path: root/doc/guide/files/plist.xml

<!-- $NetBSD: plist.xml,v 1.4 2005/05/08 13:53:06 wiz Exp $ -->

<chapter id="plist">
  <title>PLIST issues</title>

  <para> The <filename>PLIST</filename> file contains a package's
    <quote>packing list</quote>, i.e. a list of files that belong to
    the package (relative to the <filename>${PREFIX}</filename>
    directory it's been installed in) plus some additional statements
    - see the &man.pkg.create.1; manpage for a full list.
    This chapter addresses some issues that need attention when
    dealing with the <filename>PLIST</filename> file (or files, see
    below!).</para>


  <sect1>
    <title>RCS ID</title>

    <para>
      Be sure to add a RCS ID line as the first thing in any
      <filename>PLIST</filename> file you write:
    </para>

    <programlisting>@comment &#36;NetBSD&#36;</programlisting>
  </sect1>
    
  <sect1>
    <title>Semi-automatic <filename>PLIST</filename> generation</title>
	    
    <para>You can use the <command>make print-PLIST</command> command
      to output a PLIST that matches any new files since the package
      was extracted.  See <xref linkend="build.helpful-targets"/> for
      more information on this target.</para>
  </sect1>


  <sect1 id="print-PLIST">
    <title>Tweaking output of <command>make print-PLIST</command></title>
  
    <para> If you have used any of the *-dirs packages, as explained in
      <xref linkend="faq.common-dirs"/>, you may have noticed that
      <command>make print-PLIST</command> outputs a set of
      <varname>@comment</varname>s instead of real
      <varname>@dirrm</varname> lines.  You can also do this for
      specific directories and files, so that the results of that
      command are very close to reality. This helps <emphasis>a
      lot</emphasis> during the update of packages. </para>
  
    <para> The <varname>PRINT_PLIST_AWK</varname> variable takes a set
      of AWK patterns and actions that are used to filter the output of
      print-PLIST.  You can <emphasis>append</emphasis> any chunk of AWK
      scripting you like to it, but be careful with quoting. </para>
  
    <para> For example, to get all files inside the
      <filename>libdata/foo</filename> directory removed from the
      resulting PLIST:</para> 
  
    <programlisting>
      PRINT_PLIST_AWK+= /^libdata\/foo/ { next; }
    </programlisting>
  
    <para> And to get all the <varname>@dirrm</varname> lines referring
      to a specific (shared) directory converted to
      <varname>@comment</varname>s: </para> 
  
    <programlisting>
      PRINT_PLIST_AWK+= /^@dirrm share\/specific/ { print "@comment " $$0; next; }
    </programlisting>
  </sect1>
    
  
  <sect1 id="plist.misc">
    <title>Variable substitution in PLIST</title>

    <para>
      A number of variables are substituted automatically in PLISTs
      when a package is installed on a system. This includes the
      following variables: </para>

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
    	  <term><varname>${MACHINE_ARCH}</varname>, <varname>${MACHINE_GNU_ARCH}</varname></term>

        <listitem>
          <para>Some packages like emacs and perl embed information
            about which architecture they were built on into the
            pathnames where they install their file. To handle this
            case, PLIST will be preprocessed before actually used, and
            the symbol
            <quote><varname>${MACHINE_ARCH}</varname></quote> will be
            replaced by what <command>uname -p</command> gives. The
            same is done if the string
            <varname>${MACHINE_GNU_ARCH}</varname> is embedded in
            PLIST somewhere - use this on packages that have GNU
            autoconf created configure scripts.</para>

          <note>
            <title>Legacy note</title>
  
            <para>There used to be a symbol
              <quote><varname>$ARCH</varname></quote> that 
              was replaced by the output of <command>uname
              -m</command>, but that's no longer supported and has
              been removed.</para>
          </note>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
  
      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>${OPSYS}</varname>, <varname>${LOWER_OPSYS}</varname>, <varname>${OS_VERSION}</varname></term>
  
        <listitem>
          <para>Some packages want to embed the OS name and version
            into some paths.  To do this, use these variables in the
            <filename>PLIST</filename>:
          </para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para><varname>${OPSYS}</varname> - output of <quote><command>uname -s</command></quote></para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para><varname>${LOWER_OPSYS}</varname> - lowercase common name (eg. <quote>solaris</quote>)</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para><varname>${OS_VERSION}</varname> - <quote><command>uname -r</command></quote></para>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>${PKGLOCALEDIR}</varname></term>

        <listitem>
          <para>Packages that install locale files should list them in
            the PLIST as
            <quote>${PKGLOCALEDIR}/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/...</quote>
            instead of <quote>share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/...</quote>.
            This properly handles the fact that different operating
            systems expect locale files to be either in
            <filename>share</filename> or <filename>lib</filename> by
            default.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>

    <para> For a complete list of values which are replaced by
      default, please look in <filename>bsd.pkg.mk</filename> (and
      search for <emphasis>PLIST_SUBST</emphasis>). </para>
    
    <para> If you want to change other variables not listed above, you
      can add variables and their expansions to this variable in the
      following way, similar to <varname>MESSAGE_SUBST</varname> (see <xref
      linkend="components.optional"/>): </para>

    <programlisting>PLIST_SUBST+=    SOMEVAR="somevalue"</programlisting>

    <para>This replaces all occurrences of <quote>${SOMEVAR}</quote>
      in the PLIST with <quote>somevalue</quote>.  </para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title>Manpage-compression</title>
    
    <para>Manpages should be installed in compressed form if
      <varname>MANZ</varname> is set (in <filename>bsd.own.mk</filename>),
      and uncompressed otherwise. To handle this in the
      <filename>PLIST</filename> file, the suffix <quote>.gz</quote> is
      appended/removed automatically for manpages according to
      <varname>MANZ</varname> and <varname>MANCOMPRESSED</varname> being set
      or not, see above for details. This modification of the
      <filename>PLIST</filename> file is done on a copy of it, not
      <filename>PLIST</filename> itself.</para>
  </sect1>

  
  <sect1>
    <title>Changing PLIST source with <varname>PLIST_SRC</varname></title>

    <para>To use one or more files as source for the <filename>PLIST</filename> used
      in generating the binary package, set the variable
      <varname>PLIST_SRC</varname> to the names of that file(s).
      The files are later concatenated using &man.cat.1;, and order of things is
      important.</para>
  </sect1>


  <sect1>
    <title>Platform specific and differing PLISTs</title>
    
    <para>Some packages decide to install a different set of files based on
      the operating system being used. These differences can be
      automatically handled by using the following files:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para><filename>PLIST.common</filename></para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><filename>PLIST.${OPSYS}</filename></para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><filename>PLIST.${MACHINE_ARCH}</filename></para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><filename>PLIST.${OPSYS}-${MACHINE_ARCH}</filename></para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><filename>PLIST.common_end</filename></para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </sect1>


  <sect1 id="faq.common-dirs">
    <title>Sharing directories between packages</title>
  
    <para> A <quote>shared directory</quote> is a directory where
      multiple (and unrelated) packages install files.  These
      directories are problematic because you have to add special tricks
      in the PLIST to conditionally remove them, or have some
      centralized package handle them. </para>
  
    <para> Within pkgsrc, you'll find both approaches.  If a directory
      is shared by a few unrelated packages, it's often not worth to add
      an extra package to remove it.  Therefore, one simply does:
      </para>
  
    <programlisting>
      @unexec ${RMDIR} %D/path/to/shared/directory 2>/dev/null || ${TRUE}
    </programlisting>
  
    <para> in the PLISTs of all affected packages, instead of the
      regular "@dirrm" line. </para>
  
    <para> However, if the directory is shared across many packages, two
      different solutions are available: </para>
  
    <orderedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para> If the packages have a common dependency, the directory
          can be removed in that.  For example, see
          <pkg>textproc/scrollkeeper</pkg>, which removes the shared
          directory <filename>share/omf</filename>. </para>
      </listitem>
  
      <listitem>
        <para> If the packages using the directory are not related at
          all (they have no    common dependencies), a *-dirs package is
          used. </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
  
    <para> From now on, we'll discuss the second solution.  To get an
      idea of the *-dirs packages available, issue: </para>
      
    <programlisting>
      &cprompt; cd .../pkgsrc
      &cprompt; ls -d */*-dirs
    </programlisting>
  
    <para> Their use from other packages is very simple.  The
      <varname>USE_DIRS</varname> variable takes a list of package names
      (without the <quote>-dirs</quote> part) together with the required
      version number (always pick the latest one when writting new
      packages). </para>
  
    <para> For example, if a package installs files under
      <filename>share/applications</filename>, it should have the
      following line in it: 
      </para>
  
    <programlisting>
      USE_DIRS+= xdg-1.1
    </programlisting>
  
    <para> After regenerating the PLIST using <command>make
      print-PLIST</command>, you should get the right (commented out)
      lines. </para> 
      
    <para> Note that, even if your package is using
      <filename>$X11BASE</filename>, it must not depend on the
      *-x11-dirs packages.  Just specify the name without that part and
      pkgsrc (in particular, <filename>mk/dirs.mk</filename>) will take
      care of it. </para> 
  </sect1>
  
</chapter>