Writing ports

Venom Linux uses a package format akin to BSD's ports. The pkgbuild tool creates packages from a spkgbuild. A spkgbuild is a recipe that contains all metdata relating to a package, and the instructions to build the package.

In this guide I will use dfc as an example. dfc is a commandline tool that displays storage space usage using graphs and colors. The website for dfc is https://projects.gw-computing.net/projects/dfc and the source tarball is https://projects.gw-computing.net/attachments/download/615/dfc-3.1.1.tar.gz.

Requirements

fakeroot

Note: Install the dependencies using scratch, if you haven't already.

Create local repository

I reccommend creating a local repository, in your home directory.

$ mkdir myports
$ cd myports
$ pwd
/home/emmett/myports

Create ports template

Use portcreate to create an initial template for your port, then cd into its directory. The usage is portcreate <pkg>.

$ portcreate dfc
Template port have created for 'dfc'.
$ cd dfc
$ pwd
/home/emmett/myports/dfc

The template that is created is as follows:

# description   :
# depends       :

name=dfc
version=
release=1
options=""
noextract=""
backup=""
source=""

build() {
        cd $name-$version
        ./configure --prefix=/usr
        make
        make DESTDIR=$PKG install
}

spkgbuild format

# description: Short description for package (required)
# depends: All required dependencies, space separated
name=: Package name, need same as port directory's name (required)
version=: Package's version (required)
release=: Package's release version, useful when build script need change with same package version (required)
source="": Package's source urls, space separated (required)
options="": Package's build options, see 'Package options' below for available options
backup="": File need backup when upgrading package, without leading with '/'
noextract="": Specify file no need to extract, space separated
nostrip="": list file to avoid strip, can use regex
build() {}: all build command should placed in this function (required)
$PKG: fake installation directory
$SRC: extracted and prepared sources directory

Note: The port's name must be lower-case and cannot contain spaces or hyphens (-). Using sed to correct this is common.

Note: If upstream uses a timestamp versioning such as 30102014, ensure to use the reversed date, i.e. 20141030 (ISO 8601 format). Otherwise, the package will not appear as a newer version.

Note: For source="", use <new-source-name>::<source-url> to save a source file with a different name.

Example: source="$name-$version.tar.gz::https://github.com/Rolinh/dfc/archive/v${version}.tar.gz"

Package options

For global options, set them in /etc/scratchpkg.conf:

OPTIONS=""

If you need to set options for a specific package, set them in the package's spkgbuild.

options=""

Add a ! in front of an option to disable it. For instance, to disable stripping and removal of empty directors in a package, you would do the following: as follows:

options="!strip !emptydirs"

Available options:

libtool:     Keep libtool file (*.la) in packages.
emptydirs:   Keep empty directories in packages.
strip:       Strip symbols from binaries/libraries.
zipman:      Compress manual (man and info) pages with gzip.
buildflags:  Enable buildflags (CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS).
makeflags:   Enable makeflags (MAKEFLAGS).
checksum:    Enable checking checksum.

Edit spkgbuild

Edit the spkgbuild to insert any needed variables, information and build commands. Use your favourite text editor to edit it.

$ vim spkgbuild

Here is dfc's spkgbuild:

# description	: Commandline tool to displays file system space usage using graphs and colors
# depends	: cmake

name=dfc
version=3.1.1
release=1
source="https://projects.gw-computing.net/attachments/download/615/dfc-$version.tar.gz"

build() {
	cd $name-$version

	cmake . -DPREFIX=/usr \
		-DSYSCONFDIR=/etc \
		-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE
        make
        make DESTDIR=$PKG install

	# remove unused stuff
        rm -r $PKG/usr/share/{doc,locale} $PKG/{usr/share/man,etc/xdg/dfc}/{fr,nl}
}

The spkgbuild is now complete. Now, to build it.

Note: The pkgbuild tool requires root access to build a package. For new packages, it is recommended to use the fakeroot tool to build it. If you have incorrectly configured your package, no lasting changes will be made.

Run fakeroot pkgbuild inside the port's directory to build it.

$ fakeroot pkgbuild
==> Downloading 'https://projects.gw-computing.net/attachments/download/615/dfc-3.1.1.tar.gz'.
--2019-12-16 14:11:54--  https://projects.gw-computing.net/attachments/download/615/dfc-3.1.1.tar.gz
Resolving projects.gw-computing.net (projects.gw-computing.net)... 37.59.30.58
Connecting to projects.gw-computing.net (projects.gw-computing.net)|37.59.30.58|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [application/gzip]
Saving to: '/mnt/data/venom/sources/dfc-3.1.1.tar.gz.partial'

/mnt/data/venom/sources/dfc-     [   <=>                                        ]  51.47K  45.0KB/s    in 1.1s

2019-12-16 14:11:58 (45.0 KB/s) - '/mnt/data/venom/sources/dfc-3.1.1.tar.gz.partial' saved [52709]
==> Unpacking 'dfc-3.1.1.tar.gz'...
==> Start build 'dfc-3.1.1-1'.
+ build
+ cd dfc-3.1.1
+ cmake . -DPREFIX=/usr -DSYSCONFDIR=/etc -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE
CMake Warning (dev) at /usr/share/cmake-3.16/Modules/Compiler/ADSP-DetermineCompiler.cmake:4 (set):
  Policy CMP0053 is not set: Simplify variable reference and escape sequence
  evaluation.  Run "cmake --help-policy CMP0053" for policy details.  Use the
  cmake_policy command to set the policy and suppress this warning.

  For input:

    '
    #if defined(__VISUALDSPVERSION__)
      /* __VISUALDSPVERSION__ = 0xVVRRPP00 */
    # define @PREFIX@COMPILER_VERSION_MAJOR @MACRO_HEX@(__VISUALDSPVERSION__>>24)
    # define @PREFIX@COMPILER_VERSION_MINOR @MACRO_HEX@(__VISUALDSPVERSION__>>16 & 0xFF)
...
...
...
-- Installing: /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/usr/share/doc/dfc/README.md
-- Installing: /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/usr/share/doc/dfc/TRANSLATORS.md
-- Installing: /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/usr/share/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/dfc.mo
-- Installing: /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/usr/share/locale/nl/LC_MESSAGES/dfc.mo
+ rm -r /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/usr/share/doc /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/usr/share/locale /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/usr/share/man/fr /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/usr/share/man/nl /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/etc/xdg/dfc/fr /mnt/data/venom/work/dfc/pkg/etc/xdg/dfc/nl
==> Build 'dfc-3.1.1-1' success.
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2019-12-16 14:19 etc/
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2019-12-16 14:19 etc/xdg/
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2019-12-16 14:19 etc/xdg/dfc/
-rw-r--r-- root/root      1672 2017-09-09 15:11 etc/xdg/dfc/dfcrc
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2019-12-16 14:19 usr/
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2019-12-16 14:19 usr/share/
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2019-12-16 14:19 usr/share/man/
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2019-12-16 14:19 usr/share/man/man1/
-rw-r--r-- root/root      2473 2017-09-09 15:11 usr/share/man/man1/dfc.1.gz
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2019-12-16 14:19 usr/bin/
-rwxr-xr-x root/root     51984 2019-12-16 14:19 usr/bin/dfc
==> Successfully created package 'dfc-3.1.1-1.spkg.tar.xz'. (21K)

If nothing goes wrong, you will succeed build the package. Then you can install it using pkgbuild -i. This time you really need root to install to real system, use sudo.

$ sudo pkgbuild -i

Also you can install using pkgadd <pkg.spkg.tar.xz>. By default, fetched source will be in /var/cache/scratchpkg/sources and created package will be in /var/cache/scratchpkg/packages directory. You can modify this location in scratchpkg config file, /etc/scratchpkg.conf.

Install script

Install scripts are shell scripts that can be used to run commands upon upgrade, removal or installation. The name of the script run on installtion is install. The install script needs to be placed in the port's directory. It will be included in the compressed package.

This script is executed using sh. The following arguments are passed to the install script, based on which action is being used.

install:

$1 : pre-install/post-install
$2 : version

upgrade:

$1 : pre-upgrade/post-upgrade
$2 : version
$3 : old version

remove:

$1 : pre-remove/post-remove
$2 : old version

An exmaple install script for dbus:

# package install script

action=$1
newversion=$2
oldversion=$3

case $action in
        pre-install)
                getent group messagebus >/dev/null || groupadd -g 18 messagebus
                getent passwd messagebus >/dev/null || useradd -c "D-Bus Message Daemon User" -d /var/run/dbus -u 18 -g messagebus -s /bin/false messagebus
                ;;
        post-install)
                dbus-uuidgen --ensure
                ;;
esac

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Writing ports

Requirements

Create local repository

Create ports template

spkgbuild format

Package options

Edit spkgbuild

Install script

install:

upgrade:

remove:

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Writing ports

Requirements

Create local repository

Create ports template

spkgbuild format

Package options

Edit spkgbuild

Install script

install:

upgrade:

remove: