agw
7b39a5b06e
Two bugs found by the first real build: - 'R --version | head -1' aborted the script with exit 141 under 'set -o pipefail': head closes the pipe and R dies of SIGPIPE. Use 'sed -n 1p', which consumes all input. - R installed to lib64/R, not the lib/R the script assumed. Pin --libdir and ask 'R RHOME' for the real path instead of guessing. Also stop exporting R_HOME. R.cmake warns that a set R_HOME makes R emit 'WARNING: ignoring environment value of R_HOME', which corrupts the output cmake parses; CUSTOM_R_PATH is the supported way to select an R.
jasp-desktop-bin
Automated binary builds of JASP for Arch Linux, published
to the AUR as jasp-desktop-bin.
Why this exists
Upstream JASP ships installers for Windows and macOS only — there is no official
Linux binary. The official Linux channel is the Flathub build. The existing AUR
package jasp-desktop therefore builds everything from source, including
buildAllDefaultJaspModules.R, which compiles several hundred R packages. That is
the multi-hour build this repo exists to avoid: the compile happens once, here, and
users download the result.
The constraint that shapes everything
JASP pins its R package set with renv lockfiles against a frozen CRAN snapshot
— for 0.98.1, Modules/Rcpp_RInside.lock points at the Posit snapshot of
2026-03-31. That set targets R 4.5.
Building against Arch's current R (4.6.1) fails immediately: Rcpp 1.1.1 does not
compile there, because R_NamespaceRegistry is gone in R 4.6. The Rcpp release
that fixes this (1.1.2, 2026-07-05) is newer than the pinned snapshot, so the
lockfile cannot resolve it either. This is precisely the "old libraries with
issues" problem that makes the source AUR package painful.
So this build compiles and bundles its own R 4.5.3 into
/opt/jasp-desktop/R and points R_HOME at it — which is what upstream's own CI
does (.github/workflows/ubuntu.yml sets JASP_R_VERSION: 4.5.3 and an explicit
R_HOME). Tools/CMake/R.cmake reads R_HOME from the environment on Linux, so
this is a supported configuration rather than a hack.
Consequences:
ris not a dependency of the package. An Arch R upgrade cannot break an installed JASP.- What the binary is still linked against is Qt6 and ICU, both of which break ABI
across releases. The generated PKGBUILD pins those
(
qt6-base>=6.11 <6.12,icu>=78 <79), andscripts/check-upstream.pytriggers a rebuild when Arch moves either — or when JASP releases.
jags and librdata-git are AUR-only, and JASP needs freexl >= 2.0.99 while Arch
ships 2.0.0 — so the build compiles those itself, matching what upstream CI does.
Layout
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
build/build-jasp.sh |
The actual build. Runs in an archlinux:base-devel container, emits the tarball plus build-info.json. |
scripts/check-upstream.py |
Compares upstream JASP / Arch Qt6 / Arch ICU against state.json; decides whether to build. |
scripts/gen-pkgbuild.py |
Fills packaging/PKGBUILD.in from build-info.json; derives pkgrel from what is on the AUR. |
scripts/publish-github-release.sh |
Creates the GitHub release and uploads the tarball. |
scripts/push-aur.sh |
Generates .SRCINFO and pushes to aur.archlinux.org. |
scripts/record-state.sh |
Commits state.json so the next nightly run knows what was built. |
packaging/PKGBUILD.in |
Template for the AUR package. |
state.json |
Last successfully built combination. |
Flow
nightly (03:00) ─► check-upstream.py
│ new JASP tag, or Arch bumped qt6-base / icu?
▼
build-jasp.sh (Arch container, hours)
│ builds R 4.5.3, JASP, then all R modules
│ jasp-desktop-<ver>-x86_64.tar.zst + build-info.json
▼
GitHub release ──► gen-pkgbuild.py ──► push to AUR
│
▼
state.json committed back
Required configuration
Set these in the Gitea repo before the first run.
Variables (Settings → Actions → Variables):
| Name | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
GH_OWNER |
asgerw |
GitHub account hosting the release repo |
GH_REPO |
jasp-desktop-bin |
Release repo name |
AUR_MAINTAINER |
Asger Geel Weirsoe <asger@weircon.dk> |
Written into the PKGBUILD header |
Secrets (Settings → Actions → Secrets):
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
GH_TOKEN |
GitHub PAT with contents: write on the release repo |
AUR_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY |
Private SSH key registered with your AUR account. Copy the value already set on agw/pi3-smart-workspace. |
STATE_PUSH_TOKEN |
Gitea token with write access to this repo, for committing state.json. (Gitea reserves the GITEA_ secret prefix.) |
The GitHub repo GH_OWNER/GH_REPO must exist and be public — the AUR PKGBUILD
downloads the tarball from its releases, so it has to be reachable anonymously.
Runner requirements
The build runs for hours and needs disk. On the Gitea runner host:
runner.timeoutin/var/lib/gitea-worker/config.yamlmust exceed the build time (set to16h).- Gitea's own job timeout (
[actions] ENDLESS_TASK_TIMEOUTinapp.ini, default 3h) must match, otherwise Gitea kills the job at 3h regardless of the runner. - Roughly 40–60 GB of free disk for the build tree, the bundled R and the staged install.
Running it by hand
# Build a specific tag without waiting for the schedule
Actions → Build JASP binary and publish to AUR → Run workflow
jasp_tag = v0.98.1 force = true
Caveat worth knowing
AUR convention is that a -bin package repackages binaries published by upstream.
Here upstream publishes no Linux binary, so this one is built by us. That is
unusual, and a maintainer or TU may question it. It is not against the rules, but
the package description and this README should stay honest about where the binary
comes from.