Usage of '@cwd' and '@srcdir' in a package list

[Patrick Mahan]

All,

Need a little direction on package creation.  This issue
is hitting me on both 8.0, 8.2 and 9.0 FreeBSD (amd64)
releases.

I'm trying to create a package using pkg_create with
the intention of installing under /usr/local.  However,
my build environment is private (not under /usr/ports
or /usr/src) and I *do not* install before creating
the package file.

My problem is that if I have the following in my
package list file -

@cwd /usr/local
@srcdir .
...
relative filepaths
...

The the pkg_create fails with tar complaining about
not being able to source the files, even though I
invoke pkg_create at the top of the subtree and the
files are relative to my current working directory.

I have also tried the '-s `pwd`' option to pkg_create
as well, with no success.

Removing the @cwd line allows the package to be built.

Reading the man page it states

"@srcdir directory
         Set the internal directory pointer for _creation only_ to
         directory.  That is to say that it overrides @cwd for
         package creation but not extraction."

Which seems to be what I want but why is it not overriding?

Any pointers are welcomed.

Thanks,

Patrick