Build-Ar, Build Your Own Arch Linux Repository

This project is an easy-to-use program that provides functionalities to build a custom repository for Arch Linux. This bot will automatically check if a new version of software has been released, build packages and deploy them into a server.

Usage

Important: Make sure you have Docker on your system before following the next steps.

1. Fork this repository by clicking on the fork button at the top of the page.

2. To build the docker container you will need to run:

   $ make container
   

3. Create an SSH key to deploy on your server. Change directory and generate a new key with no passphrase. You must include it in the authorized_keys file in your server.

   $ cd ~/.ssh
   $ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "repository"
   

   Copy your private key into your project and rename it deploy_key:

   $ cp ~/.ssh/id_rsa ~/path/to/your/project
   

   To make sure your key is correctly enabled into your server, just run:

   $ ssh -i ./deploy_key [email protected]
   

   You can validate your configuration running this at any time by running this:

   $ make validation
   

4. To keep your Github repository up to date, you will need to generate a new personal access token. The bot will use it to commit new versions of your packages.

   Go to GitHub personal access tokens page and click on generate a new token button. Select the checkbox that give the full control over your repositories and click on generate token. Make sure to have a copy of your new personal access token now because you won’t be able to see it again!

5. Create and define your repository configuration into repository.yml by using sample.yml file. You can paste your personal access token into Github token parameters.

   github:
     token: aed564c9e6f2a4fcadcad11af3334f6e

   If you want to prevent auto update, you can remove these lines from your repository.yml.

   auto-update:
     - bot
     - readme

   If you prefers to use your repository in local system, you will need to remove these lines or it will trigger errors. Be careful about SSH path because the bot will remove files in chosen directory before deploying packages and database.

   url: https://mirror.yourdomain.org
   ssh:
     port: 22
     user: user
     host: yourdomain.org
     path: /path/to/your/repository

6. Add packages that you want to be in your repository. It needs to have a Git repository in order to verify if there are any updates. If you want to add the latest version of a package, you should create its directory in pkg. Let's have a look at an example with dwm:

   $ cd packages
   $ mkdir dwm
   

   You now can create package.py in the new dwm directory. It will contain package information. To make sure it will correctly build, have name and source defined.

   #!/usr/bin/env python
   
   name = 'dwm'
   source = 'https://aur.archlinux.org/dwm.git'

   If you want to change some configurations before being build by the bot, you can create a pre_build function. In that example, I just add a dependency to my PKGBUILD.

   #!/usr/bin/env python
   
   name = 'dwm'
   source = 'https://aur.archlinux.org/dwm.git'
   
   def pre_build():
      for line in edit_file('PKGBUILD'):
         if line.startswith('depends=('):
            print(line.replace(')', " 'adobe-source-code-pro-fonts')"))
         else:
            print(line)

   You can test your package build by running this:

   $ make test
   

7. When you're ready, let the bot do its job with this command:

    $ make run
   

8. To use Pacman, you need to add this configuration to your /etc/pacman.conf.

   [custom]
   SigLevel = Optional TrustedOnly
   Server = http://mirror.yourdomain.org
   

Use Travis CI to execute cron job

1. Go to travis-ci.org and sign up with your GitHub account. Click on your name at the upper right corner to open your profile. Toggle the switch on your fork project. Click on settings button to configure a cron job ^[1] that will build and deploy your repository.

2. Install Travis-ci on your system. This tool is written in Ruby and is published as a gem. You need to install the gem with this command:

   $ gem install travis
   

3. Log you in Travis by running this:

   $ travis login
   

4. Encrypt your deploy key:

   $ travis encrypt-file ./deploy_key --add
   

   Once you notice that a couple of lines were added into your .travis.yml, you will be able to deploy your packages into your server.

   before_install:
   - openssl aes-256-cbc -K $encrypted_77965d5bdd4d_key -iv $encrypted_77965d5bdd4d_iv
     -in deploy_key.enc -out ./deploy_key -d

5. Encrypt your repository configuration:

   $ travis encrypt-file ./repository.yml --add
   

6. Let Travis-ci do its job! After committing and pushing your changes, you will notice that if your Travis-ci repository is being build. When it's complete, you can check your Github fork and you are supposed to see new commit changes in packages that you just added and files should be on your server.

Keep your fork up to date

Make sure to always be up to date by running this:

$ make update

Footnotes

¹ https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/cron-jobs
² https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/encryption-keys/