##############################################################
# Document: PACKAGE_BUILDING_CHECKLIST
# Purpose : Check list for creation of Slackware packages
#           via .build scripts
# Author..: Stuart Winter <stuart@polplex.co.uk>
# Date....: 01-Mar-2003
# Version : 1.00
##############################################################
# This document belongs to my 'slacktrack' program
# http://www.interlude.org.uk/unix/slackware
##############################################################

Building the package via slacktrack
-----------------------------------

Let's assuming you're rebuilding the 'fetchmail' utilities package
from Slackware-current.

  # cd slackware/slackware-current/source/n
  # slacktrack -jefkzcnp "fetchmail-6.2.0-sparc-2.tgz" "/bin/sh fetchmail.build"


If you wanted to make slacktrack save the package into a different directory
you would use the -b option, eg
  # slacktrack -b "/data/sparc-packages/n/" \
               -jefkzcnp "fetchmail-6.2.0-sparc-2.tgz" "/bin/sh fetchmail.build"

slacktrack now moves the .tgz and its .txt description file into my
Sparc port's 'n' series package directory.

Your package compiles successfully and is now stored in
/tmp/built-slackwarepackages/ 
as fetchmail-6.2.0-sparc-2.tgz

Testing the .tgz
----------------

We must now manually check the integrity of the resulting .tgz

The easiest way of examining the package is to run it through less.
  # less fetchmail-6.2.0-sparc-2.tgz

[a] The 'install/slack-desc' file
    -----------------------------

    This is a text file in the standard 'slack-desc' format.
    It gives a brief description of the package and any relevant
    information.

    For examples you should look in the source directory 
    of any slackware package.    

[b] Check permissions 
    -----------------
    Ensure that there are no globally writeable files and directories
    that should not be there.
    PHP 4.3.0 is an all time classic example of why you should check
    your packages; it had globally writeable files in /usr/lib/php !

    You can feed slacktrack the --chmod-og-w option to help you 
    deal with globally writeable files.  However, it's best if you
    do it yourself from your script, and using this option is no 
    excuse to not check !

[c] Check file & directory ownerships
    -----------------------------------
    Unless specifically required, the files and directories should 
    be owned by 'root' in the group 'root'.    
    You may find that some source distributions install their files
    with different UIDs because they've simply copied them from the
    source ball -- so the files end up being owned by 'bob.users'
    or similar.

    However, also see the next check regarding binaries.

[d] Check binary file & binary directory ownerships 
    -----------------------------------------------
    The Slackware standard is to have binaries installed in
     /bin,/sbin,/usr/bin,/usr/sbin
    as owned by root.bin
    The directories (above) themselves should also have these ownerships.
   
    You can feed slacktrack the following options to help here:
      -e,  --chown-bdirs-root-bin
           This runs chown root.bin over the binary directories listed above
      -f, -chown-bfiles-root-bin 
           This runs chown root.bin over the FILES inside the binary directories
           listed above.
     
    Again, you should check the .tgz incase there has been a problem.

    The -e and -f options are provided because *Slackware*'s .build scripts
    do not do chown them for you -- it is done manually by Pat.

[e] Ensure man pages are gzipped & any broken symlinks are fixed
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Slackware's packages all (or at least should) have gzipped man pages.
    The man pages reside in numbered directories ('sections') within
    /usr/man
    eg man pages in section 1 reside in /usr/man/man1

    man pages that are *not* gzipped will not have a .gz extension.
    For example, the mkdir man page that is not gzipped would be:
       /usr/man/man1/mkdir.1
    The gzipped version is
       /usr/man/man1/mkdir.1.gz

    Some binaries behave differently when called with different names, or
    have different names for historical purposes.
    Such an example are packages from the 'floppy' Slackware package.
      /usr/bin/xdfformat is a symlink to /usr/bin/xdfcopy
    The man page is no different:
      xdfformat.1 -> xdfcopy.1
    By default, the Slackware 'floppy.build' script does not gzip man pages.
    It's easy to gzip man pages - slacktrack does this
      find usr/man -type f -print0 | xargs -0 gzip -9
    However, if you do an ls -l on the man1 directory, you will see
    that we have broken the xdffformat.1 symlink to xdfcopy.1
    because xdfcopy.1 is now named xdfcopy.1.gz
    The way to fix this would be to 
      # rm -f xdffformat.1 ; ln -s xdfcopy.1 xdfformat.1

    The easiest way to ensure your man pages are gzipped and all symlinks
    are restored is to feed slacktrack the -z or --gzman option
    slacktrack will take care of your symlinks for you.

    Again, there is no excuse not to check manually !

[f] strip binaries and shared objects
    ---------------------------------
    In order to reduce the size of the binary once installed and .tgz 
    Slackware strips the libraries and binaries.

    For example, if we wanted to strip the grep program we would do
     # strip --strip-unneeded /bin/grep

    Stripping binaries from .build scripts called via slacktrack
    is fairly easy.  There are two ways of doing it:
      [1] Let slacktrack take care of it
            -j or --striplib will cause slacktrack to strip
            any executable .so files it finds in /lib and /usr/lib
           
            -k or --stripbin will cause slacktrack to strip
            any executable binaries it finds in /bin,/sbin,/usr/bin,/usr/sbin
             
      [2] Do it yourself in the your build script - this is the preferred way.
            slacktrack exports an environment variable named
              SLACKTRACKFAKEROOT
            This enables you to do something like this
            # find ${SLACKTRACKFAKEROOT}/usr/lib -type f -name *.so -print0 | xargs -0 strip
            Using the environement variable prevents you from having to know
            all of the library & binary file names, as you will only find
            files that your build script has created in the fake root directory.

    * Note: You may find that some binaries or libraries break when they
            are stripped.  This is because they require symbols that strip
            removes.  This is why it's best to do your own binary and
            library stripping and individually strip the required files rather
            than letting slacktrack do it for you *

[g] Check zero length files 
    -----------------------
    slacktrack uses Slackware's makepkg program which should identify any
    zero length files for you.  However, it's worth checking *why* any files
    are of zero length -- you will find that some of them are meant to be;
    the etc-*-noarch-*.tgz package's /etc/mtab file is an example of this.

    There should be no occasion for a binary or .so to be of zero bytes.

    If you're unsure of any zero length files, check out the next point.

[h] Compare your package with the official .tgz
    -------------------------------------------
    If you are rebuilding/porting a Slackware package from -8.1 or -current
    (or any other version for that matter), then one of the easiest ways
    to give you some confidence that your package is official-looking is to
    simply examine the official .tgz

    This will allow you to see whether the file & dir permissions are the
    same as your own package, verify any zero length files and so on.
    
    Please note that if you DO find any zero length files or anything
    that you can easily PROVE is broken then *DO* submit a report
    to Slackware so that it can be fixed.

    If you're porting Slackware packages to a different architecture then
    obviously don't be overly concerned about file size differences -- although
    it's worth making sure you've stripped your binaries.  You may actually
    find that some of the Slackware official .tgz binaries aren't stripped.

[i] Ensure your package root directory is chmod 755
    -----------------------------------------------
    prisere [packages] # tar ztvvf foo.tgz
    drwx------ root/root         0 2003-03-01 18:46:17 ./
    
    If you see this, your package IS BROKEN.
 
    Installing this package will render your system seriously
    broken because it will chmod 700 the root directory !
    
    By default slacktrack will chmod 755 the root directory, but
    as with everything else, you should check !
    
        

That's about it.  If you can think of any other checks then please
email <stuart@polplex.co.uk>


