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	-
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 and INSTALL scripts are plain bash shell scripts. It is possible to do conditional execution or even loops. For example, it is possible to distinguish between the different BeOS platforms using the BEPORTS_PLATFORM environment variable. It can be one of R5, BONE or HAIKU. Haikuporter detects which BeOS platform it is running on and set the BEPORTS_PLATFORM variable accordingly.

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
	if [ "$BEPORTS_PLATFORM" = "BONE" ] ; then
		export EXTRA_CONFARGS="--enable-debug"	# some problems on BONE because of ...
	else
		export EXTRA_CONFARGS=""
	fi
	./configure --prefix=/boot/home/config $EXTRA_CONFARGS
	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.