summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/content/en/slackware/buildsystem/index.md
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorDanilo M. <danix@danix.xyz>2026-07-04 11:00:53 +0200
committerDanilo M. <danix@danix.xyz>2026-07-04 11:00:53 +0200
commit5a5526ad352230bf29722d25eda6a7cbbc326d85 (patch)
tree50e91f414e5a5e72a2ece4ebe445d240e713a80b /content/en/slackware/buildsystem/index.md
parente3d8e2682301f801b69cb8d55bdd8c60d5fa8962 (diff)
downloaddanixxyz-5a5526ad352230bf29722d25eda6a7cbbc326d85.tar.gz
danixxyz-5a5526ad352230bf29722d25eda6a7cbbc326d85.zip
content: add Package buildsystem Slackware pageHEADrelease_04072026-1101productionmaster
New bilingual system/architecture page narrating the whole slackware64-current build pipeline: the QEMU VM, repo assembly (slackrepo_setup), the phantom-dep hint layer (mkhint), building (slackrepo, aclemons fork), publishing (finish hooks + pkgs-html-structure), and the separate 15.0 stable-testing safety net (sbo-batch-tester). Includes a theme-styled SVG pipeline flowchart, three inline repo CTAs, and a closing sign-off. Menu entry under the Slackware parent (weight 20). Spec and plan updated to match. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'content/en/slackware/buildsystem/index.md')
-rw-r--r--content/en/slackware/buildsystem/index.md121
1 files changed, 121 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/content/en/slackware/buildsystem/index.md b/content/en/slackware/buildsystem/index.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9db3f14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/en/slackware/buildsystem/index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
++++
+title = "Package buildsystem"
+tagline = "How I build and publish my personal slackware64-current package repository."
+status = "active"
+tags = ["slackware", "slackrepo", "packaging", "buildsystem"]
+
+[menus.main]
+ name = "buildsystem"
+ parent = "slackware"
+ weight = 20
++++
+
+My personal Slackware packages for **slackware64-current** are built by a small
+pipeline of tools running inside one dedicated QEMU virtual machine. Nothing here
+is a single program: it is a repository that gets reassembled, a dependency layer
+that gets patched, a builder that turns SlackBuilds into packages, and a
+publishing step that puts them online at
+[packages.danix.xyz](https://packages.danix.xyz). This page walks the whole flow
+in the order a build actually happens.
+
+{{< image src="buildsystem-flow.svg" alt="Flowchart of the package buildsystem: assemble the repo with slackrepo_setup, fix -current dependencies with mkhint, build with slackrepo, and publish through the finish hooks, with a separate green side path for testing on Slackware 15.0 stable before submitting to SBo." caption="The pipeline end to end. The green side path is the 15.0 stable test, run only for packages headed to SlackBuilds.org." />}}
+
+## The VM
+
+The buildsystem lives in a QEMU virtual machine running **slackware64-current**,
+kept up to date with `slackpkg` against a local mirror of Slackware's own system
+packages. It has 8 CPU cores and around 8 GB of RAM, enough to build all but the
+heaviest packages comfortably, and I reach it over SSH. Keeping it in its own VM
+means a build, a broken dependency, or a full repository regeneration never
+touches my daily driver: the box exists to be hammered and, if needed, thrown
+away and rebuilt.
+
+## Assembling the repository
+
+Once a week the SlackBuilds tree is regenerated from scratch. It starts as a
+clone of [Ponce's slackbuilds](https://github.com/Ponce/slackbuilds) checked out
+on the `current` branch, the community tree that tracks SlackBuilds.org against
+slackware-current. On top of that I overlay my own two collections as squashed
+git subtrees: [my-slackbuilds](https://github.com/danixland/my-slackbuilds) for
+general personal packages and
+[Slackware-Pentesting-Suite](https://github.com/danixland/Slackware-Pentesting-Suite)
+for security tooling.
+
+Where a personal package shares a name with an upstream one, the upstream copy is
+*shadowed*: its directory is removed so my version wins. The result is a single
+local tree that is standard SBo plus my additions, ready to build. That whole
+assembly is one script, which will get its own page here later.
+
+## The -current dependency problem
+
+SBo SlackBuilds target Slackware **stable**, so some of their build-time
+dependencies are unnecessary on -current, which already ships them as system
+packages or newer versions. `rust-opt` and `google-go-lang` are typical: needed
+on stable, pointless on -current. These "phantom" dependencies would otherwise
+force needless rebuilds.
+
+slackrepo strips a dependency from a package with a per-package hint file carrying
+`DELREQUIRES`, but writing one by hand for every affected package after each
+weekly regeneration is exactly the tedium a script should own. That job belongs to
+[mkhint](/slackware/mkhint/): its `-F` sweep reads a list of phantom deps and, for
+every package whose requirements hit one, writes or merges the right
+`DELREQUIRES` across the freshly rebuilt tree in a single pass.
+
+{{< actions use="repo" url="https://git.danix.xyz/mkhintfile/" desc="Read the mkhint source" caption="Curious how the phantom-dep sweep actually works? The whole thing is one Bash script." >}}
+
+## Building
+
+The actual building is done by
+[slackrepo](https://github.com/aclemons/slackrepo), an automated SlackBuild
+builder for Slackware, now maintained by Andrew Clemons. It compiles each package and its dependencies in a clean
+chroot, tracks upstream git revisions to work out what has changed and needs
+rebuilding, and produces a repository that plugs straight into `slackpkg+`. I run
+it with a start hook that first rebases my SlackBuilds tree onto upstream, so
+every build starts from a current tree, and it handles the dependency ordering so
+a single command rebuilds everything that moved.
+
+## Publishing
+
+When a build finishes, a chain of slackrepo finish hooks takes over. They
+regenerate the `slackpkg+` repository metadata, build the styled HTML frontend for
+the package site, sync the result out to the live server, and send a notification
+that the run is done. The frontend wraps Apache's plain directory autoindex in a
+themed header and footer so [packages.danix.xyz](https://packages.danix.xyz) reads
+as a proper repository rather than a bare file listing. That frontend is its own
+small project and will get a page here later too.
+
+{{< actions use="repo" url="https://git.danix.xyz/pkgs-html-structure/" desc="See the frontend generator" caption="It is mostly a shell hook that walks the package tree and writes the header and footer HTML. Have a look under the hood." >}}
+
+## Testing against 15.0 stable
+
+Some of the packages I write are meant to be submitted upstream to
+SlackBuilds.org, which targets Slackware **stable**, not -current. Since my whole
+buildsystem is -current, a package building fine here proves nothing about 15.0.
+Before I submit one, I test it with a separate, independent tool built for exactly
+that: it resolves the SlackBuild's dependency tree locally, then builds and
+installs every package in a fresh disposable overlay chroot layered over a clean,
+read-only Slackware 15.0 base. That catches the current-versus-15.0 drift a
+-current build hides.
+
+It does not touch or drive slackrepo, and its built packages are throwaway: the
+only question it answers is "does this still build clean on 15.0". One limit worth
+naming: it shares the host kernel, so packages that build kernel modules still
+want a real 15.0 VM. This tool will also get its own page here in time.
+
+{{< actions use="repo" url="https://git.danix.xyz/sbo-batch-tester/" desc="Browse sbo-batch-tester" caption="The overlay-chroot and dependency-resolution logic live here if you want to read how the 15.0 test is built." >}}
+
+## The weekly rhythm
+
+Put together, the week is one repeatable cycle: regenerate the SlackBuilds tree,
+sweep the phantom-dependency hints with `mkhint -F`, build and publish with
+slackrepo and its hooks, and, for anything headed to SlackBuilds.org, spot-test it
+against a clean 15.0 base first. Four small tools, each doing one job well, and a
+disposable VM to run them in. Very Slackware.
+
+I hope you found this walk through my buildsystem interesting. If you end up
+running something similar, or you have questions, ideas, or suggestions about any
+piece of it, drop me a line and I will gladly get in touch.
+
+See you next time.
+
+{{< actions use="repo" url="https://packages.danix.xyz" desc="Browse the package repository" caption="Everything the buildsystem produces lands here. If you run slackware64-current, you can point slackpkg+ at it and pull my packages straight in." >}}