Directory structure

A repository is defined by a file://, http:// or ftp:// resource locator that points to a directory. This directory contains at least a file named Repository.gz (details below), wich is a general description of the repository. Package files (with .tgz extension) are located in a subdirectory named All. Every other subdirectory contains excusively symbolic links to these packages, and a file named Files.list.gz (described below), which give details about the available packages.

A repository contains binary packages for one given operating system, version, architechture combination, e.g. SunOS-5.8/sparc. If a repository is available from a server, the URL of the All directories should be:

<protocol>://<server>/<root>/<system>-<revision>/<arch>/

where <system> is given by the uname -s command, <revision> by uname -r, and <arch> by uname -p. These three fields correspond to the OPSYS, OS_VERSION and MACHINE_ARCH pkgsrc Makefile variables. Examples:

ftp://ftp.foo.com/bar/SunOS-5.8/sparc/
file://localhost/usr/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD-1.5.3/i386/

File syntax

These files share common properties: they are gzip-compressed ascii files, which are described by the following bnf grammar (in the spirit of Windows' .ini configuration files):

file    ::=     section*
section ::=     ignored* header (entry | ignored)*
header  ::=     <open> <alnum>+ <close> <lf>
ignored ::=     (comment | <space>*) <lf>
comment ::=     <comment> <char>*
entry   ::=     key <space>* <is> <space>* value
key     ::=     <alnum>+
value   ::=     (<alnum> | <space>)*

<open>      '['
<close>     ']'
<comment>   ';' or '#'
<char>      any printable ASCII character
<alnum>     letter, digit, dot, dash or underscore
<is>        ':' or '='
<lf>        the ASCII linefeed character
<space>     ASCII space or tab character

The semantics are fairly simple:

• section names are unique within a file;
• keys are unique within a section.