Spectacle Tutorial

Introduction

Spectacle is the toolset for packaging maintenance of MeeGo, including the tool to generate spec files from metadata file in YAML format, and tools to convert spec files or spec-builder's ini files to YAML format.

For spectacle managed packages, all generic packaging information will be stored in the YAML file, and it also allows maintaining customizations in the spec file directly with special enclosure tags.

Three separated tools will be installed:

• specify: the tool to generate or to update spec file, based on YAML
• ini2spectacle: the tool to convert spec-builder .ini to YAML and new spec file
• spec2spectacle: the tool to convert original spec to YAML and new spec file

Installation

Instruction

Several methods available for spectacle installation:

• rpm/deb packages for several supported Linux distributions

  From MeeGo Repos, repo urls can be found for:

  • MeeGo
  • Fedora 10,11,12
  • openSUSE(s)
  • xUbuntu 8.10/9.04/9.10
  • Debian 5.0

• Download the latest source package, and install it by make install

  (Only running setup.py install is not enough!)

  The latest code in git tree can be accessed at: git tree

Requirements

• python 2.x, above 2.5
• PyYAML, the python module for YAML parsing
• cheetah, one popular templating system for python
  • In many linux distributions, the package may be named as python-cheetah.

Usage

specify

Usage: specify [options] [yaml-path]

Options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o OUTFILE_PATH, --output=OUTFILE_PATH
                        Path of output spec file
  -s, --skip-scm        Skip to check upstream SCM when specified in YAML
  -N, --not-download    Do not try to download newer source files
  -n, --non-interactive
                    Non interactive running, to use default answers

ini2spectacle

Usage: ini2spectacle [options] [ini-path]

Options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o OUTFILE_PATH, --output=OUTFILE_PATH
                        Path of output yaml file
  -f, --include-files   To store files list in YAML file

spec2spectacle

Usage: spec2spectacle [options] [spec-path]

Options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o OUTFILE_PATH, --output=OUTFILE_PATH
                        Path of output yaml file
  -r, --replace-macros  To replace self-defined macros in spec file
  --no-builder-parsing  Do NOT try to parse build/install scripts
  -f, --include-files   To store files list in YAML file

Syntax of spectacle YAML

The syntax of YAML can be refered here: http://www.yaml.org/spec/

Two example spectacle YAML files are placed to examples/ directory in source code:

• xfce4-session.yaml, a real world sample with most of the elements
• general.yaml, a fake spectacle contains all the available elements, with comments

All available directives for spectacle are listed as the following:

• Name: string

• Summary: string

• Version: string, version string

• Release: string

• Epoch: string

• Group: string

• License: string

• URL: string

• SCM: string, URL to git tree

• Archive: string, format for output of SCM tarball, e.g., gzip, bzip2, xz

• BuildArch: string

• ExclusiveArch: string

• Prefix: string

• LocaleName: string

• LocaleOptions: string

• Description: text

• Sources: list of string

• SourcePrefix: string, specify the prefix path in source package

• ExtraSources: list of string

• SetupOptions: string, the options string for %setup

• Patches: list of string, all patches need to be in 'p1' level

• Requires: list of string

• RequiresPre: list of string

• RequiresPreUn: list of string

• RequiresPost: list of string

• RequiresPostUn: list of string

• PkgBR: list of string, packages required in building, or BuildRequires

• PkgConfigBR: list of string, pkg-config requires in building

• Provides: list of string

• Conflicts: list of string

• Obsoletes: list of string

• BuildConflicts: list of string

• Macros: list of string

• Macros2: list of string

• Configure: string, valid values: autogen, configure, reconfigure, none If not specified, the default value "configure" will be used

• ConfigOptions: list, extra options for Configure

• Builder: string, valid values: make, single-make, python, perl, qmake, none If not specified, the deault value "make" will be used. If do not want a automatic builder, please use "none".

• QMakeOptions: list, extra options for qmake Builder

• Files: list of string, content of %files for small packages

• FilesInput: string, extra input source for %files

• NoFiles: boolean, if to be set as True, means no %files section for this package and it cause no rpm generated

• RunFdupes: string, path under %buildroot to run %fdupes macro in %install

• RpmLintIgnore: list, list of skip items for rpmlint

• Check: boolean, whether need %check section in spec

• UseAsNeeded: boolean, whether export LD_AS_NEEDED=1 environ variable before building

• NoAutoReq: boolean, whether add 'AutoReq: 0' to spec

• NoAutoProv: boolean, whether add 'AutoProv: 0' to spec

• NoSetup: boolean, whether to skip using %setup in %prep

• NoAutoLocale: boolean, whether to use %find_lang to search locale data when found 'intltool' in PkgBR

• NoDesktop: boolean, whether to install the desktop files in package

• UpdateDesktopDB: boolean, whether to run 'update-desktop-database' to flush cache when package (un)installation

• NoIconCache: boolean, whether to run 'gtk-update-icon-cache' if icon files found in package

• AutoDepend: boolean, for subpackages only, whether to add Require to main package automatically

• AsWholeName: boolean, for subpackages only, whether to use Name as the whole package name

• AutoSubPackages: list of string, mainly for '-devel'

• SubPackages: list of dict, the dict item is the lower level directives for sub packages:

  • Name
  • Summary
  • Description
  • Group
  • etc.

CAUTION: The following cases of value string have special meaning in YAML syntax:

• string with leading % charactor
• string with leading * charactor
• string contains : charactor and one or more spaces/tabs after :
• string end with : charactor

Then these string values need to be quoted by '(single-quote) or " (double-quote), and the choice of quote char should not conflict with the value string self.

Mandatory and valid keywords for all packages

Mandatory keywords

The following keywords are mandatory for main package:

• Name
• Summary
• Description
• Version
• Group
• License

The following keywords are mandatory for sub-package:

• Name
• Summary
• Description
• Group

Valid keywords for sub-packages

For sub-packages, only a subset of keywords can be specified:

• Name
• Summary
• Description
• Group
• License
• Version
• Release
• Epoch
• URL
• BuildArch
• Files
• Prefix
• Requires
• RequiresPre
• RequiresPreUn
• RequiresPost
• RequiresPostUn
• Provides
• Conflicts
• Obsoletes
• NoAutoReq
• NoAutoProv
• NoAutoReqProv
• NoIconCache
• FilesInput

Keywords only for sub-packages

The following keywords are only valid for sub-packages:

• AsWholeName
• AutoDepend

Namespace support for multi-architecture in several keywords

For the following spectacle YAML keywords:

• Requires
• PkgBR
• PkgConfigBR
• Patches
• ConfigOptions
• QMakeOptions

If one of the items need to be architecture specified, we can add arch prefix to it. The supported prefix and the corresponding architectures as the followings:

• ix86: - x86 platform
• arm: - generic arm platform
• armv5: - armv5 platform, will expand to "armv5el armv5tel armv5tejl"
• armv7: - armv7 platform, will expand to "armv7el armv7tel armv7l armv7hl armv7nhl"

Here's some samples:

Requires:
    - arm:pkg-need-in-arm-image
    - ix86:pkg-need-in-x86-image
    - normal-pkg
ConfigOptions:
    - arm:--arm-specific-opt
    - ix86:--ix86-specific-opt
    - --common-opt

Customizations in spec

Generated spec files by specify will have many placeholders for customizations, such as:

# >> build pre
# << build pre

You can add any custom code between the markers, next time when you run specify, the text between the markers will be kept as is, all other sections relying on the meta data from the YAML file will be changed depending on the values in the YAML file.

The following placeholders in spec can be customized:

• Private Macros, used in this package's spec

  With placeholder:

    # >> macros
    # << macros
  

• Private Macros2, used in this package's spec

    # >> macros2
    # << macros2
  

NOTE: The placeholder lines will NOT generated in spec by default. If you need customized macros2, it need be added manually before %pre section of the .spec file, and only once.

• Extra setup scripts in the last of %prep

  With placeholder:

    # >> setup
    # << setup
  

• Pre-Build, scripts before package building

  With placeholder:

    # >> build pre
    # << build pre
  

• Post-Build, scripts after package building

  With placeholder:

    # >> build post
    # << build post
  

• Pre-Install, scripts before package installation

  With placeholder:

    # >> install pre
    # << install pre
  

• Post-Install, scripts after package installation

  With placeholder:

    # >> install post
    # << install post
  

• Files, files list in packaged rpm

  With placeholder:

    # >> files [[-p] sub-package]
    # << files [[-p] sub-package]
  

NOTE: "sub-packge" stands for the name of sub-package, and it is optional. If no sub-package name specified, it means the files of main package. NOTE: If the file list is simple enough, you can use YAML Files keyword instead to record it.

• Scripts for %check section

  With placeholder:

    # >> check
    # << check
  

NOTE: Only if YAML boolean Check is specifed as yes, %check with placeholder lines will be generated in .spec.

• Scriptlets for %pre section

  With placeholder:

    # >> pre
    # << pre
  

NOTE: The placeholder lines will NOT generated in spec by default. If you need customized %pre scripts, it need be added manually, and only once.

• Scriptlets for %preun section

  With placeholder:

    # >> preun
    # << preun
  

NOTE: The placeholder lines will NOT generated in spec by default. If you need customized %preun scripts, it need be added manually, and only once.

• Scriptlets for %post section

  With placeholder:

    # >> post
    # << post
  

NOTE: The placeholder lines will NOT generated in spec by default. If you need customized %post scripts, it need be added manually, and only once.

• Scriptlets for %postun section

  With placeholder:

    # >> postun
    # << postun
  

NOTE: The placeholder lines will NOT generated in spec by default. If you need customized %postun scripts, it need be added manually, and only once.

Internal Implementation

Spectacle uses cheetah templates to generate the spec file, based the metadata from YAML file. But the end users need not tackle it.

Tips

• If to upgrade the pkg to a newer version, you can just edit the version string in spectacle YAML file, and when you run specify, it will download the needed files for you automatically.

• For packages with locale data, LocaleName is needed. If package maintainers cannot confirm whether there are locale files, they can just do not use LocaleName at first, and whenever "unpackaged files" rpm packaging errors encountered, it means LocaleName should be added. And please do not use it for packages without locale data to keep them clean, though it will not block the building and packaging.

• When using spec2spectacle/ini2spectacle to generate spectacle, the following problems should be checked:

  • Remove duplicate Requires(include pre/post/preun/postun) which were added automatically based on the analysis of file list.
  • Review and clean up the reserved scripts in "build|install pre|post" sections in new generated spec file.

• User can use "series.conf" file to specify multiple patches under package directory. The "series.conf" can be used by quilt and the content can be updated to spec automatically when running specify.