4. How-To: Create a Package Source
zkg, by default, is configured to obtain packages from a single "package source", the Zeek Packages Git Repository, which is hosted by and loosely curated by the Zeek Team. However, users may configure zkg to use other package sources: either ones they've set up themselves for organization purposes or those hosted by other third parties.
4.1. Package Source Setup
In order to set up such a package source, one simply has to create a git
repository and then add Package Index Files to it.
These files may be created at any path in the package source's git repository.
E.g. the Zeek Packages Git Repository organizes package index files
hierarchically based on package author names such as alice/zkg.index
or bob/zkg.index
where alice
and bob
are usually GitHub
usernames or some unique way of identifying the organization/person that
maintains Zeek packages. However, a source is free to use a flat organization
with a single, top-level zkg.index
.
Note
The magic index file name of zkg.index
is available since
zkg v2.0. For compatibility purposes, the old index file name of
bro-pkg.index
is also still supported.
After creating a git repo for the package source and adding package index files to it, it's ready to be used by zkg.
4.2. Package Index Files
Files named zkg.index
(or the legacy bro-pkg.index
) are used to
describe the Zeek Packages found within the package source.
They are simply a list of git URLs pointing to the git repositories of
packages. For example:
https://github.com/zeek/foo
https://github.com/zeek/bar
https://github.com/zeek/baz
Local filesystem paths are also valid if the package source is only meant for your own private usage or testing.
4.3. Adding Packages
Adding packages is as simple as adding new Package Index Files or extending existing ones with new URLs and then commiting/pushing those changes to the package source git repository.
zkg will see new packages listed the next time it uses the refresh command.
4.4. Removing Packages
Just remove the package's URL from the Package Index File that it's contained within.
After the next time zkg uses the refresh command, it will no longer see the now-removed package when viewing package listings via by the list command.
Users that had previously installed the now-removed package may continue to use it and receive updates for it.
4.5. Aggregating Metadata
The maintainer/operator of a package source may choose to periodically aggregate
the metadata contained in its packages' zkg.meta
(and legacy
bro-pkg.meta
) files. The zkg refresh
is used to perform the task. For example:
$ zkg refresh --aggregate --push --sources my_source
The optional --push
flag is helpful for setting up cron jobs to
automatically perform this task periodically, assuming you've set up your
git configuration to push changesets without interactive prompts. E.g.
to set up pushing to remote servers you could set up SSH public key
authentication.
Aggregated metadata gets written to a file named aggregate.meta
at the top-level of a package source and the list,
search, and info all may access
this file. Having access to the aggregated metadata in this way
is beneficial to all zkg users because they then will not have
to crawl the set of packages listed in a source in order to obtain this metadata
as it will have already been pre-aggregated by the operator of the package
source.