Abuild and Helpers
The abuild package provides scripts necessary for creating packages for Alpine Linux. It also implements functionality for building packages as well as additional commands and options for package maintenance. For package development and maintenance, it is recommended to install the alpine-sdk meta package, which will install the abuild package in addition to other relevant tools.
apk add alpine-sdk
The git repository always contains the latest version of the scripts, example-files, and makefiles.
Setting up the build environment
Abuild needs to be configured for both the system and user.
Edit the file /etc/abuild.conf as per requirements. Most of the defaults can be left alone, unless you are developing for a custom platform, in which case the comments in the file should guide you. The one field to edit is PACKAGER, so that you can get credit (or blame) for packages you create.
In order to use abuild
command The user executing abuild
must be a member of the abuild
group:
# addgroup <yourusername> abuild
For abuild a public/private rsa key pair is needed. The abuild-keygen
command from abuild package generates and configures the security keys.
$ doas abuild-keygen -a -i
abuild-keygen options
- -a Set PACKAGER_PRIVKEY=<generated key> in abuild.conf
- -i Install public key into /etc/apk/keys using sudo
- -h Show this help
- -n Non-interactive. Use defaults
- -q Quiet mode
Building packages
Basic usage
If you just want to build a package from an APKBUILD file, only two command are needed. Both commands operate on an APKBUILD file in the current directory, so you should cd
into the directory before running them.
abuild checksum
: updates the checksums for source files.abuild -r
: builds the package.
The manual page (available via man abuild
) describes all options and commands for abuild
.
Building in a chroot
Install package abuild-rootbld
:
apk add abuild-rootbld
You may now build your packages from source in an unprivileged sandbox based on bubblewrap with the command:
abuild rootbld
rootbld
assumes your APKBUILD file is in the ~/aports whose structure like aports or you need to set environment variable APORTSDIR
to current directory.
If the build process needs network access there has to bet set the net option in APKBUILD.
Note that using rootbld
inside a docker container requires additional configuration.
Bumping a package version
The tool abump
is a utility to bump pkgver in APKBUILD files if the package gets an update to a newer upstream release. abump
will update the package's pkgver
, rebuild it and create a new commit with the resulting changes.
The manual page (available via man abump
) describes all options for abump
.
Updating a package release
If you want to bump or reset the pkgrel value of your APKBUILD or test your APKBUILD files, apkgrel can assist you.
apkgrel -a|-h|-s NUM|-t|-z [-f] FILE...
apkgrel options
- -a Add 1 to current pkgrel
- -f Force, even if given files are not in proper format
- -h Show this help
- -s Set pkgrel to NUM
- -t Only verify that files are in proper format
- -z Set pkgrel to 0
Generating new APKBUILDs
newapkbuild
The newapkbuild
tool, which is installed as part of the abuild package, can create a new APKBUILD template to start with. It will create a directory with the given package name, place an example/template APKBUILD file to the given directory, and fill some variables if those are provided. Please check the package policies page about naming details.
newapkbuild packagename
newapkbuild options
- -n Set package name to NAME
- -d Set package description (pkgdesc) to DESC
- -l Set package license to LICENSE
- -u Set package URL
- -a Create autotools package (use ./configure ...)
- -C Create CMake package (Assume cmake/ is there)
- -m Create meson package (Assume meson.build is there)
- -p Create perl package (Assume Makefile.PL is there)
- -y Create python package (Assume setup.py is there)
- -s Use sourceforge source URL
- -c Copy a sample init.d, conf.d, and install script to new directory
- -f Force even if directory already exist
- -h Show this help
The manual page (available via man newapkbuild
) describes all options for newapkbuild
.
apkbuild-cpan
The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) provides a large collection of perl software and documentation. apkbuild-cpan helps with the creation of APKBUILD for perl modules from CPAN.
apkbuild-cpan [create <Module::Name> | check | recreate | update | upgrade]
This command is provided by the apkbuild-cpan package.
apkbuild-pypi
The Python Package Index (PyPi) is a repository of software and libraries for the Python programming language. The apkbuild-pypi
command helps with the creation of APKBUILD for python package hosted at PyPI.
apkbuild-pypi [create <package> | check | recreate | update | upgrade
This command is provided by the apkbuild-pypi package.
Signing packages and indexes
abuild-sign
abuild-sign is for signing indexes.
abuild-sign [-hq] [-k PRIVKEY] [-p PUBKEY] INDEXFILE...
abuild-sign options
- -h Show this help
- -k The private key to use for signing
- -p The name of public key. apk add will look for /etc/apk/keys/PUBKEY
abuild-tar
apkbuild-tar [--hash[=<algorithm>]] [--cut]
apkbuild-tar options
- --hash[=sha1|md5] Read tar archive from stdin, precalculate hash for regular entries and output tar archive on stdout
- --cut Remove the end of file tar record
buildrepo
buildrepo creates a local package repository for you.
buildrepo [-a APORTSDIR] [-d REPODIR] [-hp] [-l LOGPREFIX ] [-r DEPREPO] REPOSITORY...
buildrepo options
- -a Set the aports base dir to APORTSDIR instead of $HOME/aports
- -d Set destination repository base dir to REPODIR instead of $HOME/packages
- -h Show this help and exit
- -l Send build to logfile, prefixed by LOGPREFIX
- -p Purge obsolete packages from REPODIR after build
- -r Dependencies are found in DEPREPO