BepFile

Introduction

A .bep file is a recipe that haikuporter uses to fetch, patch, build and install a software package. It is an ASCII file that contains a list of keys with corresponding (lists of) values. Next to being a recipe for haikuporter, it may also give specific information on how to build a particular application on BeOS (see below).

Syntax

Comments

It is possible to insert comments in the BepFile.

• the comment should be on a line of it's own
• the comment should be preceded with a hash (#)
• there may be whitespace preceding the '#'

Key types

There are three types of keys in a BepFile: single-value, list-of-values and shell commands.

The key label is subject to the following rules:

• the key label must be in all capitals and consist only of letters (A-Z), numbers (0-9) and underscores
• there may be no whitespace in front of the key label

A key with a single value

KEY = "value"

The syntax is subject to the following rules:

• there may be whitespace around the '=', but it is not required
• the value should be enclosed within double quotes
• there may be whitespace after the closing quote

A key with a list of values

KEY = "value1
       value2
       value3"

The syntax is subject to the rules listed above for a single value key, plus the following:

• one value is entered per line, with the first on the line of the key label
• every value but the first is indented by whitespace (tabs or spaces)
• only one set of double quotes encloses the list, as is visible from the example above
• the closing double quote is on the same line as the last value of the list

A key with a list of shell commands

KEY = {
       line1
       line2
       line3
      }

The syntax is subject to these rules:

• the line of the key label ends with an opening brace '{', with nothing following it (except for whitespace)
• each line is indented by whitespace (tabs or spaces)
• the closing brace '}' is on on a separate line, preceded by whitespace
• the lines between the braces are interpreted as a shell script (bash); hence, it is possible to use conditional execution and insert comments using '#' (see below)

List of keys

The following keys are currently supported in haikuporter:

Key	Description	Type	Syntax	Mandatory	Default
DESCRIPTION	a (short) description of the software package	single, list	text	yes	-
MESSAGE	a message that is shown to the user before building	single	text	no	-
HOMEPAGE	URI pointing to the official homepage of the software package	single	URI	yes	-
SRC_URI	(a list of) URI(s) pointing to the source code archive of the software package	single, list	URI or VersionControlURI	yes	-
CHECKSUM_MD5	md5 checksum of the source code archive of the software package	single	text	no	-
REVISION	indicates the HaikuPort revision	single	integer (1, 2, 3, ...)	yes	-
STATUS_HAIKU	indicates the status of this port on Haiku	single	status (untested, unstable, stable)	no	untested
DEPEND	(list of) HaikuPort(s) this port depends upon	single, list	category/portname >= portversion	no	-
BUILD	list of shell commands (script) to execute in order to build the port	shell	shell commands	no	-
INSTALL	list of shell commands to execute in order to install the port	shell	shell commands	no	-
TEST	list of shell commands to execute the test(s) for the port	shell	shell commands	no	-
LICENSE	(list of) license(s) for the port	single, list	text	no	-
COPYRIGHT	(list of) copyright(s) for the port	single, list	text	no	-

BUILD, INSTALL and TEST scripts are plain bash shell scripts. It is possible to do conditional execution or even loops.

An example of a build script is shown below. Notice that it is possible to add comments using a #. It is highly recommended to document anything special you might do inside a BUILD or INSTALL script. This might help people when they are porting other applications.

BUILD {
	cd xyz-1.0.0
        libtoolize --force --copy --install
        aclocal
        autoconf
	./configure --prefix=`finddir B_COMMON_DIRECTORY \
                --mandir=`finddir B_COMMON_DOCUMENTATION_DIRECTORY`/man
	make
}

When a key is not listed in the BepFile, haikuporter assumes the default value, or an empty string/list (when no default value is specified above).

Note: It is possible that the names and/or the use of these keys may change as haikuporter evolves. Keys may also be added and removed. When haikuporter gets a release, the key set shall be frozen.

For further reading on writing BepFiles, read WritingBepFile article