solaris-pkg/README.md

Solaris Package System

This is an attempt, using pure sh, to create a software building and packaging system for Solaris 10 (and maybe other versions) on an UltraSPARC II system (my test system is an Ultra 60).

It is based loosely around a combination of both Arch's makepkg system and FreeBSD's ports tree.

It is very much a work in progress and liable to break any time.

How it works

Package compilation is based around a reasonably simple POSIX sh script (NOT a bash script, so many things you may be used to just aren't there!). The script contains two main sections.

1. Declarations and Definitions

These are a list of shell variables that describe the package:

• VERSION - The version number of the package
• PACKAGE - The name of the package (must be the same as the package directory name)
• CATEGORY - The category the package is in (must be the same as the directory the package directory resides in)
• SRC - The source filename once downloaded - not needed for GIT downloads
• URL - The URL to get the source from (see below)
• DEPENDS - A list of packages that should be compiled and installed before this one.

2. Operational Functions

These do the actual work of compiling the sofware. Three are essential:

• configure() - Configure the source (usually running ./configure etc)
• build() - Compile the source
• install() - Install it to ${DESTDIR}

Extra Files

As well as the PKGCONF file describing the package, there are a number of optional extra files that can be included with a package.

• Patch files - These should be placed in the patches directory within the package, and should be named with a .patch extension. They should be "unified" patch files (created with diff -u), and will be applied to the source code after extraction and before configuration.

• Script files - (not implemented yet). These should be placed in the scripts directory, and referenced in the PKGCONF file using the variables:

  • PREINSTALL=...
  • POSTINSTALL=...
  • CHECKINSTALL=...

They will be included in the final package as the relevant script file entries.

Compiling a Package

Simply run makepkg in a package folder and it should compile into a standard Solaris package file for you. There are some command line options:

• -i : Install the package after compiling it.
• -s : Compile and install any dependencies of this package first before compiling this package
• -f : Force a clean rebuild of the package from scratch