Lakka-LibreELEC/packages

Structure of package.mk files

Introduction

The package.mk file defines variables and functions to build a package.

Variables

To control the build behaviour of your package, use variables in the top-down order listed here.

Base

Variable	Default	Required	Description
PKG_NAME	-	yes	Name of the packaged software application. Should be lowercase
PKG_VERSION	-	yes	Version of the packaged software application
PKG_SHA256	-	yes	SHA256 hashsum of the application download file
PKG_ARCH	any	no	Architectures for which the package builds. any or a space separated list of aarch64, arm or x86_64
PKG_LICENSE	-	yes	License of the software application. Reference
PKG_SITE	-	yes	Site of the software application
PKG_URL	-	yes	Address at which the source of the software application can be retrieved
PKG_MAINTAINER	-	no	Your name
PKG_DEPENDS_BOOTSTRAP PKG_DEPENDS_HOST PKG_DEPENDS_INIT PKG_DEPENDS_TARGET	-	no	A space separated list of name of packages required to build the software application
PKG_SECTION	-	no	virtual if the package only defines dependencies
PKG_SHORTDESC	-	no yes for addons	Short description of the software package
PKG_LONGDESC	-	yes	Long description of the package including purpose or function within LibreELEC or Kodi

Universal Build Option

Variable	Default	Required	Description
PKG_SOURCE_DIR	-	no	Force the folder name that application sources are unpacked to. Used when sources do not automatically unpack to a folder with the PKG_NAME-PKG_VERSION naming convention.
PKG_SOURCE_NAME	-	no	Force the filename of the application sources. Used when the filename is not the basename of PKG_URL
PKG_PATCH_DIRS	-	no	Patches in ./patches are automatically applied after package unpack. Use this option to include patches from an additional folder, e.g. ./patches/$PKG_PATCH_DIRS
PKG_NEED_UNPACK	-	no	Space separated list of files or folders to include in package stamp calculation. If the stamp is invalidated through changes to package files or dependent files/folders the package is cleaned and rebuilt. e.g. PKG_NEED_UNPACK="$(get_pkg_directory linux)" will trigger clean/rebuild of a Linux kernel driver package when a change to the linux kernel package is detected.
PKG_TOOLCHAIN	auto	no	Control which build toolchain is used. For detailed information, see reference.
PKG_BUILD_FLAGS	-	no	A space separated list of flags with which to fine-tune the build process. Flags can be enabled or disabled with a + or - prefix. For detailed information, see the Reference.
PKG_PYTHON_VERSION	python2.7	no	Define the Python version to be used.
PKG_IS_KERNEL_PKG	-	no	Set to yes for packages that include Linux kernel modules

Meson Options

Variable	Default	Required	Description
PKG_MESON_SCRIPT	$PKG_BUILD/meson.build	no	Meson build file to use
PKG_MESON_OPTS_TARGET	-	no	Options directly passed to meson

CMAKE Options

Variable	Default	Required	Description
PKG_CMAKE_SCRIPT	$PKG_BUILD/CMakeLists.txt	no	CMake build file to use
PKG_CMAKE_OPTS_HOST PKG_CMAKE_OPTS_TARGET	-	no	Options directly passed to cmake

Configure Options

Variable	Default	Required	Description
PKG_CONFIGURE_SCRIPT	$PKG_BUILD/configure	no	configure script to use
PKG_CONFIGURE_OPTS PKG_CONFIGURE_OPTS_BOOTSTRAP PKG_CONFIGURE_OPTS_HOST PKG_CONFIGURE_OPTS_INIT PKG_CONFIGURE_OPTS_TARGET	-	no	Options directly passed to configure

Make Options

Variable	Default	Required	Description
PKG_MAKE_OPTS PKG_MAKE_OPTS_BOOTSTRP PKG_MAKE_OPTS_HOST PKG_MAKE_OPTS_INIT PKG_MAKE_OPTS_TARGET	-	no	Options directly passed to make in the build step
PKG_MAKEINSTALL_OPTS_HOST PKG_MAKEINSTALL_OPTS_TARGET	-	no	Options directly passed to make in the install step

Addons

Additional options used when the package builds an addon.

Variable	Default	Required	Description
PKG_REV	-	yes	The revision number of the addon (starts at 100). Must be placed after PKG_VERSION. Must be incremented for each new version else Kodi clients will not detect version change and download the updated addon.
PKG_IS_ADDON	no	yes	Must be set to yes
PKG_ADDON_NAME	-	yes	Proper name of the addon that is shown at the repo
PKG_ADDON_TYPE	-	yes	See LE/config/addon/ for other possibilities
PKG_ADDON_VERSION	-	no	The version of the addon, used in addon.xml
PKG_ADDON_PROVIDES	-	no	Provides in addon-xml
PKG_ADDON_REQUIRES	-	no	Requires used in addon.xml
PKG_ADDON_PROJECTS	@PROJECTS@	no	for available projects or devices, see projects subdirectory (note: Use RPi for RPi project, and RPi1 for RPi device)
PKG_DISCLAIMER	-	no	Disclaimer in addon-xml
PKG_ADDON_IS_STANDALONE	-	no	Defines if an addon depends on Kodi (on) or is standalone (yes)
PKG_ADDON_BROKEN	-	no	Marks an addon as broken for the user

Detail Infomations for Options

TOOLCHAIN options

Application/packages needs different toolchains for build. For instance cmake or the classic ./configure or same very different.

For the most application/packages, the auto-detection of the toolchain works proper. But not always. To select a specific toolchain, you only need to set the PKG_TOOLCHAIN variable.

Toolchain	Description (if needed)
meson	Meson Build System
cmake	CMake with Ninja
cmake-make	CMake with Make
autotools	GNU Build System
configure	preconfigured GNU Build System
ninja	Ninja Build
make	Makefile Based
manual	only runs self writen build steps, see Functions

Auto-Detection

The auto-detections looks for specific files in the source path.

1. meson.build (PKG_MESON_SCRIPT) => meson toolchain
2. CMakeLists.txt (PKG_CMAKE_SCRIPT) => cmake toolchain
3. configure (PKG_CONFIGURE_SCRIPT) => configure toolchain
4. Makefile => make toolchain

When none of these was found, the build abort and you have to set the toolchain via PKG_TOOLCHAIN

BUILD_FLAGS options

Build flags implement often used build options. Normally these are activated be default, but single applications/packages has problems to compile/run with these.

Set the variable PKG_BUILD_FLAGS in the package.mk to enable/disable the single flags. It is a space separated list. The flags can enabled with a + prefix, and disabled with a -.

flag	default	affected stage	description
pic	disabled	target/init	Position Independent Code
pic:host	disabled	host/bootstrap	see above
lto	disabled	target/init	enable LTO (Link Time optimization) in the compiler and linker unless disabled via LTO_SUPPORT. Compiles non-fat LTO objects (only bytecode) and performs single-threaded optimization at link stage
lto-parallel	disabled	target/init	same as lto but enable parallel optimization at link stage. Only enable this if the package build doesn't run multiple linkers in parallel otherwise this can result in lots of parallel processes!
lto-fat	disabled	target/init	same as lto but compile fat LTO objects (bytecode plus optimized assembly). This increases compile time but can be useful to create static libraries suitable both for LTO and non-LTO linking
lto-off	disabled	target/init	explicitly disable LTO in the compiler and linker
gold	depend on GOLD_SUPPORT	target/init	can only disabled, use of the GOLD-Linker
parallel	enabled	all	make or ninja builds with multiple threads/processes (or not)
strip	enabled	target	strips executables (or not)

Example

PKG_BUILD_FLAGS="+pic -gold"
PKG_BUILD_FLAGS="-parallel"

Functions

All build steps in the LibreELEC build system, a done by shell function. These functions can overwritten in the package.mk. But this raises problems, when the build system is updated. To reduce the problem, most function was extended by pre_ and post_ scripts, to use instead.

When it is nesseary to replace configure, make and makeinstall, please use PKG_TOOLCHAIN="manual".

Some of the build steps needs to be run once, like unpack. Other steps needs to be run multiple times, to create the toolchain (stage bootstrap & host) or to create the LE image (stage init & target). These stage specific functions have the stage as suffix, like make_target.

Full list of overwrittable functions.

function	stages specific	description
unpack pre_unpack post_unpack	-	Extract the source from the downloaded file
pre_patch post_patch	-	Apply the patches to the source, after extraction. The patch function it self is not allowed to overwritten
pre_build_[stage]	yes	Runs before of the start of the build
configure_[stage] pre_configure_[stage] post_configure_[stage]	yes	Configure the package for the compile. This is only relevant for toolchain, that supports it (e.g. meson, cmake, configure, manual)
make_[stage] pre_make_[stage] post_make_[stage]	yes	Build of the package
makeinstall_[stage] pre_makeinstall_[stage] post_makeinstall_[stage]	yes	Installation of the files in the correct pathes host: TOOLCHAIN target: SYSROOT and IMAGE bootstrap and init: temporary destination
addon	-	Copy all files together for addon creation. This is requiered for addons

Example

post_patch() {
  # replace hardcoded stuff
  sed -i $PKG_BUILD/Makefile 's|hardcoded stuff|variabled stuff|'
}

pre_configure_target() {
  CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -DEXTRA_FLAG=yeah"
}

post_makeinstall_target() {
  # remove unused executable, only library needed
  rm $INSTALL/usr/bin/bigexecutable
}

Add a new package to the Image

1. Think about, why you needs it in the image.
   • new multimedia tool
   • add a new network tool
   • new kernel driver
   • ...
2. Find a place in the packages-tree
   • look into the package-tree, i think most is self explaind. When 1. was done, this is going fast :)
   • do not place it, in an existing package (directory with includes a package.mk)
   • when you found a place, create a directory with the name of your package (must the same like PKG_NAME!!)
3. Create a initial package.mk
   • you found a template under packages/package.mk.template. Copy the template into the new directory and call it package.mk
   • edit your new package.mk
4. Find a place in the dependency tree. When 1. was done, this is going fast, again :)
   • when it extend an existing package, add it there to the PKG_DEPENDS_TARGET
   • take a look into the path packages/virtual, there you should find a virtual packages, that match your new package (misc-packages should the last option)
5. now you can build your image
   • after the build, under build-[...]/ should apear a directory with your package-name and -version.

Example

################################################################################
#      This file is part of LibreELEC - https://libreelec.tv
#      Copyright (C) 2018-present Team LibreELEC
#
#  LibreELEC is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
#  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or
#  (at your option) any later version.
#
#  LibreELEC is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#  GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#  along with LibreELEC.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
################################################################################

PKG_NAME="mariadb-connector-c"
PKG_VERSION="3.0.2"
PKG_SHA256="f44f436fc35e081db3a56516de9e3bb11ae96838e75d58910be28ddd2bc56d88"
PKG_ARCH="any"
PKG_LICENSE="LGPL"
PKG_SITE="https://mariadb.org/"
PKG_URL="https://github.com/MariaDB/mariadb-connector-c/archive/v$PKG_VERSION.tar.gz"
PKG_DEPENDS_TARGET="toolchain zlib openssl"
PKG_SECTION="database"
PKG_SHORTDESC="mariadb-connector: library to conntect to mariadb/mysql database server"
PKG_LONGDESC="mariadb-connector: library to conntect to mariadb/mysql database server"

PKG_CMAKE_OPTS_TARGET="-DWITH_EXTERNAL_ZLIB=ON
                       -DAUTH_CLEARTEXT=STATIC
                       -DAUTH_DIALOG=STATIC
                       -DAUTH_OLDPASSWORD=STATIC
                       -DREMOTEIO=OFF
                      "

post_makeinstall_target() {
  # drop all unneeded
  rm -rf $INSTALL/usr
}