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ArchLinux PKGBUILD script generator                 (c) 2007 by Itzchak Rehberg
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$Id: spec2arch.txt 90 2008-06-30 18:39:12Z izzy $
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Create PKGBUILD files from RPM SPEC files
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Contents
--------

1) Copyright and warranty
2) Requirements
3) Limitations
4) What is spec2arch, and what does it do?
5) Installation
6) Usage
7) Additional information

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1) Copyright and Warranty
-------------------------

This little program is (c)opyrighted by Andreas Itzchak Rehberg
(devel@izzysoft.de) and protected by the GNU Public License Version 2 (GPL).
For details on the License see the file LICENSE in this directory. The
contents of this archive may only be distributed all together.

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2) Requirements
---------------

For a stand-alone use of this script, there are no special requirements:
Everything needed should be part of the systems essential packages. To be sure
it's all there: You will need Bash, sed, awk.

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3) Limitations
---------------

We cannot and do not guarantee the resulting PKGBUILD files will be working or
even perfect, and 100% fulfilling all specifications as given by the ArchLinux
documentation. Hell, we can't even say they will be useful at all :) Honestly:
With too complex .spec files, spec2arch will certainly fail. With easy ones, it
may even work out of the box. And in between it's up to you to tweak the config
to let the script do what you want - and from time to time you have to "finalize"
the results manually. But at least a bunch of work the script will do for you
automatically, and provide you a good starting point.

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4) What is spec2arch, and what does it do?
------------------------------------------

pkgmake is just a simple shell script to generate ArchLinux PKGBUILD scripts
from RPM *.spec files. It will extract the information from there, and re-order
it, so it (rawly) matches the specifications. At the end of the process, it
usually calls the editor to let you refine the results.

So after all, it should ease you the process of creating a PKGBUILD file for
software not yet contained in the ArchLinux repositories.

Its target is to be simple to use, and save the developer from the need to
study all the details and specifications concerning the package management
with RPM and makepkg. However, some basic knowledge of the latter will still
be required to create working PKGBUILD files.

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5) Installation and configuration
---------------------------------

If you are running an RPM or Debian system, spec2arch is installed with the
pkgmake package. On ArchLinux, it will also be part of the pkgtools by
Daenyth <Daenyth+Arch AT gmail DOT com> (see
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=17941), who contributed a big deal
to make this script working (without him, it would not be there - at least
not yet).

If you have neither of those available, you may download and unpack the latest
tarball of pkgmake, and either run "make install" (read install.txt first):
Check the path specifications at the top of the Makefile (they should be fine
for Ubuntu and most likely other Debian derivates), and finally simply run
"sudo make install" (see doc/install.txt for more details on this way of
[un]installation).

Alternatively, put the spec2arch executable somewhere in your path, create
a directory $HOME/.pkgmake and copy the spec2arch.conf there. Optionally
copy the man pages to where they belong - they might be helpful for you.

Finally edit the settings in the spec2arch.conf file to reflect your
configuration. You can also put a system wide config in /etc/pkgmake/spec2arch.conf
Spec2arch reads the configuration in the order internal - /etc/pkgmake/ -
./.pkgmake/ - each time overwriting the old settings with the new definitions
(if any).

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6) Usage
--------

For a quick start: Simply run spec2arch without parameters to see its syntax
plus some examples of its usage. Usually, this should provide you with enough
information to get started. However, some hints may be needed and useful -
and they are to be found in the man pages:

After successfully installing the package, more information can be found
calling "man spec2arch" and "man spec2arch.conf".

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7) Additional Information
-------------------------

To get more detailed information on the syntax of command line parameters,
please refer to the manpage of spec2arch(8). For the config file, there is a
manpage available for spec2arch.conf(5).

For information on the development as well as availability of new versions, you
may want to visit the authors website, more precisely:
  http://www.izzysoft.de/?topic=software
or the project site:
  http://projects.izzysoft.de/trac/pkgmake
or the project page on Freshmeat:
  http://freshmeat.net/projects/pkgmake
On the first mentioned page, you will also find more information about other
programs written by the author - as you will on Freshmeat when visiting
  http://freshmeat.net/~izzysoft/
