Organizing package building wiki entries

rcoyner · 2008-09-17 01:36:45

Right now we have three separate wiki entries that describe the package building in Arch:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … _Standards
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The … guidelines
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS … _Explained

I started maintaining packages a few months ago, and while I was learning how to build packages I was getting a little tired of having to sift through multiple resources with duplicate information. This is kind of a shameless plug, but I took the entries, updated and re-wrote them:

http://www.bytetrap.com/blog/2008/09/16 … rch-linux/

Thoughts? Every factoid mentioned in those three wiki entries -should- be mentioned in my post. If I get enough thumbs up I'd be happy re-organize the current three wiki entries into the single entry that I compiled.

sand_man · 2008-09-17 01:49:53

Looks much better to me. I say go for it

kett · 2008-09-17 01:51:51

Looks good to me. I too had difficulty sorting through those three pages.

rson451 · 2008-09-17 01:58:28

Looks very nice. OT -- your links on the right side of that site look too similar to google ads IMO, makes me not want to navigate

dsr · 2008-09-18 02:59:37

It looks pretty good. I would add to it that many users prefer ~/abs to /var/abs/local since /home partitions generally have more space available for compilation than /var. Obviously it makes sense to use /var/abs/local if multiple sysadmins are co-maintaining abs and aur builds, but that doesn't apply to the majority of users.

btartsa · 2008-09-18 15:25:01

I noticed in the "preparing the file'" section you recommend using pacman -Up (package file). What is the benefit of using the -p flag?

-p, --file

Signifies that the package supplied on the command line is a file and not an entry in the database. The file will be decompressed and queried. This is useful in combination with --info and --list.

I'm just wondering because I've never used it. Nice work!

jacko · 2008-09-18 15:47:44

btartsa wrote:

I noticed in the "preparing the file'" section you recommend using pacman -Up (package file). What is the benefit of using the -p flag?
-p, --file
Signifies that the package supplied on the command line is a file and not an entry in the database. The file will be decompressed and queried. This is useful in combination with --info and --list.
I'm just wondering because I've never used it. Nice work!

far as I know, the -p switch in this case is pacman's default behavior anyway. I just double checked man pages and I don't even see a -Up command.

When reading man pages for pacman make sure you are parsing them correctly. -Q -S -R -U all have different subset commands, if any.

Last edited by jacko (2008-09-18 15:52:16)

rcoyner · 2008-09-18 19:37:01

btartsa wrote:

I noticed in the "preparing the file'" section you recommend using pacman -Up (package file). What is the benefit of using the -p flag?
-p, --file
Signifies that the package supplied on the command line is a file and not an entry in the database. The file will be decompressed and queried. This is useful in combination with --info and --list.
I'm just wondering because I've never used it. Nice work!

I took that line pretty much verbatim from the wiki entry, but the -p flag I believe ensures that you install the package that you built instead of the pre-built binary from the pacman database. So this only really applies/comes in handy if you build a package from the PKGBUILD file when the binary already exists, preventing you from installing the binary.

Also, I don't think this is usually a big problem either because the package you build is usually named pkgname.tar.gz, while when you query a package via pacman, you just use the pkgname. So you usually just do pacman -U pkgname.tar.gz instead of pacman -U pkgname anyway. If for some reason your package file was named pkgname, you would have to use the -p flag to ensure that you install your pakcage instead of the pre-built binary.

rcoyner · 2008-09-18 19:38:15

jacko wrote:

far as I know, the -p switch in this case is pacman's default behavior anyway. I just double checked man pages and I don't even see a -Up command.
When reading man pages for pacman make sure you are parsing them correctly. -Q -S -R -U all have different subset commands, if any.

Is it its default behavior? Either way, I probably should take it out just to avoid confusion.

rcoyner · 2008-09-26 18:37:20

Okay, I went ahead and created the wiki entry:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bui … Arch_Linux

This entry should be deleted:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The … guidelines

And with just a little more work these two entries can also be deleted:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … _Standards
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS … _Explained

If the devs approve, it would be nice if the index page of the AUR (http://aur.archlinux.org/) has a link to the new wiki entry instead of the Arch Packaging Standards one.

Daenyth · 2008-09-28 03:51:23

Thanks for your work. I could never keep the old articles straight.

bhobbit · 2009-11-25 05:18:00

I'd like to reopen this thread. It's been more than a year since the last post here, but wiki articles about building packages in Arch are still a mess.

There are at least three articles that list PKGBUILD options:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS … _Explained
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bui … Arch_Linux
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mak … es_in_Arch

Some of the package building articles still refer to "The Arch package making HOW-TO - with guidelines" which apparently has been renamed to "Making packages in Arch", but the old title creates an impression that there is yet another page on the same topic.

Furthermore, I think that an article with a title such as "Making packages in Arch" should discuss PKGBUILDs and makepkg, not abs.

I'm volunteering to merge these myself, but I would like to receive a blessing from the community.

keiichi · 2009-11-25 05:56:01

Do your stuff bro, three pages on the same damn topic is dumb. If you could find yourself a copy of what the original poster made (might be in Google cache) then that'd probably help you.

thayer · 2009-11-25 06:42:01

As long as the articles can be joined in their entirety and remain coherent then I say go for it.

bhobbit · 2009-11-26 06:09:58

The three articles have been merged into Building Packages in Arch Linux; a huge section listing PKGBUILD variables was moved to its own page. A thanks goes out to wiki user Pointone for cleaning up the merged and related pages.

keiichi: As far as I was able to tell, Building Packages in Arch Linux was pretty much what the original poster had written. The problem was that the other pages were not deleted at the time.

thayer: I think the goal of joining the pages in their entirety was met :)

keiichi · 2009-11-26 07:08:42

Great work dude.

Gen2ly · 2009-11-28 05:49:09

I also noticed the [PKGBUILD] page has been moved PKGBUILD Variables and been redone. Nice work.

There is also VCS_PKGBUILD_guidelines but I think that it would probably need to remain it's own page. Could use a categorization though.

Last edited by Gen2ly (2009-11-28 07:26:21)

Gen2ly · 2009-11-28 05:55:21

Ok, just got off my duff and did it .

Last edited by Gen2ly (2009-11-28 07:26:52)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-09-17 01:36:45

Organizing package building wiki entries

#2 2008-09-17 01:49:53

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#3 2008-09-17 01:51:51

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#4 2008-09-17 01:58:28

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#5 2008-09-18 02:59:37

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#6 2008-09-18 15:25:01

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#7 2008-09-18 15:47:44

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#8 2008-09-18 19:37:01

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#9 2008-09-18 19:38:15

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#10 2008-09-26 18:37:20

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#11 2008-09-28 03:51:23

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#12 2009-11-25 05:18:00

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#13 2009-11-25 05:56:01

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#14 2009-11-25 06:42:01

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#15 2009-11-26 06:09:58

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#16 2009-11-26 07:08:42

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#17 2009-11-28 05:49:09

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

#18 2009-11-28 05:55:21

Re: Organizing package building wiki entries

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