Package Creation Guidelines

Source files which contain spaces in their name

The string-based syntax which is used for fields such as SRC_URI doesn’t support spaces in names (given that spaces are used to separate tokens). As such, source files which contain spaces should be renamed so that they do not.

For source files that need to be manually downloaded, you should use the same filename, but replace the spaces with underscores. Portmod will automatically rename source files that contain spaces so that they instead contain underscores (note: this is only done if the file’s hash matches the hash of the file it’s looking for, to avoid interrupting in-progress downloads).

E.g. Glow in the Dahrk-45886-2-8-2-1584579862.7z, a file which must be downloaded from NexusMods, should be included in SRC_URI as Glow_in_the_Dahrk-45886-2-8-2-1584579862.7z

Patches go with the Mods they Patch

Rather than patches having their own build files, they should be included with the mod they patch and applied automatically.

In the case of compatibility patches between two mods, they can be included in either of the mods being patched (and should not be included in both). It’s generally beneficial to include the patch with the mod that is loaded last, as makes it easier to describe file overrides (it is possible to have mod A with an install directory that overrides mod B, even if mod B overrides mod A, however this is complicated and is best avoided if possible).

If you want to fix cycles when patching a mod that is loaded afterwards, and still have the patch load last, you need to specify a ``PATCHDIR`` for the ``InstallDir``, in addition to specifying ``DATA_OVERRIDES``, allowing the InstallDir to be treated separately from the other directories in the mod when sorting.

Only include dependencies that are necessary

Dependencies are strictly enforced, so unnecessary dependencies will get in the way of users. If a dependency is not strictly necessary, such as to satisfy the masters in a plugin, or to supply necessary assets, it should not be included. There are currently no plans to support recommended dependencies, but this may be revisited in future.

Source Archives should contain version numbers

Many mods may include source archives which just include the mod name, often updating them without changing that name at all.

So that portmod can track multiple versions simultaneously, and so that one version of the file doesn’t get mistaken for another, you should always include the version in the filename. This also helps better convey the contents of the archive when viewed in isolation (e.g. when looking at your download cache, or the file mirror).

Note that you can use arrow notation to specify the local name of a source archive. E.g. https://foo.com/bar.zip -> bar-1.0.zip.

Naming

Mod Package names should generally be the same as the upstream mod’s name. Package names should also be short and abbreviations can be used where they are appropriate. Do remember that, since portmod is a CLI application, users need to type the name to interact with it, so it might be useful to use abbreviations, or even adjust the name of the package, when mods have names which are extremely long or complicated.

Note that it is also highly recommended that package names use lowercase, non-accented characters, numbers and hyphens only, noting that hyphens should be used where separators are required (e.g. instead of spaces or underscores), and numbers in the name should not be used to signify a version.

E.g. Skies .IV should be skies-4 (i.e. {NAME}-{VERSION}) not skies4 or even skiesiv. It might also be useful to use a more unique name, as skies/skies, to include the category, is not a very descriptive name.

The other supported characters, uppercase characters (A-Z), plus signs (+), and underscores (_) should be avoided and are basically only included due to allow certain unusual package names (e.g. if there was a mod called Textures+, it could be included with the name textures+, or names where capitalization provides necessary context could use capitals).

Also note that while hyphens are used to separate the mod name and version, this trailing component is only considered the version if it is a valid version.

E.g. in the atom foo-1, the name is foo and the version 1, but for foo-v1, the name is foo-v1 and no version is specified, since v1 is not considered a valid version number. The file naming format section of the Gentoo Wiki’s Ebuild File Format page gives a more detailed overview of the version format, and PMS section 3.2 contains the official specification.

Collections

Generally, mods that are simply multiple mods bundled together should only be included as individual packages (a metamod could be created that depends on all of the parts though). If the bundled mod contains new content, then it may be included, if the new content is not available by itself.

Also note that this usually doesn’t apply to mods by the same author which contain multiple related, but otherwise independent parts, particularly if they are distributed together. In general, having fewer packages in the repository is simpler and easier to maintain.

land-flora/ozzy-grass and assets-meshes/rr-better-meshes are good examples for mods which are like collections, but can still be included as a single package (the scopes of each component are closely related, and they are created by the same author or group), while the Morrowind Graphics and Sound Overhaul is a good example of a mod which should not be included, as it collects a variety of mods from different authors and with at times very different styles and scopes.

Scripting

Avoid unnecessary scripts, such as in src_prepare, as they are hard to maintain and hard to process automatically.

Prefer instead to use the functionality of the INSTALL_DIRS array if possible, which has several features for modifying source directories (e.g. BLACKLIST, WHITELIST, RENAME, REQUIRED_USE. Note that multiple InstallDirs can be created for the same directory, with different blacklists/whitelists/REQUIRED_USE, and they are merged, in order, during src_install).

Bundled Dependencies

Bundled dependencies should be de-bundled when possible.

Download Locations

Direct downloads are preferred, as they do not require user intervention to install. If a mod does not have a direct download, but can be redistributed, it can instead be hosted on the Mirror.