Sharp Zaurus SL-series > Zaurus development >

A software package format used by various Zaurus distributions, notably:

• Cacko

• pdaXrom

---

Overview ∞

• The collection of *.ipk files in a directory is called a “feed”. This does not include files in a subdirectory.

• There is a “Packages” file in the feed directory. It contains all the knowledge and dependencies for every .ipk file.

In oz [ 1 ] , there are many feeds, each pointing to a different sub directory. One for apps, one for lib etc. That way, if a dependency is needed, ipkg will look through its own internal “mega-list” (for lack of a word). Its own ipk mega-list is comprised of ipk information from the “Packages” file of each feed that is defined and active in /etc/ipkg.conf

eg

(replace unicode ꞉ with ascii :)

src apps file꞉///mnt/cf/feed/apps
src libs file꞉///mnt/cf/feed/libs

In each feed directory, the relevant .ipk files are inside. A single “Packages” file exists for each feed directory. This “Packages” file corresponds to the .ipk files in its single directory.

I think this means:

If arranged properly, a “Packages” file can have a dependency on an ipk file in another directory.

Sharp Zaurus .ipk packaging ∞

• cached, untested: ipkg-build.sh

---

https://web.archive.org/web/20191205065805/http://www.taedium.com:80/zaurus/

\tar  -czf package-version.ipk  \
  ./control.tar.gz  \
  ./data.tar.gz  \
  ./debian-binary

It’s really that simple. I was leaving the leading ./ off and ipkg was dying with a ipkg_install_file: ERROR unpacking control.tar.gz message. Turns out the ipkg shell script looks for ./control.tar.gz exactly.

Using a network feed on a local storage device ∞

2006-06-18:

This fails.. I can’t make it work for network installations. More experimentation is needed.

edit /etc/ipkg.conf

(replace unicode ꞉ with ascii :)

src CompactFlash_feed file꞉///mnt/cf/feed
dest root /
dest tmpinst /home/tmp/ipkg/inst

was:

src Cacko http://cacko.bin/cacko/feed

Cacko ∞

ipkg install is available on the commandline for installing individual packages. However you must resolve your own dependancy issues. Think Slackware‘s original .tgz packaging style.

The package manager will automatically find the feeds on the SD card, when I put the feeds in /feed .. I don’t know how auto-magical this is, and if I can move the packages around or anything.

Use ldd to list all libs used by an app, and whether they are present on the machine or not.

• feed, archive (may not have ever been updated to 1.23)
• feed mirror, archive (updated)

• packaging guidelines, archive

2006-06-17 – 1.23 ∞

The package manager is pretty sad.

• No categories.
• No dependency hints whatsoever.
• Really horrifically slow to start, if you have a lot of packages in a feed.

• Does not list the size of the package(s).

pdaXrom ∞

(pdaXrom)

2006-06-17:

ipkg is available on the commandline for installing individual packages. However you must resolve your own dependency issues. Think Slackware. — I think I am wrong on this.

You can make your own local feed quite easily, but you ought to run ipkg-make-index to make an index for that directory.

• https://web.archive.org/web/20080614061539/http://www.oesf.org:80/index.php?title=Pdaxrom:_Create_An_Ipk_Howto

Footnotes

1. I don’t know what this means [ ↩ ]