APKBUILD Reference

APKBUILDs are scripts to build alpine packages using the abuild tool.

Variables

The following variables are defined by abuild:

startdir

The directory where APKBUILD script is found.

srcdir

The directory here sources are downloaded to and unpacked.

pkgdir

This directory should hold the data files for main package. A normal autotools package has a make DESTDIR="$pkgdir" install.

subpkgdir

This directory should have the data files for a subpackage. This variable should only be used from subpackage functions.

Note: All variables that holds a path (i.e $srcdir and $pkgdir) should always be within quotes in the APKBUILD (for example: "$srcdir"). This is so things don't break in case user has the APKBUILD in a directory with spaces.

The following variables should be defined by user in APKBUILD:

depends

Runtime dependencies that are not shared-object dependencies. Shared objects dependencies are autodetected and should not be specified here.

depends_dev

Runtime dependencies for -dev subpackage.

install

pre/post install/deinstall/remove scripts.

license

License(s) for the package.

makedepends

Build time dependencies.

md5sums

Checksums for sources and patches. This is generated with abuild checksum and should be located last in the APKBUILD.

options

build time options for package. Valid values are currently only !strip for avoid stripping the binaries.

pkgdesc

Short package description.

pkggroups

Groups to be created during buildtime. This group should be created in a $pkgname.pre-install script as well so group is created during runtime.

pkgname

The name of the package. All letters should be lowercase. Lua libraries/modules should be prefixed with lua- (for example lua-posix), perl modules with perl- (for example perl-xml-parser), php modules with php- and python modules with py--.

pkgusers

Users to be created during buildtime. Use $pkgname.pre-install for creating the user(s) during runtime.

pkgver

The package version.

replaces

package(s) that this package replaces. Useful when files moves from one package to another.

source

URL(s) to sources and patches.

subpackages

Subpackages built from this APKBUILD.

url

The homepage for the package. This is to help users find upstream developer, documentation etc.

Note: All other user specified variables, temp variables or APKBUILD specifics should be prefixed with a _ to avoid nameclashes with the abuild internals. For example: $_builddir.

Functions

The following functions should be specified in the APKBUILD. The functions should consider current work directory as undefined.

prepare()

Optional. Build preparation. Here should patches etc be applied. This is function is for convenience while working with the APKBUILD.

build()

Required. This is the compilation stage. This function will be called as normal user (unless the package() function is missing - for compatibility reasons). If no compilation is needed this function can contain a single return 0.

package()

Required. In this function the built application and files should be installed in "$pkgdir".

Note: Building in fakeroot will reduce performance for parallell builds dramatically. That is why we do the build() and package() separation.

The following functions are provided by abuild and is overrideable:

fetch()

download remote sources listed in $source to $SRCDEST and create symlinks to $srcdir.

unpack()

unpacks .tar.gz .tar.bz2 .tgz and .zip archices in $srcdir.

dev()

Subpackage function for -dev packages. By default this will only call default_dev which will move $pkgdir/usr/include, *.a, *.la and similar files to $subpkgdir.

doc()

Subpackage function for -doc packages. By default this will only call default_doc which will move $pkgdir/usr/share/doc, $pkgdir/usr/share/man and similar to $subpkgdir.

Subpackages

Subpackages are specified in the $subpackages variable. abuild will parse this variable and try find a subpackage split function. The split function must move files from $pkgdir to $subpkgdir.

The split function can be specified in 3 different ways:

1. subpkgname:splitfunc
2. pkgname-splitfunc
3. splitfunc

Subpackages example

pkgname="foo"
subpackages="$pkgname-dev  $pkgname-doc py-$pkgname:pysub libfoo"

will create totally 5 packages:

1. foo (main)
2. foo-dev (sub)
3. foo-doc (sub)
4. py-foo (sub)
5. libfoo (sub)

The split functions for the 4 sub packages are:

1. dev() (provided by abuild)
2. doc() (provided by abuild)
3. pysub() (provided by user)
4. libfoo() (provided by user)

Examples

Simple package with separate -doc subpackage.

# Maintainer: Natanael Copa <ncopa@alpinelinux.org>
pkgname=m4
pkgver=1.4.13
pkgrel=0
pkgdesc="GNU macro processor"
url="http://www.gnu.org/software/m4"
source=ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.gz
depends=
license="GPL"
subpackages="m4-doc"

_builddir="$srcdir"/$pkgname-$pkgver
build() {
	cd "$_builddir"
	./configure --prefix=/usr
	make
}

package() {
	cd "$_builddir"
	make install DESTDIR="$pkgdir"
}

md5sums="e9e36108b5f9855a82ca4a07ebc0fd2e  m4-1.4.13.tar.gz"

Example with -doc, -dev and python subpackages.

# Contributor: Carlo Landmeter <clandmeter at gmail>
# Maintainer: Carlo Landmeter <clandmeter at gmail>
pkgname=libxml2
pkgver=2.7.7
pkgrel=0
pkgdesc="XML parsing library, version 2"
url="http://www.xmlsoft.org/"
license="MIT"
depends=
makedepends="zlib-dev python-dev"
subpackages="$pkgname-doc $pkgname-dev py-$pkgname:py"
source="ftp://ftp.xmlsoft.org/${pkgname}/${pkgname}-${pkgver}.tar.gz
        largefile64.patch"

options="!strip"

_builddir="$srcdir/$pkgname-$pkgver"
prepare() {
        cd "$_builddir"
        for _i in "$srcdir"/*.patch; do
                patch -p1 -i "$_i"
        done
}

build() {
        cd "$_builddir"
        ./configure --prefix=/usr \
                --sysconfdir=/etc \
                --mandir=/usr/share/man \
                --infodir=/usr/share/info
        make
}

package() {
        cd "$_builddir"
        make -j1 DESTDIR="$pkgdir" install
        install -Dm644 COPYING "$pkgdir"/usr/share/licenses/$pkgname/COPYING
}

py() {
        cd "$_builddir"
        pkgdesc="$pkgname python bindings"
        install -d "$subpkgdir"/usr/lib
        mv "$pkgdir"/usr/lib/python* "$subpkgdir"/usr/lib/
}


md5sums="9abc9959823ca9ff904f1fbcf21df066  libxml2-2.7.7.tar.gz
5ad4915665608ebfa5b89f7908467a72  largefile64.patch"