pkg MANIFEST documentation

[Baptiste Daroussin]

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 06:34:31PM +1100, Aristedes Maniatis wrote:
> I am trying to create a package without first having a port, but I'm finding it really hard.
> 
> Firstly, the pkg MANIFEST format isn't well documented. For example:

That's on my TODO list to bring the documentation for MANIFEST into a complete
one

> 
> 1. What is the syntax of "deps" when I want to depend on Java, but not specify the version? I've tried this:
> 
> deps:
>    javavmwrapper: {origin: java/javavmwrapper}

Here name and version are mandatory, this is to allow pkg add (used by the ports
tree, tinderbox and pointyhat) to be able to look at a package around the
package you want to install when doing pkg add ./yourpkg.txz it will try to get
./javawrapper-version.txz if exists.

Compatibility needed.

> 
> but this is ignored with a warning.
> 
> 
> 2. Everything under "files:" and "directories:" appears to have full paths from root. If that is the case, how does the system adjust to a user's own choice of prefix? And what is the point of the "prefix:" option earlier in the MANIFEST?
> 
> 3. I see packages with this syntax:
> 
> directories:
>    /var/db/something: y
> 
> What does the "y" mean?
> 

y == try to delete while n == to no try.

meaning when pkg delete is called when it tries to remove the /var/db/something
if it fails and 'y' was given then it will not output a warning. But if 'n' was
given then it will warn about it.
> 
> 
> Secondly, I am confused by the tar packaging itself. It appears that my package only works if I build it using
> 
>    tar Pf packge.tar /


Why are you trying to pack using tar and not pkg create directly? 
>   
> Is the correct way to chroot to a folder, assemble all the files relative to root and then tar in this way? Again, why doesn't pkg cope with relative tar pathing? Isn't that the whole point of 'prefix'?

Not at all package without prefix is broken by design because 90% of the
binaries will have hardcoded prefix. To install respecting chroot just pkg -c
/mychroot/ install mypkg

regards,
Bapt
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