package.yml.md

title	summary
Package YAML	Learning the package.yml packaging format

package.yml

Each package is generated from a single build file named package.yml. This file is sometimes also called a "recipe" since it provides steps for building a package. It provides all of the required metadata for the package manager, plus the packaging steps involved to produce a package. This file follows the YAML specification.

Format

All package.yml files must be valid YAML.

The file is organised into a key→value hierarchy. The ypkg tool parses a package.yml file to build the corresponding package in a declarative manner. As such, most of the keys are simple strings, lists or nested key→value pairs. A special case consists in the packaging steps, which are scripts.

An example file follows:

name       : nano
version    : 2.9.5
release    : 96
source     :
    - https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/v2.9/nano-2.9.5.tar.xz: 7b8d181cb57f42fa86a380bb9ad46abab859b60383607f731b65a9077f4b4e19
homepage   : https://www.nano-editor.org
license    : GPL-3.0-or-later
summary    : Small, friendly text editor inspired by Pico
component  : system.devel
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 (itself now available under the Apache License as Alpine).
setup      : |
    %patch -p1 -i $pkgfiles/0001-Use-a-stateless-configuration.patch
    %reconfigure --enable-utf8 --docdir=/usr/share/doc/nano
build      : |
    %make
install    : |
    %make_install
    install -D -m 00644 $pkgfiles/nanorc $installdir/usr/share/defaults/nano/nanorc
    install -D -m 00644 $pkgfiles/git.nanorc $installdir/usr/share/nano/git.nanorc
    # https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc
    for rcFile in $pkgfiles/nanorc-extras/*.nanorc; do
        install -m 00644 $rcFile $installdir/usr/share/nano
    done

Keys

Not all fields in package.yml are mandatory, but a small selection are. Below is the complete list of the available fields.

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.
source	dict(s)	See source key below.
homepage	string	Provides a link to the package's homepage, used in the Software Center.
license	string(s)	Valid upstream license(s). Try to ensure these use SPDX identifiers.
summary	string	Brief package summary, or display name.
component	string	Component / group of packages this package belongs to. Check available components via eopkg lc.
description	string	More extensive description of the software, usually taken from the vendor website.

"source" key

• Tarball source
  • Upstream source URL to the source code archive (often called the "tarball"), followed by the sha256sum for the tarball, as a value.
  • Example: https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/v7/nano-7.2.tar.xz : 86f3442768bd2873cec693f83cdf80b4b444ad3cc14760b74361474fc87a4526
  • Tarball sources are preferred over git sources, whenever possible, because git tags can be changed to point to different commits.
• Git source
  • Git repository URL prefixed with git|, followed by the git tag or commit hash, as a value.
  • Example: git|https://github.com/getsolus/solus-sc.git : 6e786b3e86982272717ca4bed4f783fc43a678f3
• Multiple sources
  • If multiple sources are listed, only the first source will be copied from the $sources directory to the $workdir directory.
• Renaming sources
  • If the file resulting from the source download needs to be renamed (often to avoid a name that would conflict with another source), add the preferred name to the URL as a URI fragment.
  • Example: https://github.com/docker/cli/archive/refs/tags/v25.0.3.tar.gz#docker-cli.tar.gz : 04ad0cea992a65db20cb1b0dbf6d1ce32c705ce879de51b22095fe8d28030815
  • This renames the downloaded file from v25.0.3.tar.gz to docker-cli.tar.gz.
• SourceForge sources
  • A proper SourceForge source looks like this, using hplip as an example: https://sourceforge.net/projects/hplip/files/hplip/3.24.4/hplip-3.24.4.tar.gz
    • This URL begins with https://sourceforge.net/, not https://downloads.sourceforge.net/, or some other mirror.
    • This URL has a path beginning with /projects/$project_name/
    • This URL does not have a trailing /download, you may have to remove this by hand.
  • The correct SourceForge tarball URLs are found under the "Files" tab, then often within a directory, when starting from a project homepage on SourceForge.

Optional, supported keys

Key Name	Type	Description
clang	bool	Set to yes if this package benefits from being 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.
conflicts	string(s)	Specify packages that cannot be installed together with this one.
optimize	list	Specify preset keys to modify compiler and linker flags during build. You can learn more here.
builddeps	list	Specify build dependencies for the package. You can learn more here.
rundeps	dict(s)	Specify further runtime dependencies for the packages. You can learn more here.
checkdeps	dict(s)	Specify build dependencies for the package which will not be considered when determining build order for automatic builds. These dependencies should only be used during the check build phase. You can learn more here
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). You can learn more here.
environment	unicode	Specify code that will be exported to all packaging steps of the build (i.e. exporting variables for the entire build).
networking	bool	Set to yes to enable networking within solbuild.

Packaging step keys, optional

The packaging steps are all considered optional, however the absence of the install step will result in no package 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. For all intents and purposes, they are Bash scripts with a predefined environment.

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, for example, make.
install	This is where you should install the files into the final packaging directory, for example, make install.
check	This is where tests / checking should occur, for example, make check.
profile	This is where profiling tests should be specified. ypkg will handle setting flags to generate profiling data and using that data for an optimized build.

Optimize values

One or more optimize values can be specified in a list with the optimize key in the package.yml file. Several values can override or conflict with each other and should be used only where they provide a performance benefit, or fix a bug in the package or build.

Optimize Value	Description
speed	Optimizes the package for performance -O3 plus other flags.
size	Optimizes the package build to minimize size -Os. Not supported with clang.
no-bind-now	Configures the package to disable certain flags, where RELRO is unsupported.
no-symbolic	Disables -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions linker flag.
unroll-loops	Enables -funroll-loops. Use this sparingly, only when it provides proven benefit.
runpath	Enables -Wl,--enable-new-dtags to make linker use RUNPATH's instead of RPATH's.
avx256	Disables -mprefer-vector-width=128 in avx2 builds.
thin-lto	Enables Thin Link Time Optimization -flto=thin with a supported linker.
lto	Enables Link Time Optimization -flto.
icf-safe	Enables safe Identical Cold Folding --icf=safe. function-sections is recommended when not using clang. Uses gold linker when not using clang.
icf-all	Enables Identical Cold Folding --icf=all. function-sections is recommended when not using clang. Uses gold linker when not using clang.
polly	Enables polyhedral optimizations for the clang toolchain.
function-sections	Generate a separate ELF section for each function. Recommended with ICF when not using clang.
no-reorder-blocks-partition	Disables block partition reordering with the gcc toolchain. Provided to facilitate BOLT'ed binaries/libraries.
emit-relocs	Instructs the linker to emit relocations. Provided to facilitate BOLT'ed binaries/libraries.

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 packaging 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	Configures a CMake project with the distribution specific options, such as prefix and release type.
%cmake_ninja	Configures a CMake project with ninja so it can be used with %ninja_build, %ninja_install and %ninja_check macros.
%configure	Runs ./configure with our %CONFOPTS% variable macro.
%configure_no_runstatedir	Runs %configure without the --runstatedir option. Use if you encounter configure: error: unrecognized option: '--runstatedir=/run'.
%make	Runs the make command with the job count specified in eopkg.conf (more info).
%make_install	Performs 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.
%symlink_check	Checks for broken symlinks in the install directory and aborts the build if any are found. Must run after install macros.

Haskell actionable macros

Macro	Description
%cabal_configure	Configures a Cabal project that requires online dependencies, like a Cargo-style build
%haskell_configure	Runs runhaskell configure with prefix, libdir, etc. and ensures the necessary package.conf.d is copied to the correct location.
%haskell_build	Runs runhaskell build with %JOBS%.
%haskell_install	Runs runhaskell copy to $installdir.
%haskell_register	Runs runhaskell register to generate a pkg-config for package and version, then installs the conf file.

Existing Haskell packages may use the old cabal_build, cabal_install, cabal_register macros. Please use the new haskell_* macros instead.

Ninja actionable macros

Macro	Description
%meson_configure	Runs meson with our CFLAGS and appropriate flags such as libdir.
%ninja_build	Runs ninja and passes our %JOBS% variable. This macro obsoletes %meson_build.
%ninja_install	Runs ninja install and passes the appropriate DESTDIR and %JOBS% variable. This macro obsoletes %meson_install.
%ninja_check	Runs ninja test and passes our %JOBS% variable. This macro obsoletes %meson_check.

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.
%python_test	Without argument, runs the test portion of setup.py. With a .py script, execute the script with python2. With something else execute the command "as it is". (More info)
%python_compile	Compiles *.py files using python2. This is only useful where the build doesn't compile them already (indicated by availability of *.pyc files).
%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.
%python3_test	Without argument, runs the test portion of setup.py. With a .py script, execute the script with python3. With something else execute the command "as it is". (More info)
%python3_compile	Compiles *.py files using python3. This is only useful where the build doesn't compile them already (indicated by availability of *.pyc files).

Ruby actionable macros

Macro	Description
%gem_build	Runs gem build.
%gem_install	Runs gem install with the appropriate parameters.

Rust (cargo) actionable macros

Macro	Description
%cargo_fetch	Runs cargo fetch --locked to get dependencies.
%cargo_build	Runs cargo build with some additional flags.
%cargo_install	Installs the built binary to /usr/bin/PACKAGE-NAME, OR to /usr/bin/ARGUMENT.
%cargo_test	Runs cargo test with some additional flags.

Qt actionable macros

Macro	Description
%qmake	Runs qmake for Qt5 with the appropriate make flags.
%qmake4	Runs qmake for Qt4, as well as adding the necessary MOC, RCC, and UIC flags since those Qt4 executables end in -qt4.
%qml_cache	Compiles *.qml files into *.qmlc so they are compiled ahead of time.
%qml6_cache	Same as %qml_cache, but for Qt6.

Waf actionable macros

Macro	Description
%waf_configure	Runs waf configure with prefix.
%waf_build	Runs waf and passes our %JOBS% variable.
%waf_install	Runs waf install and passes the appropriate destdir and %JOBS% variable.

BOLT actionable macros

BOLT is a post-link optimizer developed to speed up large applications. You will need to run a workload after instrumenting a binary or library. Think of it as post-link profile guided optimization.

Macro	Description
%bolt_instr	Instrument a binary or library with llvm-bolt. Requires it to be built with emit-relocs, as well as no-reorder-blocks-partition if not using clang.
%bolt_merge	Merge fdata profiles into a single file after running a workload with a BOLT instrumented binary.
%bolt_opt	Optimize a binary using BOLT after running %bolt_merge.

Variable macros

Macro	Description
%ARCH%	Indicates the current build architecture.
%CC%	C compiler.
%CFLAGS%	cflags as set in eopkg.conf.
%CONFOPTS%	Flags / options for configuration, such as --prefix=%PREFIX%. Full List.
%CXX%	C++ compiler.
%CXXFLAGS%	cxxflags as set in eopkg.conf.
%JOBS%	jobs, as set in eopkg.conf.
%LDFLAGS%	ldflags as set in eopkg.conf.
%LIBSUFFIX%	Library suffix (either 32 for 32-bit or 64 for 64-bit).
%PREFIX%	Hard-coded prefix /usr.
%YJOBS%	Job count without -j as set in eopkg.conf.
%installroot%	Hard-coded install directory.
%libdir%	The distribution’s default library directory, i.e. /usr/lib64 (Alters for emul32).
%version%	Version of the package, as specified in the version key.
%workdir%	Hard-coded work directory (source tree).
%kernel_version_lts%	Version of the linux-lts kernel.
%kernel_version_current%	Version of the linux-current kernel.
%python2_version%	Version of the python (Python 2) distribution.
%python3_version%	Version of the python3 distribution.

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.
$AVX2BUILD	Set only when compiling in avx2 mode.
$PGO_GEN_BUILD	Set during the instrumentation phase of a PGO build.
$PGO_USE_BUILD	Set during the use phase of a PGO 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, for example, $sources/nano.tar.gz.
$workdir	The work, or source, directory of the package build.

Types

The package.yml file uses native YAML types, however it follows syntactic conventions and may accept multiple value types for a given key.

string

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

string(s)

Indicates that it is possible to use a list of strings, or one single string.

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)

dict(s) consists of a list of dicts 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 implicitly assumed to be the package name (for example, nano):

- 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

Packaging practices

The concepts in this document merely expose the syntax of a package.yml file. Solus adheres to strict packaging practices and conventions which packagers must follow. They are explained in the Packaging Practices article.