OPTIONS AND DIRECTIVES
The following is a list of standard options and directives available for use in a PKGBUILD. These are all understood and interpreted by makepkg, and most of them will be directly transferred to the built package.
If you need to create any custom variables for use in your build process, it is recommended to prefix their name with an
_ (underscore). This will prevent any possible name clashes with internal makepkg variables. For example, to store the base kernel version in a variable, use something similar to $_basekernver.
pkgname (array)
Either the name of the package or an array of names for split packages. Because it will be used in the package filename, this has to be unix-friendly. Members of the array are not allowed to start with hyphens.
pkgver
The version of the software as released from the author (e.g., 2.7.1). The variable is not allowed to contain colons or hyphens.
pkgrel
This is the release number specific to the Arch Linux release. This allows package maintainers to make updates to the package’s configure flags, for example. This is typically set to 1 for each new upstream software release and incremented for intermediate PKGBUILD updates. The variable is not allowed to contain hyphens.
pkgdesc
This should be a brief description of the package and its functionality. Try to keep the description to one line of text and not use the package’s name.
epoch
Used to force the package to be seen as newer than any previous versions with a lower epoch, even if the version number would normally not trigger such an upgrade. This value is required to be a positive integer; the default value if left unspecified is 0. This is useful when the version numbering scheme of a package changes (or is alphanumeric), breaking normal version comparison logic. See pacman(8) for more information on version comparisons.
url
This field contains a URL that is associated with the software being packaged. Typically the project’s website.
license (array)
This field specifies the license(s) that apply to the package. Commonly used licenses can be found in /usr/share/licenses/common. If you see the package’s license there, simply reference it in the license field (e.g., license=('GPL')). If the package provides a license not available in /usr/share/licenses/common, then you should include it in the package itself and set license=('custom') or license=('custom:LicenseName'). The license should be placed in $pkgdir/usr/share/licenses/$pkgname/ when building the package. If multiple licenses are applicable, list all of them: license=('GPL' 'FDL').
install
Specifies a special install script that is to be included in the package. This file should reside in the same directory as the PKGBUILD, and will be copied into the package by makepkg. It does not need to be included in the source array (e.g., install=$pkgname.install).
changelog
Specifies a changelog file that is to be included in the package. This file should reside in the same directory as the PKGBUILD, and will be copied into the package by makepkg. It does not need to be included in the source array (e.g., changelog=$pkgname.changelog).
source (array)
An array of source files required to build the package. Source files must either reside in the same directory as the PKGBUILD, or be a fully-qualified URL that makepkg can use to download the file. To make the PKGBUILD as useful as possible, use the $pkgname and $pkgver variables if possible when specifying the download location. Compressed files will be extracted automatically unless found in the noextract array described below.
It is also possible to change the name of the downloaded file, which is helpful with weird URLs and for handling multiple source files with the same name. The syntax is: source=('filename::url').
Files in the source array with extensions .sig, .sign or .asc are recognized by makepkg as PGP signatures and will be automatically used to verify the integrity of the corresponding source file.
noextract (array)
An array of filenames corresponding to those from the source array. Files listed here will not be extracted with the rest of the source files. This is useful for packages that use compressed data directly.
md5sums (array)
This array contains an MD5 hash for every source file specified in the source array (in the same order). makepkg will use this to verify source file integrity during subsequent builds. To easily generate md5sums, run makepkg -g >> PKGBUILD. If desired, move the md5sums line to an appropriate location.
sha1sums, sha256sums, sha384sums, sha512sums (arrays)
Alternative integrity checks that makepkg supports; these all behave similar to the md5sums option described above. To enable use and generation of these checksums, be sure to set up the INTEGRITY_CHECK option in makepkg.conf(5).
groups (array)
An array of symbolic names that represent groups of packages, allowing you to install multiple packages by requesting a single target. For example, one could install all KDE packages by installing the kde group.
arch (array)
Defines on which architectures the given package is available (e.g., arch=('i686' 'x86_64')). Packages that contain no architecture specific files should use arch=('any').
backup (array)
An array of filenames, without preceding slashes, that should be backed up if the package is removed or upgraded. This is commonly used for packages placing configuration files in /etc. See Handling Config Files in pacman(8) for more information.
depends (array)
An array of packages this package depends on to run. Entries in this list should be surrounded with single quotes and contain at least the package name. Entries can also include a version requirement of the form
name<>version, where <> is one of five comparisons: >= (greater than or equal to), <= (less than or equal to), = (equal to), > (greater than), or < (less than).
If the dependency name appears to be a library (ends with .so), makepkg will try to find a binary that depends on the library in the built package and append the version needed by the binary. Appending the version yourself disables auto detection.
makedepends (array)
An array of packages this package depends on to build but are not needed at runtime. Packages in this list follow the same format as depends.
checkdepends (array)
An array of packages this package depends on to run its test suite but are not needed at runtime. Packages in this list follow the same format as depends. These dependencies are only considered when the check() function is present and is to be run by makepkg.
optdepends (array)
An array of packages (and accompanying reasons) that are not essential for base functionality, but may be necessary to make full use of the contents of this package. optdepends are currently for informational purposes only and are not utilized by pacman during dependency resolution. The format for specifying optdepends is:
optdepends=('fakeroot: for makepkg usage as normal user')
conflicts (array)
An array of packages that will conflict with this package (i.e. they cannot both be installed at the same time). This directive follows the same format as depends. Versioned conflicts are supported using the operators as described in depends.
provides (array)
An array of “virtual provisions” this package provides. This allows a package to provide dependencies other than its own package name. For example, the dcron package can provide
cron, which allows packages to depend on
cron rather than
dcron OR fcron.
Versioned provisions are also possible, in the
name=version format. For example, dcron can provide
cron=2.0 to satisfy the
cron>=2.0 dependency of other packages. Provisions involving the > and < operators are invalid as only specific versions of a package may be provided.
If the provision name appears to be a library (ends with .so), makepkg will try to find the library in the built package and append the correct version. Appending the version yourself disables auto detection.
replaces (array)
An array of packages this package should replace. This can be used to handle renamed/combined packages. For example, if the
j2re package is renamed to
jre, this directive allows future upgrades to continue as expected even though the package has moved. Versioned replaces are supported using the operators as described in depends.
Sysupgrade is currently the only pacman operation that utilizes this field. A normal sync or upgrade will not use its value.
options (array)
This array allows you to override some of makepkg’s default behavior when building packages. To set an option, just include the option name in the options array. To reverse the default behavior, place an “!” at the front of the option. Only specify the options you specifically want to override, the rest will be taken from
makepkg.conf(5).
NOTE: force is a now-removed option in favor of the top level
epoch variable.
strip
Strip symbols from binaries and libraries. If you frequently use a debugger on programs or libraries, it may be helpful to disable this option.
docs
Save doc directories. If you wish to delete doc directories, specify !docs in the array.
libtool
Leave libtool (.la) files in packages. Specify !libtool to remove them.
emptydirs
Leave empty directories in packages.
zipman
Compress man and info pages with gzip.
upx
Compress binary executable files using UPX.
ccache
Allow the use of ccache during build. More useful in its negative form !ccache with select packages that have problems building with ccache.
distcc
Allow the use of distcc during build. More useful in its negative form !distcc with select packages that have problems building with distcc.
buildflags
Allow the use of user-specific buildflags (CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, LDFLAGS) during build as specified in makepkg.conf(5). More useful in its negative form !buildflags with select packages that have problems building with custom buildflags.
makeflags
Allow the use of user-specific makeflags during build as specified in makepkg.conf(5). More useful in its negative form !makeflags with select packages that have problems building with custom makeflags such as -j2 (or higher).
PACKAGE SPLITTING
makepkg supports building multiple packages from a single PKGBUILD. This is achieved by assigning an array of package names to the pkgname directive. Each split package uses a corresponding packaging function with name package_foo(), where foo is the name of the split package.
All options and directives for the split packages default to the global values given in the PKGBUILD. Nevertheless, the following ones can be overridden within each split package’s packaging function: pkgver, pkgrel, epoch, pkgdesc, arch, license, groups, depends, optdepends, provides, conflicts, replaces, backup, options, install and changelog.
An optional global directive is available when building a split package:
pkgbase
The name used to refer to the group of packages in the output of makepkg and in the naming of source-only tarballs. If not specified, the first element in the pkgname array is used. The variable is not allowed to begin with a hyphen.
INSTALL/UPGRADE/REMOVE SCRIPTING
Pacman has the ability to store and execute a package-specific script when it installs, removes, or upgrades a package. This allows a package to configure itself after installation and perform an opposite action upon removal.
The exact time the script is run varies with each operation, and should be self-explanatory. Note that during an upgrade operation, none of the install or remove scripts will be called.
Scripts are passed either one or two “full version strings”, where a full version string is either
pkgver-pkgrel or
epoch:pkgver-pkgrel if epoch is non-zero.
pre_install
Run right before files are extracted. One argument is passed: new package full version string.
post_install
Run right after files are extracted. One argument is passed: new package full version string.
pre_upgrade
Run right before files are extracted. Two arguments are passed in this order: new package full version string, old package full version string.
post_upgrade
Run after files are extracted. Two arguments are passed in this order: new package full version string, old package full version string.
pre_remove
Run right before files are removed. One argument is passed: old package full version string.
post_remove
Run right after files are removed. One argument is passed: old package full version string.
To use this feature, create a file such as
pkgname.install and put it in the same directory as the PKGBUILD script. Then use the install directive:
install=pkgname.install
The install script does not need to be specified in the source array. A template install file is available in
/usr/share/pacman as
proto.install for reference with all of the available functions defined.