help-center-docs/content/packaging/package.yml/en.md

Package.yml

Format

All packages consist of a single build file, which provides all of the required metadata for the package manager, plus the build steps involved to produce a package. This follows the YAML specification, thus all package.yml files must be valid YAML.

As can be seen in the example below, the file is organised into a key->value hierarchy. Some values may be required to be in a list format, whereas most are simple strings. The build step sections are all considered optional, however if you do not perform any steps, then no package is generated. Each of these keys contains content that will be placed within a script and executed within a controlled environment to perform the package build. To all intents and purposes, they are bash scripts with a predefined environment.

An example file follows:

name        : nano
version     : 2.5.1
release     : 39
source      :
    - http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/v2.5/nano-2.5.1.tar.gz : e06fca01bf183f4d531aa65a28dffc0e2d10185239909eb3de797023f3453bde
license     :
    - GPL-3.0
component   : editor
summary     : Small, friendly text editor inspired by Pico
description : |
    GNU nano is an easy-to-use text editor originally designed as a replacement for 
    Pico, the ncurses-based editor from the non-free mailer package Pine.    
setup      : |
    %configure --enable-utf8 --docdir=/usr/share/doc/nano    
build      : |
    %make    
install    : |
    %make_install
    # TODO: Convert to stateless
    install -D -m 00644 $pkgfiles/nanorc $installdir/etc/nanorc    

Keys

Not all fields in package.yml are mandatory, but a small selection are. They are listed below. Note that string(s) indicates that it is possible to use a list of strings, or one single string

dict refers to a key : value split in YAML, and dict(s) refers to a list of dicts

Mandatory Keys

Key Name	Type	Description
name	string	The name of the package. This is also used as the base of all sub-package names. Unless unavoidable, this should match the upstream name
version	string	The version of the currently packaged software. This is taken from the tarball in most cases.
release	integer	Specifies the current release number. Updates in the package number are based on this release number, not the version number. As such, to release an update to users, this number must be incremented by one.
license	string(s)	Valid upstream license(s). Try to ensure these use SPDX identifiers.
source	dict(s)	Upstream source location (i.e. tarball), with the valid sha256sum as a value
component	string	Component / group of packages this package belongs to. Check available components via eopkg lc
summary	string	Brief package summary, or display name
description	string	More extensive description of the software, usually taken from the vendor website

Optional, supported keys

Key Name	Type	Description
clang	bool	Set to no if this package cannot be built with Clang
extract	bool	Set to no to disable automatic source extraction.
autodep	bool	Set to no to disable automatic binary dependency resolution at build time
emul32	bool	Set to yes to enable an -m32 build (32-bit libs)
libsplit	bool	Set to no to disable splitting of libraries into devel sub-packages
rundeps	dict(s)	Specify further runtime dependencies for the packages
replaces	dict(s)	Replace one package with another, used when renaming or deprecating packages for clean upgrade paths
patterns	dict(s)	Allows fine grained control over file placement within the package or sub-packages. Useful for packages that are development only (i.e. /usr/bin files)

Build step keys, optional

Note that each step in itself is optional, however all can be used. The value of each of these keys is merged into a build script that is executed for each stage of the build.

Step Name	Description
setup	Performed after the source extraction. This is the correct place to perform any configure routine, or to patch the sources.
build	Use this step to run the build portion, i.e. make
install	This is where you should install the files into the final packaging directory, i.e. make install
check	There is where tests / checking should occur, i.e. make check

Macros

To further assist in packaging, a number of macros are available. These are simply shorthand ways to perform a normal build operation. They also ensure that the resulting package is consistent. These macros are only available in our build steps, as they are substituted within the script before execution.

Usage

Macros are prefixed with %, and are substituted before your script is executed. Macros ending with % are used to provide directory names or build values, to the script.

# Run the configure macro with the given arguments
%configure --disable-static

Actionable Macros

Macro	Description
%autogen	Runs autogen with our %CONFOPTS% to create a configure script then proceeds to run %configure.
%cmake	Configure cmake project with the distribution specific options, such as prefix and release type
%configure	Runs ./configure with our %CONFOPTS% variable macro.
%make	Runs the make command with the job count specified in eopkg.conf
%make_install	Perform a make install, using the DESTDIR variant. Should work for the vast majority of packages.
%patch	Sane patch macro to run in batch mode and not contaminate source tree on failure
%apply_patches	Applies all patches listed in the series file in ./files folder.
%reconfigure	Updates build scripts such as ./configure and proceeds to run %configure.

Meson Actionable Macros

Macro	Description
%meson_configure	Runs meson with our CFLAGS and appropriate flags such as libdir.
%meson_build	Runs ninja and passes our %JOBS% variable.
%meson_install	Runs meson install and passed the appropriate DESTDIR and %JOBS% variable

Perl Actionable Macros

Macro	Description
%perl_setup	Runs Perl setup scripts Build.pl or Makefile.pl with the appropriate variable flags.
%perl_build	Runs Perl build scripts or attempts %make.
%perl_install	Runs Perl install scripts or attempts %make_install.

Python Actionable Macros

Macro	Description
%python_setup	Runs the build portion of a setup.py using python2.
%python_install	Runs the install portion of a setup.py, to the appropriate root, using python2.
%python3_setup	Runs the build portion of a setup.py using python3.
%python3_install	Runs the install portion of a setup.py, to the appropriate root, using python3.

Variable Macros

Macro	Description
%CONFOPTS%	Flags / options for configuration, such as --prefix=/usr. Full List.
%CFLAGS%	cflags as set in eopkg.conf
%CXXFLAGS%	cxxflags as set in eopkg.conf
%LDFLAGS%	ldflags as set in eopkg.conf
%CC%	C compiler
%CXX%	C++ compiler
%JOBS%	jobs, as set in eopkg.conf
%installroot%	Hard-coded install directory
%libdir%	The distribution’s default library directory, i.e. /usr/lib64 (Alters for emul32)
%workdir%	Hard-coded work directory (source tree)

Variables

A set of variables are exported in our build stages. These are used to provide context and structure to the scripts.

Variable	Description
$CFLAGS	cflags as set in eopkg.conf
$CXXFLAGS	cxxflags as set in eopkg.conf
$LDFLAGS	ldflags as set in eopkg.conf
$CC	C compiler
$CXX	C++ compiler
$EMUL32BUILD	Set only when compiling in emul32 mode
$workdir	The work, or source, directory of the package build
$installdir	The install directory, i.e. where files are installed to for packaging
$pkgfiles	Refers to the ./files directory relative to the package.yml file
$sources	Refers to the directory where your source files are stored e.g. $sources/nano.tar.gz

Types

The package.yml file uses native YAML types, however for the sake of clarity an explanation of how they are used within the context of ypkg is provided below.

string

This is simply text, which does not need to be quoted.

integer

Whole, positive number, used in the release field.

list

A YAML list (or array) can be expressed in multiple ways. A short array-notation would look like this:

[one, two, three]

They can also be expressed like this:

- First Value
- Second Value
- Third Value

dict

Known as an associative array, this is key to value mapping. These are separated by a colon (:), the token on the left is taken to be a key, and the token on the right is the value.

SomeKey: Some Value

Note that each ypkg key in the YAML file is actually a dict.

dict(s)

This is a combination of the list type, the dict type and some assumptions. We primarily make use of this to express advanced information within the package. These permit you to provide no key, and a value only. In this instance, the key is assumed to be the package name:

- some value

An explicit key, usually a sub-package name:

- somekey: somevalue

A mix of both:

- somevalue
- somekey: another value

The values may also be expressed in list form, still using the same default key logic:

- [one,two, three]
- somekey: [one,two, three]
- key:
    - value one
    - value two
    - value three