fancy because it takes the source for a piece of software and then installs it using the distribution’s package manager.

You can see this as a sort of “best-of-both-worlds” scenario, which you won’t find in non-arch distributions unless you use a brand new tool called LURE or Linux User REpository. Although LURE does not give you access to the AUR repositories, it strives to bring an AUR-like feature to non-arch distributions.

SEE: Hire Kit: Backend Developer (TechRepublic Premium)

What is LURE?

From the developer of LURE:

“My project is called LURE, short for Linux User REpository. It creates native packages and then installs them using the system package manager, just like the AUR. It uses a build script similar to AUR’s PKGBUILD to build the packages. It is written in pure Go which means that once built it has no dependencies apart from privilege escalation commands (sudo, doas etc.) and one of the supported package managers which currently are: pacman, apt, apk (Alpine Linux, not android), dnf, yum and zypper.”

Before we continue, you should know that LURE is still in early stages of development and the official LURE repository is limited in the software offered. However, should this tool really take off, I would expect this repository to fill up quickly with all kinds of software. However, what this will require is that open source package developers submit their software to the LURE repositories. That’s part of the beauty of open source projects; They’re often a community cause, so anyone who wants to get involved can get involved.

LURE also allows for adding multiple repositories, so it promises to be even more flexible than AUR. Hopefully more repositories will be added soon. But even though this is a project that’s just getting started, it’s definitely worth a look. Let me show you how to install and use LURE.

What you need to install LURE

The only things you need for this are a running instance of an Ubuntu or Fedora based Linux distribution and a user with sudo privileges. That’s it; let’s make it happen

How to install LURE

Installing LURE is remarkably easy. The first thing you need to do is open a web browser and navigate to the LURE download page. From there, download either the .deb or .rpm package appropriate for your architecture. Save this file in your ~/Downloads directory.

After the file has downloaded, open a terminal window and install the software using one of the following commands:

• For Ubuntu-based distributions: sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/lure*.deb
• For Fedora-based distributions: sudo rpm -i ~/Downloads/lure*.rpm

Once the installation is complete, you can use LURE.

How to use BAIT

Let me demonstrate LURE by installing the Neofetch application. Neofetch is a pretty cool app that displays all sorts of information about your operating system from the command line. First, let’s install Neofetch with LURE.

Go back to the terminal window and enter the command:

sudo bait in neofetch

The above command is the same no matter what distribution you are using. LURE will start the process and ask for your permission to continue with the installation. Once the installation is complete, you can run Neofetch with the following command:

neofetch

Everything should go smoothly.

If you want to delete Neofetch, the command is:

sudo lure rm neofetch

To update Neofetch, enter the command:

lure sudo neofetch

To find out what software is available to install, enter the following command:

sudo curl ls

As said, LURE is still in an early stage of development, so you won’t find many applications to install just yet. Hopefully that will change as LURE becomes more popular and seen as a viable alternative for non-arch Linux distributions. While this will take some time, this is a great open source project to contribute to.

If you are interested in getting on board the LURE project, contact the developer, Arsen Musayelyan, and find out how you can contribute.

Subscribe to TechRepublic’s How To Make Tech Work on YouTube for the latest tech advice for business professionals from Jack Wallen.