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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 a source package, as defined by the distfiles variable or do_fetch() function.

  • extract This phase extracts the distfiles files into $wrksrc or executes the do_extract() function, which is the directory to be used to compile the source package.

  • configure This phase executes the configuration of a source package, i.e GNU configure scripts.

  • build This phase compiles/prepares the source files via make or any other compatible method.

  • install This phase installs the package files into the package destdir <masterdir>/destdir/<pkgname>-<version>, via make install or any other compatible method.

  • pkg This phase builds the binary packages with files stored in the package 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. If the library is a sub package, its corresponding development package should be named lib<name>-devel

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 specified mode into targetdir into the pkg $DESTDIR The optional 4th argument can be used to change the file name.

  • vcopy() vcopy <pattern> <targetdir>

    Copies resursively all files in pattern to targetdir 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.

  • vbin() vbin <file> [<name>]

    Installs file into usr/bin in the pkg $DESTDIR with the permissions 0755. The optional 2nd argument can be used to change the file name.

  • vman() vman <file> [<name>]

    Installs file as a man page. vman() parses the name and determines the section as well as localization. Example mappings:

    foo.1 -> ${DESTDIR}/usr/share/man/man1/foo.1
    foo.fr.1 -> ${DESTDIR}/usr/share/man/fr/man1/foo.1
    foo.1p -> ${DESTDIR}/usr/share/man/man1/foo.1p

  • vdoc() vdoc <file> [<name>]

    Installs file into usr/share/doc/<pkgname> in the pkg $DESTDIR. The optional 2nd argument can be used to change the file name.

  • vconf() vconf <file> [<name>]

    Installs file into etc in the pkg $DESTDIR. The optional 2nd argument can be used to change the file name.

  • vsconf() vsconf <file> [<name>]

    Installs file into usr/share/examples/<pkgname> in the pkg $DESTDIR. The optional 2nd argument can be used to change the file name.

  • vlicense() vlicense <file> [<name>]

    Installs file into usr/share/licenses/<pkgname> in the pkg $DESTDIR. The optional 2nd argument can be used to change the file name.

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 if XBPS_MAKEJOBS is defined, to allow parallel jobs with GNU 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 if xbps-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 the files package directory, i.e srcpkgs/foo/files. The files 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 the pkg_install() function in subpackages, set to <masterdir>/destdir/${pkgname}-${version}.

  • XBPS_BUILDDIR Directory to store the source code of the source package being processed, set to <masterdir>/builddir. The package wrksrc is always stored in this directory such as ${XBPS_BUILDDIR}/${wrksrc}.

  • XBPS_MACHINE The machine architecture as returned by uname -m.

  • XBPS_SRCDISTDIR Full path to where the source distfiles are stored, i.e $XBPS_HOSTDIR/sources.

  • XBPS_SRCPKGDIR Full path to the srcpkgs directory.

  • XBPS_TARGET_MACHINE The target machine architecture when cross compiling a package.

  • XBPS_FETCH_CMD The utility to fetch files from ftp, http of https servers.

Available variables

Mandatory variables

The list of mandatory variables for a template:

  • homepage A string pointing to the upstream homepage.

  • license A string matching any license file available in /usr/share/licenses. Multiple licenses should be separated by commas, i.e GPL-3, LGPL-2.1.

  • maintainer A string in the form of name <user@domain>.

  • pkgname A string with the package name, matching srcpkgs/<pkgname>.

  • revision A number that must be set to 1 when the source package is created, or updated to a new upstream version. This should only be increased when the generated binary 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 of host dependencies required to build the package. Dependencies can be specified with the following version comparators: <, >, <=, >= or foo-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. Example hostmakedepends="foo blah<1.0".

  • makedepends The list of target dependencies required to build the package. Dependencies can be specified with the following version comparators: <, >, <=, >= or foo-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. Example makedepends="foo blah>=1.0".

  • depends The list of dependencies required to run the package. Dependencies can be specified with the following version comparators: <, >, <=, >= or foo-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. Example depends="foo blah>=1.0". See the Runtime dependencies section for more information.

  • bootstrap If enabled the source package is considered to be part of the bootstrap 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 the upstream 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 The sha256 digests matching ${distfiles}. Multiple files can be separated by blanks. Please note that the order must be the same than was used in ${distfiles}. Example checksum="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 multiple distfiles.

  • only_for_archs This expects a separated list of architectures where the package can be built matching uname -m output. Example only_for_archs="x86_64 armv6l"

  • build_style This specifies the build method for a package. Read below to know more about the available package build methods. If build_style is not set, the package must define at least a do_install() function, and optionally more build phases as such do_configure(), do_build(), etc.

  • configure_script The name of the configure script to execute at the configure phase if ${build_style} is set to configure or gnu-configure build methods. By default set to ./configure.

  • configure_args The arguments to be passed in to the configure script if ${build_style} is set to configure or gnu-configure build methods. By default, prefix must be set to /usr. In gnu-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 the build phase if ${build_style} is set to configure, gnu-configure or gnu-makefile build methods. By default set to make.

  • make_build_args The arguments to be passed in to ${make_cmd} at the build phase if ${build_style} is set to configure, gnu-configure or gnu_makefile build methods. Unset by default.

  • make_install_args The arguments to be passed in to ${make_cmd} at the install-destdir phase if ${build_style} is set to configure, gnu-configure or gnu_makefile build methods. By default set to PREFIX=/usr DESTDIR=${DESTDIR}.

  • make_build_target The target to be passed in to ${make_cmd} at the build phase if ${build_style} is set to configure, gnu-configure or gnu_makefile build methods. Unset by default (all target).

  • make_install_target The target to be passed in to ${make_cmd} at the install-destdir phase if ${build_style} is set to configure, gnu-configure or gnu_makefile build methods. By default set to install.

  • patch_args The arguments to be passed in to the patch(1) command when applying patches to the package sources after do_extract(). Patches are stored in srcpkgs/<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 and XBPS_MAKEJOBS has no effect.

  • keep_libtool_archives If enabled the GNU 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 the extract phase. This must match the basename of any url defined in ${distfiles}. Example skip_extraction="foo-${version}.tar.gz".

  • force_debug_pkgs If enabled binary packages with debugging symbols will be generated even if XBPS_DEBUG_PKGS is disabled in xbps-packages/etc/conf or in the command 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 the python-module build style.

  • subpackages A white space separated list of subpackages (matching foo_package()) to override the guessed list. Only use this if a specific order of subpackages is required, otherwise the default would work in most cases.

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 via configure_args.

  • configure For packages that use non-GNU configure scripts, at least --prefix=/usr should be passed in via configure_args.

  • fetch For packages that only fetch files and are installed as is via do_install().

  • gnu-configure For packages that use GNU configure scripts, additional configuration arguments can be passed in via configure_args.

  • gnu-makefile For packages that use GNU make, build arguments can be passed in via make_build_args and install arguments via make_install_args. The build target can be overriden via make_build_target and the install target via make_install_target.

  • meta For meta-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. The python_versions variable may be defined to set the allowed python versions to be built, i.e: python_version="2.7 3.3".

  • waf3 For packages that use the Python3 waf build method with python3.

  • waf For packages that use the Python waf method with python2.

If build_style is not set, the template must (at least) define a do_install() function and optionally more phases via do_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 and distfiles is not set, use it to fetch the required sources.

  • do_extract() if defined and distfiles is not set, use it to extract the required sources.

  • post_extract() Actions to execute after do_extract().

  • pre_configure() Actions to execute after post_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 after do_configure().

  • pre_build() Actions to execute after post_configure().

  • do_build() Actions to execute to build the package.

  • post_build() Actions to execute after do_build().

  • pre_install() Actions to execute after post_build().

  • do_install() Actions to execute to install the package files into the fake destdir.

  • post_install() Actions to execute after do_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 option option. This must match the keyword set in build_options. Note that if the build option is generic enough, its description should be added to common/options.description instead.

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

Permanent global package build options can be set via XBPS_PKG_OPTIONS variable in the etc/conf configuration file. Per package build options can be set via XBPS_PKG_OPTIONS_<pkgname>.

NOTE: if pkgname contains dashes, those should be replaced by underscores i.e XBPS_PKG_OPTIONS_xorg_server=opt.

The list of supported package build options and its description is defined in the common/options.description file.

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 (usually set to ignore) can be used to skip checks in soname bumps.

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.e system_groups="mygroup:78" or system_groups="foo blah:8000".

  • system_accounts This specifies the names of the new system users/groups to be created, separated by blanks, i.e system_accounts="foo blah:22". Optionally the uid and gid can be specified by delimiting it with a color, i.e system_accounts="foo:48". 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, unless the uid is set. 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 by xbps-src and depends. Please note that dependencies must be specified with version comparators, i.e lib32depends="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.e lib32files="/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 to full 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 developing 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.

Python packages

Python packages should be built with the python-module build style, if possible. This sets some environment variables required to allow cross compilation. Support to allow building a python module for multiple versions from a single template is also possible.

To allow cross compilation, the python-devel package (for python 2.7) must be added to hostmakedepends and makedepends. If any other python version is also supported, for example python3.4, those must also be added as host and target build dependencies.

The following variables may influence how the python packages are built and configured at post-install time:

  • python_versions: this variable expects the python versions supported by the module. By default it's always set to 2.7. If a package for another python version is wanted you can set all acceptable versions, i.e python_versions="2.7 3.4" will build a package for python (2.7) and python3.4.

  • pycompile_version: this variable expects the python version that is used to byte-compile the python code (it generates the .py[co] files at post-install time). By default it's set to 2.7 for python 2.x packages.

  • pycompile_module: this variable expects the python modules that should be byte-compiled at post-install time. Python modules are those that are installed into the site-packages prefix: usr/lib/pythonX.X/site-packages. Multiple python modules may be specified separated by blanks, i.e pycompile_module="foo blah".

  • pycompile_dirs: this variable expects the python directories that should be byte-compiled recusively by the target python version. This differs from pycompile_module in that any path may be specified, i.e pycompile_dirs="usr/share/foo".

NOTE: it's expected that additional subpkgs must be generated to allow packaging for multiple python versions.

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 contains headers, 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.