Creating a custom package repository

Christian Schenk

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Prerequisites

Initializing the custom package repository

The package staging directory

The Files directory
package.ini: the package information file

Running mpc

Introduction

This article is about MiKTeX packaging: You will learn how to maintain a custom package repository.

Prerequisites

A few utilities are required:

cabextract: cabextract is used intnernally (by MPC) to extract files from cabinet files. It is a part of the Cygwin distribution for Windows.
lzma: lzma is used intnernally (by MPC) to extract files from .tar.lzma files. It is a part of the Cygwin distribution for Windows.
md5walk: MD5Walk is used to calculate the fingerprint of a package. The source code of MD5Walk can be obtained from the MiKTeX project page.
mpc: The MiKTeX Package Creator (MPC) is used to maintain the contents of a custom package repository. The source code of MPC can be obtained from the MiKTeX project page.
rsync: rsync is used to initialize the custom package repository. It is a part of the Cygwin distribution for Windows.
tar: tar is used internally (by MPC) to create package archive files. It is a part of the Cygwin distribution for Windows.

All but MPC and MD5Walk are standard utilities which are available on all platforms (Windows, GNU/Linux, …). The portable source code of mpc and md5walk can be obtained from the MiKTeX project page.

Initializing the custom package repository

A custom package repository can be initialized with the help of rsync as follows:

> mkdir C:\package-repository

> cd C:\package-repository

> rsync -av rsync://www.ctan.org/SYSTEMS/win32/miktex/tm/packages/ .

This will download a snapshot of the remote package repository to C:\package-repository.

The package staging directory

The package staging directory contains all the bits and pieces you will need in order to add a package to the custom package repository.

Basically, the staging directory contains the following:

Description (optional): The Description file contains a mult-line description of the package.
Files (optional): The Files sub-directory contains the actual files of the package.
package.ini (required): The package.ini file contains basic information about the package.

The Description file and the Files sub-directory are optional. The package.ini file is required.

The `Files` directory

The Files directory contains just the sub-directory texmf, which is the root of a TDS tree populated with the actual files of the package.

For example, Files could contain two files: mystuff.sty and mystuff.pdf:

Files\texmf\tex\latex\mystuff\mystuff.sty
Files\texmf\doc\latex\mystuff\mystuff.pdf

`package.ini`: the package information file

The file package.ini contains basic information about the package:

externalname=string: The deployment name of the package. This is the base name of the package archive file.
md5=hexstring: The fingerprint of the package.
name=string: The user friendly name of the package.
title=string: The title of the package.

The fingerprint must be calculated with the help of the md5walk utility (see below).

Here is a sample package.ini:

externalname=mystuff
md5=f3fa2edf7bfd8ae692880b59fa246650
name=My stuff
title=Provides my style files.

The fingerprint has been calculated as follows:

> cd C:\staging\mystuff

> md5walk --exclude=.tpm Files
f3fa2edf7bfd8ae692880b59fa246650

>

Running mpc

You use the MPC utility to add a package to your custom package package repository.

Here is a sample invocation:

> cd C:\staging\mystuff

> mpc --create-package --repository=C:\package-repository --verbose
Loading database from C:\package-repository...
Reading staging directory C:\staging\mystuff...
Checking C:\package-repository\mystuff.tar.lzma...
Creating mystuff.tar.lzma...
Writing database to C:\package-repository...

>

MPC is run from the staging directory C:\packages\mystuff.