Package Build System

[kriskowal]

Add support for packages that have a build step. Create a system for transactionally downloading packages and their transitive dependencies, then unbundling, building, generating documentation, and testing, within a virtual environment before installing the results into the system or virtual environment packages directory.

Consider making an installation transaction resumable if errors occur at any particular stage.

[bryanwb]

this is a total can of worms imho. It sounds exactly like the prerm, postinst, preinst scripts

http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-maintscripts

Supporting these kinds of scripts require packagers so they don't stomp on each other's feet. I imagine that the narwhal world will be a lot looser organized than debian or ubuntu but I could be wrong

[kriskowal]

Ah, yeah. Those kinds of scripts are almost inevitably necessary for a sufficiently advanced project. The intent for this feature is to make it possible to automatically build a project from source, like v8.