autils

Alice Linux Utilities: a collection of POSIX shell scripts for source-based package management on Alice Linux.

Overview

apkg is the core package manager. It reads an abuild recipe (a POSIX shell snippet defining the package name, version, sources, and optional build hooks), downloads and verifies source tarballs, auto-detects one of 6 supported build systems, compiles the software, post-processes the result (strip binaries, compress man pages, install runit services), packages it into the .spm format, and installs or upgrades the package via the spm(8) backend.

A set of apkg-* helper scripts handle binary package management, dependency analysis, repo syncing, orphan detection, cleanup, and more. Standalone utilities cover reverse-dependency checking (revdep), configuration file merging (updateconf), and environment-driven git repository synchronization (reposync).

Installation

make install

Installs all scripts into /usr/bin and man pages into /usr/share/man/man8. Override with DESTDIR, PREFIX, BINDIR, or MANDIR. Individual scripts are self-contained and can be run directly from the source tree for testing.

Quick start

# Build and install a package (from inside its recipe directory)
cd /path/to/repo/mypkg
apkg -i

# Install with automatic dependency resolution
apkg -I firefox

# Search available packages
apkg -s icon

# List outdated packages on the system
apkg -l

# Full system upgrade
apkg -U

# Remove a package and its unneeded dependencies
apkg-purge -p mypkg

# Find broken library links after an upgrade
revdep

# Merge .new config files after an upgrade
updateconf

Tools

Core

Tool	Description
`apkg`	Build packages from source, resolve dependencies, install/upgrade/remove, search repos, system upgrade
`spm`	Low-level `.spm` package installer (external, not in this repo)

Helpers

Script	Purpose
`apkg-chroot`	Enter a chroot with `/dev`, `/proc`, `/sys`, `/run` bind-mounted
`apkg-clean`	List stale `.spm` files and orphaned source tarballs (pipe to `xargs rm`)
`apkg-deps`	Show runtime library dependencies of an installed package via `ldd`
`apkg-foreign`	List installed packages not found in any configured repo
`apkg-genabuild`	Scaffold an `abuild` recipe file from a source URL
`apkg-orphan`	List installed packages that have no dependents installed
`apkg-purge`	Remove a package and its dependencies that are no longer needed by others (`-p` to actually remove)
`apkg-redundantdeps`	Detect transitive dependencies explicitly listed in `depends` files (`-f` to fix)

Standalone utilities

Tool	Description
`revdep`	Scan system binaries and libraries for missing library links (run after major upgrades)
`updateconf`	Interactive `.new` config file merge tool: diff, keep, discard, or edit
`reposync`	Git repo sync driven by `REPOSYNC_*` environment variables (no `/etc/apkg.conf` dependency)

The abuild recipe

An abuild file is a POSIX shell snippet sourced by apkg. The directory containing it must have the same name as the name variable.

A minimal recipe:

name=mypkg
version=1.2.3
release=1
source="https://example.com/$name-$version.tar.gz"

Source formats

The source variable accepts five formats:

Format	Description
`https://example.com/pkg-1.0.tar.gz`	A remote URL
`mypkg-1.0.tar.gz::https://example.com/v1.0.tar.gz`	Custom local filename for a remote URL
`https://example.com/pkg.tar.gz::noextract`	Download but do not unpack
`my-file`	A local file in the recipe directory
(empty)	Create a dummy/meta package with only `/usr`

Optional recipe variables

Variable	Purpose
`build_opt`	Extra flags appended to the auto-detected build system
`build_type`	Force a specific build system (`meson_build`, `configure_build`, `cmake_build`, `python_build`, `perlmodule_build`, `makefile_build`)
`build_dir`	Subdirectory within the extracted source to enter before building
`sv`	Runit service files to install into `/etc/sv`
`skip_patch`	Skip automatic `.patch` / `.diff` application
`patch_opt`	Options for `patch` (default: `-p1`)
`keep_static`	Keep `*.a` static libraries
`keep_libtool`	Keep `*.la` libtool archives
`keep_locale`	Keep locale files
`keep_doc`	Keep documentation
`no_strip`	Skip ELF binary stripping

Build hooks

If a build() function is defined, it replaces the auto-detected build system entirely. Use $SRC (source extraction directory) and $PKG (fakeroot staging directory) to compile and install files. Several DESTDIR-style variables are pre-exported: DESTDIR, DEST_DIR, INSTALLROOT, install_root, INSTALL_ROOT.

build() {
    ./configure --prefix=/usr
    make
    make DESTDIR=$PKG install
}

Without build(), optional prebuild() and postbuild() hooks run before and after the auto-detected build system.

Other recipe files

File	Purpose
`depends`	Dependencies, one per line (`#` for comments)
`preinstall`	Script run before the package is built (only during `-i` or `-u`)
`postinstall`	Script run after the package is installed or upgraded
`.shasum`	Source checksums (auto-generated, regenerate with `apkg -g`)
`.files`	Package file list (auto-generated, regenerate with `apkg -k`)

Build systems

When no build() function is defined, apkg auto-detects the build system by checking for these files in order:

meson.build: meson setup with LTO, PIE, wrap_mode=nodownload, buildtype=plain
configure: ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc ...
CMakeLists.txt: cmake with Release build type, prefers ninja
setup.py: python3 setup.py build && install --root=$PKG
Makefile.PL: perl Makefile.PL && make && make install
Makefile / makefile / GNUmakefile: raw make with standard prefix variables

See doc/defaultbuildopts for the exact flags used by each build system.

Post-build processing

After compilation, apkg automatically: - Compresses man pages (man1-man8, gzip) and info pages - Removes common conflict files (fonts.dir, fonts.scale, perllocal.pod, charset.alias) - Removes static libraries (*.a), libtool archives (*.la), locales, and docs (unless kept via keep_*) - Strips ELF binaries (--strip-all), shared objects (--strip-unneeded), and static archives (--strip-debug)

Triggers

After install or upgrade, apkg can automatically refresh system caches when the package provides relevant files:

fontconfig: fc-cache -sf
GDK-Pixbuf: gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders --update-cache
GIO modules: gio-querymodules /usr/lib/gio/modules
GSettings schemas: glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas
GTK2/GTK3 input methods: gtk-query-immodules-2.0/3.0 --update-cache
Icon themes: gtk-update-icon-cache
udev hardware database: udevadm hwdb --update
X font indices: mkfontdir / mkfontscale
Desktop MIME cache: update-desktop-database
Shared MIME database: update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

Run apkg -t to trigger these manually for all installed packages.

Environment variables

apkg

Variable	Default	Purpose
`APKG_REPO`	`$PWD`	Space-separated repo directories (first match wins)
`APKG_PACKAGE_DIR`	`$PWD`	Where built `.spm` files are stored
`APKG_SOURCE_DIR`	`$PWD`	Source tarball cache directory
`APKG_WORK_DIR`	`$PWD`	Build working tree (extraction + fakeroot)
`APKG_ROOT`	`/`	Alternative install root
`APKG_NOPROMPT`	(unset)	Skip confirmation prompt (for scripting)
`APKG_KEEP_WORKDIR`	(unset)	Keep build tree on failure (for debugging)
`APKG_ALIAS`	(unset)	Dependency substitution: `real:alias` pairs
`APKG_MASK`	(unset)	Packages to skip during `-l` and `-U`
`APKG_LOG`	(unset)	Enable build logging
`APKG_LOG_DIR`	(unset)	Log file directory (filename: `$name.log`)

reposync

Variable	Format	Purpose
`REPOSYNC_<name>`	`url\\|branch\\|path`	Define a git repo to sync

Bugs

Issue tracker: codeberg.org/emmett1/autils/issues

License

See LICENSE.