void-packages is the backbone of the Void Linux distribution. It contains all the definitions to build packages from source.
This document describes how you, as a contributor, can help with adding packages, correcting bugs and adding features to void-packages.
To be included in the Void repository, software must meet at least one of the following requirements. Exceptions to the list are possible, and might be accepted, but are extremely unlikely. If you believe you have an exception, start a PR and make an argument for why that particular piece of software, while not meeting any of the following requirements, is a good candidate for the Void packages system.
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System: The software should be installed system-wide, not per-user.
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Compiled: The software needs to be compiled before being used, even if it is software that is not needed by the whole system.
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Required: Another package either within the repository or pending inclusion requires the package.
In particular, new themes are highly unlikely to be accepted. Simple shell scripts are unlikely to be accepted unless they provide considerable value to a broad user base. New fonts may be accepted if they provide value beyond aesthetics (e.g. they contain glyphs for a script missing in already packaged fonts).
Browser forks, including those based on Chromium and Firefox, are generally not accepted. Such forks require heavy patching, maintenance and hours of build time.
Software need to be used in version announced by authors as ready to use by the general public - usually called releases. Betas, arbitrary VCS revisions, templates using tip of development branch taken at build time and releases created by the package maintainer won't be accepted.
If you really want to get a new package or package update into Void Linux, we recommend you contribute it yourself.
We provide a comprehensive Manual on how to create new packages. There's also a manual for xbps-src, which is used to build package files from templates.
For this guide, we assume you have basic knowledge about git, as well as a GitHub Account with SSH set up.
You should also set the email on your GitHub account and in git so your commits are associated with your GitHub account properly.
To get started, fork the void-linux void-packages git repository on GitHub and clone it:
$ git clone git@github.com:<user>/void-packages.git
To keep your forked repository up to date, setup the upstream remote to pull in new changes:
$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages.git
$ git pull --rebase upstream master
This can also be done with the github-cli tool:
$ gh repo fork void-linux/void-packages
$ gh repo clone <user>/void-packages
This automatically sets up the upstream remote, so git pull --rebase upstream master can still be used to keep your fork up-to-date.
Using the GitHub web editor for making changes is strongly discouraged, because you will need to clone the repo anyways to edit and test your changes.
Using the master branch of your fork for contributing is also strongly discouraged.
It can cause many issues with updating your pull request (also called a PR), and having multiple PRs open at once.
To create a new branch:
$ git checkout master -b <a-descriptive-name>
You can use the helper tool xnew, from the xtools package, to create new templates:
$ xnew pkgname subpkg1 subpkg2 ...
Templates must have the name void-packages/srcpkgs/<pkgname>/template, where pkgname is the same as the pkgname variable in the template.
For deeper insights on the contents of template files, please read the manual, and be sure to browse the existing template files in the srcpkgs directory of this repository for concrete examples.
At minimum, a template update will consist of changing version and checksum, if there was an upstream version change, and/or revision, if a template-specific change (e.g. patch, correction, etc.) is needed.
Other changes to the template may be needed depending on what changes the upstream has made.
The checksum can be updated automatically with the xgensum helper from the xtools package:
$ xgensum -i <pkgname>
After making your changes, please check that the package builds successfully. From the top level directory of your local copy of the void-packages repository, run:
$ ./xbps-src pkg <pkgname>
Your package must build successfully for at least x86, but we recommend also trying a cross-build for armv6l* as well, e.g.:
$ ./xbps-src -a armv6l pkg <pkgname>
When building for x86_64* or i686, building with the -Q flag or with XBPS_CHECK_PKGS=yes set in etc/conf (to run the check phase) is strongly encouraged.
Also, new packages and updates will not be accepted unless they have been runtime tested by installing and running the package.
When you've finished working on the template file, please check it with xlint helper from the xtools package:
$ xlint template
If xlint reports any issues, resolve them before committing.
Once you have made and verified your changes to the package template and/or other files, make one commit per package (including all changes to its sub-packages). Each commit message should have one of the following formats:
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for new packages, use
New package: <pkgname>-<version>(example). -
for package updates, use
<pkgname>: update to <version>.(example). -
for template modifications without a version change, use
<pkgname>: <reason>(example). -
for package removals, use
<pkgname>: remove packageand include the removal reason in the commit body (example). -
for changes to any other file, use
<filename>: <reason>(example, example, example, example)
If you want to describe your changes in more detail, explain in the commit body (separated from the first line with a blank line) (example).
xbump, available in the xtools package, can be used to commit a new or updated package:
$ xbump <pkgname> <git commit options>
xrevbump, also available in the xtools package, can be used to commit a template modification for a package:
$ xrevbump '<message>' <pkgnames...>
xbump and xrevbump will use git commit to commit the changes with the appropriate commit message. For more fine-grained control over the commit, specific options can be passed to git commit by adding them after the package name.
Once you have successfully built the package, you can create a pull request. Pull requests are also known as PRs.
Most pull requests should only contain a single package and dependencies which are not part of void-packages yet.
If you make updates to packages containing a soname bump, you also need to update common/shlibs and revbump all packages that are dependant.
There should be a commit for each package revbump, and those commits should be part of the same pull request.
When you make changes to your pull request, please do not close and reopen your pull request. Instead, just forcibly git push, overwriting any old commits. Closing and opening your pull requests repeatedly spams the Void maintainers.
Pull requests are automatically submitted for Continuous Integration (CI) testing to ensure packages build and pass their tests (on native builds) on various combinations of C library and architecture.
Packages that take longer than 120 minutes or need more than 14G of storage to complete their build (for example, Firefox or the Linux kernel) will fail CI and should include [ci skip] in the PR title or body (the comment field when the PR is being opened) to avoid wasting CI builder time.
Use your best judgment on build times based on your local building experience. If you skip CI when submitting a PR, please build and cross-build for a variety of architectures locally, with both glibc and musl, and note your local results in PR comments.
Make sure to cover 64-bit and 32-bit architectures.
If you notice a failure in CI that didn't happen locally, that is likely because you didn't run tests locally.
Use ./xbps-src -Q pkg <package> to do so.
Some tests won't work in the CI environment or at all, and their templates should encode this information using the make_check variable.
Continuous Integration will also check if the templates you have changed comply with the our guidelines. At the moment not all packages comply with the rules, so if you update a package, it may report errors about places you haven't touched. Please feel free to fix those errors too.
It's possible (and common) that a pull request will contain mistakes or reviewers will ask for additional tweaks. Reviewers will comment on your pull request and point out which changes are needed before the pull request can be merged.
Most PRs will have a single commit, as seen above, so if you need to make changes to the commit and already have a pull request open, you can use the following commands:
$ git add <file>
$ git commit --amend
$ git push -f
A more powerful way of modifying commits than using git commit --amend is with git-rebase, which allows you to join, reorder, change description of past commits and more.
Alternatively, if there are issues with your git history, you can make another branch and push it to the existing PR:
$ git checkout master -b <attempt2>
$ # do changes anew
$ git push -f <fork> <attempt2>:<branch-of-pr>
Once you have applied all requested changes, the reviewers will merge your request.
If the pull request becomes inactive for some days, the reviewers may or may not warn you when they are about to close it. If it stays inactive further, it will be closed.
Please abstain from temporarily closing a pull request while revising the templates. Instead, leave a comment on the PR describing what still needs work, mark it as a draft, or add "[WIP]" to the PR title. Only close your pull request if you're sure you don't want your changes to be included.
Once the reviewers have merged the pull request, our build server is automatically triggered and builds all packages in the pull request for all supported platforms. Upon completion, the packages are available to all Void Linux users.
While it is the responsibility of the PR creator to test changes before sending it, one person can't test all configuration options, usecases, hardware, etc.
Testing new package submissions and updates is always helpful, and is a great way to get started with contributing.
First, clone the repository if you haven't done so already.
Then check out the pull request, either with github-cli:
$ gh pr checkout <number>
Or with git:
If your local void-packages repository is cloned from your fork, you may need to add the main repository as a remote first:
$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages.git
Then fetch and check out the PR (replacing <remote> with either origin or upstream):
$ git fetch <remote> pull/<number>/head:<branch-name>
$ git checkout <branch-name>
Then build and install the package and test its functionality.