Contents 1. [**1** xref.db file format](xref.html#TOC-xref.db-file-format) 2. [**2** darwinxref](xref.html#TOC-darwinxref) 1. [**2.1** darwinxref binary_sites](xref.html#TOC-darwinxref-binary_sites) 2. [**2.2** darwinxref source_sites](xref.html#TOC-darwinxref-source_sites) 3. [**2.3** darwinxref patchfiles](xref.html#TOC-darwinxref-patchfiles) 4. [**2.4** darwinxref dependencies](xref.html#TOC-darwinxref-dependencies) 5. [**2.5** darwinxref plug-ins](xref.html#TOC-darwinxref-plug-ins) 3. [**3** Contents of xref.db](xref.html#TOC-Contents-of-xref.db)

The file xref.db is located in the .build directory of your DarwinBuild working directory (the one that contains BuildRoot, among other things). It is a mysql3 database file, which makes it convenient to open end edit using mysql3 (which comes with Leopard):

sqlite3 .build/xref.db

You can now use sqlite SQL commands. However, you should limit yourself to read operations.

darwinxref is the command line client for the xref database that comes with DarwinBuild. It abstracts from the actual sqlite3 commands. 

For example, to get a list of all the files contained in your BuildRoot and which projects they belong to, do:

darwinxref exportFiles > darwinxref.exportFiles.txt

This is handy to keep around.

This command shows the URL(s) from which binary roots are tried to be downloaded. For example:

darwinxref binary_sites http://src.macosforge.org/Roots/9A581/ Since each individual project can specify additional binary_sites, you can also pass the name of a certain project to it: darwinxref binary_sites xnu http://src.macosforge.org/Roots/9A581/ http://some.more.specific.to.xnu

This command shows the URL(s) from which source packages are tried to be downloaded. For example:

darwinxref source_sites http://src.macosforge.org/Projects/

Since each individual project can specify additional binary_sites, you can also pass the name of a certain project to it as in the binary_sites example.

Shows patchfiles that will be applied to a project, if any. For Example:

sh-3.2# darwinxref patchfiles xnu

(more text to be written)

Shows build-time or run-time dependencies of a given project, For example:

sh-3.2# darwinxref dependencies -build boot

shows a (recursive) list of build-time dependencies of the boot project.

(more text to be written)

darwinxref functionality can be extended by plug-ins. See descrip.txt for the currently available ones.

The xref database contains the following tables, with the following fields:

files 

• build
• project
• path groups 
• build
• name
• member mach_o_objects 
• serial
• magic
• type
• cputype
• cpusubtype
• flags
• build
• project
• path mach_o_symbols
• mach_o_object
• type
• value
• name properties
• build 
• project
• property
• key
• value unresolved_dependencies
• build
• project
• type
• dependency

To be continued Would it make sense to base a package manager on xref.db, darwinup and some package format like xar?