openSUSE:Packaging Meson

This page provides guidelines and best practices for packaging software that uses the Meson build system in openSUSE. All global guidelines for packaging are also valid for Meson projects.

Meson build system

Meson is a modern build system focused on speed and ease of use. It is commonly used in conjunction with the Ninja backend.

Packaging software using Meson in openSUSE follows similar conventions as other build systems, with a few Meson-specific considerations.

Build Dependencies

You must add

 BuildRequires: meson

RPM macros

The Meson Build system is shipped in openSUSE and provides rpm macros in /usr/lib/rpm/macros.d/macros.meson.

%meson: Defines CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, etc. and calls %__meson with appropriate parameters (--libdir=%{_libdir} and such). You can pass -Doption=value to this macro in order to set options for the buildsystem.
%meson_build: Calls meson compiles with the right -C and -j arguments.
%meson_install: An alias for DESTDIR=%{buildroot} meson install -C ...
%meson_test: An alias for meson test -C ...
%__meson: Direct use of this macro is not encouraged! Path of the meson executable.

Subprojects

If your project includes Meson subprojects that are not replaceable (cannot link with system provided libraries) you should:

+ Ask upstream to allow linking to system libraries + If not applicable, manually manage wraps.

Add the required projects to your SourceX section:

...
Source0:        <PROJECT_SOURCE_TARBALL>
Source1:        <WRAP_1_SOURCE_TARBALL>
...

In your `.spec` file, refer to the subproject archive using a `SourceX` tag and extract it in the `%prep` phase like this:

%prep
...
# Extract symfpu
mkdir -p subprojects/<SUBPROJECT_NAME>
tar   -C subprojects/<SUBPROJECT_NAME> --strip-components=1 -x -f %{SOURCE1}

Then, modify the %build section to make meson apply patches before building:

%build
meson subprojects packagefiles --apply
...

Example RPM spec

Name:           example
Version:        2.31.1
Release:        0
Summary:        Example summary
License:        CHANGE-ME
URL:            https://example.com
Source:         %{name}-{version}.tar.gz
BuildRequires:  meson
BuildRequires:  gcc
 
%package devel
Summary:        Development libraries and header files for %{name}
Requires:       %{name} = %{version}

%description devel	
%{summary}.
	
%prep
%autosetup

%build
%meson
%meson_build

%install
%meson_install

%check
%meson_test

%files
%{_libdir}/lib%{name}.so.*

%files devel
%{_libdir}/lib%{name}.so
%{_includedir}/%{name}.h