There are a lot of packages in AUR that use something like: npm install -g --user root --cache "${srcdir}/npm-cache" --prefix "$pkgdir/usr" "$srcdir/$_npmname-$pkgver.tgz" to install and package a nodejs project. I guess at some point in time `--user root` worked for NPM but nowadays, npm behaves like this: 1) it silently ignores the `--user` option 2) installs the NPM package root (before installing the wanted .tgz) https://www.npmjs.com/package/root I guess `--user root` worked in some version of NPM but at some point npm decided to remove the option and not error on its use (what can I say). So, the recommendation is to remove all uses of `--user root` in PKGBUILD. ps. can someone run a grep -r -- "--user root" on the whole of AUR? -- damjan