PKGBUILD
also: ABS
A shell script file used by Arch Linux and related distributions to define how to download, compile, and package software from source. It automates the entire build process into a binary package.
PKGBUILD is a Bash script that contains metadata and instructions for building packages in Arch Linux (and derivatives like Manjaro). Each software project gets one PKGBUILD file that specifies the source URL, dependencies, compilation flags, and how to install files into the package.
A typical PKGBUILD includes variables like pkgname, pkgver, pkgdesc, and functions like build() and package(). When you run makepkg in a directory containing a PKGBUILD, it automatically downloads sources, applies patches, compiles the software, and creates a .pkg.tar.zst binary package.
Example structure: pkgname=myapp, pkgver=1.0, source=("https://example.com/myapp.tar.gz"), then a build() function running ./configure && make. Users can edit PKGBUILD files to customize builds before packaging.