Arch Linux User Repository

@m040601 Finally found a bit of time to look into it. The pandoc-cli package is now an optional dependency. If it's installed then the 'man' is compiled from scratch, else the commited pre-build version is used instead. Should solve the heavy pandoc footprint issue on space-sensitive target systems.

Another option is to just make use of github free CI/workflows/actions infrastructure.

Just release a precompiled binary tar.gz on github.

Then make a simple "ctune-bin" PKGBUILD on AUR that justs pulls from that.

Easy and simple for the end user who just doesnt care about all the pandoc/cmake/boost depencies.

An7ar35 commented on 2025-02-05 05:29 (UTC)

... I'll change the dependency to pandoc-cli.
...
- makedepends = pandoc
+ makedepends = pandoc-cli
...

This will not change anything. Currentlyi the official Arch package is called "pandoc-cli" but is actually exactly the full pandoc.

Exactly the same gigabytes download as before.

There is no "light" official alternative thing.

-pkgname=pandoc-cli
provides=('pandoc')
conflicts=('pandoc')
replaces=('pandoc')

For anyone on Arch who needs Pandoc for personal uses, the only alternative, is the AUR non-official (but very popular), "pandoc-bin".

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pandoc-bin

Just pulls the precompiled binary released tar.gz from pandoc github It is around 200 Mega. Includes man pages and data files.

That's what I do for my personal pandoc uses.

But I wouldnt do that for a tool of mine released on AUR.

If I were the developer, I would just "build" (pandoc -t man file.md) or write by hand the ctune man page on my computer myself. Not make it part of a make/cmake build process. It's just a 1K text file.

And if its just that one tiny tiny markdown page why bother to have a "man" page ? Just ship it as "README.md" to /usr/share/doc/ctune/ and let the user choose what he wants to read it.

Or if I did in fact have a lot of docs and complicated man pages to generate. I would use some lighter alternative like for example:

• https://lobste.rs/s/ya7zsm
• https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/scdoc
• https://kokada.dev/blog/praise-to-scdoc-to-generate-man-pages/?ref=dailydev
• https://drewdevault.com/2018/05/13/scdoc.html
• search github.com for issues "consider scdo generate man page" to see how others do it.

Thats a makedependency that I think the end user could tolerate.

@m040601 Fair point. As I use the full install of pandoc for other things I never looked at the size very closely. I'll change the dependency to pandoc-cli.

Thanks to @An7ar35 for continuing to develop this tool and taking care of the PKGBUILD. Very appreciated.

About the "pandoc" makedependency.

As of now,

17 makedepends=('make'
18              'cmake'
19              'git'
20              'pandoc')

yay -S ctune-git

Packages (229) cppdap-1.58.0-2  ghc-libs-9.2.8-1
               haskell-aeson-2.1.2.1-63  haskell-aeson-pretty-0.8.10-23
               haskell-ansi-terminal-0.11.5-16
               haskell-ansi-terminal-types-0.11.5-17
               haskell-ansi-wl-pprint-0.6.9-436  haskell-appar-0.1.8-14

           ...... hundreds of haskell pandoc dependencies

               haskell-zip-archive-0.4.3.2-11  haskell-zlib-0.6.3.0-69
               hslua-cli-1.4.1-65  jsoncpp-1.9.6-3  rhash-1.4.4-1
               cmake-3.31.4-1  pandoc-cli-3.1.12.1-1

Total Download Size:    81.23 MiB
Total Installed Size:  581.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]

That's because the official Archlinux "pandoc" pulls thath half a gigabyte of dependecies.

This does not make any sense. I should not have to install half gigabyte of pandoc just to generate/compile some simple Markdown of man pages files. And then throw it away. Let's think how can we improve this absurd situation.

From the ctune README:

┄┄┄Compile from source

Requires the following to be installed on the system first:

• cmake version 3.17 and the CMake extra-modules package
• git for fetching the repos
• ffmpeg, vlc player libraries*
• lame for recording streams to mp3
• curl and openssl libraries
• sdl2  or pulsedaudio or alsa or sndio or pipewire sound library/
  servers*
• pandoc and gzip for the man page

So "pandoc" is in fact required by the default build process. Tragic but true. There are other much lighter and simple tools to build man pages and markdown like for example "scdoc".

Maybe the "ctune" developer is not aware of them ???

In the mean time. What can we do here in the AUR ? One could just dump it and forget about the man pages or .md doc files. That is of course not a good option. Is there a better one ?

Now, there is in the AUR a "pandoc-bin"

Repository                    : aur
Name                          : pandoc-bin
Version                       : 3.6.2-1
Groups                        : None
Provides                      : pandoc=3.6.2  pandoc-cli=3.6.2
Conflicts With                : pandoc-cli
Replaces                      : None
AUR URL                       : https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pandoc-bin
First Submitted               : Tue 03 Oct 2017 09:45:37 AM WEST
Last Modified                 : Mon 13 Jan 2025 07:50:33 AM WET
Popularity                    : 4.524963
Votes                         : 314
Out-of-date                   : No



It is a very very popular, with many votes and well maintained PKGBUILD. 

It is a good alternative for those who need pandoc and dont want the
absurd half gigabytes of dependecies.


As you can see,

Provides : pandoc=3.6.2 pandoc-cli=3.6.2

So, if you have "pandoc-bin", anything else on the AUR that requires pandoc as a makedependency, 
will use it. Instead of prompting the user to install  the official "pandoc".

That is the case of "ctune-git". If you have ALREADY  "pandoc-bin" installed, then "ctune-git" will not pull the official pandoc.

If you dont, then "ctune-git" just pulls pandoc.

Now. Some users might be unaware of this. And think the only way is
having those half gigabyte pulled.


So  the best way would be to adjust the "ctune-git" PKGBUILD to also accept or prompt
the user to choose between "pandoc" or "pandoc-bin". Instead of
immediately pulling "pandoc".

Repository : aur Name : ctune-git Depends On : ncurses openssl curl ffmpeg alsa-lib libbsd Optional Deps : pulseaudio pipewire-pulse pipewire sdl2 sndio vlc Make Deps : make cmake git pandoc Check Deps : None ```

Or at least display a brief message about this option.

Thanks in advance.

now ok

@simona I've updated the dependencies in the PKGBUILD to use pipewire-pulse instead. Should solve that problem for now.

:: pulseaudio-17.0-3 e pipewire-pulse-1:1.2.2-1 vanno in conflitto. Rimuovere pipewire-pulse? [s/N]