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aliases package.5 as packing-list and plist, since this is the entry
point for people looking for packing-list details.

small tweak by tb@ for readability

okay tb@, jca@

.\"	$OpenBSD: package.5,v 1.33 2023/11/29 14:32:01 espie Exp $
.\" Copyright (c) 2005-2006 Marc Espie <espie@openbsd.org>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.Dd $Mdocdate: November 29 2023 $
.Dt PACKAGE 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm package ,
.Nm packing-list ,
.Nm plist
.Nd format for OpenBSD binary packages and packing-lists
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Binary packages for
.Ox
can be created using
.Xr pkg_create 1
and are usually manipulated using
.Xr pkg_add 1 ,
.Xr pkg_mklocatedb 1 ,
or
.Xr pkg_info 1 .
.Pp
The basic underlying format is an archive following the ustar specification
that can be handled with
.Xr tar 1
and compressed using
.Xr gzip 1 .
.Pp
Package names always end in
.Dq .tgz ;
the file name itself should conform to
.Xr packages-specs 7 .
.Pp
Note that the base distribution tarballs of
.Ox
(e.g.\&
.Pa baseXX.tgz ,
.Pa compXX.tgz ,
\&...) are not binary packages fit for
.Xr pkg_add 1 .
.Pp
All types of archive contents can be present in a package,
including files, directories, hardlinks, symlinks, fifos, block and character
devices.
.Pp
In order to allow just-in-time extraction,
packages always begin with a table of contents, named
.Pa +CONTENTS ,
nicknamed
.Nm packing-list
.Po
.Nm plist
for short
.Pc .
This table of contents can be read using the API described in
.Xr OpenBSD::PackingList 3p .
.Pp
All the remaining information in the archive should be referenced in the
.Nm packing-list ,
including symlinks destinations,
special permissions, and file owners
.Po
.Xr pkg_create 1
and
.Xr pkg_add 1
actually enforce this
.Pc .
See
.Xr pkg_create 1
for annotation details.
.Pp
This table of contents is always followed by a few special files, some of
which are optional: the package description (+DESC),
a display message (+DISPLAY), etc.
.Pp
The basic ustar format has some limitations with respect to file names.
Packages now use the
.Qq extended record specification
(header type x)
for long links and long file names.
Other extended ustar headers are currently recognized, but not supported.
.Pp
Starting with
.Ox 5.5 ,
the compressed archive may be composed of several
.Xr gzip 1
archives concatenated together.
.Xr gzip 1
doesn't mind, and
.Xr tar 1
is happy as long as the uncompressed stream is sane.
This allows for faster signing and better rsync properties.
.Pp
Starting with
.Ox 5.6 ,
tarballs are stored
.Qq out-of-order :
each archive entry will match an entry in the
.Nm packing-list
(and all file-like entries will be matched), but the order will be adjusted
so that most recently changed files come first, in order to allow
faster updates.
.Pp
Starting with
.Ox 5.7 ,
by default, timestamps are stored directly in the
.Nm packing-list
as
.Cm @ts
annotations.
The files in the archive will have a null timestamp.
.Pp
The combination of the LRU archive order, null timestamps and compression
in fixed chunks starting from the end, means a substantial amount of data
doesn't change from snapshot to snapshot, thus reducing the pressure on
mirroring bandwidth.
.Sh PACKING LIST ANNOTATIONS
User annotations are described in
.Xr pkg_create 1 .
The following annotations are automatically inserted during package creation
and installation:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
.It Cm @arch Ar arches
List of architectures for which this package is intended.
This corresponds to
.Fl A Ar arches
of
.Xr pkg_create 1
.Pp
.It Cm @comment pkgpath=path ftp=yes/no
Historical accident.
This specific comment encodes the actual
.Fl D Ar FULLPKGPATH ,
and
.Fl D Ar FTP
arguments to
.Xr pkg_create 1 .
.Pp
.It Xo
.Cm @depend
.Sm off
.Ar pkgpath :
.Ar pkgspec :
.Ar default
.Sm on
.Xc
Record a dependency declared using the option
.Fl P
of
.Xr pkg_create 1 .
.Pp
.It Xo
.Cm @digital-signature
.Sm off
.Ar signify2 :
.Ar date :
.Ar external
.Sm on
.Xc
Record the date of signature of a package, synthesized by
.Xr pkg_add 1
from
.Xr signify 1
output.
.Pp
.It Cm @link Ar name
Added after a file entry by
.Nm
to record that the entry is actually a hard link.
.Pp
.It Cm @localbase Ar base
Used internally to record the settings of
.Fl L
option.
.Pp
.It Cm @name Ar pkgname
Set the name of the package.
This name is potentially different than the name of
the file it came in, and is used when keeping track of the package
for later deinstallation.
.Xr pkg_create 1
will derive this field from the package file name.
.Pp
.It Cm @option Ar name
Some options are automatically inserted/modified by the package tools:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ar always-update
.Xr pkg_create 1
will complete the option line with a sha256 digest of the whole
.Nm packing-list
encoded in base64.
.It Ar firmware
Set by
.Xr fw_update 8
to trigger firmware-specific handling.
In particular, firmware is hidden from normal updates.
.It Ar manual-installation
Record that a package has been explicitly installed by the user,
and not as a result of a dependency look-up.
Refer to
.Xr pkg_add 1 Ns 's
.Fl a
option for details.
.El
.Pp
.It Cm @sha
Added after a file entry by
.Xr pkg_create 1
to record the files's cryptographic checksum,
as a sha256 digest encoded in base64.
.Pp
.It Cm @signer
Record the signing key for a package, synthesized by
.Xr pkg_add 1
from
.Xr signify 1
output.
.Pp
.It Cm @size
Added after a file entry by
.Xr pkg_create 1
to record a file size.
.Pp
.It Cm @symlink Ar name
Added after a file entry by
.Xr pkg_create 1
to record that the entry is actually a symbolic link.
.Pp
.It Cm @url
Original location of the package, synthesized by
.Xr pkg_add 1
during installation.
.Pp
.It Cm @ts Ar timestamp
Added after a file entry to record the actual file timestamp, instead
of storing it as tarball meta-info.
The package tools read and process that annotation correctly, whereas
.Xr tar 1
will only see files dated from the epoch.
.Pp
.It Cm @version Ar number
Record a global (system) version number for the package.
This is built adding together
.Fl V
options from
.Xr pkg_create 1 ,
and triggers updates when it changes.
.Pp
.It Cm @wantlib Ar libspec
Record a library requirement declared using the option
.Fl W
of
.Xr pkg_create 1 .
.El
.Pp
Note that most of these annotations cannot be added manually, as
.Xr pkg_create 1
will error out.
.Sh PACKAGE SIGNATURES
All information within a package is checksummed, using SHA256 since
.Ox 4.4 .
During creation and installation, meta-information, such as file owners and
permissions, are also checked: any important stuff that isn't recorded
in the
.Nm packing-list
is an error.
.Pp
Starting with
.Ox 6.1 ,
.Xr signify 1
.Fl zS
.Xr gzip 1
header signatures are the only supported format.
This allows for
.Sq just-in-time
signature checking, as the binary data is checked in 64K bytes long chunks.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr pkg_add 1 ,
.Xr pkg_create 1 ,
.Xr pkg_info 1 ,
.Xr pkg_sign 1 ,
.Xr packages 7 ,
.Xr packages-specs 7
.Sh STANDARDS
Packages are valid gzip'ed ustar archives that can be extracted using
.Xr tar 1 .
In particular, hardlink names should be valid, and all items will
extract to different names.
However, it may be a bit difficult to make sense of the package contents
without peeking at the
.Nm packing-list .