Depot

Using Depot

Depot's day-to-day workflow is split between installing, building, updating, and querying. The main commands share common execution flags such as --dry-run, --test-deps, --clean, and -r or --rootfs for operating on another root filesystem.

Installing packages

The install command accepts one or more package names, spec paths, or package archives. Before acting, Depot resolves a dependency plan and then executes it in dependency order.

depot install packages/zlib.toml
depot install --yes --dry-run packages/zlib.toml
depot install zlib-1.2.11-1-x86_64.depot.pkg.tar.zst

Common flags:

• --yes answers prompts automatically and chooses the default provider.
• --dry-run prints the plan without building or installing.
• --test-deps includes declared test dependencies in dependency installation.
• -r /mnt installs into an alternate root filesystem instead of /.

Building packages

The build command is the safest way to validate a new spec without immediately changing the system. It creates a package archive and can optionally install dependencies or install the finished archive afterward.

depot build packages/zlib.toml
depot build --install-deps packages/zlib.toml
depot build --install --cleanup-deps packages/zlib.toml

• --install-deps installs missing build, runtime, and optionally test dependencies before the build.
• --cleanup-deps removes dependencies that were auto-installed just for this build after the command finishes.
• --install installs the built package after the archive is created.

Updating and querying

Depot can update installed packages, inspect local ownership, search configured repos, and scan a directory tree of specs for newer upstream versions.

depot update
depot update depot
depot search zlib
depot search --files libz.so
depot owns /usr/bin/zsh
depot list
depot check packages/

Working on another root filesystem

Commands such as install, build, update, info, search, owns, list, and config accept -r to target another root.

depot install -r /mnt packages/zlib.toml
depot update -r /mnt
depot owns -r /mnt /usr/bin/clang

Creating specs

Depot specs are TOML files parsed into a PackageSpec. The core pieces are package metadata, sources, build configuration, and dependency lists. Advanced specs can also define extra outputs, alternatives, package-specific dependency overrides, manual sources, and lib32 variants.

Manual spec creation

Writing the spec yourself gives full control and is the best fit for packages that need patches, custom hooks, multiple outputs, alternative providers, or unusual build flags.

Minimal example

[package]
name = "example"
version = "1.0.0"
description = "An example package"
homepage = "https://example.com"
license = "MIT"

[[source]]
url = "https://example.com/example-$version.tar.gz"
sha256 = "..."
extract_dir = "example-$version"

[build]
type = "autotools"

[build.flags]
configure = ["--enable-feature"]

[dependencies]
build = ["gcc", "make"]
runtime = ["libc"]
optional = ["bash-completion"]

Sources and manual sources

Standard sources are declared with [[source]]. Each source entry can define url, sha256, extract_dir, patches, post_extract, and cherry_pick for git-based sources.

Manual sources are separate. They are copied in before fetching and can use either local paths or remote URLs per block, but not both at the same time.

[[manual_sources]]
file = "depot.pub"
dest = "keys/depot.pub"

[[manual_sources]]
url = "https://example.com/extra.patch"
sha256 = "skip"
dest = "patches/extra.patch"

Build types

Depot currently supports the following build types:

autotools cmake meson perl custom python rust makefile bin meta

Common flags live under [build.flags]. Useful fields include configure, build_dir, source_subdir, cflags, cxxflags, ldflags, ltoflags, post_configure, post_compile, post_install, split_docs, and builder-specific options such as config_settings for Python or makefile_commands for Makefile packages.

Dependencies and alternatives

Dependencies are grouped into build, runtime, test, and optional. Alternatives can define provides, conflicts, and replaces.

[dependencies]
build = ["meson", "ninja"]
runtime = ["zlib"]
test = ["pytest"]
optional = ["bash-completion"]

[alternatives]
provides = ["sh"]
conflicts = ["busybox-sh"]

Build flags reference

Most spec tuning happens under [build.flags]. The parser accepts a large set of fields, including several alias spellings for dashed and underscored names. The tables below focus on the primary field names.

Toolchain and compiler flags

Build layout and install directories

Build system flow and hooks

Make and make-like execution

Multilib, docs, and staging behavior

Cross and builder-specific fields

Example

[build.flags]
build_dir = "build"
source_subdir = "src"
configure = ["--disable-static", "--enable-shared"]
cflags = ["-O2", "-pipe"]
replace_cflags = ["-O2=>-O3"]
ltoflags = ["-flto=thin"]
post_install = ["rm -f $DESTDIR/usr/share/info/dir"]
split_docs = true
doc_dirs = ["/usr/share/gtk-doc", "/usr/share/devhelp"]
make_exec = "ninja"
make_install_target = "install"
passthrough_env = ["CCACHE_DIR", "CARGO_HOME"]

Interactive creator

Depot includes an interactive spec generator. It asks a series of questions and writes a minimal TOML file, defaulting to <package>.toml unless an explicit output path is supplied.

depot make-spec
depot make-spec -o packages/zlib.toml

The interactive flow covers:

• package name, version, description, homepage, and one or more licenses
• build system selection, including meta packages
• source URL, checksum, and extract directory
• optional advanced prompts for patches, manual sources, toolchain overrides, configure options, and post-build hooks
• separate runtime, build, test, and optional dependency lists

A few details from the current implementation are useful to know:

• it asks early whether the package is a GNU project and can pre-fill GNU-style defaults
• for reachable URLs, it tries to compute a default SHA256 automatically
• if the output file already exists, it asks before overwriting it
• the generated file is intentionally compact and omits default or empty fields

See also

• Docs index
• Depot in Features
• Package browser
• Download Vertex Linux