Hi all, When package splitting was implemented in makepkg, it was done so under two premises: 1) Arch Linux did not split packages out of principle, and there would be very few exceptions 2) KDE was the target package to be split, and its build system provided nice make targets for doing so This meant we targetted splitting packages where upstream provided direct methods for installing the split components. So looking like: pkgname=('pkg1' 'pkg2') package_pkg1() { cd "$pkgbase-$pkgver" make DESTDIR="$pkgdir/" install-pkg1 } package_pkg2() { cd "$pkgbase-$pkgver" make DESTDIR="$pkgdir/" install-pkg2 } As time went by, Arch started splitting packages more - mostly to avoid pulling large dependencies onto a system for wider components. Packagers even started using (abusing) optional dependencies to avoid splitting. The current splitting approach leads to monstrosities like the Arch Linux gcc PKGBUILD [1] (of which I completely blame the current packagers and take no responsibility!). Recently, some packagers have been using a custom _pick function [2] to allow them to move specified files from the first package's "make install" and save them for a later split package. The _pick approach is more similar to how rpm/deb approaches work, but relies on the (non-guaranteed) stability of makepkg internals. I have roughly implemented an additional approach to package splitting that will improve this situation. Essentially, the "make install" is done in the stash() function, and the files are stashed for future use in packaging. The individual package_*() functions then provide the files to include in the package in a "filelist" array. This array allows the '*' wildcard, and '!' to exclude files. A simple example: pkgname=('foo' 'foo-docs') stash() { cd $pkgbase-$pkgver make DESTDIR=$stashdir install } package_foo() { filelist=('*' '!usr/share/docs/') ... } package_foo-docs() { filelist=('usr/share/docs/') ... } I'm seeking feedback on this approach before I finish the implementation and push this. Either replying to the email, or on the gitlab snippet [3]. Thanks! Allan [1] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/gcc/-/blob/main/PK... [2] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/gvfs/-/blob/main/P... [3] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/-/snippets/3770