slint-packaging

name: slint-packaging description: SlackBuild/SLKBUILD maintenance for the Slint slackbuilds repo. Use for converting SlackBuilds to SLKBUILD, updating package versions and checksums, adjusting build steps or deps, cleaning redundant files, enforcing slackdesc line-length rules, and preparing package changes for commit.

Slint Packaging

Overview

Use this skill to standardize Slint package maintenance tasks, especially SlackBuild -> SLKBUILD conversions and version updates.

First-use notes

On first use in a session, explicitly mention:

• convert_slackbuild.py is a best-effort scaffold and requires manual review.
• convert_slackbuild.py --apply now keeps legacy SlackBuild files in place if conversion gates fail; cleanup is only safe after review.
• Current slkbuild behavior around dotnew is subtler than man 5 slkbuild suggests: if dotnew=() is unset, regular files under /etc are auto-added; if dotnew=() is set, you must cover all relevant /etc files yourself.
• bump_version.py updates checksums only when sums arrays exist and sources are URL-based.
• If latest version is uncertain, ask the user to confirm (Arch is usually current).

Workflow

1. Inspect the package directory

• List files and read README, *.info, slack-desc, doinst.sh, patches, and the build script.
• Note upstream URLs, versioning, and any custom steps (git clone, meson, cmake, etc.).
• If a similar package already uses SLKBUILD, use it as a pattern.
• Confirm naming and headers are consistent across the directory name, pkgname, slackdesc, README, and packager header.

2. Decide the task

• Conversion: SlackBuild -> SLKBUILD
• Update: version bump, source checksums, deps, build flags

3. Build and dependency generation defaults

• Prefer fakeroot slkbuild -X for local build+clean validation. Running slkbuild -X as a non-root user fails by design.
• Generate package dependency metadata only from the built package artifact, never from a source directory.
• For conversions that keep the same in-tree version, require validation against the baseline package artifact from the Slint repos after the new package builds.

SlackBuild -> SLKBUILD conversion

• Use scripts/convert_slackbuild.py for a best-effort scaffold, then review.
• Run scripts/check_conversion_gates.py <pkgdir> before treating the conversion as finished. Add --shellcheck when you changed bash logic.
• If the package already exists in-tree, keep the current in-tree version when converting (do not bump to a newer upstream/Arch version unless the user explicitly asks for an update).
• Preserve the build logic exactly (configure/meson flags, install steps, docs).
• Fold simple source-tree documentation installs into docs=() when the old SlackBuild just copies or finds static doc files into /usr/doc or /usr/share/doc; keep manual build logic for generated docs or subdir layouts that docs=() would not preserve.
• Fold the stock package-tree ELF stripping stanza into slkbuild's default strip pass when the old SlackBuild just does a generic find ... | file | grep ELF | xargs strip --strip-unneeded over $PKG; keep custom/narrow strip logic in build() and add options=("nostrip") manually when a package must not be stripped.
• Drop redundant CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" wrappers and export CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS" lines during conversion, because slkbuild already exports those defaults. Keep explicit --libdir, LIB_SUFFIX, and similar build-system arguments when the upstream build needs them; slkbuild provides LIBDIRSUFFIX, but it does not infer install-path flags for you.
• Inline slack-desc into slackdesc=(...) and keep the handy ruler line.
• Inline doinst.sh into doinst().
• Prefer dotnew=() for config files and keep doinst() only for non-dotnew post-install behavior.
• When converting old doinst.sh config handling:
  • move common config etc/foo.new or dotnew etc/foo cases into dotnew=().
  • if you set dotnew=(), include every relevant regular file shipped under /etc, because current slkbuild only auto-discovers /etc files when dotnew=() is completely unset.
• Do not create placeholder dependency metadata during conversion.
  • Dependency metadata must be generated after building the package, from the produced package artifact (*.txz/*.t?z) using depfinder.
  • Keep the generated package-style dep filename: <pkgname>-<pkgver>-<arch>-<pkgrel>.dep.
  • Python packages: use depfinder -p -f -3 <package>.txz. Due to a depfinder option parsing bug, keep -3 as the final option.
  • Non-Python packages: use depfinder -f <package>.txz.
  • Do not run depfinder -f . in the package directory; it can emit malformed output filenames (for example ..dep).
  • Treat detected python2 dependencies as potentially valid in this repo. Some packages still legitimately depend on Python 2, so do not auto-rewrite python2 deps to python3 without package-specific verification.
  • .dep content is comma-separated with no spaces.
• For restricted/containerized environments, avoid adding unshare -n in Python wheel bootstrap steps unless explicitly required and verified.
• Keep necessary helper files (patches, scripts, extra data files) and add to source=() when required by the build.
• After the converted package builds, run validation with baseline manifest comparison: bash .codex/skills/slkbuild-validation/scripts/validate_pkg.sh --require-baseline <category>/<pkg>
• The manifest comparison lives in the validation skill, not here. This skill only treats passing baseline validation as part of conversion completion.
• Treat the following as blocking conversion gates until manually resolved:
  • leftover PKGBUILD/APKBUILD markers such as prepare(), package(), pkgdesc=, subpackages=, checksum arrays, validpgpkeys=, or git+https:// source syntax.
  • raw SlackBuild variables and tempdir scaffolding such as $PKGNAM, $VERSION, $CWD, $TMP, or $OUTPUT left in the generated build().
  • references to srcdir, pkgdir, builddir, or startdir.
  • network fetches inside build() such as git clone, curl, or wget.
  • local helper files referenced by the build but missing from source=().
  • partial dotnew=() coverage for packages that install regular files under /etc; explicit dotnew=() disables slkbuild's fallback auto-discovery of /etc files.
• Remove redundant files after conversion only after the gates pass:
  • *.SlackBuild, slack-desc, doinst.sh, and .info when it is no longer used.
• Keep .url, .news, .sha256sum, and similar files unless you are sure they are obsolete.
• If the dotnew behavior is unclear, generate build-<pkgname>.sh from a known-good SLKBUILD and inspect the emitted setup_dotnew()/setup_doinst() blocks. When the manpage and generated behavior disagree, prefer the current /usr/bin/slkbuild implementation.

Updates

• If unsure of the latest version, ask the user to confirm (Arch usually tracks latest).
• Update pkgver, source, and any checksums.
• Use scripts/bump_version.py when possible to update pkgver and sums.
• Sync docs=() with what the build installs.
• If runtime dependencies change, rebuild and regenerate the package .dep from the produced package artifact with depfinder in the same commit.
• Preserve existing build flags unless the update requires changes.
• For linux-firmware based packages in this repo, preserve the paired date/commit versioning (<date>_<commit>) used by Slint and verify the checkout/tag resolves to the expected commit before packaging.

Kernel and firmware conventions in this repo

• Keep a/kernel-firmware in a/; do not move it to k/ unless explicitly requested.
• Keep AMD microcode authoritative in k/amd-microcode; avoid duplicate AMD microcode package generation in a/kernel-firmware.
• Treat kernel outputs as split packages: k/kernel, k/kernel-headers, k/kernel-source, and k/modules-installer.
• Keep k/modules-installer tied to built kernel artifacts (explicit KERNEL_PKG override or deterministic local detection), not legacy ../../packages assumptions.
• For k/dkms (3.3.x+), keep legacy helper scripts in /usr/lib/dkms/ (dkms_autoinstaller, common.postinst) for existing Slint/Slackware-style local hook compatibility.
• Runtime kernel upgrade flow in this repo is dracut-based: wrappers use dracut --no-early-microcode then update-grub. If installing kernels with plain upgradepkg, run those steps manually.

Debugging build failures

• Always preserve generated build scripts before reruns (build-<pkg>.sh).
• When set -e is active, verify failing function return status, not only stderr output.
• Inspect slkbuild-generated helper functions (gzip_man_and_info_pages, post-checks, create_package) early when build() seems to pass.
• Start diagnostics narrowly in the suspected block; widen only if the first pass is inconclusive.
• Keep diagnostics reversible and remove them in a dedicated cleanup commit after success.
• If a generated tail uses test-and-and patterns (for example [ -a file ] && rm file) under set -e, account for non-zero test returns so successful builds do not abort.

Quality checks

• slackdesc lines should be <= 70 chars (URLs can be longer if needed).
• slackdesc should be <= 10 lines.
• bash -n SLKBUILD must pass before attempting build validation.
• Converted SLKBUILDs should start with either #!/bin/bash or a # shellcheck shell=bash ... directive so shell tooling treats them as bash.
• For converted/updated packages, ensure dependency metadata comes from depfinder run on the built package artifact and is saved as the generated package-style .dep filename (<pkgfull>.dep).
• For same-version conversions, baseline manifest validation against the original Slint package should pass, with only allowlisted additions such as usr/src/<pkg>-<ver>/....
• Placeholder dependency files named <pkgname>.dep are a sign of an incomplete conversion unless that exact filename was generated from the built package artifact for repo-specific reasons.
• In SLKBUILD, use plain URL sources (for example https://...). Do not use Arch-style git+https://... source syntax. Tag-based git sources are fine as plain URLs, for example https://example.org/repo.git#tag=v1.2.3.
• Prefer simple, explicit source=() URLs over bash substring expansion expressions such as ${name::1} inside source; some slkbuild -X generations can mis-handle those and produce bad cd paths.
• If you edit a bash script, run shellcheck and fix reported issues.

Resources

scripts/

• check_slackdesc_len.py: Validate slackdesc line length and line count.
• check_conversion_gates.py: Check converted package dirs for leftover foreign packaging markers, legacy files, placeholder deps, and bash -n failures.
• convert_slackbuild.py: Best-effort SlackBuild -> SLKBUILD scaffold.
• bump_version.py: Update pkgver and refresh checksums if present.
• sync_dep_files.py: Legacy helper for <pkgname>.dep from depends=(); do not use for package dependency metadata in this repo workflow.

manpages

• man 5 slkbuild: documentation of the slkbuild format.
• man 8 slkbuild: documentation for the slkbuild utility itself
• man 1 depfinder: documentation of depfinder