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PBI Builder Software PDF Print

PBI BuilderThe PBI Builder software allows you to easily build a PBI install file from the FreeBSD Ports tree using a small "module" configuration file. PC-BSD Software provides this software so that developers may easily build and test modules / PBIs on their own system. Developers are also encouraged to give back, by submitting working modules to the PBI Build Server , so we may ensure a variety of current and working PBIs for PC-BSD users.


 

Installation Instructions

Installing the PBI Builder software is easy, simply download the pbibuild-1.4.tbz above, and place it somewhere on your system with several GB of free space. Next run these commands:

   # tar xvjpf pbibuild*.tbz
   # ln -s `pwd`/pbi-build /pbi-build

Note: On regular FreeBSD systems, you will need to install "bash" for the builder to function, and link it to /bin/bash. This step is not required on PC-BSD.

  # pkg_add -r bash
  # ln -s /usr/local/bin/bash /bin/bash 

 

Usage Instructions 

Using the PBI builder to convert a port into a PBI is very simple. First, you will need to copy a module directory into the /pbi-build/modules directory. Several examples are provided in /pbi-build/docs/module-examples, or you may copy a module from our subversion repository. After you have done this, simply run these commands:

  # cd /pbi-build
  # ./buildpbi.sh 

The first time you run the buildpbi.sh script, it will connect to CVS and download a copy of the ports tree. You may change the cvsup server it uses by editing /pbi-build/conf/ports-supfile. If you wish to update your ports tree, simply run "/pbi-build/cron/cvsup-nightly.sh". This script may be run from cron to ensure that your ports tree is always up to date.

 

Advanced Usage 

The PBI Builder has a few extra options which you may wish to use during the creation of your PBI.

Selective Module building 

When the modules diretory contains many different modules for building, it may be necessary to single out only one of them for creation instead of rebuilding all of them. To single out a module for building simply run ./buildpbi.sh with a module name as the first agument:

  # ./buildpbi.sh firefox (This will build the module /pbi-build/modules/firefox, ignoring all others for this run)
 

PBI Build (Without re-compile)

During the creation of a new module, it may become necessary to recreate the PBI file to test new configurations. Often this does not require the complete rebuilding of the port from source. By skipping the source build, a new PBI may be generated within momements. To skip the building simply run the 3.makepbi.sh script in /pbi-build/scripts/3.makepbi.sh as shown:

 # cd /pbi-build/scripts
 # ./3.makepbi.sh firefox

This will rebuild the FireFox PBI using the /pbi-buid/modules/firefox configuration, skipping the actual port re-building.

NOTE: This requires that you have a full build of the port already finished in /pbi-build/pbisandbox 

 

The PBI Sandbox 

In order to build a port without touching the host system, all creation is done in the /pbi-build/pbisandbox directory. This is a complete buildworld environment, and you may "chroot" into it in order to tweak a port build, or inspect the built contents of a port.

  # chroot /pbi-build/pbisandbox