- OpenBSD is a fairly complete system of its own, but still there is a lot of
- software that one might want see added. However there is the problem on where
- to draw the line on what to include and not, as well as licensing and export
- restrictions problems. Some things just can't be shipped with the system.
- We wanted to find a way for users to easily get software we don't provide
- and started to look around. We didn't have to look far as a sibling project,
- FreeBSD, had an excellent mechanism for
- exactly this purpose called
- "The ports collection". After
- thinking about it for a while we decided to try to use their collection as is,
- feeding back necessary patches to make the ports work on OpenBSD as well
- to the FreeBSD maintainers.
-
-
Short description and setup
-
- The ports idea is to have, for each piece of software, a Makefile that
- describes where to fetch it, how to do the fetch, what it is depending upon
- (if anything), how to alter the sources (if needed) and how to configure,
- build and install it. Furthermore some patches will have to be kept in the
- "port" as well as some administration files for the package registry utilities.
- Normally this information is kept in an hierarchy under /usr/ports (however,
- this is configurable). I recommend reading the
- ports chapter in the
- FreeBSD handbook to get
- information on how to setup this hierarchy. A current gzipped tar-archive
- of the FreeBSD ports can be found
- here
- .
-
-
Example
-
- Let's say you managed to get a ports tree sitting under /usr/ports, then you
- should be able to something like this:
-
+OpenBSD is a fairly complete system of its own, but still there is a lot
+of software that one might want see added. However there is the problem
+on where to draw the line on what to include and not, as well as licensing
+and export restrictions problems. Some things just can't be shipped with
+the system. We wanted to find a way for users to easily get software we
+don't provide and started to look around. We didn't have to look far as
+a sibling project, FreeBSD, had an
+excellent mechanism for exactly this purpose called "The
+ports collection". After thinking about it for a while we decided to
+try to use their collection as is, but do incompatibility problems between
+FreeBSD and OpenBSD we decided to branch out and create our very own OpenBSD
+Ports Project using FreeBSD's as a starting point.
+
+
+Short description and setup
+The ports idea is to have, for each piece of software, a Makefile that
+describes where to fetch it, how to do the fetch, what it is depending
+upon (if anything), how to alter the sources (if needed) and how to configure,
+build and install it. Furthermore some patches will have to be kept in
+the "port" as well as some administration files for the package registry
+utilities. Normally this information is kept in an hierarchy under /usr/ports
+(however, this is configurable). I recommend reading the ports
+chapter in the FreeBSD handbook
+to get information on how to setup this hierarchy until OpenBSD can complete
+its on ports.helpfile
+
+Example
+Let's say you managed to get a ports tree sitting under /usr/ports, then
+you should be able to something like this:
+
cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
make
su
make install
exit
-
- Easy, huh?
-
-
Problems and contacts
-
- As the ports collection really is a FreeBSD thing, there are ports that do not
- work in OpenBSD for various reasons. But this is going to change in the near future.
- Our ports coordinator has set up a
- page with the current status
- - what is done, what is being worked on right now, on what architecture, etc.
- If you have trouble with ports contact either
- Ejovi Nuwere (preferably),
- Niklas Hallqvist or
- Warner Losh and give us either patches
- on how to fix things or, if you cannot do this, point us at the problematic
- port and tell us what fails and we shall try to fix it.
-
+Our ports coordinator is currently
+working on a ports statues page - what is done, what is being worked on
+right now, on what architecture, etc. If you have trouble with ports contact
+either Ejovi Nuwere (preferably),
+Gene Skonicki or Todd Tyrone Fries and give us either patches on
+how to fix things or, if you cannot
+do this, point us at the problematic port and tell us what fails and we
+shall try to fix it.
+
+
+www@openbsd.org
+ $OpenBSD: ports.html,v 1.8 1997/11/18 08:12:33 deraadt
+Exp $
+
![[OpenBSD]](images/smalltitle.gif)
- ![[OpenBSD]](http://www.openbsd.org/images/smalltitle.gif)
+
- www@openbsd.org
- 