Makepkg

Makepkg is a scripting tool in Arch Linux and its derivatives that automates the process of building binary packages from PKGBUILD files. It is part of the packaging toolchain and works with pacman and the base-devel group to fetch sources, resolve dependencies, compile, and assemble packages that can be installed on a system.

Makepkg operates by reading a PKGBUILD, along with related files, and executing the build() function defined within. It downloads sources as specified in the PKGBUILD, verifies checksums, and can verify GPG signatures for source files. The build process runs in a controlled environment, and the resulting binaries are packaged into a file such as a .pkg.tar.zst or .pkg.tar.xz. By default, the produced package is placed in the current directory, although the destination can be redirected via configuration.

Common usage patterns include options to automatically install missing build dependencies, install the resulting package after building, or clean up intermediate files. The most typical one-liner is makepkg -si, which installs required makedepends and depends, builds the package, and then installs it. Other options control behavior such as cleaning up build artifacts after success or setting custom destinations with variables like PKGDEST and PKGEXT. The exact behavior can be customized in the PKGBUILD and via environment variables.

PKGBUILD files provide metadata and instructions for packaging, including variables like pkgname, pkgver, pkgrel, arch, url, license, source, and checksums (md5sums, sha256sums). They also declare dependencies (depends, makedepends) and packaging steps. Makepkg is frequently used to build packages from the Arch User Repository (AUR) and by developers who maintain Arch-compatible packages, often in conjunction with AUR helpers that invoke makepkg to perform builds locally.

Security considerations include reviewing PKGBUILD contents and verified sources before building, as makepkg will execute the build and packaging steps defined there.