Annotation of www/ports.html, Revision 1.31
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1.27 brad 10: <title>OpenBSD Ports and Packages</title>
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1.30 espie 16:
1.31 ! espie 17: <h2><font color=#e00000>The Ports & Packages collection</font><hr></h2>
1.25 deraadt 18:
1.31 ! espie 19: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Motivation</font></h3>
1.25 deraadt 20:
21: OpenBSD is a fairly complete system of its own, but still there is a lot
22: of software that one might want see added. However there is the problem
23: on where to draw the line as to what to include, as well as the occasional
24: licensing and export restriction problems. As OpenBSD is supposed to be
25: a small stand-alone UNIX-like operating system, some things just can't be
26: shipped with the system.
27:
28: <p>
1.31 ! espie 29: <strong><font color=#e00000>
! 30: The ports & packages collection does NOT go through the thorough security audit that OpenBSD follows.
! 31: Although we strive to keep the quality of the packages collection high, we just do not have enough human
! 32: resources to ensure the same level of robustness and security.
! 33: </font></strong>
1.25 deraadt 34:
35: <p>
1.31 ! espie 36: The port collection, originally borrowed from
! 37: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a>, fills this gap.
! 38: The concept is to have, for each third-party software, a Makefile that
1.25 deraadt 39: controls
40: <ul>
41: <li>where to fetch it,
42: <li>how to do the fetch,
43: <li>what it depends upon (if anything),
44: <li>how to alter the sources (if needed),
45: <li>and how to configure, build and install it.
46: </ul>
47: This information is kept in a directory hierarchy under the
48: /usr/ports directory.
1.31 ! espie 49:
! 50: <p>
! 51: Packages are the binary equivalent of ports. A compiled port becomes
! 52: a package that can be registered into the system using pkg_add(1).
! 53:
! 54: <p>
! 55: <strong><font color=#e00000>
! 56: Packages look like simple <code>.tar.gz</code> bundles, but they should always
! 57: be added using pkg_add(1), as there might be some extra information that only
! 58: pkg_add(1) knows how to handle.</font></strong>
! 59: Tip: you can distinguish between packages and .tar.gz bundles using pkg_info(1).
! 60:
! 61: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Getting packages</font></h3>
! 62:
! 63: A large collection of pre-compiled packages is available for most common
! 64: architectures.
! 65: <ul>
! 66: <li>On the CD-Rom (that you can pre-order <a href="orders.html">here</a>),
! 67: <li>On the <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
! 68: </ul>
! 69:
! 70: Adding a package is as easy as
! 71: <code>pkg_add pkgname.tar.gz</code>.
! 72: If you are grabbing packages off a single source (a package repository),
! 73: set PKG_PATH to that repository URL.
! 74:
! 75: <p>
! 76: For instance, to install the gimp package for the 2.7 release on an i386
! 77: machine off the ftp site (including dependencies), do:
! 78:
! 79: <pre>
! 80: # setenv PKG_PATH ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/2.7/packages/i386/
! 81: # pkg_add gimp-1.17.tar.gz
! 82: </pre>
! 83:
! 84: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Managing installed packages</font></h3>
! 85:
! 86: The <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=packages&sektion=7&format=html">packages(7)</a>.
! 87: manual page holds useful information about ways to manage
! 88: installed packages, solve conflicts (files that already exist) and handle
! 89: dependencies.
! 90: <p>
! 91: As of OpenBSD 2.7, to update a package you must:
! 92: <ul>
! 93: <li>Remove the old package using pkg_delete(1)
! 94: <li>Add the new package using pkg_add(1)
! 95: </ul>
! 96: This is slightly inconvenient, as packages may trigger dependencies, and
! 97: you may have to remove a large subset of packages for an update.
! 98:
! 99: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Using ports</font></h3>
! 100:
! 101: If a given package does not exist for your architecture, you may still
! 102: be able to compile the port. Besides, some users will want to compile
! 103: everything from source for various reasons.
! 104:
1.25 deraadt 105: <p>
1.27 brad 106: You can ftp the release version from the pub/OpenBSD/[version] (where
107: [version] is the release number) directory on any of the
108: <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
109: The release versions are the ones we ship on our CDROM, and have gone
110: through more testing than any snapshot.
1.30 espie 111: Further information is available in the
112: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ports&sektion=7&format=html">ports(7)</a> man page.
113:
114: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Ports update for an OpenBSD release</font></h3>
1.27 brad 115:
116: <p>
1.31 ! espie 117: The ports tree, like the rest of OpenBSD, is constantly changing.
1.30 espie 118: The normal life cycle of the ports tree is as follows:
119: <ul>
120: <li>Track the latest release of OpenBSD for a few months after the release
121: comes out.
122: <li>Switch to tracking OpenBSD-current about two months before the next
123: release.
124: </ul>
125: The change of status will be widely publicized on the
126: <a href=mail.html>Mailing lists</a>.
127:
128: <p>The ports tree works as a single entity. Updating a single directory is
129: not guaranteed to work, as package dependencies may force you to update
130: and recompile vast portions of the ports tree.
1.31 ! espie 131: It is strongly suggested that people don't track ports-current unless
1.30 espie 132: they're prepared to deal with various problems.
1.29 espie 133: <a href=mail.html>Mailing lists</a> such as source-changes or tech will
134: probably be invaluable.
1.27 brad 135:
136: <p>
1.29 espie 137: The ports-current tree can be retrieved via:
1.25 deraadt 138: <ul>
139: <li><a href=anoncvs.html>Anonymous CVS</a> (see link). The command is
140: essentially <strong>cvs get ports</strong>.
141: <li>Anonymous ftp from
142: <a href="ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz">
143: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz</a>.
1.19 marc 144: This archive is updated nightly.
1.25 deraadt 145: <li>Your web browser using the
146: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/">CVS
1.20 marc 147: web interface</a>.
1.25 deraadt 148: </ul>
149:
150: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Example use of the Ports tree</font></h3>
151:
152: <p>
153: Let's say you managed to get a ports tree and you want to compile and
154: install the archiving utility <code>unzip</code>. You should be able to
1.23 espie 155: do something like this:
1.31 ! espie 156:
1.11 deraadt 157: <pre>
1.31 ! espie 158: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
! 159: % su
! 160: # make
! 161: # make install
! 162: # exit
1.11 deraadt 163: </pre>
1.25 deraadt 164:
1.31 ! espie 165: Easy, huh ? Especially considering all that happened in the background:
! 166: <ul>
! 167: <li>Fetch unzip sources from an ftp site,
! 168: <li>Check the source archive integrity,
! 169: <li>Extract the unzip source,
! 170: <li>Apply OpenBSD specific patches,
! 171: <li>Configure and build the program,
! 172: <li>Create a binary package under /usr/ports/packages,
! 173: <li>Install that package.
! 174: </ul>
1.25 deraadt 175:
176: <p>
1.31 ! espie 177: In OpenBSD 2.7, a large proportion of the ports automatically build
! 178: packages when installing.
! 179: In OpenBSD current, almost all ports follow that standard.
! 180:
! 181: <p>
! 182: As ports get built, the /usr/ports/distfiles directory gets filled with
! 183: program sources, and /usr/ports/packages gets filled with binary packages.
! 184: Users with low connectivity may refer to mirror-distfiles(7) for
! 185: an efficient way to grab all distfiles at once.
! 186: Note that the OpenBSD CD only include the ports tree and selected packages.
! 187: If you wish to have the distfiles, you will have to get them through an
! 188: independent way.
1.25 deraadt 189:
190: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Creating new ports</font></h3>
191: <p>
192: If you are interested in helping to expand the OpenBSD ports tree
193: you should first read <a href="porting.html">porting.html</a>.
194: That page references the porting section of the
195: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/">FreeBSD handbook</a>
196: as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.
197:
198: <h3><font color=#0000e0>Problems and contacts</font></h3>
199:
200: <p>
1.31 ! espie 201: If you have trouble with existing ports, or need information about creating new ports,
! 202: please send e-mail to the OpenBSD
1.27 brad 203: ports mailing list, <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@openbsd.org</a>.
1.25 deraadt 204: Corrections are always welcome, but in any case do please provide:
205: <ul>
206: <li>The output of <code>uname -a</code>,
207: <li>Your OpenBSD version, including any patches you may have applied,
208: <li>A complete description of the problem.
209:
210: </ul>
211:
212: <hr>
213: <a href="index.html"><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
214: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
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