VCS package guidelines - ArchWiki

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Version control systems can be used for retrieval of source code for both usual statically versioned packages and latest (trunk) version of a development branch. This article covers both cases.

## Prototypes

Use only the PKGBUILD prototypes provided in the pacman package (`PKGBUILD-split.proto`, `PKGBUILD-vcs.proto` and `PKGBUILD.proto` in `/usr/share/pacman`).

## Guidelines

### Package naming

- Suffix `pkgname` with `-cvs`, `-svn`, `-hg`, `-darcs`, `-bzr`, `-git` etc. unless the package fetches a specific release.

### Versioning

- If the resulting package is different after changing e.g. the dependencies, URL or sources, update `pkgver` to the latest version. If `pkgver` has not changed since the last update to the `PKGBUILD`, increase `pkgrel` instead.

Tip: `--holdver` can be used to prevent makepkg from updating the `pkgver` (see: makepkg(8))

### Conflicts and dependencies

- Include what the package conflicts with and provides (e.g. for fluxbox-gitAUR: `conflicts=('fluxbox')` and `provides=("fluxbox=${pkgver}")`).
  Note: See PKGBUILD#provides for generic advice on versioning that is regularly relevant for VCS packages.
- `replaces=()` generally causes unnecessary problems and should be avoided.
- Include the appropriate VCS tool in `makedepends=()` (cvs, subversion, git, ...).

### Authentication and security

- When using the cvsroot, use `anonymous:@` rather than `anonymous@` to avoid having to enter a blank password or `anonymous:password@`, if one is required.
- Because the sources are not static, skip the checksum in `sha256sums=()` by adding `'SKIP'`.

### VCS sources

Note: Using sparse or shallow clones is voluntarily not supported (see FS#34677 and the mailing list).

Starting with pacman 4.1, the VCS sources should be specified in the `source=()` array and will be treated like any other source. `makepkg` will clone/checkout/branch the repository into `$SRCDEST` (same as `$startdir` if not set in makepkg.conf(5)) and copy it to `$srcdir` (in a specific way to each VCS). The local repository is left untouched, thus invalidating the need for a `-build` directory.

The general format of a VCS `source=()` array is:

    source=('[folder::][vcs+]url[#fragment]')

- `folder` (optional) is used to change the default repository name to something more relevant (e.g. than `trunk`) or to preserve the previous sources.
- `vcs+` is needed for URLs that do not reflect the VCS type, e.g. `git+http://some_repo`.
- `url` is the URL to the distant or local repository.
- `#fragment` (optional) is needed to pull a specific branch or commit. See PKGBUILD(5) § USING VCS SOURCES for a list of supported VCS and the respective fragments available.

An example Git source array:

    source=('project_name::git+https://project_url#branch=project_branch')

Warning: Make sure not to use the `pkgver` variable in the `folder` field, as the variable may be changed during the `pkgver()` function call, which will make it impossible to access the created folder in subsequent functions.

### The pkgver() function

The `pkgver` autobump is now achieved via a dedicated `pkgver()` function. This allows for better control over the `pkgver`, and maintainers should favor a `pkgver` that makes sense. To use `pkgver()`, you still need to declare the `pkgver` variable with the most recent value. makepkg will invoke function `pkgver()`, and update variable `pkgver` accordingly.

It is recommended to have following version format: RELEASE.rREVISION where REVISION is a monotonically increasing number that uniquely identifies the source tree (VCS revisions do this). If there are no public releases and no repository tags then zero could be used as a release number or you can drop RELEASE completely and use version number that looks like rREVISION. If there are public releases but repository has no tags then the developer should get the release version somehow e.g. by parsing the project files.

The revision number delimiter ("r" right before REVISION) is important. This delimiter allows to avoid problems in case if upstream decides to make its first release or uses versions with different number of components. E.g. if at revision "455" upstream decides to release version 0.1 then the revision delimiter preserves version monotonicity - `0.1.r456 > r454`. Without the delimiter monotonicity fails - `0.1.456 < 454`.

See PKGBUILD-vcs.proto for generic examples showing the intended output.

#### Git

Using the most recent annotated tag reachable from the last commit:

    pkgver() {
      cd "$pkgname"
      git describe --long --abbrev=7 | sed 's/\([^-]*-g\)/r\1/;s/-/./g'
    }

    2.0.r6.ga17a017

Using the most recent un-annotated tag reachable from the last commit:

    pkgver() {
      cd "$pkgname"
      git describe --long --tags --abbrev=7 | sed 's/\([^-]*-g\)/r\1/;s/-/./g'
    }

    0.71.r115.gd95ee07

In case if the git tag does not contain dashes then one can use simpler sed expression `sed 's/-/.r/;s/-/./'`.

If tag contains a prefix, like `v` or project name then it should be cut off:

    pkgver() {
      cd "$pkgname"
      # cutting off 'foo-' prefix that presents in the git tag
      git describe --long --abbrev=7 | sed 's/^foo-//;s/\([^-]*-g\)/r\1/;s/-/./g'
    }

    6.1.r3.gd77e105

If there are no tags then use number of revisions since beginning of the history:

    pkgver() {
      cd "$pkgname"
      printf "r%s.%s" "$(git rev-list --count HEAD)" "$(git rev-parse --short=7 HEAD)"
    }

    r1142.a17a017

Version and only commit/revision number (SHA1 omitted; however, without a SHA1 quick referencing of an exact revision is lost if not mindful of versioning):

    git describe --long --abbrev=7 --tags | sed 's/\([^-]*\)-g.*/r\1/;s/-/./g'

Both methods can also be combined, to support repositories that start without a tag but get tagged later on (uses a bashism):

    pkgver() {
      cd "$pkgname"
      ( set -o pipefail
        git describe --long --abbrev=7 2>/dev/null | sed 's/\([^-]*-g\)/r\1/;s/-/./g' ||
        printf "r%s.%s" "$(git rev-list --count HEAD)" "$(git rev-parse --short=7 HEAD)"
      )
    }

    0.9.9.r27.g2b039da  # if tags exist
    r1581.2b039da       # else fallback

#### Subversion

    pkgver() {
      cd "$pkgname"
      local ver="$(svnversion)"
      printf "r%s" "${ver//[[:alpha:]]}"
    }

    r8546

Note: If the project has releases you should use them instead of the `0.`.

#### Mercurial

    pkgver() {
      cd "$pkgname"
      printf "r%s.%s" "$(hg identify -n)" "$(hg identify -i)"
    }

    r2813.75881cc5391e

#### Bazaar

    pkgver() {
      cd "$pkgname"
      printf "r%s" "$(bzr revno)"
    }

    r830

#### Fallback

In case no satisfactory `pkgver` can be extracted from the repository, the current date can be used:

    pkgver() {
      date +%Y%m%d
    }

    20130408

Although it does not identify source tree state uniquely, so avoid it if possible.

## Tips and tricks

### Git submodules

Git submodules are a little tricky to do. The idea is to add the URLs of the submodules themselves directly to the sources array and then reference them during `prepare()`.

Downstream project developers may not name their submodule as the same name as the upstream module's repository. To view the name of the git submodules, go to the `.gitmodules` file in the project's repository and preview it. For example, a repository named `lib-dependency` by the upstream developers may be registered as a submodule named `libs/libdep` in `.gitmodules` downstream.

    [submodule "lib/libdep"]
      path = lib/libdep
      url = https://example.org/lib-dependency/lib-dependency.git

    source=("git+https://example.org/main-project/main-project.git"
            "git+https://example.org/lib-dependency/lib-dependency.git")

    prepare() {
      cd main-project
      git submodule init
      git config submodule.libs/libdep.url "$srcdir/lib-dependency"
      git -c protocol.file.allow=always submodule update
    }

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