Annotation of www/ports.html, Revision 1.24
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15: <title>OpenBSD ports mechanism</title>
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1.21 pauls 19: <img height=30 width=141 src=images/smalltitle.gif alt="[OpenBSD]" >
1.19 marc 20: <h2><font color=#e00000>OpenBSD ports mechanism</font></H2>
21: <h3><font color=#0000e0>History</font></h3>
22: <p>
23: OpenBSD is a fairly complete system of its own, but still there is a lot
24: of software that one might want see added. However there is the problem
25: on where to draw the line as to what to include, as well as the occasional
1.23 espie 26: licensing and export restriction problems. As OpenBSD is supposed to be
27: a small stand-alone UNIX-like operating system, some things just can't be
1.19 marc 28: shipped with the system.
29: <p>
30: We wanted to find a way for users to easily get software we don't provide
1.23 espie 31: and started to look around. We didn't have to look far, as sibling project
32: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a> already had an
33: excellent mechanism
1.19 marc 34: for exactly this purpose called
35: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/ports/">"The ports collection"</a>.
36: <p>
37: At first we tried to use their collection as-is, but due to
38: incompatibility problems between FreeBSD and OpenBSD we decided to branch
39: out and create our very own OpenBSD Ports Project using FreeBSD's as a
40: starting point. This also allows us to tune the ports better to our
41: system.
42: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Short description and setup</font></h3>
43: <p>
44: The ports idea is to have, for each piece of software, a Makefile that
45: controls
46: <ul>
47: <li>where to fetch it,
48: <li>how to do the fetch,
49: <li>what it depends upon (if anything),
50: <li>how to alter the sources (if needed),
51: <li>and how to configure, build and install it.
52: </ul>
53: <p>
54: This information is kept in a directory hierarchy under the
55: /usr/ports directory.
56: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Getting the Ports tree</font></h3>
57: <p>
58: The ports source tree can be retrieved via:
59: <ul>
60: <li><a href=anoncvs.html>Anonymous CVS</a> (see link). The command is
61: essentially <strong>cvs get ports</strong>.
62: <li>Anonymous ftp from
63: <a href="ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz">
64: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz</a>.
65: This archive is updated nightly.
1.20 marc 66: <li>Your web browser using the
67: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/">CVS
68: web interface</a>.
1.19 marc 69: </ul>
70: <p>
1.24 ! niklas 71: You can also ftp the latest release version from the pub/OpenBSD/[version]
! 72: (where [version] is the release number, e.g. 2.5) directory
1.19 marc 73: on any of the <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
1.24 ! niklas 74: The release versions are the ones we ship on our CDROM, and has gone
! 75: through better testing than any snapshot. However, they age pretty
! 76: quickly, due to older distribution files disappearing from the net as
! 77: new releases arrive. Therefore, you likely will want to get and use
! 78: a newer version of the ports tree.
1.19 marc 79: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Example use of the Ports tree</font></h3>
80: <p>
81: Let's say you managed to get a ports tree and you want to compile and
82: install the archiving utility <code>unzip</code>. You should be able to
1.23 espie 83: do something like this:
1.11 deraadt 84: <pre>
1.10 deraadt 85: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
86: % su
1.17 joey 87: # make
1.10 deraadt 88: # make install
89: # exit
1.11 deraadt 90: </pre>
1.19 marc 91: Easy, huh?
1.20 marc 92: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Port status information</font></h3>
93: <p>
94: The <a href="portstat.html">ports status page</a> is updated as
95: team members add new ports and verify existing ports. Existing
96: ports are continually verified to validate source availability and
97: proper operation with the current OpenBSD sources. The page notes
98: the date last checked and the nature of any change. This is a new
99: resource that is not yet complete. If you have any information to
100: add to the status page please send it to
101: <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@OpenBSD.ORG</a>.
1.19 marc 102: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Creating new ports</font></h3>
103: <p>
104: If you are interested in helping to expand the OpenBSD ports tree
105: you should first read <a href="porting.html">porting.html</a>.
106: That page references the porting section of the
107: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/">FreeBSD handbook</a>
108: as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.
109: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Problems and contacts</font></h3>
110: <p>
1.23 espie 111: If you have trouble with ports please send e-mail to the OpenBSD
1.19 marc 112: ports mailing list, <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@OpenBSD.ORG</a>.
1.23 espie 113: Corrections are always welcome, but in any case do please provide:
1.19 marc 114: <ul>
1.23 espie 115: <li>The output of <code>uname -a</code>,
116: <li>Your OpenBSD version, including any patches you may have applied,
1.19 marc 117: <li>A complete description of the problem.
118: </ul>
119: <hr>
1.21 pauls 120: <a href="index.html"><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.19 marc 121: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
1.24 ! niklas 122: <br><small>$OpenBSD: ports.html,v 1.23 1998/11/17 01:10:30 espie Exp $</small>
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