A binary package built with xbps is a normal tar(1) archive, compressed with bzip2 and has the following structure: / /usr ------| /var ------| => Package structure that will be installed. /etc ------| ... /var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname /var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname/flist /var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname/props.plist /var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname/postpre-action Metadata info is stored in the "/var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname" directory and two files will be always be present: flist and props.plist. The flist file contains the list of files that the package will install. The props.plist file is a proplib(3) property list and has the following structure: pkgname foo version 3.40 maintainer The Master BOFH short_desc Foo is a virtual package long_desc Foo is a virtual package to show how the metadata props.plist file works with xbps handling binary packages. architecture x86_64 installed_size 500000 configuration_files /etc/foo.conf ... run_depends bofh-2.0 blab-1.1 ... ... The prepost-action is an executable script/command that allows you to trigger any action at pre/post installation/removal of the binary package. If return value is not 0, the package won't be registered into the database. The package's dictionary will also be written into the repository's package index file, that describes information about a binary package on it. See the BINPKG_REPOSITORY file for more info about repositories.