Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Iguleder]

Here's something I've been working on for some time: an automated, elegant and simple way to install packages from source, similar to FreeBSD's ports, Gentoo's Portage and Arch's AUR.

This tool has many advantages:
1) Compatibility - one build script and you have a package for any Puppy (well, theoretically) one-click away.
2) In most cases, you can change the package version field in the build script and there you have the latest version. Very convenient.
3) No need to host sources or binary packages, just tiny text files that define how to build each package.
4) It's way cooler than traditional PET packages

The name is Puppizard, because it's a system that allows you to build packages automatically ... like magic. It is named after the wonderful Sorcery from Salix OS.

This thing allows you to install packages from source (i.e download their sources, build them locally, strip them and install) easily. It was written and tested on 5.2.5.

It has minimal dependencies: xz and Dash. AdvanceCOMP and OptiPNG are recommended.

Packages built using Puppizard come without static libraries, which waste space and harm compatibility. Also, they lack debugging symbols.

Also, I must note that in some cases Puppizard only re-packages binary packages made by someone else. For example, in the cases of Opera and Flash (since they're non-free) and Libreoffice (because it would take ages and lots of space to build). Believe me, there's a good reason for this.

It is also possible to use Puppizard to package browsers (or other packages) with built-in update functionality (Firefox, Chrome, ...), so puplets that have them built-in don't become "deprecated" quickly.

Before installing a new version, make sure you completely remove the previous one.

And by the way, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Changelog

001:
- first version.

002:
- A message box when Yad is missing
- Solved the hanging bug vovchik reported for Puppizard
- Each build script now creates a stripped package through strippkg and dir2pkg; the latter calls petget and offers the user to install it
- Minor improvements and bug fixes for the build scripts
- A note appears when AdvanceCOMP or OptiPNG are not present.

003:
- A message appears if you don't have the devx installed.
- Small bug fixes for build scripts
- The build scripts are now organized in directories
- More bug fixes

004:
- Rewritten from scratch
- installpkg and removepkg
- Many new features
- Rewritten build scripts
- Major bug fixes
- Profiles go to /usr/share/pkg and both build scripts and installed package info go to /var/pkg

005:
- Modularity!
- A global configuration file: /etc/puppizardrc
- Installed package data now goes to /root/.puppizard
- Many bug fixes
- "--download-only", "--build-only" and "--install" flags for buildpkg; these allow offline builds without internet connectivity or automated build & install operations
- Many, many new build scripts, including one for the Luxi fonts and a beta-quality LibreOffice one
- Improvements to the E17 build scripts
- Desktop integration with ROX-Filer, etc'

006:
- Various bug fixes

007:
- ncurses frontend
- Removed the Yad frontend
- ttuuxxx' icon

008:
- A build script repository and puppizard-update: downloading of the latest build scripts, automatically

Why It's Cool

Here's how to build the whole E17, a-la-Puppizard:

[sc0ttman]

Very, very nice! Really!! Great idea! and execution...

EDIT:

Compiled geany..
All works fine on puppy 4, even the .pet installation

Can't compile yad on pup4, says it needs GTK 2.16
Will have to find a working Yad .pet to test the GUI

I'm using the Glibc 2.10.1, gdk, x11, GTK 2.12.1, etc.. all from Way 512.. Does this mean Yad won't compile in Wary?

..and maybe add a message somewhere to say the devx is required?

[Iguleder]

Try to downgrade Yad to something older, 0.9.x or something. Edit /var/pur/yad.sh

And I think it's quite obvious that the devx is required

[sc0ttman]

[Iguleder]

[sc0ttman]

Last question, I promise.. Not a key issue, as I will do this myself anyway..

But could this be easily modded to use 'dir2pet' if found?

Cos I think that would be an easy way to make the .pets work across more puppies

The pets install fine in puppy 4, but will not uninstall, cos of petspecs, user-installed-packages, alienpackage.txt, etc...

Using the 'dir2pet' script, if found, might fix this?

[Iguleder]

Of course, but the stripping is done in /usr/bin/pur-install.

You could easily mod it to call dir2pet after the stripping instead of installing the packages ... and you could also call another script for automatically splitting it to EXE, DEV, DOC, NLS. I wrote many scripts that do that and posted them on the forums.

[vovchik]

Dear lguleder,

Brilliant script. Thanks. I just compiled galculator and everything went smoothly. There is one little problem with the gui, however. If you select nothing and want to quit, it goes into a loop and keeps reloading and displaying itself. But that is pretty trivial and easy to fix.

With kind regards,
vovchik

[nooby]

Wow a very good thing you made there. Now it is way above my level but I trust I know enough to get that it is a progress.

You write this

[Iguleder]

Working on 002 already: I changed its behavior - packages are not installed by default; I moved the stripping code to /usr/bin/strippkg and that's what runs instead. I also fixed the bug vovchik reported.

I want to add a call to dir2pet (or mksquashfs, whatever) in pur-install, which is nothing but a plain install script now.

By the way - is it a good idea to turn the built packages into .tgz (or .txz) archives? These can be installed with PPM, because it believes they're either Slackware or Arch packages.

Regarding system requirements - the faster your machine is, the faster it will run. I use it on my Eee and it's very fast.

[gcmartin]

Wow, this is far-reaching. For newbies and experienced PUP users, a new generation of tool additions running PUPs.

One thing already pointed out, by you, is two requirements: DEVX and YAD (for GUI).

Question on requirements:
Is there any way that the installation of PUR could check for these at installation time? Maybe an alert to the user or something.

Anyway, I foresee a great deal of use for your creation.

Thanks....thanks....thanks.

[Iguleder]

Yep. I could add some notice (using gtkdialog) that tells the user to install Yad. Not a serious problem.

EDIT: uploaded a much improved version.

[sc0ttman]

Tested 02, PPM has an error unpacking the PET file

I think it has something to do with the lack of named dir in the .tgz file.
Or maybe the presence of the source .tgz is causing mis-naming?

This was on pup4, this may not occur on Woof builds..

I attached a screenshot of the error, pkg contents and work dir

EDIT:
I solved it, image removed, to save space...

[Iguleder]

I think it's because of the old Puppy version - your PPM doesn't treat .tgz archives as Slackware or Arch packages. After all, it's a pre-Woof Puppy.

[sc0ttman]