PacMan Repo Builder

Build a custom pacman repository from a collection of PKGBUILD directories.

Runtime Dependencies

• pacman
• makepkg
• libalpm.so.13
• libgit2.so

Usage

⚠ WARNING: This program is meant to be used within a docker container.

Manifest file

Manifest file is always named build-pacman-repo.yaml. It contains instruction to build a pacman repository.

Example Manifest File:

# build-pacman-repo.yaml
global-settings:
  repository: repo/repo.db.tar.gz
  container: container
  read-build-metadata: either
  record-failed-builds: failed-builds.yaml
  install-missing-dependencies: false
  clean-before-build: false
  clean-after-build: false
  force-rebuild: true
  pacman: pacman
  arch-filter: [x86_64]
  check: inherit
  packager: Bob <bob@example.com>
  allow-failure: true
  dereference-database-symlinks: true
members:
  - directory: foo
  - directory: bar
    read-build-metadata: pkgbuild
    clean-before-build: false
    force-rebuild: true
    allow-failure: false
  - directory: bar
    install-missing-dependencies: true
    clean-after-build: false
    check: enabled
    pacman: yay
  - directory: baz
    read-build-metadata: srcinfo
    install-missing-dependencies: false
    clean-before-build: true
    clean-after-build: false
    force-rebuild: true
    check: disabled
    pacman: yay
    allow-failure: false

Field Explanations:

Top-Level:

global-settings's own fields:

member's own fields:

Shared Fields: Fields that exist in both global-settings and member. If global-settings and member both contain a field, member's field will be prioritized.

Generate manifest file

Listing every member in a manifest file can be a chore. So when there are no members with customized properties, you can generate the manifest file the reflect the build directories instead:

build-pacman-repo print-config \
  --repository $repo_dir/$repo_name.db.tar.gz \
  --container build-directories \
  --require-pkgbuild \
  --require-srcinfo \
  --with-install-missing-dependencies true \
  > build-pacman-repo.yaml

Note: Replace $repo_dir with path of your repository directory. This directory would contains all built packages. Note: Replace $repo_name with name of your repository file. This file would be fetched by pacman to check for updates.

Replace /usr/bin/makepkg with one that allows running as root

The normal makepkg script does not allow running as root. While it may make sense in a user's machine, it inconveniences a Docker container.

build-pacman-repo patch-makepkg --replace

Build a pacman repositories

build-pacman-repo build

Note: Make sure that build-pacman-repo.yaml file exists in current working directory.

Print help message

build-pacman-repo help

build-pacman-repo --help

build-pacman-repo help $command

build-pacman-repo $command --help

GitHub Action

pacman-repo-builder/action let you run build-pacman-repo on an Arch Linux container.

Real-world applications

• https://github.com/KSXGitHub/aur-packages-builder
• https://github.com/KSXGitHub/cargo-scripts-builder
• https://github.com/KSXGitHub/personal-pacman-packages
• https://github.com/KSXGitHub/personal-crates

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this program do?

Its main purpose is to build a pacman repository. When the build command is called, it will read all source infos from either .SRCINFO or PKGBUILD, sort them by their dependency relationship, then build them one by one.

Why does this need to be ran inside a container?

In order for this program to function properly, it must make several changes to the host system, such as:

• Replace /usr/bin/makepkg with one that allows running as root, so that it may be used in a CI environment.
• Install every built package just in case it may be depended upon by another package.

A simple shell script should be enough

If your use case is simple, good for you, just use shell script. If you are confident that you can provide all the features with shell script alone, also good for you, but I have already provided them with this program, so you don't have to.

Why YAML?

It is nice.

License

GPLv3 © Hoàng Văn Khải.