What to do about an outdated, but easily fixed, PKGBUILD in AUR?

Question

I've found an outdated PKGBUILD on AUR. The source URL that it references doesn't exist anymore. It can easily be fixed by incrementing a version number.

What is the proper way of solving this? I've already left a comment, but should I also flag the package as out-of-date? Should I send the fixed PKGBUILD somewhere?

Answer 1

You're on the right track... from the ArchWiki:

For starters, you can flag packages out-of-date. If it stays out-of-date for an extended period of time, the best thing to do is email the maintainer. If there is no response from the maintainer after two weeks, you could send mail to the aur-general mailing list to have a TU orphan the PKGBUILD if you're willing to maintain it yourself.

Another option in the meantime, although this might not be a preferred practice... but, I have seen some users edit the PKGBUILD and then upload their version to a pastebin and then link to it in the comments. Other users will still need to make manual edits but at least the update will be known.

Answer 2

Besides leaving a comment (which will be seen by people downloading the PKGBUILD), flag it as out of date and try to contact the PKGBUILD's author.