A binary package built with xbps is a normal tar(1) archive, compressed with bzip2 and has the following structure: / /usr ------| /var ------| => Package structure that will be installed. /etc ------| ... /var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname /var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname/flist /var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname/props.plist /var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname/postpre-action.sh Metadata info is stored in the "/var/cache/xbps/metadata/$pkgname" directory and two files will be always be present: flist and props.plist. The flist file contains the list of files that the package will install. The props.plist file is a proplib(3) property list and has the following structure: pkgname foo version 3.40 maintainer The Master BOFH short_desc Foo is a virtual package long_desc Foo is a virtual package to show how the metadata props.plist file works with xbps handling binary packages. architecture x86_64 installed_size 500000 configuration_files /etc/foo.conf ... run_depends bofh-2.0 blab-1.1 ... ... This plist might be extended in the future; additional scripts might be added to trigger actions at pre/post installation/removal of the binary package. The package's dictionary will also be written into the repository's package index file, that describes information about a binary package on it. See the BINPKG_REPOSITORY file for more info about repositories.