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This document is for people who want to create a package for Fink. It complements the Packaging Manual, which is a more detailed and comprehensive document.
We'll guide you through the process of making a Fink package. First we explain the general procedure. Then we show the creation of an example Fink package for maxwell.
Please note: In this document we assume that fink is installed into /opt/sw - the default location. If you see a codeblock similar to
finkdev% somecommand
it means that you have to type somecommand into Terminal.app or any other terminal on your Mac.
First you should learn a few basic concept about how to build Fink packages. We suggest you:
Save your new info file (and patch file - if needed) into your /opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/finkinfo/ directory. The file should be named packagename.info (and packagename.patch) where packagename is the name of your package. If this directory doesn't exist you need to create it manually.
Please note: Make sure you are running an up-to-date fink tool by running
finkdev% fink selfupdate
Now run
finkdev% fink configure
and set the verbosity level to the highest value and enable the unstable tree. After that you should check if fink found your package by typing:
finkdev% fink list packagename
If it doesn't show up in the list you might need to change your fink configuration file to include your local tree.
Maybe you also have to manually re-index your packages by typing:
finkdev% fink index
If you need more information read the Packaging Manual or use one or more of different help sources. You should also subscribe to the fink-devel mailing list.
During validation of your package you should set the verbose level of fink to the highest possible value. Check the section on the fink configuration file about how to change the verbose level.
Check if your package passes validation by running:
finkdev% fink validate /opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/finkinfo/packagename.info
If the validation passes try to build your package with:
finkdev% fink -m --build-as-nobody rebuild packagename
Watch the output of the build process carefully for errors or warnings. Especially make sure that everything is installed into the destination directory (which is located at /opt/sw/src/root-packagename-%v-%r/opt/sw) from where fink builds the binary package. Nothing should be installed directly into /opt/sw.
If you use the --keep-build-dir or -k option to fink, it will keep the build directory. This is where fink expands the downloaded source and where the package gets built. This might help if you need to debug the build process. Type man fink for details.
You may also want to use the --keep-root-dir or -K option, it will keep the destination directory. This is where fink builds the installation tree for the package. Comparing build and destination directories may help you debugging the installation phase.
If the build succeeds check the content of the binary package with:
finkdev% dpkg -c /opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/packagename.deb
Check if all files that you think should be in the package are actually in the .deb file. Again: make sure that nothing is installed directly into /opt/sw.
Now you can also validate the binary package by doing:
finkdev% fink validate /opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/packagename.deb
If all is well install the package with:
finkdev% fink install packagename
and test the functionality of your package.
If any of the above steps fail try to correct the errors and restart at the top with the fink validate step.
If your package passes all the checks above you now can submit the info (and patch if necessary) file to the Package Submission Tracker.
A package reviewer should now take a look at your package submission and add it to the Fink unstable tree if the package seems ready. If not you will be asked to bring the package into compliance with the policy.
Important:
First Maxwell. Lets open our editor and get started. We know the package name, its version and where to grab the source tar ball from. So we'll type this into our editor window:
Package: maxwell Version: 0.5.1 Revision: 1 Source: mirror:sourceforge:%n/%n-%v.tar.gz
So we have the name and version which are easy to understand, but what of these other two fields? Revision is the "version" of the Fink package, Version, on the other hand is the upstream source version. Since this is the first time we have attempted to make a maxwell-0.5.1 package, it is revision 1.
The Source field is where fink will grab the source tarball from. Because Sourceforge has a system where packages are mirrored around the world, and since fink knows about it, we use mirror:sourceforge:. %n expands to the package name, maxwell, and %v expands to the package version, 0.5.1.
Now we can save this as maxwell.info in /opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/finkinfo/. That done, we can see how we are doing by using fink validate.
finkdev% fink validate maxwell.info Validating package file maxwell.info... Error: Required field "Maintainer" missing. (maxwell.info)
Oops, looks like we missed a couple of fields. Lets add some more:
Maintainer: John Doe <jdoe@example.com> HomePage: http://maxwell.sourceforge.net License: MIT
We add ourselves as the maintainer of the Fink maxwell package and add it's homepage, looking at the sourceforge project page, we see that it is MIT Licensed, so we add that too. Now lets try again:
finkdev% fink validate maxwell.info Validating package file maxwell.info... Warning: Unknown license "MIT". (maxwell.info) Error: No MD5 checksum specified for "source". (maxwell.info) Error: No package description supplied. (maxwell.info)
Aaargh! We seem to be getting worse, not better, never mind, head off over to the Packaging Manual to see what is allowed for License, and we see that we can just change MIT to OSI-Approved, as the MIT license is, indeed, approved by the OSI. We can also grab a one line description of the package from the homepage. So we change those:
License: OSI-Approved Description: Mac OS X S.M.A.R.T. Tool
But what to do about that warning about MD5 checksums? Well, why don't we just ask fink to fetch the source?
finkdev% fink fetch maxwell
/usr/bin/sudo /opt/sw/bin/fink fetch maxwell
Reading package info...
Updating package index... done.
Information about 3377 packages read in 30 seconds.
WARNING: No MD5 specified for Source of package maxwell-0.5.1-1 \
Maintainer: John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
curl -f -L -O http://distfiles.opendarwin.org/maxwell-0.5.1.tar.gz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Curr.
Dload Upload Total Current Left Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:00 --:--:-- 0
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404
### execution of curl failed, exit code 22
Downloading the file "maxwell-0.5.1.tar.gz" failed.
(1) Give up
(2) Retry the same mirror
(3) Retry another mirror from your continent
(4) Retry another mirror
(5) Retry using next mirror set "sourceforge"
How do you want to proceed? [3] 5
curl -f -L -O http://west.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/maxwell/maxwell-0.5.1.tar.gz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Curr.
Dload Upload Total Current Left Speed
100 7856 100 7856 0 0 19838 0 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 6511k
The tarball couldn't be downloaded from the Fink mirrors (distfiles) since your package is not added to the distribution yet. That's why you need to change to the next mirror set. More information about this problem is in the FAQ.
So we can now get the md5 by running md5sum /opt/sw/src/maxwell-0.5.1.tar.gz, and add it to the .info file:
Source-MD5: ce5c354b2fed4e237524ad0bc59997a3
And now we find that fink validate passes, yippee!
Now we can build the package, let's just try it:
finkdev% fink -m --build-as-nobody rebuild maxwell /usr/bin/sudo /opt/sw/bin/fink build maxwell Reading package info... Updating package index... done. Information about 3498 packages read in 32 seconds. The following package will be built: maxwell gzip -dc /opt/sw/src/maxwell-0.5.1.tar.gz | /opt/sw/bin/tar -xvf - \ --no-same-owner --no-same-permissions maxwell-0.5.1/ maxwell-0.5.1/LICENSE maxwell-0.5.1/Makefile maxwell-0.5.1/maxwell.8 maxwell-0.5.1/maxwell.c maxwell-0.5.1/README ./configure --prefix=/opt/sw Can't exec "./configure": No such file or directory at \ /opt/sw/lib/perl5/Fink/Services.pm line 403.
Hmm, well that did not go all that well. Let's read the README (which you can find at /opt/sw/src/maxwell-0.5.1-1/maxwell-0.5.1/README) and see what it says...
To build type 'make'. To install in /usr/local type 'sudo make install', to install elsewhere, type 'sudo make install prefix=/elsewhere'
Ah hah, so we can't use the default CompileScript and InstallScript here, we need our own, that's easily resolved:
CompileScript: make InstallScript: << #! /bin/sh -ev make install prefix=%i <<
We need to use prefix=%i since fink builds the binary deb file from the files in %i. These files are later installed into %p (which is /opt/sw by default) when you use fink install maxwell. For more details about %p and %i please consult the Packaging Manual.
Normally the lines in the Script fields are passed line by line to the shell. But the #! /bin/sh -ev line makes fink run it as a separate script. The parameter -e means "die on error" and -v means "verbose".
So, let's validate the package again and try to rebuild it:
finkdev% fink validate maxwell.info Validating package file maxwell.info... Package looks good! finkdev% fink -m --build-as-nobody rebuild maxwell /usr/bin/sudo /opt/sw/bin/fink build maxwell Reading package info... Updating package index... done. Information about 3498 packages read in 32 seconds. The following package will be built: maxwell gzip -dc /opt/sw/src/maxwell-0.5.1.tar.gz | /opt/sw/bin/tar -xvf - \ --no-same-owner --no-same-permissions maxwell-0.5.1/ maxwell-0.5.1/LICENSE maxwell-0.5.1/Makefile maxwell-0.5.1/maxwell.8 maxwell-0.5.1/maxwell.c maxwell-0.5.1/README make cc -L/opt/sw/lib -c -o maxwell.o maxwell.c cc -I/opt/sw/include -o maxwell -framework IOKit -framework CoreFoundation maxwell.o /bin/rm -rf /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1 /bin/mkdir -p /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw /bin/mkdir -p /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/DEBIAN /var/tmp/tmp.1.A3sRc2 #! /bin/sh -ev make install prefix=/opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw /usr/bin/install -d -m 755 /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/doc/maxwell /usr/bin/install -m 644 LICENSE /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/doc/maxwell/LICENSE /usr/bin/install -m 644 README /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/doc/maxwell/README /usr/bin/install -d -m 755 /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/bin /usr/bin/install -m 755 maxwell /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/bin/maxwell /usr/bin/install -d -m 755 /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/man/man8 /usr/bin/install -m 644 maxwell.8 /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/man/man8/maxwell.8 /bin/rm -f /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/info/dir \ /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/info/dir.old \ /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/share/info/dir \ /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1/opt/sw/share/info/dir.old Writing control file... Finding prebound objects... Writing dependencies... Writing package script postinst... dpkg-deb -b root-maxwell-0.5.1-1 /opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc dpkg-deb: building package `maxwell' in \ `/opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/maxwell_0.5.1-1_darwin-powerpc.deb'.
Fink seems to have installed everything into the correct place: /opt/sw/src/root-maxwell-0.5.1-1 from where the binary package maxwell_0.5.1-1_darwin-powerpc.deb was built.
Also note how fink automatically included some compiler flags to enable it to access other Fink packages (e.g. -I/opt/sw/include).
Let's have a look at what is in the binary package:
finkdev% dpkg -c \ /opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/maxwell_0.5.1-1_darwin-powerpc.deb drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:38 ./ drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/ drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/bin/ -rwxr-xr-x root/admin 29508 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/bin/maxwell drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/doc/ drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/doc/maxwell/ -rw-r--r-- root/admin 1076 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/doc/maxwell/LICENSE -rw-r--r-- root/admin 1236 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/doc/maxwell/README drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/man/ drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/man/man8/ -rw-r--r-- root/admin 1759 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/man/man8/maxwell.8 drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/var/ drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/var/lib/ drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/var/lib/fink/ drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/var/lib/fink/prebound/ drwxr-xr-x root/admin 0 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/var/lib/fink/prebound/files/ -rw-r--r-- root/admin 16 2004-07-15 09:40:39 ./opt/sw/var/lib/fink/prebound/files/maxwell.pblist
Seems ok, right? But we have to verify that it complies with the Fink packaging policy. So let's validate it with:
finkdev% fink validate \
/opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/maxwell_0.5.1-1_darwin-powerpc.deb
Validating .deb file \
/opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/maxwell_0.5.1-1_darwin-powerpc.deb...
Warning: File installed into deprecated directory /opt/sw/doc/
Offender is /opt/sw/doc/
Warning: File installed into deprecated directory /opt/sw/doc/
Offender is /opt/sw/doc/maxwell/
Warning: File installed into deprecated directory /opt/sw/doc/
Offender is /opt/sw/doc/maxwell/LICENSE
Warning: File installed into deprecated directory /opt/sw/doc/
Offender is /opt/sw/doc/maxwell/README
Warning: File installed into deprecated directory /opt/sw/man/
Offender is /opt/sw/man/
Warning: File installed into deprecated directory /opt/sw/man/
Offender is /opt/sw/man/man8/
Warning: File installed into deprecated directory /opt/sw/man/
Offender is /opt/sw/man/man8/maxwell.8
Oops... something is wrong. Let's consult the Packaging Manual again. It tells us to install man pages into /opt/sw/share/man and files such as README into /opt/sw/share/doc/%n. If we look into the Makefile of maxwell we see that the mandir and datadir can be set:
prefix = /usr/local
mandir = ${prefix}/man
man8dir = ${mandir}/man8
bindir = ${prefix}/bin
datadir = ${prefix}/doc/maxwell
One easy way to fix that is to change the InstallScript to
make install prefix=%i mandir=%i/share/man datadir=%i/share/doc/%n
and rebuild the package with
finkdev% fink -m --build-as-nobody rebuild maxwell
(We used fink rebuild because fink build would not do anything since the package was already built successfully.)
Review the contents of your deb file (with dpkg -c) to see where the files got installed now. Then validate the deb file again with fink validate. If all is well you can install the new package with:
finkdev% fink install maxwell /usr/bin/sudo /opt/sw/bin/fink install maxwell Information about 3377 packages read in 30 seconds. The following package will be installed or updated: maxwell dpkg -i /opt/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/maxwell_0.5.1-1_darwin-powerpc.deb Selecting previously deselected package maxwell. (Reading database ... 56046 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking maxwell (from .../maxwell_0.5.1-1_darwin-powerpc.deb) ... Setting up maxwell (0.5.1-1) ...
You can now run the software by typing
finkdev% maxwell
Congratulations, you just finished your first Fink package! Now try to package something yourself by following the Packaging tutorial from the beginning.
We are looking forward to your contributions to Fink!
Copyright (c) 2001 Christoph Pfisterer, Copyright (c) 2001-2020 The Fink Project. You may distribute this document in print for private purposes, provided the document and this copyright notice remain complete and unmodified. Any commercial reproduction and any online publication requires the explicit consent of the author.
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