27 KiB
The XBPS source packages manual
This article contains an exhaustive manual of how to create new source
packages for XBPS, the Void Linux
native packaging system.
Introduction
The xbps-packages
repository contains all source
packages that are the
recipes to download, compile and build binary packages for Void
.
Those source
package files are called templates
.
The template files
are GNU bash
shell scripts that must define some required/optional
variables
and functions
that are processed by xbps-src
(the package builder)
to generate the resulting binary packages.
A simple template
example is as follows:
# Template file for 'foo'
pkgname="foo"
version="1.0"
revision=1
build_style=gnu-configure
short_desc="A short description max 72 chars"
maintainer="name <email>"
license="GPL-3"
homepage="http://www.foo.org"
distfiles="http://www.foo.org/foo-${version}.tar.gz"
checksum="fea0a94d4b605894f3e2d5572e3f96e4413bcad3a085aae7367c2cf07908b2ff"
The template file contains definitions to download, build and install the
package files to a fake destdir
, and after this a binary package can be
generated with the definitions specified on it.
Don't worry if anything is not clear as it should be. The reserved variables
and functions
will be explained later. This template
file should be created
in a directory matching $pkgname
, i.e: xbps-packages/srcpkgs/foo/template
.
If everything went fine after running
$ ./xbps-src pkg <pkgname>
a binary package named foo-1.0_1.<arch>.xbps
will be generated in the local repository
hostdir/binpkgs
.
Package build phases
Building a package consist of the following phases:
-
setup
This phase prepares the environment for building a package. -
fetch
This phase downloads required sources for asource package
, as defined by thedistfiles
variable ordo_fetch()
function. -
extract
This phase extracts thedistfiles
files into$wrksrc
or executes thedo_extract()
function, which is the directory to be used to compile thesource package
. -
configure
This phase executes theconfiguration
of asource package
, i.eGNU configure scripts
. -
build
This phase compiles/prepares thesource files
viamake
or any other compatible method. -
install
This phase installs thepackage files
into the package destdir<masterdir>/destdir/<pkgname>-<version>
, viamake install
or any other compatible method. -
pkg
This phase builds thebinary packages
with files stored in thepackage destdir
and registers them into the local repository. -
clean
This phase cleans up the package (if defined).
xbps-src
supports running just the specified phase, and if it ran
successfully, the phase will be skipped later (unless its work directory
${wrksrc}
is removed with xbps-src clean
).
Package naming conventions
Libraries
Libraries are packages which provide shared objects (*.so) in /usr/lib. They should be named like their upstream package name with the following exceptions:
- The package is a subpackage of a front end application providing and provides shared objects used by the base package and other third party libraries. In that case it should be prefixed with 'lib'. An exception from that rule is: If an executable is only used for building that package, it moves to the -devel package.
Example: wireshark -> subpkg libwireshark
Libraries have to be split into two sub packages: and -devel.
-
<name>
should only contain those parts of a package which are needed to run a linking program. -
<name>-devel
should contain all files which are needed to compile a package against this package.
Language Modules
Language modules are extensions to script or compiled languages. Those packages do not provide any executables themselves, but can be used by other packages written in the same language.
The naming convention to those packages is:
<language>-<name>
If a package provides both, a module and a executable, it should be split into
a package providing the executable named <name>
and the module named
<language>-<name>
. If a package starts with the languages name itself, the
language prefix can be dropped. Short names for languages are no valid substitute
for the language prefix.
Example: python-pam, perl-URI, python-pyside
Language Bindings
Language Bindings are similiar to Language Modules described above. They're main difference is that bindings are loosely coupled to that language.
The naming convention to those packages is:
<name>-<language>
Example: kde-python, gimp-python, irssi-perl
Programs
Programs put executables under /usr/bin (or in very special cases in other .../bin directories)
For those packages the upstream packages name should be used. Remember that in contrast to many other distributions, void doesn't lowercase package names. As a rule of thumb, if the tar.gz of a package contains uppercase letter, then the package name should contain them too; if it doesn't, the package name is lowercase.
Programs can be split into program packages and library packages. The program
package should be named as describe above. The library package should be prefix
with "lib" (see section Libraries
)
Global functions
The following functions are defined by xbps-src
and can be used on any template:
-
vinstall()
vinstall <file> <mode> <targetdir> [<name>]
Installs
file
with the specifiedmode
intotargetdir
into the pkg$DESTDIR
The optional 4th argument can be used to change thefile name
. -
vcopy()
vcopy <pattern> <targetdir>
Copies resursively all files in
pattern
totargetdir
into the pkg$DESTDIR
-
vmove()
vmove <pattern>
Moves
pattern
to the specified directory in the pkg$DESTDIR
-
vmkdir()
vmkdir <directory> [<mode>]
Creates a directory in the pkg
$DESTDIR
. The 2nd optional argument sets the mode of the directory.
Shell wildcards must be properly quoted, i.e
vmove "usr/lib/*.a"
.
Global variables
The following variables are defined by xbps-src
and can be used on any template:
-
makejobs
Set to-jX
ifXBPS_MAKEJOBS
is defined, to allow parallel jobs withGNU make
. -
sourcepkg
Set to the to main package name, can be used to match the main package rather than additional binary package names. -
CHROOT_READY
True if the target chroot (masterdir) is ready for chroot builds. -
CROSS_BUILD
True ifxbps-src
is cross compiling a package. -
DESTDIR
Full path to the fake destdir used by the source pkg, set to<masterdir>/destdir/${sourcepkg}-${version}
. -
FILESDIR
Full path to thefiles
package directory, i.esrcpkgs/foo/files
. Thefiles
directory can be used to store additional files to be installed as part of the source package. -
PKGDESTDIR
Full path to the fake destdir used by thepkg_install()
function insubpackages
, set to<masterdir>/destdir/${pkgname}-${version}
. -
XBPS_BUILDDIR
Directory to store thesource code
of the source package being processed, set to<masterdir>/builddir
. The packagewrksrc
is always stored in this directory such as${XBPS_BUILDDIR}/${wrksrc}
. -
XBPS_MACHINE
The machine architecture as returned byuname -m
. -
XBPS_SRCDISTDIR
Full path to where thesource distfiles
are stored, i.e$XBPS_HOSTDIR/sources
. -
XBPS_SRCPKGDIR
Full path to thesrcpkgs
directory. -
XBPS_TARGET_MACHINE
The target machine architecture when cross compiling a package. -
XBPS_FETCH_CMD
The utility to fetch files fromftp
,http
ofhttps
servers.
Available variables
Mandatory variables
The list of mandatory variables for a template:
-
homepage
A string pointing to theupstream
homepage. -
license
A string matching any license file available in/usr/share/licenses
. Multiple licenses should be separated by commas, i.eGPL-3, LGPL-2.1
. -
maintainer
A string in the form ofname <user@domain>
. -
pkgname
A string with the package name, matchingsrcpkgs/<pkgname>
. -
revision
A number that must be set to 1 when thesource package
is created, or updated to a newupstream version
. This should only be increased when the generatedbinary packages
have been modified. -
short_desc
A string with a brief description for this package. Max 72 chars. -
version
A string with the package version. Must not contain dashes and at least one digit is required.
Optional variables
-
hostmakedepends
The list ofhost
dependencies required to build the package. Dependencies can be specified with the following version comparators:<
,>
,<=
,>=
orfoo-1.0_1
to match an exact version. If version comparator is not defined (just a package name), the version comparator is automatically set to>=0
. Examplehostmakedepends="foo blah<1.0"
. -
makedepends
The list oftarget
dependencies required to build the package. Dependencies can be specified with the following version comparators:<
,>
,<=
,>=
orfoo-1.0_1
to match an exact version. If version comparator is not defined (just a package name), the version comparator is automatically set to>=0
. Examplemakedepends="foo blah>=1.0"
. -
depends
The list of dependencies required to run the package. Dependencies can be specified with the following version comparators:<
,>
,<=
,>=
orfoo-1.0_1
to match an exact version. If version comparator is not defined (just a package name), the version comparator is automatically set to>=0
. Exampledepends="foo blah>=1.0"
. See theRuntime dependencies
section for more information. -
bootstrap
If enabled the source package is considered to be part of thebootstrap
process and required to be able to build packages in the chroot. Only a small number of packages must set this property. -
distfiles
The full URL to theupstream
source distribution files. Multiple files can be separated by whitespaces. The files must end in.tar.lzma
,.tar.xz
,.txz
,.tar.bz2
,.tbz
,.tar.gz
,.tgz
,.gz
,.bz2
,.tar
or.zip
. To define a target filename, append>filename
to the URL. Example: distfiles="http://foo.org/foo-1.0.tar.gz http://foo.org/bar-1.0.tar.gz>bar.tar.gz" -
checksum
Thesha256
digests matching${distfiles}
. Multiple files can be separated by blanks. Please note that the order must be the same than was used in${distfiles}
. Examplechecksum="kkas00xjkjas"
-
wrksrc
The directory name where the package sources are extracted, by default set to${pkgname}-${version}
. -
build_wrksrc
A directory relative to${wrksrc}
that will be used when building the package. -
create_wrksrc
Enable it to create the${wrksrc}
directory. Required if a package contains multipledistfiles
. -
only_for_archs
This expects a separated list of architectures where the package can be built matchinguname -m
output. Exampleonly_for_archs="x86_64 armv6l"
-
build_style
This specifies thebuild method
for a package. Read below to know more about the available packagebuild methods
. Ifbuild_style
is not set, the package must define at least ado_install()
function, and optionally more build phases as suchdo_configure()
,do_build()
, etc. -
configure_script
The name of theconfigure
script to execute at theconfigure
phase if${build_style}
is set toconfigure
orgnu-configure
build methods. By default set to./configure
. -
configure_args
The arguments to be passed in to theconfigure
script if${build_style}
is set toconfigure
orgnu-configure
build methods. By default, prefix must be set to/usr
. Ingnu-configure
packages, some options are already set by default:--prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --infodir=/usr/share/info --mandir=/usr/share/man --localstatedir=/var
. -
make_cmd
The executable to run at thebuild
phase if${build_style}
is set toconfigure
,gnu-configure
orgnu-makefile
build methods. By default set tomake
. -
make_build_args
The arguments to be passed in to${make_cmd}
at the build phase if${build_style}
is set toconfigure
,gnu-configure
orgnu_makefile
build methods. Unset by default. -
make_install_args
The arguments to be passed in to${make_cmd}
at theinstall-destdir
phase if${build_style}
is set toconfigure
,gnu-configure
orgnu_makefile
build methods. By default set toPREFIX=/usr DESTDIR=${DESTDIR}
. -
make_build_target
The target to be passed in to${make_cmd}
at the build phase if${build_style}
is set toconfigure
,gnu-configure
orgnu_makefile
build methods. Unset by default (all
target). -
make_install_target
The target to be passed in to${make_cmd}
at theinstall-destdir
phase if${build_style}
is set toconfigure
,gnu-configure
orgnu_makefile
build methods. By default set toinstall
. -
patch_args
The arguments to be passed in to thepatch(1)
command when applying patches to the package sources afterdo_extract()
. Patches are stored insrcpkgs/<pkgname>/patches
and must be in-p0
format. By default set to-Np0
. -
disable_parallel_build
If set the package won't be built in parallel andXBPS_MAKEJOBS
has no effect. -
keep_libtool_archives
If enabled theGNU Libtool
archives won't be removed. By default those files are always removed automatically. -
skip_extraction
A list of filenames that should not be extracted in theextract
phase. This must match the basename of any url defined in${distfiles}
. Exampleskip_extraction="foo-${version}.tar.gz"
. -
force_debug_pkgs
If enabled binary packages with debugging symbols will be generated even ifXBPS_DEBUG_PKGS
is disabled inxbps-packages/etc/conf
or in thecommand line arguments
. -
conf_files
A list of configuration files the binary package owns; this expects full paths, and multiple entries can be separated by blanks, i.e:conf_files="/etc/foo.conf /etc/foo2.conf"
. -
noarch
If set, the binary package is not architecture specific and can be shared by all supported architectures. -
nonfree
If set, the binary package will be put into the non free repository. -
nostrip
If set, the ELF binaries with debugging symbols won't be stripped. By default all binaries are stripped. -
python_versions
A white space seperated list of python versions which will be used to build that package. This is only used by thepython-module
build style.
build style scripts
The build_style
variable specifies the build method to build and install a
package. It expects the name of any available script in the
xbps-packages/common/build_style
directory. Please note that required packages
to execute a build_style
script must be defined via $hostmakedepends
.
The current list of available build_style
scripts is the following:
-
cmake
For packages that use the CMake build system, configuration arguments can be passed in viaconfigure_args
. -
configure
For packages that use non-GNU configure scripts, at least--prefix=/usr
should be passed in viaconfigure_args
. -
gnu-configure
For packages that use GNU configure scripts, additional configuration arguments can be passed in viaconfigure_args
. -
gnu-makefile
For packages that use GNU make, build arguments can be passed in viamake_build_args
and install arguments viamake_install_args
. The build target can be overriden viamake_build_target
and the install target viamake_install_target
. -
meta
Formeta-packages
, i.e packages that only install local files or simply depend on additional packages. This build style does not install dependencies to the root directory, and only checks if a binary package is available in repositories. -
perl-ModuleBuild
For packages that use the Perl Module::Build method. -
perl
For packages that use the Perl ExtUtils::MakeMaker build method. -
python-module
For packages that use the Python module build method (setup.py). By default the module will be built for python2. Thepython_versions
variable may be defined to set the allowed python versions to be built, i.e:python_version="2 3"
. -
waf3
For packages that use the Python3waf
build method with python3. -
waf
For packages that use the Pythonwaf
method with python2.
If
build_style
is not set, the template must (at least) define ado_install()
function and optionally more phases viado_xxx()
functions.
Functions
The following functions can be defined to change the behavior of how the package is downloaded, compiled and installed.
-
do_fetch()
if defined anddistfiles
is not set, use it to fetch the required sources. -
do_extract()
if defined anddistfiles
is not set, use it to extract the required sources. -
post_extract()
Actions to execute afterdo_extract()
. -
pre_configure()
Actions to execute afterpost_extract()
. -
do_configure()
Actions to execute to configure the package;${configure_args}
should still be passed in if it's a GNU configure script. -
post_configure()
Actions to execute afterdo_configure()
. -
pre_build()
Actions to execute afterpost_configure()
. -
do_build()
Actions to execute to build the package. -
post_build()
Actions to execute afterdo_build()
. -
pre_install()
Actions to execute afterpost_build()
. -
do_install()
Actions to execute to install the package files into thefake destdir
. -
post_install()
Actions to execute afterdo_install()
. -
do_clean()
Actions to execute to clean up after a successful package phase.
A function defined in a template has preference over the same function defined by a
build_style
script.
Build options
Some packages might be built with different build options to enable/disable
additional features; The XBPS source packages collection allows you to do this with some simple tweaks
to the template
file.
The following variables may be set to allow package build options:
-
build_options
Sets the build options supported by the source package. -
build_options_default
Sets the default build options to be used by the source package. -
desc_option_<option>
Sets the description for the build optionoption
. This must match the keyword set in build_options.
After defining those required variables, you can check for the
build_option_<option>
variable to know if it has been set and adapt the source
package accordingly.
The following example shows how to change a source package that uses GNU configure to enable a new build option to support PNG images:
# Template file for 'foo'
pkgname=foo
version=1.0
revision=1
build_style=gnu-configure
...
# Package build options
build_options="png"
desc_option_png="Enable support for PNG images"
# To build the package by default with the `png` option:
#
# build_options_default="png"
if [ "$build_option_png" ]; then
configure_args+=" --with-png"
makedepends+=" libpng-devel"
else
configure_args+=" --without-png"
fi
...
The supported build options for a source package can be shown with xbps-src
:
$ ./xbps-src show-options foo
Build options can be enabled with the -o
flag of xbps-src
:
$ ./xbps-src -o option,option1 foo
Build options can be disabled by prefixing them with ~
:
$ ./xbps-src -o ~option,~option1 foo
Both ways can be used together to enable and/or disable multiple options
at the same time with xbps-src
:
$ ./xbps-src -o option,~option1,~option2 foo
The build options can also be shown for binary packages via xbps-query(8)
:
$ xbps-query -R --property=build-options foo
Runtime dependencies
Dependencies for ELF objects are detected automatically by xbps-src
, hence runtime
dependencies must not be specified in templates via $depends
with the following exceptions:
- ELF objects using dlopen(3).
- non ELF objects, i.e perl/python/ruby/etc modules.
- Overriding the minimal version specified in the
shlibs
file.
The runtime dependencies for ELF objects are detected by checking which SONAMEs
they require and then the SONAMEs are mapped to a binary package name with a minimal
required version. The shlibs
file in the xbps-packages/common
directory
sets up the <SONAME> <pkgname>>=<version>
mappings.
For example the foo-1.0_1
package provides the libfoo.so.1
SONAME and
software requiring this library will link to libfoo
; the resulting binary
package will have a run-time dependency to foo>=1.0_1
package as specified in
common/shlibs
:
# common/shlibs
...
libfoo.so.1 foo-1.0_1
...
- The first field specifies the SONAME.
- The second field specified the package name and minimal version required.
- A third optional field specifies the architecture (rarely used).
Creating system accounts/groups at runtime
There's a trigger along with some variables that are specifically to create system users and groups when the binary package is being configured. The following variables can be used for this purpose:
-
system_groups
This specifies the names of the new system groups to be created, separated by blanks. Optionally the gid can be specified by delimiting it with a colon, i.esystem_groups="mygroup:78"
orsystem_groups="foo blah:8000"
. -
system_accounts
This specifies the names of the new system users/groups to be created, separated by blanks, i.esystem_accounts="foo blah"
. Additional variables for the system accounts can be specified to change its behavior:<account>_homedir
the home directory for the user. If unset defaults to/
.<account>_shell
the shell for the new user. If unset defaults to/sbin/nologin
.<account>_descr
the description for the new user. If unset defaults to<user> unprivileged user
.<account>_groups
additional groups to be added to for the new user.
The system user is created by using a dynamically allocated uid/gid in your system
and it's created as a system account
. A new group will be created for the
specified system account
and used exclusived for this purpose.
32bit packages
32bit packages are built automatically when the builder is x86 (32bit), but there are some variables that can change the behavior:
-
lib32depends
If this variable is set, dependencies listed here will be used rather than those detected automatically byxbps-src
and depends. Please note that dependencies must be specified with version comparators, i.elib32depends="foo>=0 blah<2.0"
. -
lib32disabled
If this variable is set, no 32bit package will be built. -
lib32files
Additional files to be added to the 32bit package. This expect absolute paths separated by blanks, i.elib32files="/usr/bin/blah /usr/include/blah."
. -
lib32mode
If unset, only shared libraries and pkg-config files will be copied to the 32bit package. If set tofull
all files will be copied as is.
Subpackages
In the example shown above just a binary package is generated, but with some
simple tweaks multiple binary packages can be generated from a single
template/build, this is called subpackages
.
To create additional subpackages
the template
must define a new function
with this naming: <subpkgname>_package()
, i.e:
# Template file for 'foo'
pkgname="foo"
version="1.0"
revision=1
build_style=gnu-configure
short_desc="A short description max 72 chars"
maintainer="name <email>"
license="GPL-3"
homepage="http://www.foo.org"
distfiles="http://www.foo.org/foo-${version}.tar.gz"
checksum="fea0a94d4b605894f3e2d5572e3f96e4413bcad3a085aae7367c2cf07908b2ff"
# foo-devel is a subpkg
foo-devel_package() {
short_desc+=" - development files"
depends="${sourcepkg}>=${version}_${revision}"
pkg_install() {
vmove usr/include
vmove usr/lib/*.a
vmove usr/lib/*.so
vmove usr/lib/pkgconfig
}
}
All subpackages need an additional symlink to the main
pkg, otherwise dependencies
requiring those packages won't find its template
i.e:
/srcpkgs
|- foo <- directory (main pkg)
| |- template
|- foo-devel <- symlink to `foo`
The main package should specify all required build dependencies
to be able to build
all subpackages defined in the template.
An important point of subpackages
is that they are processed after the main
package has run its install
phase. The pkg_install()
function specified on them
commonly is used to move files from the main
package destdir to the subpackage
destdir.
The helper functions vinstall
, vmkdir
, vcopy
and vmove
are just wrappers that simplify
the process of creating, copying and moving files/directories between the main
package
destdir ($DESTDIR
) to the subpackage
destdir ($PKGDESTDIR
).
Development packages
A development package, commonly generated as a subpackage, shall only contain files required for development, that is, headers, static libraries, shared library symlinks, pkg-config files, API documentation or any other script that is only useful when developping for the target software.
A development package should depend on packages that are required to link
against the provided shared libraries, i.e if libfoo
provides the
libfoo.so.2
shared library and the linking needs -lbar
, the package
providing the libbar
shared library should be added as a dependency;
and most likely it shall depend on its development package.
If a development package provides a pkg-config
file, you should verify
what dependencies the package needs for dynamic or static linking, and add
the appropiate development
packages as dependencies.
Notes
-
Make sure that all software is configured to use the
/usr
prefix. -
Binaries should always be installed at
/usr/bin
and/usr/sbin
. -
Manual pages should always be installed at
/usr/share/man
and uncompressed. -
If a software provides shared libraries and headers, probably you should create a
development package
that containsheaders
,static libraries
and other files required for development (not required at runtime). -
If you are updating a package please be careful with SONAME bumps, check the installed files (
./xbps-src show-files pkg
) before pushing new updates.
Contributing via git
Fork the voidlinux xbps-packages
git repository on github and clone it:
$ git clone git@github.com:<user>/xbps-packages.git
You can now make your own commits to the forked
repository:
$ git add ...
$ git commit ...
$ git push ...
To keep your forked repository always up to date, setup the upstream
remote
to pull in new changes:
$ git remote add upstream git://github.com/voidlinux/xbps-packages.git
$ git pull upstream master
Once you've made changes to your forked
repository you can submit
a github pull request; see https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo for more information.
For commit messages please use the following rules:
- If you've imported a new package use
"New package: <pkgver>"
. - If you've updated a package use
"<pkgname>: updated to <version>"
. - If you've removed a package use
"<pkgname>: removed ..."
. - If you've modified a package use
"<pkgname>: ..."
.
Help
If after reading this manual
you still need some kind of help, please join
us at #xbps
via IRC at irc.freenode.net
.