Feature Request: add option to use AUR metadata-server instead of FAUR

[tristanRW]

something like: --use-AUR-metadata or --metadataserver where you can set it to a custom link

It would be a nice to have even if it's feature-restricted due to the extra endpoints in FAUR not being available

[fosskers]

Thanks for the suggestion.

due to the extra endpoints in FAUR not being available

Could you elaborate on this?

[tristanRW]

Thank you for the swift reply.
So what I would hope for is a option to query the original metadataserver. An example for a use-case could be to make sure a package can be retrieved during development, or simply get a certain update immediately if that is needed.
What I was saying regarding the API was that I am not sure if the "normal" AUR endpoints allow all of auras features to be used. So I suggested implementing the option with reduced features if needed.

[fosskers]

I am not sure if the "normal" AUR endpoints allow all of auras features to be used

That's correct - the Faur only has a single endpoint, but it accepts query parameters to perform different search types. A one-for-one swap wouldn't be possible if the user of the proposed --metadataserver option supplied something that didn't support the same API.

Is that what you were imagining, a one-for-one swap for all API calls?

[tristanRW]

But would it be possible to match requests to the API if the original Aur metadataserver? Then a --useaur would be possible.

[fosskers]

If I changed how the requests were structured internally, yes. I'll ask again though: what's the end goal? What new usage pattern would be unlocked for the user?

[tristanRW]

One usage-scenario would be the ability to have certain packages as soon as they are on the Aur.
It could also benefit resilience, since users could fall back to this option if Faur is not reachable.

[fosskers]

to have certain packages as soon as they are on the Aur.

Right, at the moment you'd have to wait an average of half an hour for the new data to become available, since the Faur refreshes itself every hour. So far this has been enough for people, but developers testing out their packages might have different needs, as you point out.

users could fall back to this option if Faur is not reachable.

So far the Faur has had no downtime, and the traffic from Aura is far less than what would be required to overload it. I'm willing to wait to see what might organically break it (if anything).

[tristanRW]

It's not specifically about Faur possibly breaking at some point. Just the feature to not be forced to use it would be nice. Especially since aura does so many things right that other aur-helpers that just use Aur do not provide.

[fosskers]

I will think about how this could possibly be added.