An example PKGBUILD, useful for reference, is located in /usr/share/pacman along with other example files such as an install script. You can copy the provided PKGBUILD.proto file to a new package build directory and make customizations to suit your needs.

The pkgver variable can be automatically updated by providing a pkgver() function in the PKGBUILD that outputs the new package version. This is run after downloading and extracting the sources and running the prepare() function (if present), so it can use those files in determining the new pkgver. This is most useful when used with sources from version control systems (see below).

Additional architecture-specific sources can be added by appending an underscore and the architecture name e.g., source_x86_64=(). There must be a corresponding integrity array with checksums, e.g. md5sums_x86_64=().

It is also possible to change the name of the downloaded file, which is helpful with weird URLs and for handling multiple source files with the same name. The syntax is: source=('filename::url').

makepkg also supports building developmental versions of packages using sources downloaded from version control systems (VCS). For more information, see Using VCS Sources below.

Files in the source array with extensions .sig, .sign or, .asc are recognized by makepkg as PGP signatures and will be automatically used to verify the integrity of the corresponding source file.

Only full fingerprints are accepted. They must be uppercase and must not contain whitespace characters.

If the dependency name appears to be a library (ends with .so), makepkg will try to find a binary that depends on the library in the built package and append the version needed by the binary. Appending the version yourself disables automatic detection.

Additional architecture-specific depends can be added by appending an underscore and the architecture name e.g., depends_x86_64=().

Additional architecture-specific makedepends can be added by appending an underscore and the architecture name e.g., makedepends_x86_64=().

Additional architecture-specific checkdepends can be added by appending an underscore and the architecture name e.g., checkdepends_x86_64=().

optdepends=('python: for library bindings')

Additional architecture-specific optdepends can be added by appending an underscore and the architecture name e.g., optdepends_x86_64=().

Additional architecture-specific conflicts can be added by appending an underscore and the architecture name e.g., conflicts_x86_64=().

Versioned provisions are also possible, in the name=version format. For example, dcron can provide cron=2.0 to satisfy the cron>=2.0 dependency of other packages. Provisions involving the > and < operators are invalid as only specific versions of a package may be provided.

If the provision name appears to be a library (ends with .so), makepkg will try to find the library in the built package and append the correct version. Appending the version yourself disables automatic detection.

Additional architecture-specific provides can be added by appending an underscore and the architecture name e.g., provides_x86_64=().

Sysupgrade is currently the only pacman operation that utilizes this field. A normal sync or upgrade will not use its value.

Additional architecture-specific replaces can be added by appending an underscore and the architecture name e.g., replaces_x86_64=().

strip

docs

libtool

staticlibs

emptydirs

zipman

ccache

distcc

buildflags

makeflags

debug

If you create any variables of your own in the build() function, it is recommended to use the Bash local keyword to scope the variable to inside the build() function.

All of the packaging functions defined above are run starting inside $srcdir

install=pkgname.install

bzr

git

hg

svn

# Maintainer: Joe User <joe.user@example.com>
pkgname=patch
pkgver=2.7.1
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="A utility to apply patch files to original sources"
arch=('i686' 'x86_64')
url="https://www.gnu.org/software/patch/patch.html"
license=('GPL')
groups=('base-devel')
depends=('glibc')
makedepends=('ed')
optdepends=('ed: for "patch -e" functionality')
source=("ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/$pkgname/$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.xz"{,.sig})
md5sums=('e9ae5393426d3ad783a300a338c09b72'
         'SKIP')
build() {
        cd "$srcdir/$pkgname-$pkgver"
        ./configure --prefix=/usr
        make
}
package() {
        cd "$srcdir/$pkgname-$pkgver"
        make DESTDIR="$pkgdir/" install
}