update-plist1

Usage

Overview

update-plist is a helper script for the target update-plist in bsd.port.mk(5).

Along with options and environment variables, update-plist uses the exact same options and arguments that would be passed to pkg_create(1). Since pkg_create(1) normally takes one single actual pkgname, there is no ambiguity in MULTI_PACKAGES situations.

The first set of arguments correspond to the ‘default package’.

If PORTS_PRIVSEP is in effect, update-plist is run as root, but will switch back to FAKE_TREE_OWNER for scanning the installation directory and to PORTS_TREE_OWNER for writing packing-lists.

update-plist may need to know the PORTSDIR location in order to scan dependencies to trim common directories.

The options are as follows:

-C dir

Use a cache directory dir for scanning dependencies. Beware that this directory should then be cleaned manually if the dependencies's packing-lists change. But this will speed up packing-list regeneration for ports with lots of dependencies significantly.

-c var

Variable var may be used as a way to insert @comment when other variables vanish.

-E ext

Write new files with ext extension instead of the default .new.

-e ext

Preserve old files as ext extension instead of the default .orig.

-F

Do not try to run pkg_locate(1).

-f

Force pkg_locate(1) to look up every file for conflicts instead of just the new ones.

-I var

Variable var may expand to nothing, in which case the variable from -c var can be used to prevent duplicate entries.

-i var

Ignore variable var for new substitutions. Only existing substitutions will be considered for the new lists.

-j jobs

Use jobs concurrent pkg_locate(1) pipes. Default is ‘hw.ncpuonline’.

-n

Do not move the final packing-lists in position. Instead, leave the <file>.new files for comparison.

-q

Quiet mode. Do not display status progress messages. Note that this is not the opposite of verbose mode.

-r

Run the fake directory scan as root.

-S var

Consider variable for substitution only at the end of paths, e.g., for suffixes like .pyc or .pyo.

-s var

Consider variable for substitution only at start of paths, e.g., for directories like /etc/rc.d or /usr/local.

-v

Verbose mode. Explain about directories stripped from dependencies. Note that this is not the opposite of quiet mode.

-w suffix

Warn about suffixes such as .orig that (usually) should not end into packing-lists.

-X path

Exclude file at absolute path from the information recorded in the packing-list.

update-plist assumes all multi-packages live under the same installation directory( pkg_create(1)'s -B option), and it will scan all paths under that directory and dispatch them into corresponding subpackages, using the following heuristics:

• files that were in existing packing-list(s) will be kept in the same packing-list.

• new files and directories will be put in the packing-list that owns the corresponding directory.

• barring that, new files will be put into the first packing-list whose PREFIX fits.

As far as possible, everything that looks like actual files will be sorted in alphabetical order, after variable substitutions.

update-plist will warn for a lot of conditions, such as pre-formatted manpages, or files ending in pre-patch suffixes. Adding a @comment intentional<reason> will silence the warning. For instance:

@man man/ja_JP.EUC/cat1/kakasi.0
@comment intentional: mandoc doesn't handle this locale

update-plist will also scan dependencies, in order to strip common directories.

If the pkglocatedb package is installed, update-plist will make use of it and report unregistered conflicts. This can be disabled with -F as it is time-consuming.

Most SUBST_VARS variables will be back-substituted into the regenerated packing-lists, starting from the longest variable values. update-plist tries to keep existing substitutions. It does not add new substitutions on BASE_PKGPATH and BUILD_PKGPATH, it does only substitute FULLPKGNAME in share/doc/pkg-readmes and it currently does not add new substitutions for ARCH nor MACHINE_ARCH.

Some packages (notoriously Python packages) create some directories optionally based on flavors. Options -c and -I can be used to avoid duplicate directory definitions.

Specifically, a generated packing-list would contain

lib/python${MODPY_VERSION}/site-packages/bpdb/
lib/python${MODPY_VERSION}/site-packages/bpdb/${MODPY_PYCACHE}/

which expands to

lib/python3.7/site-packages/bpdb/
lib/python3.7/site-packages/bpdb/__pycache__/

for python3, which is fine.

But for python2, variable ‘MODPY_PYCACHE’ will be empty, resulting in

lib/python2.7/site-packages/bpdb/
lib/python2.7/site-packages/bpdb/

thus a duplicate directory, pkg_create(1) won't be happy.

Using UPDATE_PLIST_ARGS = -c MODPY_COMMENT -I MODPY_PYCACHE will result in injecting ‘${MODPY_COMMENT}’ wherever update-plist finds a duplicate directory by replacing ‘${MODPY_PYCACHE}’ with nothing.

This yields

lib/python${MODPY_VERSION}/site-packages/bpdb/
${MODPY_COMMENT}lib/python${MODPY_VERSION}/site-packages/bpdb/MODPY_PYCACHE}/

and for python2 this expands to

lib/python2.7/site-packages/bpdb/
@comment lib/python2.7/site-packages/bpdb/

which is exactly what we want.

Specific items such as shared libraries or binaries will gain annotations and special handling, for instance LIBlibname_VERSION.

Existing packing-lists are scanned for non-file entries, such as newuser, mode, or exec markers. Those will be inserted into the updated packing-lists at the most likely position.

update-plist will first write files as <file>.new, then it will display which files are new and which files have changed. If old packing-lists already exist, it will move old packing lists into <file>.orig, then move the new files into position.

Bugs and limitations

update-plist might be the most complicated piece of the ports infrastructure. There will always be cases that require manual intervention. Since fake is now run as non-root, update-plist can't figure out users and groups for new files, so these should be considered carefully.