aurvote

Interactively create the file ~/.config/aurvote containing your AUR username and password

$ aurvote --configure

$ aurvote [package1 package2 ...]

$ aurvote [[-u|--unvote]] [package1 package2 ...]

$ aurvote [[-c|--check]] [package1 package2 ...]

$ aurvote [[-h|--help]]

aurvote [-h] [-u] package ...

-h, --help
    Display help message and exit

-u, --unvote
    Unvote instead of voting on packages

package
    One or more AUR package names to vote/unvote (required unless -h)

aurvote is a lightweight command-line utility for Arch Linux users to vote or unvote packages in the Arch User Repository (AUR) without opening a web browser. Voting on AUR packages boosts their popularity score, influencing search rankings and recommendations on the AUR website.

It interacts with the AUR's RPC interface via curl, requiring a valid session cookie from logging into aur.archlinux.org. Users typically save their session cookie (named 'PHPSESSID') to a file like ~/.config/aurvote/cookie after browser login.

Usage is simple: specify package names to vote, or use -u to unvote. It supports multiple packages at once and provides feedback on success or errors like invalid cookies or non-existent packages. Ideal for AUR enthusiasts scripting package management or maintaining votes across many packages.

aurvote is part of the AUR ecosystem, complementing helpers like yay or paru, but focuses solely on voting. It's written as a bash script, making it easy to inspect and modify.

Requires a valid AUR session PHPSESSID cookie file at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/aurvote/cookie (default: ~/.config/aurvote/cookie). Create by logging into aur.archlinux.org in browser, copying cookie via dev tools. Fails silently on invalid cookies or non-AUR packages. Rate-limited by AUR servers.

1. Login to aur.archlinux.org.
2. F12 > Application > Cookies > Copy PHPSESSID value.
3. mkdir -p ~/.config/aurvote && echo 'PHPSESSID=your_value_here' > ~/.config/aurvote/cookie.

0: Success
1: Error (invalid args/cookie/package)
2: curl/HTTP failure

Developed by Christian Heusel (gromit) around 2020 as part of aurutils suite; available as 'aurvote' package in AUR. Evolved from user scripts for CLI AUR interaction, addressing need for browserless voting amid growing AUR popularity (>70k packages).

curl(1), paru(1), yay(1)