KDE package guidelines

Arch package guidelines

32-bit – CLR – CMake – Cross – DKMS – Eclipse – Electron – Font – Free Pascal – GNOME – Go – Haskell – Java – KDE – Kernel – Lisp – Meson – MinGW – Node.js – Nonfree – OCaml – Perl – PHP – Python – R – Ruby – Rust – Shell – VCS – Web – Wine

The KDE packages on Arch Linux follow a certain schema.

Build directory

A good way of building CMake packages is to make a build directory outside the root of the project and run cmake from that directory. The PKGBUILD should look this way:

prepare() {
  mkdir -p build
}

build() {
  cd build
  cmake ../${pkgname}-${pkgver}
}

Install prefix

Every packages must set the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable, but also we have to respect custom built versions of KDE, so please use:

-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$(kde4-config --prefix)

or for KDE 5:

-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$(kf5-config --prefix)

When a package is moved to [extra] or [community] that line must be changed to:

-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr

Build type

Generally you should not specify the build type; this makes CMake honor environmental variables like such as CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, etc. [1]

Force Qt version

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: Is this the same for Qt6? (Discuss in Talk:KDE package guidelines)

Qt4

On systems where both qt4^AUR and qt5-base are installed, `qmake` refers to the 5.x version, so force cmake to use Qt4 this way:

 export QT_SELECT=4

or using this option in cmake:

-DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE=/usr/bin/qmake-qt4

Qt5

The same rules as for KDE4, but you need force cmake to use Qt5 instead of Qt4:

 export QT_SELECT=5

KDE4 package naming

KDE Configuration Module

KDE Configuration Module packages should be named kcm-module.

Plasma widgets

Plasma widgets (formerly Plasmoids) packages should be named kdeplasma-applets-widgetname so that they are recognizable as KDE-related packages; this also distinguishes them from the official packages.

Runners

Plasma runners packages should be named kdeplasma-runners-runnername so that they are recognizable as KDE-related packages; this also distinguishes them from the official packages.

Service menus

Service menus packages should be named kde-servicemenus-servicename so that they are recognizable as KDE-related packages

Themes

Plasma themes packages should be named kdeplasma-themes-themename so that they are recognizable as KDE-related packages.

KF5 package naming

Plasma widgets

Plasma widgets (formerly Plasmoids) packages should be named plasma5-applets-widgetname so that they are recognizable as Plasma 5-related packages; this also distinguishes them from the official packages.

Runners

Plasma runners packages should be named plasma5-runners-runnername so that they are recognizable as Plasma 5-related packages; this also distinguishes them from the official packages.

Service menus

Service menus packages should be named kf5-servicemenus-servicename so that they are recognizable as KF5-related packages

Themes

Plasma themes packages should be named plasma5-themes-themename so that they are recognizable as Plasma 5-related packages.

Icons and .desktop files installation

Some KDE software provide icons in the hicolor icon theme and .desktop files, which must be installed via pacman hooks. Refrain from using installation command for these type of files in a .install, as it would result in unnecessary double execution of them.

The qt4^AUR package already depends on xdg-utils, hicolor-icon-theme and desktop-file-utils, so if your package depends qt4^AUR, no other action should be needed (i.e. no need to add these packages to depends array).