Annotation of ports/README, Revision 1.6
1.4 marc 1:
1.2 joey 2: Welcome to the OpenBSD ports collection.
3: For more information on the OpenBSD ports tree please visit
4: http://www.openbsd.org/ports.html
5: For general information on the OpenBSD tree please visit
6: http://www.openbsd.org
1.1 joey 7:
8:
1.5 espie 9: When things go wrong
10: ====================
11: There are several contacts for the ports tree.
12: * individual ports list a
13: MAINTAINER=
14: line in their Makefile. Try to contact that person first.
15: * specific issues related to the ports framework (e.g., bugs in
16: bsd.port.mk) should go to ports-admin@openbsd.org
17: * ports without explicit maintainers, and other general issues should
18: go to ports@openbsd.org
19:
20: As a general rule, try to contact the MAINTAINER first. If nothing happens
21: after a reasonable delay, start plaguing him, or go to the next step.
22:
23: Developpers with a major investment in the ports tree include
24: brad@cvs.openbsd.org, turan@cvs.openbsd.org, espie@cvs.openbsd.org
25:
26: Those people can be contacted to put some pressure on a lazy maintainer.
27: But we do read ports@openbsd.org, so...
28:
29: The ports tree
30: ==============
31: The ports tree usually live under /usr/ports. It's a hierarchical
32: list of recipes to build various pieces of software.
33: We'll call that PORTSDIR in the following discussion.
34: Stuff that doesn't constitue a port proper, but rather paraphernalia,
35: is stored under /usr/ports/infrastructure, INFRA in the following
36: discussion.
37:
38: The main Makefile, PORTSDIR/Makefile, can be used to obtain various
39: information.
40:
41: * make search key=<keyword>
42: will locate ports that match the given keyword in the Index and print
43: information about them.
44:
45: * make index
46: can be used to rebuild that INDEX, normally useful after you update your
47: ports dir through cvs.
48:
49: * make readmes
50: will populate the ports tree with a set of html indices.
51:
52: The script INFRA/build/out-of-date will find
53: discrepancies between your installed packages and the INDEX. This might
54: give you an hint as to what you would need to rebuild to update a machine.
55:
56: Some useful `make' trivia
57: =========================
58: * if you always use some make variables, e.g., DISTDIR, CLEANDEPENDS, or
59: MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE you can put this in your local make configuration
60: file instead: /etc/mk.conf.
61: * starting with 2.6, make can deal with case issues, so CLEANDEPENDS=Yes
62: or CLEANDEPENDS=YES or even CLEANDEPENDS=yEs should be equivalent.
63: * the make process uses some subroutines out of /usr/share/mk. Starting
64: with 2.6, the `port' subroutines live in INFRA/mk.
65: The bsd.port.mk and bsd.port.subdir.mk in /usr/share/mk are only stubs
66: that redirect to those files.
67:
68: Building a port
69: ===============
70: It's usually as simple as
71: cd category/portname && make && make install
72:
73: That specific `make' will normally
74: * resolve dependencies and go out to install required ports recursively
75: * fetch the software source (`distfiles' and `distribution patches')
76: from the available media into your repository
77: * extract the source
78: * apply distribution patches and OpenBSD patches
79: * build the program
80:
81: `make install' will
82: * install the software on your system
83: * log the installation so that later pkg_info or pkg_delete can deal with
84: the software.
85:
86: Some ports can have some options, or demand that you make some choice
87: before building, e.g.,
88: cd /usr/ports/security/ssh
89: make all install USA_RESIDENT=no
90:
91: Some ports may prompt you for more choice, or give you important
92: information about ports building. Likewise, installing or uninstalling
93: a port may give you useful information. READ IT.
94:
95: You can also use
96: * `make uninstall' to remove the installed software (same as pkg_delete)
97: * `make package' to convert the installed software into a binary `package'
98: (a tar ball that you can share with other machines with the same
99: configuration, contribute to the ftp project, or that you can backup
100: separately). Packages normally end up in /usr/ports/packages, overridable
101: with PACKAGE.
102: * `make fetch-list' to build a small shell-script that should be able to
103: retrieve the missing distfiles and distribution patches for the given port.
104: * `make clean' to remove all scaffolding after the port is built and
105: installed.
106: * `make distclean' to also remove distfiles and distribution patches
107: from the repository
108: * `make clean CLEANDEPENDS=Yes' will also remove sub ports that have been
109: recursively built.
110: * `make distclean CLEANDEPENDS=Yes', guess what this does.
111:
112: Please note that, in normal use, the OpenBSD ports tree will grow quite
113: a lot. Careful use of make clean and make distclean will help you.
1.6 ! espie 114: `find /usr/ports -type d -name work\* -print' can be useful to find out
1.5 espie 115: ports you forgot to clean out.
116:
117: There are a few kinks in the building of ports with options yet. Namely,
118: all such ports should produce distinct package names if built with
119: different options. Also, there is no check for consistency between
120: make and make install. Taking the ssh example again,
121: make USA_RESIDENT=No
122: make install USA_RESIDENT=Yes
123: won't be flagged as an error...
124:
125: Where do the distfiles come from
126: ================================
127: Retrieving distfiles is a subpart of `make' that can be invoked separately
128: as `make fetch'.
129:
130: Starting with 2.6, the fetch process is configurable by editing
131: INFRA/db/network.conf.
132:
133: The ports tree does store files it retrieves in a repository area,
134: normally /usr/ports/distfiles (defined as DISTDIR=${PORTSDIR}/distfiles;
135: you can override this if you need; e.g., assuming you've got a cdrom
136: full of distfiles mounted under /cdrom, you can make stuff with
137: DISTDIR=/cdrom/distfiles, provided all the distfiles are available on
138: the CD-Rom).
139:
140: If the file is found in the repository, the build process continues.
141: In some rare cases, vendors change their archive contents without changing
142: the archive name, so the file in the repository may end up having a wrong
143: checksum. Or, if you aborted a network transfer, the file in the repository
144: may be truncated, and end up having a wrong checksum again. In such a case,
145: manual intervention is required (it was deemed that such problems may need
146: human expertise and that blindly removing distfiles was not a good idea).
147: It's usually as simple as deleting the offending file, or doing a
148: make distclean.
149:
150: To avoid building from corrupted archives, the ports tree holds checksums
151: for almost all files it retrieves from other media (a few ports ignore
152: checksums from the files listed in IGNOREFILES).
153: Those are strong cryptographic checksums: sha1, rmd160, and md5,
154: in that order. See CIPHERS and PREFERRED_CIPHERS in
155: INFRA/mk/bsd.port.mk for details.
156:
157: If the directory /cdrom/distfiles exist, available distfiles are copied
158: off that directory to your repository. You can avoid the copy overhead
159: by defining FETCH_SYMLINK_DISTFILES. You can give another location for
160: the distfiles as CDROM_SITE.
161:
162: OpenBSD `ftp' command is normally used to fetch distfiles off the net,
163: so all file addresses are given in URL format.
164: Each port uses its own set of sites, and there should also be backups of
165: the distribution files on ftp.openbsd.org. MASTER_SITE_BACKUP holds an
166: overridable list of backup sites, normally
167: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/distfiles/${DIST_SUBDIR}/
168: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/licensed/${DIST_SUBDIR}/
169: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/distfiles/${DIST_SUBDIR}/
170:
171: You can ask the fetch process to try to retrieve files from those sites first
172: by setting MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE, e.g.,
173: make MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE='${MASTER_SITE_BACKUP}'
174:
175: You can retrieve file from the OpenBSD site only with
176: make MASTER_SITE_OPENBSD=Yes
177:
178: Continuing our CD-Rom example, you could also fetch files off a CD-Rom into
179: your repository for safe-keeping by using the following incantation:
180: make fetch MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE='file:/cdrom/{$DIST_SUBDIR}/'
181: This is equivalent to using CDROM_SITE.
182:
183: Some common sites have their own variables. It is strongly recommended
184: that you edit the INFRA/db/network.conf file for
185: your site.
186:
187: Please refer to that file for a complete list, and address lists
188: (those are not exhaustive). Those include:
189: MASTER_SITE_GNU FSF and other GPL programs
190: MASTER_SITE_XCONTRIB X11 contributed software
191: MASTER_SITE_SUNSITE Sunsite site and mirror, major linux archive
192: MASTER_SITE_GNOME Gnome
193: MASTER_SITE_PERL_CPAN Comprehensive perl archive network
194: MASTER_SITE_TEX_CTAN Comprehensive TeX archive network
195: MASTER_SITE_KDE KDE
196: MASTER_SITE_TCLTK Tcl/Tk
197: MASTER_SITE_AFTERSTEP AfterStep
198: MASTER_SITE_WINDOWMAKER WindowMaker
199:
200: There is a backup copy of that file in
201: INFRA/templates/network.conf.template.
202:
203: In case you don't have a permanent network connection,
204: `make fetch-list' should provide you with a shell script you can use to
205: retrieve distfiles you're missing to build a given port.
206:
207: (TODO: improve and systematize fetch-all)
208:
209: Building several ports
210: ======================
211: Each category directory holds a Makefile that propagates commands to
212: its sub ports, e.g., if you cd /usr/ports/audio && make, this should
213: build all ports under /usr/ports/audio.
214:
215: A more useful command is the
216: INFRA/build/find-build-order script.
217: You normally prepare a list of the ports you want to build, in the same
218: format as INFRA/db/essentials, and pass it to find-build-order like
219: this:
220: cd /usr/ports/infrastructure
221: cat db/essentials|build/find-build-order
222: This yields a sorted list of the required ports.
223:
224: (Todo: provide for a script which builds everything we want)
225:
226: You can filter ports that require interaction out with
227: make BATCH=yes
228:
229: Likewise, make FOR_CDROM=yes, make NO_RESTRICTED=yes
230: will yield only the ports with the required level of liberty.
231:
232: Files Summary
233: =============
234: /usr/ports (PORTSDIR):
235: the whole port collection
236: /usr/ports/<category>/<portname>:
237: where to find a given port
238: /usr/ports/INDEX:
239: all distfiles, rebuilt with make index
240: /usr/ports/README.html
241: /usr/ports/<category>/README.html
242: /usr/ports/<category>/<portname>/README.html:
243: www indices produced by make readmes
244: /usr/ports/distfiles (DISTFILES):
245: repository for distribution files and distribution patches
246: /cdrom/distfiles (CDROM_SITE):
247: standard location for distfiles off a CD
248: /usr/ports/packages (PACKAGES):
249: where binary packages are built (by category. Normally everything
250: ends up under All, with symlinks for each category)
251: /usr/ports/<category>/<portname>/work:
252: where the ports mechanism does the building. This is normally a
253: real directory, but you can set WRKOBJDIR to point to another
254: base which is not /usr/ports, and work/ will be a link to
255: ${WRKOBJDIR}/category/portname/work. This can be useful to
256: mount a master /usr/ports directory by NFS on several
257: architectures. Normally, you first
258: cd /usr/ports && make WRKOBJDIR=path obj
259: on the master machine, which creates the symbolic links, so that
260: you can mount your master /usr/ports read-only.
261: /usr/ports/<category>/<portname>/pkg/SECURITY:
262: information relative to a security audit of the port. Usually
263: missing.
264: /usr/ports/infrastructure:
265: paraphernalia around the ports tree
266: /usr/ports/db/network.conf:
267: your local network configuration (ftp sites)
268: /var/db/pkg:
269: installed ports, see pkg_add(1).
270: /usr/local (LOCALBASE):
271: where normal ports install themselves.
272: /usr/X11R6 (X11BASE):
273: where ports with a large dependency on X11 install themselves.
274:
275: Other tweaks
276: ============
277: FORCE_PACKAGE: force package building. Some ports can't be distributed
278: as packages for legal reasons, but you may wish to build a package for
279: your private consumption.
280: HAVE_MOTIF: set in /etc/mk.conf if we own a copy of the real thing.
281: MOTIF_STATIC: set in /etc/mk.conf to use a static version of the Motif
282: library only.
283: NO_MTREE: don't run mtree before installing a port. This is a dangerous
284: option.
285: NO_PKG_REGISTER: used for make install, don't register port under
286: /var/db/pkg. This is a dangerous option.
287: FORCE_PACKAGE_REGISTER: override an existing port (the <pkgname> is already
288: installed message). You will end up with several flavors of the same
289: package. This is a dangerous option, as this will probably erase the other
290: port.
291: NO_IGNORE: coerce fetch, build, install... into doing their job even though
292: there might be a good reason not to. Good reasons include BROKEN,
293: ONLY_FOR_ARCH, IS_INTERACTIVE in BATCH mode, NO_CDROM in FOR_CDROM... This
294: is a dangerous option.
295:
296: Keeping up with the Jones, ports as a moving target
297: ===================================================
298: The OpenBSD ports tree is growing from release to release. It needs
299: people to write and test new ports.
300: Like for src, you can choose to live on the bleeding edge by updating
301: your ports dir thru cvs or ftp, and contribute bug-reports.
302:
303: If you prefer to stay with a stable release, we try to make sure
304: the distfiles for a given release stay on the OpenBSD site between
305: releases.
1.1 joey 306:
1.3 marc 307: No matter how fast we update the tree it seems that we are always
308: behind. For this reason you will sometimes find a port that is
309: marked as BROKEN. If you try to build the port you will see a
310: message something like:
311:
312: ===> xxx-1.0 is marked as broken: newer version available.
313:
314: This means we know there is a newer version of the application but
315: have not yet had time to update the port. If you get this message
316: all may not be lost. If the old sources are still available (and
317: this is often the case) you can force a build using the old sources
318: using the command:
319:
320: make NO_IGNORE=yes
321: sudo make NO_IGNORE=yes install
322:
1.4 marc 323: If you're feeling generous a better solution is to update the port
1.3 marc 324: to use the new sources and feed the changes back to the project.
325: If you are interested in contributing (or creating a new port)
326: please visit
327:
1.1 joey 328: http://www.openbsd.org/porting.html
1.3 marc 329:
1.6 ! espie 330: $OpenBSD: README,v 1.5 1999/09/25 14:45:27 espie Exp $
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