Developer Manual

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Python package guidelines#

This document covers standards and guidelines on writing PKGBUILDs for Python software.

Package naming#

For Python 3 library modules, use python-modulename. Also use the prefix if the package provides a program that is strongly coupled to the Python ecosystem (e.g. pip or tox). For other applications, use only the program name.

ℹ️ Note

The package name should be entirely lowercase.

Architecture#

See PKGBUILD#arch.

A Python package that contains C extensions is architecture-dependent. Otherwise it is most likely architecture-independent.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Security package guidelines#

This page describes security packaging guidelines for Arch Linux packages. For C/C++ projects the compiler and linker can apply security hardening options. Arch Linux applies PIE, FORTIFY_SOURCE, stack protector, nx and relro by default.

Usage#

Hardening protections can be reviewed by running checksec.

$ checksec --file=/usr/bin/cat

💡 Tip

Namcap also reports some security issues described on this page.

RELRO#

RELRO is a generic mitigation technique to harden the data sections of an ELF binary/process. When a program is loaded several ELF memory sections need to be written to by the linker but can be turned read-only before turning control over to the program. This prevents attackers of overriding some ELF sections. There are two different RELRO modes:

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

VCS package guidelines#

Version control systems can be used for retrieval of source code for usual statically versioned packages, and the latest (trunk) version of a development branch.

💡 Tip

Use /usr/share/pacman/PKGBUILD-vcs.proto prototype provided by the pacman package.

Package naming#

Suffix pkgname with -bzr, -cvs, -darcs, -git, -hg, -svn, etc., unless the package fetches a specific release.

Versioning#

If the resulting package is different after changing e.g. the dependencies, URL or sources — update pkgver to the latest version. If pkgver has not changed since the last update to the PKGBUILD, increase pkgrel instead.