PORGBALL(8)

💅 PORGBALL — the porgball(8) manual, bestie edition 🎀

okay so. this is porgball, section 8 of the manual — that's the sysadmin-y section, iykyk. it's all about binary package support for porg(8). let's get into it ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

porgball — binary package support for porg(8). that's it. that's the whole name. iconic, brief, no notes 💖

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

porgball [OPTIONS] [-a|<packages>]
porgball -e [OPTIONS] <porgballs>

two whole modes, bestie. two. depending on the vibe you're going for 🦋

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🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

so, default mode, right? you hand porgball one or more package names as arguments, and for each of those packages it makes a binary tarball holding all the currently installed files. slay. but — and this is the catch — for that to work, the packages have to already be registered in the porg database. no registration, no tarball, periodt.

and the paths inside those tarballs? leading slashes ('/') get stripped from the paths of the files in the tarballs. that's on purpose, so you can extract them into user-defined directories without them exploding all over your root 💀

now, with option -e, the whole vibe flips. porgball takes one or more previously created tarballs ("porgballs") as arguments and installs them into the system — optionally logging the installation with porg(8), if you're feeling organised.

⚠️ note: options cannot be joined up. like, '-af' is not correct, bestie. type '-a -f' instead. the parser does not want to guess what you meant 🙈

mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. no shortcuts on that one, fr fr.

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🌈 GENERAL OPTIONS 🌈

these ones work everywhere, in every mode. universal besties 💜

• -h, --help — show usage information and dip. that's it, that's the whole job ✨
• -v, --verbose — explain what is being done. narrate the whole thing, main character energy 👑
• -V, --version — print version information and exit.
• -L, --logdir=DIR — the porg log directory. default is '/var/lib/porg', unless option LOGDIR is set in porgrc(5). so like, check your config before you assume 🎀

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🔥 PORGBALL CREATION OPTIONS 🔥

the building-things era of your life 🦋

• -a, --all — create a porgball for each package logged in the porg database. all of them. the entire roster 💅
• -X, --exact-version — disable expansion of package version. so by default, porgball automatically expands the package names you give it as arguments, by adding all the versions of the package that are registered in the porg database. -X inhibits this expansion, meaning package names must match the basename and the whole version of a registered package. exact match only, no chill, no guessing 🎯
• -d, --directory=DIR — create the porgballs in directory DIR (default is '.'). yes, default is literally just the current directory. home sweet home 🏠
• -g, --gzip — compress with gzip (default). the default!! the classic!!
• -b, --bzip2 — compress with bzip2.
• -x, --xz — compress with xz.
• -# — set the compression level (speed/quality balance). '#' is a number between 1 (faster compression) and 9 (best compression). default is 9. so like, if you want it fast, go low; if you want it gorgeous, go 9 💖
• --fast — an alias for -1.
• --best — an alias for -9.
• -f, --force — force overwrite of existing output files. use responsibly, bestie 🫣
• -t, --test — test intergity of the porgball after creating it. (yes, "intergity". that's how the manual says it, and I respect the original's choices 🙈)
• -n, --no-porg-suffix — do not append '.porg' suffix to the name of the porgballs. for instance, create 'foo-1.0.tar.gz' instead of 'foo-1.0.porg.tar.gz'. sometimes you just want the plain name, and honestly? valid.

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🧚 PORGBALL EXTRACTION OPTIONS 🧚

now we're in unpacking mode, and it's giving ✨liberation✨

• -e, --extract — extract (install) the given porgballs, in directory '/' by default. yes, /. the root. the whole system. be normal about it 💀
• -l, --log — log the file extraction with porg, retrieving the appropriate package name from the name of the porgball. it reads the name and figures out which package it is. clever little thing 🌸
• -d, --directory=DIR — extract the files into directory DIR (as the option -C in tar). same energy as tar's -C, just so you know 🎀

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📁 FILES 📁

• /etc/porgrc — porg configuration file
• /var/lib/porg — default porg log directory

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🫡 AUTHOR 🫡

written by David Ricart (http://porg.sourceforge.net). thank you for your service, king 👑

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

porg(8), porgrc(5)

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and that's the whole manual, bestie. no cap. go make some porgballs 🎀✨

porg 0.10 · 17 May 2016 — yeah, this page is from way back, but the knowledge is timeless, and it still slays 💅🦋