Creating Packages

Structure

In GoboLinux, all binary packages (as well as all user-compiled software) is installed under /Programs in a “program directory” provided for each version of each application, for example:

/Programs/Gimp/3.2.2

When compiling software under GoboLinux the installation target directories such as bin/, lib/, and etc/ that are required for a typical program are placed inside the program directory.

With this self-contained directory structure, all that is needed to generate a binary package is to make a tarball of the program directory, copy over the Resources/ directory from the Compile recipe, and generate a few additional files, which are also placed under Resources/.

This is accomplished by the CreatePackage command.

Preparation

Before creating a package, be careful to vet the contents of the program’s Settings/ directory to ensure that it does not include personal information.

A package submitted for inclusion in the GoboLinux packages repository must have sensible default settings, honoring the application defaults if possible.

The CreatePackage command

In order to create a package, run the CreatePackage utility with the package name as a parameter. For example,

CreatePackage rxvt

will create a binary package in the current working directory.