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@Sebastiangmz
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Problem

The command yay -Slqa generates corrupted binary data instead of package names on some systems. This causes the AUR installation interface (omarchy-pkg-aur-install) to:

  • Display garbage/unreadable characters instead of package names
  • Fail with errors like: can't use target with option --a

Screenshot of the issue

The AUR package list shows binary data like:

�Td��U��ӷ���Z�7����櫞/��|��iV...

Investigation findings

  • yay -Ss (search) works correctly
  • yay -Sl core (list official repos) works correctly
  • yay -Sl --aur generates corrupted binary output
  • Reinstalling yay does not fix the issue
  • The AUR API works correctly when accessed directly

Solution

Fetch the package list directly from the AUR server using curl instead of relying on yay -Slqa:

curl -s "https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.gz" | gunzip

This is more reliable and produces the same result (list of all AUR package names).

Testing

Verified that:

  1. The curl command returns valid package names
  2. The fzf interface displays packages correctly
  3. Package installation with yay still works normally

The command `yay -Slqa` generates corrupted binary data instead of
package names on some systems, causing the AUR installation interface
to display garbage characters and fail with errors like:
"can't use target with option --a"

This fix fetches the package list directly from the AUR server using
curl, which is more reliable and works consistently.
@Shirkit
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Shirkit commented Nov 27, 2025

I can confirm I have this issue and applying the proposed fix does solve it, although it's a slower process overall.

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2 participants