PKGBUILD variables in arch

[Kyle]

Your source and built binary package will be put into subdirectories 
under the directory where your PKGBUILD file is. The sources are put 
into ./src and the binary package is in ./pkg. It looks like these 
settings can be overridden in /etc/makepkg.conf. You probably should use 
a directory to store your PKGBUILD files other than your home directory. 
Most of the time, you will want a package build directory, and each 
PKGBUILD file should be in a subdirectory under the one you selected for 
all your package builds. Example: I have my package builds in ~/build. 
Under that is a subdirectory for each PKGBUILD I want to build, e.g. 
~/build/svox-pico-git/, where I have my PKGBUILD file for that package, 
which I hope to build as soon as I figure out why I get very strange 
errors only when I use makepkg to build it. :) Using this clean 
directory structure for each package makes it much easier to find the 
sources for each package and to apply your patches. I've never tried 
just putting PKGBUILD in my home directory and building it there to see 
what would happen, but it can't be easy to sort out if something goes 
wrong. Hope this helps a litttle, as I'm lacking in experience myself.
~Kyle