pkgbox

pkgbox is a software build toolbox which eases configuring, compiling and installing software.

It is inspired by the Gentoo Portage ebuild system. However, it does not resolve dependencies by itself as it should be seen as a handy utility for building software from source and not as a package manager nor a complete solution.

Usage examples

Print synopsis

$ pkgbox -h

Package actions

$ pkgbox media-gfx/graphicsmagick install
$ pkgbox -v -D force media-gfx/graphicsmagick configure
$ pkgbox -vv -D prefix=$HOME/local/GraphicsMagick pkg/media-gfx/graphicsmagick/graphicsmagick.pkgbox install

Run test suite

$ pkgbox -vvv -T

Configuration

Per default the configuration is stored at $HOME/.pkgbox/conf. An example configuration file conf.sample can be found in the base directory.

Additional config files can be included by specifying the -c option for each config.

Writing packages

Per default the package repository is located in the pkg-directory of the pkgbox base directory, which is a Git submodule pointing to datag/pkgbox-packages.

Packages may be organized in category directories (e.g. app-misc) and each package may reside in a separate directory with the name of the package (e.g. app-misc/hello/hello.pkgbox).

These are the ways pkgbox can be invoked with a package:

Complete path to .pkgbox file, e.g. pkgbox /my/path/to/package.pkgbox.
Specifying category plus package name, e.g. app-misc/hello. If no category directories are used, specify only the package name, e.g. hello.
Specify as in 2), but provide the desired package version to use (e.g. app-misc/hello-2.7).

Example pkgbox-package

This is a minimal pkgbox package for the GNU "Hello world" program. The variable PKGBOX_API and the macro pkgVer are mandatory.

# pkgbox: GNU Hello
PKGBOX_API=1

pkgVer 2.8

DESCRIPTION="GNU 'Hello, world!' program"
HOMEPAGE="http://www.gnu.org/software/hello/"
SRC_URI="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/$PN/$P.tar.gz"

datag / pkgbox