Spinach

AUR helpers are scripts/programs on Arch Linux to help users install unsupported software using install scripts in the Arch User Repository (AUR). Spinach is fast since it uses multiple threads and uses the AUR's multiinfo option. It is written in Bash with all of its depends in the official repositories, so you don't have to compile a bunch to use it. And, best of all, it rarely breaks. Throughout the major pacman updates it has never broken. It only "broke" when the AUR decided to forward everybody to the https site, which was only noticed if UseSSL=0.

Plain Bash Script
Script in the AUR
Script on GitHub

Features

Regex search: spinach -sq kernel | grep 'pf$'
Repo support: spinach --rep -sq nouveau | grep video
Checks for updates with multiple threads and using the multiinfo option on the RPC
Aur3.org support
Provides DIY operations if you don't want to let spinach install for you
Copies the built packages to a cache
Designed for batch installation; running spinach -i this and that downloads them all, lets you view them, and then builds and installs them
Create/modify PKGBUILDs and then install with depend support: spinach --custom ./ -i something
Update devel packages with spinach --devel -u

Installing
Prerequisites: su -c 'pacman --needed -S base-devel jshon expac'
Spinach: curl -Lo s floft.net/s;less s;read;bash s -i spinach;rm s

Using
Search: spinach -s package
Print info: spinach -p package
Install: spinach -i package
Upgrade: spinach -u

For more information, read the man page or type spinach -h. For recent changes, see the change log.