Packaging

This extension helps you work with package definition files for package repositories.

It currently supports only a single type of package repository: the Arch User Repository (AUR).

Screenshots

PKGBUILD (AUR)

PKGBUILD file without this extension	PKGBUILD file with this extension
ShellCheck findings are mostly irrelevant.	Only see ShellCheck diagnostics that matter.

customizepkg

customizepkg patch file with syntax highlighting

Features

PKGBUILD (AUR) features

The Packaging extension supports user-contributed PKGBUILD files in the AUR.

For PKGBUILD files opened in VS Code, this extension enables linting through the ShellCheck extension.

By default, however, ShellCheck emits a number of unhelpful warnings that are false alarms in the context of PKGBUILD files. To remove those false alarms, this extension configures the ShellCheck extension in the following ways:

• Sets Bash as the shell.

• Disables rule SC2034 (“foo appears unused. Verify it or export it.”)

• Disables rule SC2154 (“var is referenced but not assigned.”)

• Disables rule SC2164 (“Use cd ... || exit in case cd fails.”)

• Will not affect regular shell scripts, only PKGBUILDs

Pacman *.install files

The Packaging extension adds syntax highlighting to Pacman *.install files.

It also sets Bash as the shell, removing an unnecessary Shellcheck warning.

customizepkg syntax highlighting

The Packaging extension provides syntax highlighting for customizepkg-git^AUR patch files.

For details and examples about customizepkg, see customizepkg on GitHub.

Prerequisites

This extension depends on the ShellCheck extension, maintained by Felipe Santos.

Usually, VS Code will take care of this dependency for you. When in doubt, you can reinstall the ShellCheck extension to get the latest version. You should have to do that only once though, if ever.

FAQ

• Q. Why does this extension set Bash as the shell?
  A. makepkg, the program that sources PKGBUILDs, runs in Bash.
  The same goes for Pacman *.install files.

• Q. Why does this extension disable rule SC2164 for PKGBUILDs?
  A. makepkg first configures shopt -o -s errexit, which is roughly equivalent to set -e , before it calls into PKGBUILD’s functions. ShellCheck doesn’t know this, and still reports SC2164 violations, but those are unhelpful false alarms in that context.

• Q. Why does this extension disable rule SC2034 for PKGBUILDs?
  A. There are more than a dozen PKGBUILD variables. ShellCheck emits SC2034 violations for every single one of them, because it can’t tell that makepkg will consume those variables after it sources the PKGBUILD. So those are unhelpful false alarms.
  Disabling rule SC2034 incurs some collateral damage, but due to limitations in ShellCheck itself, this is probably the best we can do for now.

• Q. Why does this extension disable rule SC2154 for PKGBUILDs?
  A. Similarly to SC2034, ShellCheck emits SC2154 violations for variables like srcdir and pkgdir, because it can’t tell that makepkg always pre-initializes those variables before it calls into PKGBUILD functions. Hence, these are false alarms, too.
  Just like SC2034, disabling rule SC2154 will also suppress some legitimate ShellCheck warnings but we can’t do anything about it unless someone introduces the missing feature to ShellCheck proper.

Acknowledgements

A shout-out to these amazing people:

• Felipe Santos, maintainer of the VS Code extension for ShellCheck

• Mark Skelton, author of yarn-plugin-outdated

• Vidar Holen, who wrote ShellCheck

License

Copyright (c) 2022–2024 Claudia Pellegrino

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. For a copy of the License, see LICENSE.txt.