src_install

Function	`src_install`
Purpose	Install a package to `${D}`
Sandbox	Enabled
Privilege	root
Called for	ebuild

Default `src_install`

For EAPIs 0,1,2, and 3, the default src_install function is the following:

src_install()
{
    return
}

For EAPIs 4 and later, the default src_install function is the following:

src_install() {
	if [[ -f Makefile ]] || [[ -f GNUmakefile]] || [[ -f makefile ]] ; then
		emake DESTDIR="${D}" install
	fi

	if ! declare -p DOCS >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
		local d
		for d in README* ChangeLog AUTHORS NEWS TODO CHANGES THANKS BUGS \
				FAQ CREDITS CHANGELOG ; do
			[[ -s "${d}" ]] && dodoc "${d}"
		done
	elif declare -p DOCS | grep -q "^declare -a " ; then
		dodoc "${DOCS[@]}"
	else
		dodoc ${DOCS}
	fi
}

Important:The following examples assume EAPI 4 or later

Sample `src_install`

src_install() {
    emake DESTDIR="${D}" install
    dodoc README CHANGES
}

Easy Installs

Often, especially with autotools-powered packages, there is a Makefile install target which will honour the DESTDIR variable to tell it to install to a non-root location. If possible, this should be used:

    emake DESTDIR="${D}" install

Note: emake should be used to parallelise here. Some installs are not designed to be parallelised, use emake -j1 or make if you hit an error.

Sometimes this will end up installing a few things into strange places. If and only if this is the case, the einstall function can be used. It is usually necessary to include additional dodoc statements for the README, ChangeLog, etc in these cases:

    einstall
    dodoc README CHANGES

Note: There is no need to dodoc COPYING! The license belongs to ${PORTDIR}/licenses. Sometimes though, you might want to install COPYING regardless, if it explains how different licenses are applied to different parts of the application, for example.

Trivial Installs

For some packages with no Makefile that only install a small number of files, writing a manual install using cp is the easiest option. For example, to do a simple install of some (no compilation required) themes:

    dodir /usr/share/foo-styles/
    cp -R "${S}/" "${D}/" || die "Install failed!"

Or sometimes a combination of insinto and doins (plus related functions -- see Install Functions Reference) — the following is based upon the sys-fs/udev install:

src_install() {
    dobin udevinfo
    dobin udevtest
    into /
    dosbin udev
    dosbin udevd
    dosbin udevsend
    dosbin udevstart
    dosbin extras/scsi_id/scsi_id
    dosbin extras/volume_id/udev_volume_id

    exeinto /etc/udev/scripts
    doexe extras/ide-devfs.sh
    doexe extras/scsi-devfs.sh
    doexe extras/cdsymlinks.sh
    doexe extras/dvb.sh

    insinto /etc/udev
    newins "${FILESDIR}/udev.conf.post_050" udev.conf
    doins extras/cdsymlinks.conf

    # For devfs style layout
    insinto /etc/udev/rules.d/
    newins etc/udev/gentoo/udev.rules 50-udev.rules

    # scsi_id configuration
    insinto /etc
    doins extras/scsi_id/scsi_id.config

    # set up symlinks in /etc/hotplug.d/default
    dodir /etc/hotplug.d/default
    dosym ../../../sbin/udevsend /etc/hotplug.d/default/10-udev.hotplug

    # set up the /etc/dev.d directory tree
    dodir /etc/dev.d/default
    dodir /etc/dev.d/net
    exeinto /etc/dev.d/net
    doexe etc/dev.d/net/hotplug.dev

    doman *.8
    doman extras/scsi_id/scsi_id.8

    dodoc ChangeLog FAQ HOWTO-udev_for_dev README TODO
    dodoc docs/{overview,udev-OLS2003.pdf,udev_vs_devfs,RFC-dev.d,libsysfs.txt}
    dodoc docs/persistent_naming/* docs/writing_udev_rules/*

    newdoc extras/volume_id/README README_volume_id
}

This is, of course, considerably harder to handle than a simple Makefile driven install.

Other Installs

Sometimes, there will be a Makefile that does not honour DESTDIR and a non-trivial number of files to install. In these situations, it is best to patch the Makefile and contact upstream explaining the situation to them.