Annotation of www/ports.html, Revision 1.29
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5: <meta name="description" CONTENT="How OpenBSD can make use of the FreeBSD ports">
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1.27 brad 10: <title>OpenBSD Ports and Packages</title>
1.25 deraadt 11: <link rev="made" HREF="mailto:www@openbsd.org">
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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>
1.27 brad 61: You can ftp the release version from the pub/OpenBSD/[version] (where
62: [version] is the release number) directory on any of the
63: <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
64: The release versions are the ones we ship on our CDROM, and have gone
65: through more testing than any snapshot.
66:
67: <p>
1.28 brad 68: The ports tree, like the rest of OpenBSD, is constantly changing. While
1.29 ! espie 69: we try to maintain ports compatibility through the lifetime of a particular
1.28 brad 70: release, sometimes issues beyond our control occur. For example, particular
1.29 ! espie 71: versions of the ported package might no longer be available. Therefore,
! 72: you might want to get and use a newer version of the ports tree.
! 73: Please note that the ports-current tree is tested with OpenBSD-current and is
! 74: <strong>NOT</strong> guaranteed to work with the previous stable release.
! 75: It is strongly suggested that people don't track ports-current unless
! 76: they're prepared to track the whole of OpenBSD-current, including source.
! 77: <a href=mail.html>Mailing lists</a> such as source-changes or tech will
! 78: probably be invaluable.
1.27 brad 79:
80: <p>
1.29 ! espie 81: The ports-current tree can be retrieved via:
1.25 deraadt 82: <ul>
83: <li><a href=anoncvs.html>Anonymous CVS</a> (see link). The command is
84: essentially <strong>cvs get ports</strong>.
85: <li>Anonymous ftp from
86: <a href="ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz">
87: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz</a>.
1.19 marc 88: This archive is updated nightly.
1.25 deraadt 89: <li>Your web browser using the
90: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/">CVS
1.20 marc 91: web interface</a>.
1.25 deraadt 92: </ul>
93:
94: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Example use of the Ports tree</font></h3>
95:
96: <p>
97: Let's say you managed to get a ports tree and you want to compile and
98: install the archiving utility <code>unzip</code>. You should be able to
1.23 espie 99: do something like this:
1.11 deraadt 100: <pre>
1.10 deraadt 101: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
102: % su
1.17 joey 103: # make
1.10 deraadt 104: # make install
105: # exit
1.11 deraadt 106: </pre>
1.25 deraadt 107: Easy, huh?
108:
109: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Port status information</font></h3>
110:
111: <p>
112: The <a href="portstat.html">ports status page</a> is updated as
113: team members add new ports and verify existing ports. Existing
114: ports are continually verified to validate source availability and
1.27 brad 115: proper operation with OpenBSD -current. The page notes the date last
116: checked and the nature of any change. This is a new resource that is not
117: yet complete. If you have any information to add to the status page
118: please send it to
119: <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@openbsd.org</a>.
1.25 deraadt 120:
121: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Creating new ports</font></h3>
122:
123: <p>
124: If you are interested in helping to expand the OpenBSD ports tree
125: you should first read <a href="porting.html">porting.html</a>.
126: That page references the porting section of the
127: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/">FreeBSD handbook</a>
128: as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.
129:
130: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Problems and contacts</font></h3>
131:
132: <p>
133: If you have trouble with ports please send e-mail to the OpenBSD
1.27 brad 134: ports mailing list, <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@openbsd.org</a>.
1.25 deraadt 135: Corrections are always welcome, but in any case do please provide:
136: <ul>
137: <li>The output of <code>uname -a</code>,
138: <li>Your OpenBSD version, including any patches you may have applied,
139: <li>A complete description of the problem.
140:
141: </ul>
142:
143: <hr>
144: <a href="index.html"><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
145: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
1.29 ! espie 146: <br><small>$OpenBSD: ports.html,v 1.28 1999/10/05 02:10:18 brad Exp $</small>
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