Using custom ebuilds with Gentoo

Using custom ebuilds with Gentoo LinuxReviews.org

How to make and use your own ebuilds with Gentoo Linux

How to use custom ebuilds
How to make your own ebuilds
Using downloaded ebuilds
Where to look for ebuilds
Updating ebuilds to new versions

1. How to use custom ebuilds

Make a folder where you will store your own ebuilds

  mkdir -p /usr/local/portage

and set that folder in /etc/make.conf:

  PORTDIR_OVERLAY=/usr/local/portage

The folder structure in your overlay folder should be the same as found in /usr/portage.

Use the output from emerge -s package or emerge -pv package to find its catagory and name. These reflect actual folders in /usr/portage. The ebuild for sys-apps/portage is found in /usr/portage/sys-apps/portage.

In what folder you place your own ebuilds is up to you, but it needs to fit one of the portage package catagories. An ebuild for a new IM program should be placed in /usr/local/portage/net-im/newprogram/.

All patches ebuilds use should be placed in a folder files/ where the ebuild is placed.

The ebuild needs to have a Manifest, a digital signature, for the source files used. These can be made with the command ebuild:

  ebuild myebuild-0.1.1.ebuild digest

Once the ebuild is is place and the digital signature is made it can be emerged as usual:

  emerge myebuild

2. How to make your own ebuilds

Take a look at the sample skeleton ebuild file founds on all Gentoo systems.

   less /usr/portage/skel.ebuild

With very little editing you can use this file to make your own ebuilds.

Common Ebuild Writing Mistakes - Ebuild Guidelines http://dev.gentoo.org/~liquidx/ebuildmistakes.html
Gentoo Linux Developers HOWTO http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-howto.xml
Gentoo Linux Development Policy http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/policy.xml
Contributing Ebuilds http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/ebuild-submit.xml

3. Using downloaded ebuilds

If you download a plain .ebuild file, then copy the file to an appropiate folder in your portage overlay tree and make a digest for it:

mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/app-text/txt2tags
cd /usr/local/portage/app-text/txt2tags
cp /home/you/txt2tags-1.7.ebuild .
ebuild txt2tags-1.7.ebuild digest

Builds from BreakMyGentoo and others come has archives with a Manifest and digest included. Simply extract these files to /usr/local/portage/ and emerge them as usual:

wget http://ebuilds.net/gdesklets-core-0.24.1-rc1.tar.gz
tar xfvz gdesklets-core-0.24.1-rc1.tar.gz -C /usr/local/portage/

4. Where to look for ebuilds

BreakMyGentoo http://www.breakmygentoo.net/
Gentoo-Portage.com http://gentoo-portage.com/
Latest Portage Additions http://packages.gentoo.org

5. Updating ebuilds to new versions

If you want to make an ebuild for a new release for slurm, you could:

mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/net-analyzer/slurm
cd /usr/local/portage/net-analyzer/slurm
cp -r /usr/portage/net-analyzer/slurm ..

Then rename the latest ebuild in portage to your new version

mv slurm-0.2.3.ebuild slurm-0.3.2.ebuild

and use that as the basis for your new ebuild. You could also add -rN to your ebuild to indicate it is a modified version of some ebuild: slurm-0.3.2.ebuild.ebuild becomes slurm-0.3.2.ebuild-r1.ebuild.

Now download the source and make a digital signature:

  ebuild slurm-0.3.2.ebuild digest

Now your new ebuild should be available when you do

  emerge slurm

Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Øyvind Sæther. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

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Using custom ebuilds with Gentoo