Annotation of www/ports.html, Revision 1.26
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10: <title>OpenBSD ports mechanism</title>
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1.26 ! deraadt 17: <h2><font color=#e00000>Ports and Packages</font><hr></h2>
1.25 deraadt 18:
19: <h3><font color=#0000e0>History</font></h3>
20:
21: <p>
22: OpenBSD is a fairly complete system of its own, but still there is a lot
23: of software that one might want see added. However there is the problem
24: on where to draw the line as to what to include, as well as the occasional
25: licensing and export restriction problems. As OpenBSD is supposed to be
26: a small stand-alone UNIX-like operating system, some things just can't be
27: shipped with the system.
28:
29: <p>
30: We wanted to find a way for users to easily get software we don't provide
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
1.23 espie 33: excellent mechanism
1.25 deraadt 34: for exactly this purpose called
35: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/ports/">"The ports collection"</a>.
36:
37: <p>
38: At first we tried to use their collection as-is, but due to
39: incompatibility problems between FreeBSD and OpenBSD we decided to branch
40: out and create our very own OpenBSD Ports Project using FreeBSD's as a
41: starting point. This also allows us to tune the ports better to our
42: system.
43:
44: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Short description and setup</font></h3>
45:
46: <p>
47: The ports idea is to have, for each piece of software, a Makefile that
48: controls
49: <ul>
50: <li>where to fetch it,
51: <li>how to do the fetch,
52: <li>what it depends upon (if anything),
53: <li>how to alter the sources (if needed),
54: <li>and how to configure, build and install it.
55: </ul>
56: <p>
57: This information is kept in a directory hierarchy under the
58: /usr/ports directory.
59: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Getting the Ports tree</font></h3>
60: <p>
61: The ports source tree can be retrieved via:
62: <ul>
63: <li><a href=anoncvs.html>Anonymous CVS</a> (see link). The command is
64: essentially <strong>cvs get ports</strong>.
65: <li>Anonymous ftp from
66: <a href="ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz">
67: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz</a>.
1.19 marc 68: This archive is updated nightly.
1.25 deraadt 69: <li>Your web browser using the
70: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/">CVS
1.20 marc 71: web interface</a>.
1.25 deraadt 72: </ul>
73: <p>
74: You can also ftp the latest release version from the pub/OpenBSD/[version]
75: (where [version] is the release number, e.g. 2.5) directory
76: on any of the <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
77: The release versions are the ones we ship on our CDROM, and has gone
78: through better testing than any snapshot. However, they age pretty
79: quickly, due to older distribution files disappearing from the net as
80: new releases arrive. Therefore, you likely will want to get and use
81: a newer version of the ports tree.
82:
83: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Example use of the Ports tree</font></h3>
84:
85: <p>
86: Let's say you managed to get a ports tree and you want to compile and
87: install the archiving utility <code>unzip</code>. You should be able to
1.23 espie 88: do something like this:
1.11 deraadt 89: <pre>
1.10 deraadt 90: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
91: % su
1.17 joey 92: # make
1.10 deraadt 93: # make install
94: # exit
1.11 deraadt 95: </pre>
1.25 deraadt 96: Easy, huh?
97:
98: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Port status information</font></h3>
99:
100: <p>
101: The <a href="portstat.html">ports status page</a> is updated as
102: team members add new ports and verify existing ports. Existing
103: ports are continually verified to validate source availability and
104: proper operation with the current OpenBSD sources. The page notes
105: the date last checked and the nature of any change. This is a new
106: resource that is not yet complete. If you have any information to
107: add to the status page please send it to
108: <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@OpenBSD.ORG</a>.
109:
110: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Creating new ports</font></h3>
111:
112: <p>
113: If you are interested in helping to expand the OpenBSD ports tree
114: you should first read <a href="porting.html">porting.html</a>.
115: That page references the porting section of the
116: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/">FreeBSD handbook</a>
117: as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.
118:
119: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Problems and contacts</font></h3>
120:
121: <p>
122: If you have trouble with ports please send e-mail to the OpenBSD
123: ports mailing list, <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@OpenBSD.ORG</a>.
124: Corrections are always welcome, but in any case do please provide:
125: <ul>
126: <li>The output of <code>uname -a</code>,
127: <li>Your OpenBSD version, including any patches you may have applied,
128: <li>A complete description of the problem.
129:
130: </ul>
131:
132: <hr>
133: <a href="index.html"><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
134: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
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