----------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS IT? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- xbps - xtraeme's build package system. It is a simple build package system that installs packages inside of a chroot in a destination directory. Once the package has been installed into this directory, you can make it appear/unappear at the master directory at any time. It's in spirit the same than GNU stow, but the files are just copied (there are no soft/hard links). xbps has been designed for Linux, and for the moment I'm not interested to make it work on any other random OS. I've been a NetBSD developer for some years and I do not want to come back... also the experience has helped to me to start xbps and not to use pkgsrc, which is very portable but also not so fast. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- REQUIREMENTS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- xbps uses proplib, a property container object library and it's almost the same one available for NetBSD. Be sure to have it installed before using xbps. You can get it at: http://code.google.com/p/portableproplib/ I'm also the human maintaining the portable proplib package. I'd suggest you to install it into /usr/local to avoid issues with your distribution packages. Additionally the following software is required to be able to use xbps: * GNU Make * GNU Binutils * GNU GCC (plus GMP and MPFR) development packages. * GNU Bison * GNU m4 * wget * fakeroot Super-user privileges are required as well, because all packages are built in a chroot (except the ones that are included in a virtual package to be able to build a minimal system for the chroot). PLEASE NOTE THAT fakechroot or fakeroot-ng DO NOT WORK. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HOW TO USE IT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Before using xbps, some required utilities need to be built and installed into the utils/ directory. You can do this by issuing "make" in the top level directory and edit the configuration file located at the xbps directory. By default it uses the xbps directory in your $HOME. If configuration file is not specified from the command line with the -c flag, it will first try to use the default location at /etc/xbps.conf, and as last resort in current directory. To avoid problems with libtool and configure scripts finding stuff that is available in the host system, almost all packages must be built inside of a chroot. So the first thing would be to create the binary packages with: $ xbps.sh install xbps-base-chroot This will build all required packages via fakeroot in masterdir, therefore you can run it as normal user. Next commands will require super-user privileges and all package handling will be done within the chroot. I believe it's the most easier and faster way to handle clean dependencies; another reason would be that xbps packages are meant to be used in a system and not just for ordinary users. So once all packages are built, you can create and enter to the chroot with: $ sudo xbps.sh chroot Press Control + D to exit from the chroot. The following targets will require to be done in the chroot: build, configure, install, install-destdir, remove, stow and unstow. Now let's explain some more about the targets that you can use. To start installing packages you should use the install target: $ sudo xbps.sh install glib If the package is properly installed, it will be "stowned" automatically. ``stowned´´ means that this package is available in the master directory, on which xpbs has copied all files from DESTDIR/. To remove a currently installed (and stowned) package, you can use: $ sudo xbps.sh remove glib Please note that when you remove it, the package will also be removed from XBPS_DESTDIR and previously "unstowned". To stow an already installed package (from XBPS_DESTDIR/): $ sudo xbps.sh stow glib and to unstow an already installed (stowned) package: $ sudo xbps.sh unstow glib You can also print some stuff about any template build file, e.g: $ xbps.sh info glib To list installed (stowned) packages, use this: $ xbps.sh list To only extract the distfiles, without configuring/building/installing: $ xbps.sh extract foo To not remove the build directory after successful installation: $ sudo xbps.sh -C install blah To only fetch the distfile: $ xbps.sh fetch blah To only install the package, _without_ stowning it into the master directory: $ sudo xbps.sh install-destdir blob To list files installed by a package, note that package must be installed into destination directory first: $ xbps.sh listfiles blob ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PERFORMANCE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ xbps is really fast, trust me. That was one of my reasons to make my own pkgsrc/ports alike system. If you want benchmarks, here is one: building libX11 and all its dependencies required (not included building xstow) with xbps: 251.20s real 121.36s user 53.94s system versus pkgsrc (make install clean clean-depends and digest previously installed): 450.41s real 167.58s user 97.31s system That's more or less 40% faster! that's the price you pay for having those wrappers in pkgsrc that aren't very useful on NetBSD :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Juan Romero Pardines