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Haiku Package File Format

Contents

This document specifies the Haiku Package (HPKG) file format, which was designed for efficient use by Haiku’s package file system. It is somewhat inspired by the

XAR format

(separate TOC and data heap), but aims for greater compactness (no XML for the TOC).

Three stacked format layers can be identified:

The Data Container Format

A HPKG file consists of four sections:

HeaderIdentifies the file as HPKG file and provides access to the other sections.

HeapContains arbitrary (mostly unstructured) data referenced by the next two sections.

TOC (table of contents)The main section, containing structured data with references to unstructured data in the heap section.

Package AttributesA section similar to the TOC. Rather than describing the data contained in the file, it specifies meta data of the package as a whole.

The TOC and Package Attributes sections aren’t really separate sections, as they are stored at the end of the heap.

All numbers in the HPKG are stored in big endian format or

LEB128

encoding.

Header

The header has the following structure:

struct hpkg_header {
      uint32  magic;
      uint16  header_size;
      uint16  version;
      uint64  total_size;
      uint16  minor_version;

      uint16  heap_compression;
      uint32  heap_chunk_size;
      uint64  heap_size_compressed;
      uint64  heap_size_uncompressed;

      uint32  attributes_length;
      uint32  attributes_strings_length;
      uint32  attributes_strings_count;
      uint32  reserved1;

      uint64  toc_length;
      uint64  toc_strings_length;
      uint64  toc_strings_count;
};

magicThe string ‘hpkg’ (B_HPKG_MAGIC).

header_sizeThe size of the header. This is also the absolute offset of the heap.

versionThe version of the HPKG format the file conforms to. The current version is 2 (B_HPKG_VERSION).

total_sizeThe total file size.

minor_versionThe minor version of the HPKG format the file conforms to. The current minor version is 1 (B_HPKG_MINOR_VERSION). Additions of new attributes to the attributes or TOC sections should generally only increment the minor version. When a file with a greater minor version is encountered, the reader should ignore unknown attributes.

heap_compressionCompression format used for the heap.

heap_chunk_sizeThe size of the chunks the uncompressed heap data are divided into.

heap_size_compressedThe compressed size of the heap. This includes all administrative data (the chunk size array).

heap_size_uncompressedThe uncompressed size of the heap. This is only the size of the raw data (including the TOC and attributes section), not including administrative data (the chunk size array).

attributes_lengthThe uncompressed size of the package attributes section.

attributes_strings_lengthThe size of the strings subsection of the package attributes section.

attributes_strings_countThe number of entries in the strings subsection of the package attributes section.

reserved1Reserved for later use.

toc_lengthThe uncompressed size of the TOC section.

toc_strings_lengthThe size of the strings subsection of the TOC section.

toc_strings_countThe number of entries in the strings subsection of the TOC section.

Heap

The heap provides storage for arbitrary data. Data from various sources are concatenated without padding or separator, forming the uncompressed heap. A specific section of data is usually referenced (e.g. in the TOC and attributes sections) by an offset and the number of bytes. These references always point into the uncompressed heap, even if the heap is actually stored in a compressed format. The "heap_compression" field in the header specifies which format is used. The following values are defined:

+---+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| 0 | B_HPKG_COMPRESSION_NONE | no compression          |
+---+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| 1 | B_HPKG_COMPRESSION_ZLIB | zlib (LZ77) compression |
+---+-------------------------+-------------------------+

The uncompressed heap data are divided into equally sized chunks (64 KiB). The last chunk in the heap may have a different uncompressed length from the preceding chunks. The uncompressed length of the last chunk can be derived. Each individual chunk may be stored compressed or not.

Unless B_HPKG_COMPRESSION_NONE is specified, a uint16 array at the end of the heap contains the actual in-file (compressed) size of each chunk (minus 1 – 0 means 1 byte), save for the last one, which is omitted since it is implied. A chunk is only stored compressed, if compression actually saves space. That is if the chunk’s compressed size equals its uncompressed size, the data aren’t compressed. If B_HPKG_COMPRESSION_NONE is specified, the chunk size table is omitted entirely.

The TOC and the package attributes sections are stored (in this order) at the end of the uncompressed heap. The offset of the package attributes section data is therefore "heap_size_uncompressed - attributes_length" and the offset of the TOC section data "heap_size_uncompressed - attributes_length - toc_length".

TOC

The TOC section contains a list of attribute trees. An attribute has an ID, a data type, and a value, and can have child attributes. E.g.:

The main TOC section refers to any attribute by its unique ID (see below) and stores the attribute’s value, either as a reference into the heap or as inline data.

An optimization exists for shared string attribute values. A string value used by more than one attribute is stored in the strings subsection and is referenced by an index.

Hence the TOC section consists of two subsections:

StringsA table of commonly used strings.

Main TOCThe attribute trees.

Attribute Data Types

These are the specified data type values for attributes:

+---+-------------------------------+-------------------+
| 0 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE_INVALID | invalid           |
+---+-------------------------------+-------------------+
| 1 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE_INT     | signed integer    |
+---+-------------------------------+-------------------+
| 2 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE_UINT    | unsigned integer  |
+---+-------------------------------+-------------------+
| 3 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE_STRING  | UTF-8 string      |
+---+-------------------------------+-------------------+
| 4 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE_RAW     | raw data          |
+---+-------------------------------+-------------------+

Strings

The strings subsections consists of a list of null-terminated UTF-8 strings. The section itself is terminated by a 0 byte.

Each string is implicitly assigned the (null-based) index at which it appears in the list, i.e. the nth string has the index n - 1. The string is referenced by this index in the main TOC subsection.

Main TOC

The main TOC subsection consists of a list of attribute entries terminated by a 0 byte. An attribute entry is stored as:

Attribute tagAn unsigned LEB128 encoded number.

Attribute valueThe value of the attribute encoded as described below.

Attribute child listOnly if this attribute is marked to have children: A list of attribute entries terminated by a 0 byte.

The attribute tag encodes four pieces of information:

(encoding << 11) + (hasChildren << 10) + (dataType << 7) + id + 1

encodingSpecifies the encoding of the attribute value as described below.

hasChildren1, if the attribute has children, 0 otherwise.

dataTypeThe data type of the attribute (B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE_…).

idThe ID of the attribute (B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_…).

Attribute Values

A value of each of the data types can be encoded in different ways, which is defined by the encoding value:

+---+--------------------------------------+--------------+
| 0 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING_INT_8_BIT  | int8/uint8   |
+---+--------------------------------------+--------------+
| 1 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING_INT_16_BIT | int16/uint16 |
+---+--------------------------------------+--------------+
| 2 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING_INT_32_BIT | int32/uint32 |
+---+--------------------------------------+--------------+
| 3 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING_INT_64_BIT | int64/uint64 |
+---+--------------------------------------+--------------+

+---+-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| 0 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING_STRING_INLINE | null-terminated UTF-8 string       |
+---+-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| 1 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING_STRING_TABLE  | unsigned LEB128: index into string |
|   |                                         | table                              |
+---+-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+

+---+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| 0 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING_RAW_INLINE | unsigned LEB128: size; followed by raw  |
|   |                                      | bytes                                   |
+---+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| 1 | B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING_RAW_HEAP   | unsigned LEB128: size; unsigned LEB128: |
|   |                                      | offset into the uncompressed heap       |
+---+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+

Package Attributes

The package attributes section contains a list of attribute trees, just like the TOC section. The structure of this section follows the TOC, i.e. there’s a subsection for shared strings and a subsection that stores a list of attribute entries terminated by a 0 byte. An entry has the same format as the ones in the TOC (only using different attribute IDs).

The Archive Format

This section specifies how file system objects (files, directories, symlinks) are stored in a HPKG file. It builds on top of the container format, defining the types of attributes, their order, and allowed values.

E.g. a “bin” directory, containing a symlink and a file:

bin           0  2009-11-13 12:12:09  drwxr-xr-x
  awk         0  2009-11-13 12:11:16  lrwxrwxrwx  -> gawk
  gawk   301699  2009-11-13 12:11:16  -rwxr-xr-x

could be represented by this attribute tree:

Attribute IDs

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_DIRECTORY_ENTRY (“dir:entry”):Type:

string

:Value:

File name of the entry.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid file (not path!) name, save “.” and “..”.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_TYPE (“file:type”):Type:

uint

:Value:

Type of the entry.

:Allowed Values:

+---+----------------------------+-----------+
| 0 | B_HPKG_FILE_TYPE_FILE      | file      |
+---+----------------------------+-----------+
| 1 | B_HPKG_FILE_TYPE_DIRECTORY | directory |
+---+----------------------------+-----------+
| 2 | B_HPKG_FILE_TYPE_SYMLINK   | symlink   |
+---+----------------------------+-----------+

:Default Value:

B_HPKG_FILE_TYPE_FILE

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_PERMISSIONS (“file:permissions”):Type:

uint

:Value:

File permissions.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid permission mask.

:Default Value:

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_USER (“file:user”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of the user owning the file.

:Allowed Values:

Any non-empty string.

:Default Value:

The user owning the installation location where the package is activated.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_GROUP (“file:group”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of the group owning the file.

:Allowed Values:

Any non-empty string.

:Default Value:

The group owning the installation location where the package is activated.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_ATIME (“file:atime”):Type:

uint

:Value:

File access time (seconds since the Epoch).

:Allowed Values:

Any value.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_ATIME_NANOS (“file:mtime:nanos”):Type:

uint

:Value:

The nano seconds fraction of the file access time.

:Allowed Values:

Any value in [0, 999999999].

:Default Value:

0

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_MTIME (“file:mtime”):Type:

uint

:Value:

File modified time (seconds since the Epoch).

:Allowed Values:

Any value.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_MTIME_NANOS (“file:mtime:nanos”):Type:

uint

:Value:

The nano seconds fraction of the file modified time.

:Allowed Values:

Any value in [0, 999999999].

:Default Value:

0

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_CRTIME (“file:crtime”):Type:

uint

:Value:

File creation time (seconds since the Epoch).

:Allowed Values:

Any value.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_CRTIM_NANOS (“file:crtime:nanos”):Type:

uint

:Value:

The nano seconds fraction of the file creation time.

:Allowed Values:

Any value in [0, 999999999].

:Default Value:

0

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_ATTRIBUTE (“file:attribute”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of the extended file attribute.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid attribute name.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE (“file:attribute:type”):Type:

uint

:Value:

Type of the file attribute.

:Allowed Values:

Any value in [0, 0xffffffff].

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_DATA (“data”):Type:

data

:Value:

Raw data of a file or attribute.

:Allowed Values:

Any value.

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_SYMLINK_PATH (“symlink:path”):Type:

string

:Value:

The path the symlink refers to.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid symlink path.

:Default Value:

Empty string.

:Child Attributes:

none

TOC Attributes

The TOC can directly contain any number of attributes of the B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_DIRECTORY_ENTRY type, which in turn contain descendant attributes as specified in the previous section. Any other attributes are ignored.

The Package Format

This section specifies how informative package attributes (package-name, version, provides, requires, …) are stored in a HPKG file. It builds on top of the container format, defining the types of attributes, their order, and allowed values.

E.g. a “.PackageInfo” file, containing a package description that is being converted into a package file:

name          mypackage
version       0.7.2-1
architecture  x86
summary       "is a very nice package"
description   "has lots of cool features\nand is written in MyC++"
vendor        "Me, Myself & I, Inc."
packager      "me@test.com"
copyrights    { "(C) 2009-2011, Me, Myself & I, Inc." }
licenses      { "Me, Myself & I Commercial License"; "MIT" }
provides {
      cmd:me
      lib:libmyself = 0.7
}
requires {
      haiku >= r1
      wget
}

could be represented by this attribute tree:

me@test.com

”

Attribute IDs

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_NAME (“package:name”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of the package.

:Allowed Values:

Any string matching <entity_name_char>+, with <entity_name_char> being any character but ‘-’, ‘/’, ‘=’, ‘!’, ‘<’, ‘>’, or whitespace.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_SUMMARY (“package:summary”):Type:

string

:Value:

Short description of the package.

:Allowed Values:

Any single-lined string.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION (“package:description”):Type:

string

:Value:

Long description of the package.

:Allowed Values:

Any string (may contain multiple lines).

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_VENDOR (“package:vendor”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of the person/organization that is publishing this package.

:Allowed Values:

Any single-lined string.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_PACKAGER (“package:packager”):Type:

string

:Value:

E-Mail address of person that created this package.

:Allowed Values:

Any single-lined string, but e-mail preferred.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_BASE_PACKAGE (“package:base-package”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of the package that is the base package for this package. The base package must also be listed as a requirement for this package (cf. B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_REQUIRES). The package manager shall ensure that this package is installed in the same installation location as its base package.

:Allowed Values:

Valid package names.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_FLAGS (“package:flags”):Type:

uint

:Value:

Set of boolean flags applying to package.

:Allowed Values:

Any combination of the following.

+---+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| 1 | B_PACKAGE_FLAG_APPROVE_LICENSE | this package’s license requires approval   |
|   |                                | (i.e. must be shown to and acknowledged by |
|   |                                | user before installation)                  |
+---+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| 2 | B_PACKAGE_FLAG_SYSTEM_PACKAGE  | this is a system package (i.e. lives under |
|   |                                | /boot/system)                              |
+---+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+

:Default Value:

0

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE (“package:architecture”):Type:

uint

:Value:

System architecture this package was built for.

:Allowed Values:

+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 0 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_ANY      | this package doesn’t depend on the system |
|   |                                 | architecture                              |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 1 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_X86      | x86, 32-bit, built with gcc4              |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 2 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_X86_GCC2 | x86, 32-bit, built with gcc2              |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 3 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_SOURCE   | source code, doesn’t depend on the system |
|   |                                 | architecture                              |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 4 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_X86_64   | x86-64                                    |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 5 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_PPC      | PowerPC                                   |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 6 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_ARM      | ARM                                       |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 7 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_M68K     | m68k                                      |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| 8 | B_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE_SPARC    | sparc                                     |
+---+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR (“package:version.major”):Type:

string :Value: Major (first) part of package version. :Allowed Values: Any single-lined string, composed of <alphanum_underline> :Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR (“package:version.minor”):Type:

string

:Value:

Minor (second) part of package version.

:Allowed Values:

Any single-lined string, composed of <alphanum_underline>.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_VERSION_MICRO (“package:version.micro”):Type:

string

:Value:

Micro (third) part of package version.

:Allowed Values:

Any single-lined string, composed of <alphanum_underline_dot>.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_VERSION_PRE_RELEASE (“package:version.prerelease”):Type:

string

:Value:

Pre-release (fourth) part of package version. Typically something like “alpha1”, “beta2”, “rc3”.

:Allowed Values:

Any single-lined string, composed of <alphanum_underline_dot>.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_VERSION_REVISION (“package:version.revision”):Type:

uint

:Value:

Revision (fifth) part of package version.

:Allowed Values:

Any integer greater than 0.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_COPYRIGHT (“package:copyright”):Type:

string

:Value:

Copyright applying to the software contained in this package.

:Allowed Values:

Any (preferably single-lined) string.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_LICENSE (“package:license”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of license applying to the software contained in this package.

:Allowed Values:

Any single-lined string.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_URL (“package:url”):Type:

string

:Value:

URL of the packaged software’s project home page.

:Allowed Values:

A regular URL or an email-like named URL (e.g. “Project Foo <

http://foo.example.com

”).

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_SOURCE_URL (“package:source-url”):Type:

string

:Value:

URL of the packaged software’s source code or build instructions.

:Allowed Values:

A regular URL or an email-like named URL (e.g. “Project Foo <

http://foo.example.com

”).

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_PROVIDES (“package:provides”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of a (optionally typed) entity that is being provided by this package.

:Allowed Values:

Any string matching <entity_name_char>+.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_PROVIDES_COMPATIBLE (“package:provides.compatible”):Type:

string

:Value:

Major (first) part of the resolvable compatible version, structurally identical to B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR.

:Allowed Values:

Any string matching <entity_name_char>+.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_REQUIRES (“package:requires”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of an entity that is required by this package (and hopefully being provided by another).

:Allowed Values:

Any string matching <entity_name_char>+.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_RESOLVABLE_OPERATOR (“package:resolvable.operator”):Type:

uint

:Value:

Comparison operator for versions.

:Allowed Values:

+---+---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| 0 | B_PACKAGE_RESOLVABLE_OP_LESS          | less than the specified version     |
+---+---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| 1 | B_PACKAGE_RESOLVABLE_OP_LESS_EQUAL    | less than or equal to the specified |
|   |                                       | version                             |
+---+---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| 2 | B_PACKAGE_RESOLVABLE_OP_EQUAL         | equal to the specified version      |
+---+---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| 3 | B_PACKAGE_RESOLVABLE_OP_NOT_EQUAL     | not equal to the specified version  |
+---+---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| 4 | B_PACKAGE_RESOLVABLE_OP_GREATER_EQUAL | greater than the specified version  |
+---+---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| 5 | B_PACKAGE_RESOLVABLE_OP_GREATER       | greater than or equal to the        |
|   |                                       | specified version                   |
+---+---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_SUPPLEMENTS (“package:supplements”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of an entity that is supplemented by this package (i.e. this package will automatically be selected for installation if the supplemented resolvables are already installed).

:Allowed Values:

Any string matching <entity_name_char>+.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_CONFLICTS (“package:conflicts”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of an entity that this package conflicts with (i.e. only one of both can be installed at any time).

:Allowed Values:

Any string matching <entity_name_char>+.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_FRESHENS (“package:freshens”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of an entity that is being freshened by this package (i.e. this package will patch one or more files of the package that provide this resolvable).

:Allowed Values:

Any string matching <entity_name_char>+.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_REPLACES (“package:replaces”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of an entity that is being replaced by this package (used if the name of a package changes, or if a package has been split).

:Allowed Values:

Any string matching <entity_name_char>+.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_CHECKSUM (“package:checksum”):Type:

string

:Value:

SHA256-chechsum of this package, in hexdump format. N.B.: this attribute can only be found in package repository files, not in package files.

:Allowed Values:

64-bytes of hexdump.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_GLOBAL_WRITABLE_FILE (“package:global-writable-file”):Type:

string

:Value:

Relative path of a global writable file either included in the package or created by the included software. If the file is included in the package, it will be installed upon activation. In this case the attribute must contain a B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_WRITABLE_FILE_UPDATE_TYPE child attribute. The file may actually be a directory, which is indicated by the B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_IS_WRITABLE_DIRECTORY child attribute.

:Allowed Values:

Installation location relative path (e.g. “settings/…”).

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_USER_SETTINGS_FILE (“package:user-settings-file”):Type:

string

:Value:

Relative path of a user settings file created by the included software or required by the software to be created by the user. The file may actually be a directory, which is indicated by the B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_IS_WRITABLE_DIRECTORY child attribute.

:Allowed Values:

Installation location relative path (i.e. “settings/…”).

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_WRITABLE_FILE_UPDATE_TYPE (“package:writable-file-update-type”):Type:

uint

:Value:

Specifies what to do on package update when the writable file provided by the package has been changed by the user.

:Allowed Values:

+---+----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| 0 | B_WRITABLE_FILE_UPDATE_TYPE_KEEP_OLD   | the old file shall be kept         |
+---+----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| 1 | B_WRITABLE_FILE_UPDATE_TYPE_MANUAL     | the old file needs to be updated   |
|   |                                        | manually                           |
+---+----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| 2 | B_WRITABLE_FILE_UPDATE_TYPE_AUTO_MERGE | an automatic three-way merge shall |
|   |                                        | be attempted                       |
+---+----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_IS_WRITABLE_DIRECTORY (“package:is-writable-directory”):Type:

uint

:Value:

Specifies whether the parent global writable file or user settings file attribute actually refers to a directory.

:Allowed Values:

+---+---------------------------------------------+
| 0 | The parent attribute refers to a file.      |
+---+---------------------------------------------+
| 1 | The parent attribute refers to a directory. |
+---+---------------------------------------------+

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_SETTINGS_FILE_TEMPLATE (“package:settings-file-template”):Type:

string

:Value:

Relative path of an included template file for the user settings file.

:Allowed Values:

Installation location relative path of a file included in the package.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_USER (“package:user”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of a user required by the package. Upon package activation the user will be created, if necessary.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid user name, i.e. must be non-empty composed of <alphanum_underline>.

:Child Attributes:

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_USER_REAL_NAME (“package:user.real-name”):Type:

string

:Value:

The real name of the user.

:Allowed Values:

Any string.

:Default Value:

The user name.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_USER_HOME (“package:user.home”):Type:

string

:Value:

The path to the home directory of the user.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid path.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_USER_SHELL (“package:user.shell”):Type:

string

:Value:

The path to the shell to be used for the user.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid path.

:Default Value:

“/bin/bash”.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_USER_GROUP (“package:user.group”):Type:

string

:Value:

A group the user belongs to. At least one must be specified.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid group name, i.e. must be non-empty composed of <alphanum_underline>.

:Default Value:

The default group for users.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_GROUP (“package:group”):Type:

string

:Value:

Name of a group required by the package. Upon package activation the group will be created, if necessary.

:Allowed Values:

Any valid group name, i.e. must be non-empty composed of <alphanum_underline>.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_POST_INSTALL_SCRIPT (“package:post-install-script”):Type:

string

:Value:

Relative path of a script that shall be executed after package activation.

:Allowed Values:

Installation location relative path of a file included in the package. Must start with “boot/post-install/”, so besides being run after package installation, it also gets run on the first boot after the OS is installed.

:Child Attributes:

none

B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE_PRE_UNINSTALL_SCRIPT (“package:pre-uninstall-script”):Type:

string

:Value:

Relative path of a script that shall be executed before package deactivation.

:Allowed Values:

Installation location relative path of a file included in the package. For consistency, it is recommended to start with “boot/pre-uninstall/”.

:Child Attributes:

none

Haiku Package Repository Format

Very similar to the package format, there’s a Haiku Package Repository (HPKR) file format. Such a file contains informative attributes about the package repository and package attributes for all packages contained in the repository. However, this format does not contain any files.

Two stacked format layers can be identified:

The Data Container Format

A HPKR file consists of three sections:

HeaderIdentifies the file as HPKR file and provides access to the other sections.

HeapContains the next two sections.

Repository InfoA section containing an archived BMessage of a BRepositoryInfo object.

Package AttributesA section just like the package attributes section of the HPKG, only that this section contains the package attributes of all the packages contained in the repository (not just one).

The Repository Info and Package Attributes sections aren’t really separate sections, as they are stored at the end of the heap.

Header

The header has the following structure:

struct hpkg_repo_header {
      uint32  magic;
      uint16  header_size;
      uint16  version;
      uint64  total_size;
      uint16  minor_version;

      // heap
      uint16  heap_compression;
      uint32  heap_chunk_size;
      uint64  heap_size_compressed;
      uint64  heap_size_uncompressed;

      // repository info section
      uint32  info_length;
      uint32  reserved1;

      // package attributes section
      uint64  packages_length;
      uint64  packages_strings_length;
      uint64  packages_strings_count;
};

magicThe string ‘hpkr’ (B_HPKG_REPO_MAGIC).

header_sizeThe size of the header. This is also the absolute offset of the heap.

versionThe version of the HPKR format the file conforms to. The current version is 2 (B_HPKG_REPO_VERSION).

total_sizeThe total file size.

minor_versionThe minor version of the HPKR format the file conforms to. The current minor version is 1 (B_HPKG_REPO_MINOR_VERSION). Additions of new attributes to the attributes section should generally only increment the minor version. When a file with a greater minor version is encountered, the reader should ignore unknown attributes.

heap_compressionCompression format used for the heap.

heap_chunk_sizeThe size of the chunks the uncompressed heap data are divided into.

heap_size_compressedThe compressed size of the heap. This includes all administrative data (the chunk size array).

heap_size_uncompressedThe uncompressed size of the heap. This is only the size of the raw data (including the repository info and attributes section), not including administrative data (the chunk size array).

info_lengthThe uncompressed size of the repository info section.

reserved1Reserved for later use.

packages_lengthThe uncompressed size of the package attributes section.

packages_strings_lengthThe size of the strings subsection of the package attributes section.

packages_strings_countThe number of entries in the strings subsection of the package attributes section.

Attribute IDs

The package repository format defines only the top-level attribute ID B_HPKG_ATTRIBUTE_ID_PACKAGE. An attribute with that ID represents a package. Its child attributes specify the various meta information for the package as defined in the The Package Format/Attribute IDs section.