-u packfile

Runs a Packfile (via make) after all source files have been collected into the staging dir.

• The main Packfile will be picked up from wherever fpm was invoked at.
  Runs within the base /tmp/pack-xyz123-staging/ path.
• Any Packfiles that were grabbed along with source files (e.g. usr/share/doc/Packfile) will be run in the according staging subdirectory.
  And of course they'll be automatically removed after being run.

Simple

An example Packfile could just be:

all: 
       gzip -9 usr/share/doc/mypkg/changelog

Note that the paths are relative, because it's already run within the staging path set as current working dir.

Env vars

There are a few extra environment variables available:

• PACK_TYPE = deb
• PKG_FLAG = PKG_DEB
• PACK_NAME = mypkg
• PACK_VERSION = 1.2.3
• PACK_ARCH = native
• PACK_STAGING = /tmp/pack-dir-staging-123/
• PACK_DIRECTORIES = ""

Package-type specific rules

So you could add rules depending on target package types for example:

all: $(PACK_TYPE)
deb:
       gzip -9 usr/share/doc/mypkg/changelog
rpm:
       mv etc/rc.d/05-mypkg etc/init.d/mypkg           
arch:
       sed -i '1 s/python/python2/' usr/bin/*

Purpose

Meant for minor mid-packaging refinements.

• Packfiles came to be because they're more flexibile than builtin/default -u filters. They permit cusomized hooks and packaging tweaks.

• They're not meant to delay actual build steps into the packaging phase.

• Instead it's there to avoid packaging-workarounds creeping into a regular Makefile. The differentation is somewhat arbitrary, of course. But it's feasible to reduce overlap now.

• Suitable for minor file renaming, data compression or stub/default creation tasks.