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A MatterLinux package is a compiled files of a software, tool or a libary.
Format
MatterLinux packages uses the MatterLinux Packaging Format, MPF
. Don't let fancy name
mislead you, a basic MPF
file is just a renamed TAR GZ
archive. The reason that packages use the
.mpf
extension and not the .tar.gz
extension is to make it easier to recognize and easier to work
with in the scripts and the tools.
Naming
A package is named after the software and the version of that software that it provides. For
example package containing bash
version 5.2.15
is named bash_5.2.15.mpf
.
Structure
File structure of a package matches with the MatterLinux root file structure. This is important as a package will most likely be extracted in a MatterLinux root filesystem.
For example, we can take a look at the which
package, to do this you can download the MPF
file
and list its contents with the tar tf
command:
usr/
usr/share/
usr/share/man/
usr/share/man/man1/
usr/share/man/man1/which.1
usr/share/info/
usr/share/info/dir
usr/share/info/which.info
usr/bin/
usr/bin/which
Install Scripts
Some packages may contain an install script, install.sh
, this shell script is ran by the
MatterLinux Package Manager (mp
) using the bash shell, right after the
extraction.
This script is used to do post-install actions, such as adding users, groups etc.
This script is located at the root of the package. For example let's take a look
at the systemd
package:
...
etc/X11/xinit/
etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/
etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/50-systemd-user.sh
etc/credstore.encrypted/
install.sh
usr/
usr/lib/
usr/lib/libudev.so
usr/lib/libnss_resolve.so.2
...
Usage
While installing a package using the MatterLinux Package Manager (mp
), mp
downloads the target package(s) from the repos, these packages are in the format discussed above.
After downloading and verifying the target package(s), mp
extracts the packages using the tar
tool.
To learn more about this process see the page for mp
.
It's also possible to install packages manualy. To do this you can grab a package you want
and extract it to your the root directory by running: tar xvf <package_version.mpf> -C /
Building
Package are built with the mp-repo
tool. In order to build a package, you will need the source
for the repo that contains the package. This is because a package itself does not store any metadata,
this is all handled by the repo.
To learn more about the mp-repo
tool, and how you can use it to build packages, see the
repo package.
Package Source
Source code for a packages can be found in the source code of the repo that the package is in.
Source files for a repo will be located under the src
directory.
Package Script
Each package source contains a pkg.sh
shell script. This is the source script that is used to
build the package. In the build process, this shell script gets imported by the mp-repo
tool
using the source
command.
Let's take a closer look at a pkg.sh
file:
NAME="which"
DESC="Shows the full path of (shell) commands"
VERSION="2.21"
FILES=("https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/which/which-$VERSION.tar.gz")
HASHES=("097ff1a324ae02e0a3b0369f07a7544a")
DEPENDS=()
build() {
tar xf $NAME-$VERSION.tar.gz
cd $NAME-$VERSION
./configure --prefix=/usr && make
make DESTDIR=$ROOTDIR install
cd .. && rm -rf $NAME-$VERSION
}
This pkg.sh
file is for the which
package (version 2.21
). Let's start by breaking down the
variables:
NAME
: Specifies the package name. A package should be named after the software, tool or libary it provides. Preferably the name should not contain_
to avoid confusion with naming.DESC
: A short description about the software, tool or the libary that package provides. Explain what it does, what it contains etc.VERSION
: Version of the software, tool or libary the package provides. If you are using a git commit version, you can name the versionLAST_VERSION+COMMIT_ID
FILES
: Upstream files and patches needed to build this package, you can usehttp
,https
orftp
protocols. You can also specify multiple files. These files will be downloaded bymp-repo
in the build process.HASHES
: Hashes for the files you specify. You can useMD5
,SHA1
,SHA256
orSHA512
sums. And yes, you need to specify hashes for all the files, using the same order with theFILES
variable.DEPENDS
: Package(s) that this package depends on.
Now let's take a look at the build
function. Each package needs a build
function, this
function is called by mp-repo
after downloading and verifying all the packages. It will be
called in the $ROOTDIR
. This directory will contain all the downloaded files, any files
in this directory will be included into the build, so don't forget to cleanup.
Note: You don't need to cleanup the downloaded files, they will be cleaned by the mp-repo
.
tar xf $NAME-$VERSION.tar.gz
: Extract the downloaded archive file.cd $NAME-$VERSION
: Change directory into the extracted directory../configure --prefix=/usr && make
: Builds thewhich
tool, different packages may have different build instructions. These instruction are usually provided by the upstream. You can also check out LFS and BLFS for instructions.make DESTDIR=$ROOTDIR install
: Install the package. Make sure that you are installing the package into the$ROOTDIR
and not the root file system.cd .. && rm -rf $NAME-$VERSION
: Change directory back into$ROOTDIR
and clean the extracted archive.
Check out base
and
desktop
repo sources for more
example pkg.sh
scripts.