Installing from copr without fetching repo url

So as I understand it, copr is the Fedora-equivalent to AUR, but it seems that it’s not “all-in-one” tool for downloading “unofficial” software.

  • In Arch, installing brave is as simple as yay -S brave-bin.
  • In Fedora, I have to know Brave repo url, check it from the website, then add itsudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/x86_64/, then install it.

Question:

  • Is there a way to install a 3rd party package without needing to check its repo URL?
  • How do you batch install packages in fedora? In Arch, it’s by simply yay -S "$(cat pkglist.txt)", but in Fedora, it looks like pkglist.txt needs to contain a list of repo urls too?

Setting up a third-party RPM repo is a mandatory one-time operation.
Although some repos are preinstalled, but disabled by default.

It’s the same way but with DNF:

sudo dnf install ...

You can add/enable extra repos in a script outside the package list file.

You need to first add the relevant repo although sometimes there are packages that will do that for you.

You need to add all the relevant repos first. Or download the rpms directly. It is better to add the repos though if you also want to be able update the software after it is installed.

That is not really the case. They are very different.

Fedora doesn’t really have anything that is the equivalent of the AUR.

The AUR is one of the big advantages of using Arch Linux. Of course, Fedora has it’s own benefits.

In the example you show copr is not where the repo is hosted.

Ok, is there at least a way to set it up without a browser? E.g: yay -Ss brave

What are they? I’m sure I enabled “Third party repos” when I installed Fedora, but I’m still missing many packages, and I have to go on their installation process one by one.

You download them from each website one at a time.

Yes, that is pretty much how it works.

You can add the various rpm fusion repos which will give you big groups of packages but other than that you need to use lots of different sources.

Of course, flatpak is an option and you can get many applications as flatpaks from flathub.

You could probably download them with wget or curl but there isn’t a single command solution like there is with Arch.

I meant to ask about the ability to look up those repo URLs from commandline without a browser. From the browser it’s possible to look up in https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/.

I think in practice you will find that most of the software you are looking for doesn’t actually come from copr’s but directly from the software publishers.

Even your example above doesn’t come from a copr.

AUR is a single repo where users submit source packages only (PKGBUILDs). When you install a package from AUR, you’re downloading the PKGBUILD and building it yourself.

Copr is a service that allows users to create their own repos. Packages are built on Copr.

Basically AUR is like a family cookbook where you share recipes with each other, but you have to make the food yourself. Copr is a mall where everyone can open their own restaurant serving cooked food, but to get a specific food you have to know which restaurant to order from.

Third-party repos like Brave are not related to Copr (or AUR).

If Brave had their own repo for Arch packages not-real-arch-repo.brave.com, you would also have to know the URL to use their repo on Arch. But nobody outside of Arch makes Arch packages (case in point, Brave makes deb and rpm packages). Hence you have the AUR where users try to package everything.


You can search Copr projects (not packages) from cli. See dnf copr (from dnf-plugins-core which is installed by default). Many Coprs follow the convention of 1 project per package or group of related-packages, but this is not a rule; some users put all their packages into 1 project so the name is not representative of what packages are in there (like a personal mini-AUR).

You probably should not use the cli to find and install packages without checking how they’re made (just like AUR, which advises you to read every PKGBUILD before you build them). User-made packages don’t go through any official review process and there can be some questionable ones.

Here are the official instructions for Brave browser:
Installing Brave on Linux | Brave Browser

Other third-party RPM repos use a similar approach.

Great response. I liked the cooking analogy.

Yes. Point is: in Arch, someone else has already figured out their latest repo URL, I don’t have to look it up to check it.

Yes. Which is why I’m looking for those “ready recipes” to cook up Brave without having to search for its installation instructions. In Arch, if the installation process is changed for whatever reason, someone else already took care of that and updated the installation script.

Again thanks for the reply

If Brave was 100% free, it could be packaged in Fedora (or someone would’ve already packaged it on Copr). But there are restrictions on the signing keys. This is why it’s only on AUR and not Arch repos, according to the AUR packager.