Annotation of www/ports.html, Revision 1.77
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1.27 brad 10: <title>OpenBSD Ports and Packages</title>
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1.30 espie 17:
1.47 naddy 18: <h2><font color="#e00000">The Ports & Packages collection</font></h2>
1.25 deraadt 19:
1.47 naddy 20: <hr>
21:
1.53 naddy 22: <h3><font color="#0000e0">Index</font></h3>
23: <ul>
24: <li><a href="#Motivation">Motivation</a></li>
25: <li><a href="#Get">Getting Packages</a></li>
26: <li><a href="#stable">Ports and Packages Update for an OpenBSD Release</a></li>
27: <li><a href="#Manage">Managing Installed Packages</a></li>
28: <li><a href="#Use">Using Ports</a></li>
29: <li><a href="#Life">Life Cycle of the Ports Tree</a></li>
30: <li><a href="#XFree86">Ports and XFree86</a></li>
1.55 heko 31: <li><a href="#Example">Example Use of the Ports Tree</a></li>
32: <li><a href="#Advanced">Advanced Usage of the Ports Tree</a></li>
1.53 naddy 33: <li><a href="#Create">Creating New Ports</a></li>
1.56 heko 34: <li><a href="#Lag">When a Port Is Lagging Behind the Mainstream Version</a></li>
1.53 naddy 35: <li><a href="#Help">Problems and Contacts</a></li>
36: </ul>
37:
38: <hr>
39:
40: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Motivation">Motivation</a></font></h3>
1.25 deraadt 41:
42: OpenBSD is a fairly complete system of its own, but still there is a lot
1.60 jcs 43: of software that one might want to see added. However, there is the problem
44: of where to draw the line as to what to include, as well as the occasional
1.25 deraadt 45: licensing and export restriction problems. As OpenBSD is supposed to be
46: a small stand-alone UNIX-like operating system, some things just can't be
47: shipped with the system.
48:
49: <p>
1.47 naddy 50: <strong><font color="#e00000">
1.31 espie 51: The ports & packages collection does NOT go through the thorough security audit that OpenBSD follows.
52: Although we strive to keep the quality of the packages collection high, we just do not have enough human
53: resources to ensure the same level of robustness and security.
54: </font></strong>
1.25 deraadt 55:
56: <p>
1.31 espie 57: The port collection, originally borrowed from
58: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a>, fills this gap.
59: The concept is to have, for each third-party software, a Makefile that
1.25 deraadt 60: controls
61: <ul>
62: <li>where to fetch it,
63: <li>how to do the fetch,
64: <li>what it depends upon (if anything),
65: <li>how to alter the sources (if needed),
66: <li>and how to configure, build and install it.
67: </ul>
68: This information is kept in a directory hierarchy under the
69: /usr/ports directory.
1.31 espie 70:
71: <p>
72: Packages are the binary equivalent of ports. A compiled port becomes
1.55 heko 73: a package that can be registered into the system using
1.63 rohee 74: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>
1.31 espie 75:
76: <p>
1.47 naddy 77: <strong><font color="#e00000">
1.36 brad 78: Packages look like simple <code>.tgz</code> bundles, but they should
1.33 espie 79: always be added using
1.47 naddy 80: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>,
1.33 espie 81: as there might be some extra information that only
1.47 naddy 82: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>
1.33 espie 83: knows how to handle.</font></strong>
1.36 brad 84: Tip: you can distinguish between packages and <strong>.tgz</strong> bundles
1.33 espie 85: using
1.47 naddy 86: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_info&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_info(1)</a>.
1.31 espie 87:
1.53 naddy 88: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Get">Getting Packages</a></font></h3>
1.31 espie 89:
90: A large collection of pre-compiled packages is available for most common
91: architectures.
92: <ul>
1.34 jufi 93: <li>On the CD-Rom (that you can order <a href="orders.html">here</a>),
1.31 espie 94: <li>On the <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
1.40 beck 95: <li>Browsed and retrieved from the web package lists:
96: <ul>
1.75 pvalchev 97: <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/3.4_packages/">Packages for OpenBSD 3.4</a>
1.40 beck 98: </ul>
1.31 espie 99: </ul>
100:
1.44 espie 101:
1.31 espie 102: Adding a package is as easy as
1.36 brad 103: <code>pkg_add pkgname.tgz</code>.
1.71 ian 104: If you are grabbing packages from a single source (a package repository),
1.39 espie 105: set PKG_PATH to that repository URL, in order to grab dependencies.
1.31 espie 106:
107: <p>
1.73 pvalchev 108: For instance, to install the Gimp package for the 3.4 release on an i386
1.31 espie 109: machine off the ftp site (including dependencies), do:
110:
111: <pre>
1.73 pvalchev 112: # setenv PKG_PATH ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.4/packages/i386/
1.70 brad 113: # pkg_add ${PKG_PATH}gimp-1.2.3.tgz
1.31 espie 114: </pre>
115:
1.53 naddy 116: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="stable">Ports and Packages Update for an OpenBSD Release</a></font></h3>
1.45 espie 117: <p>
118: The 2.7 release saw the introduction of a stable branch for the ports tree.
119: <p>
1.73 pvalchev 120: For instance, to grab the stable branch for the 3.4 release:
1.45 espie 121: <pre>
122: $ cd /usr/ports
1.73 pvalchev 123: $ cvs -q -d anoncvs@some.anon.server:/cvs up -r OPENBSD_3_4 -Pd
1.45 espie 124: </pre>
125: <p>
126: Starting with the 2.8 release, selected binary packages are also made
1.69 naddy 127: available.
1.46 espie 128: Please refer to the
1.45 espie 129: <a href="pkg-stable.html">stable packages page</a> to find out about
130: updated packages and important updates to the stable branch.
131: </p>
132: <p>
133: Package names are <strong>always</strong> changed in case of a package
134: update, to avoid any risk of confusion between a package from the release
135: and a bug-fixed package.
136: </p>
137:
1.53 naddy 138: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Manage">Managing Installed Packages</a></font></h3>
1.31 espie 139:
1.47 naddy 140: The <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=packages&sektion=7&format=html">packages(7)</a>
1.31 espie 141: manual page holds useful information about ways to manage
142: installed packages, solve conflicts (files that already exist) and handle
143: dependencies.
144: <p>
1.45 espie 145: As of OpenBSD 2.8, to update a package you must:
1.31 espie 146: <ul>
1.33 espie 147: <li>Remove the old package using
1.47 naddy 148: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_delete&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_delete(1)</a>
1.33 espie 149: <li>Add the new package using
1.47 naddy 150: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>
1.31 espie 151: </ul>
152: This is slightly inconvenient, as packages may trigger dependencies, and
153: you may have to remove a large subset of packages for an update.
154:
1.53 naddy 155: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Use">Using Ports</a></font></h3>
1.31 espie 156:
157: If a given package does not exist for your architecture, you may still
158: be able to compile the port. Besides, some users will want to compile
159: everything from source for various reasons.
160:
1.25 deraadt 161: <p>
1.27 brad 162: You can ftp the release version from the pub/OpenBSD/[version] (where
163: [version] is the release number) directory on any of the
164: <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
165: The release versions are the ones we ship on our CDROM, and have gone
166: through more testing than any snapshot.
1.30 espie 167: Further information is available in the
1.47 naddy 168: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ports&sektion=7&format=html">ports(7)</a> man page.
1.30 espie 169:
1.76 david 170: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Life">Life Cycle of the Ports Tree</a></font></h3>
1.27 brad 171:
172: <p>
1.31 espie 173: The ports tree, like the rest of OpenBSD, is constantly changing.
1.37 marc 174: <p>
175: The current ports tree <strong>may not</strong> be used with the previous
1.59 espie 176: release. This is due to changes, typically with the port make process,
177: that require code based upon the OpenBSD-current source tree.
1.30 espie 178: <p>The ports tree works as a single entity. Updating a single directory is
179: not guaranteed to work, as package dependencies may force you to update
180: and recompile vast portions of the ports tree.
1.31 espie 181: It is strongly suggested that people don't track ports-current unless
1.30 espie 182: they're prepared to deal with various problems.
1.33 espie 183: <a href=mail.html>Mailing lists</a> such as
1.47 naddy 184: <code>ports-changes@openbsd.org</code> or
1.33 espie 185: <code>tech@openbsd.org</code> will probably be invaluable.
1.27 brad 186:
1.59 espie 187: <p>You are advised to track ports-stable on a production machine:
188: we will try to keep the stable ports tree up-to-par with respect to
189: problems, and to provide timely binary updates as well.
190:
191: <p>Note that vanishing distfiles is not an issue, as
192: ftp.openbsd.org holds the complete repository. Even changing checksums is
193: not an issue: you can issue the command
194: <pre>
195: make checksum REFETCH=true
196: </pre>
197: to make sure you are grabbing the correct distfile for your ports tree.
198:
199: For definitions of <i>current</i> and <i>stable</i>, see the
200: <a href="faq/upgrade-minifaq.html#1.1">Upgrade
201: Mini-FAQ</a>.
202:
203:
1.48 naddy 204: <p>A list of <a href="portsplus/index.html">daily changes</a> to ports
1.47 naddy 205: and ports-current is available.
206:
1.27 brad 207: <p>
1.29 espie 208: The ports-current tree can be retrieved via:
1.25 deraadt 209: <ul>
210: <li><a href=anoncvs.html>Anonymous CVS</a> (see link). The command is
211: essentially <strong>cvs get ports</strong>.
212: <li>Anonymous ftp from
213: <a href="ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz">
214: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz</a>.
1.19 marc 215: This archive is updated nightly.
1.32 naddy 216: <li><a href="cvsup.html">CVSup</a>. See the example for using CVSup in
217: <a href="cvsup.html#checkout">checkout mode</a>.
1.25 deraadt 218: <li>Your web browser using the
219: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/">CVS
1.20 marc 220: web interface</a>.
1.25 deraadt 221: </ul>
222:
1.53 naddy 223: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="XFree86">Ports and XFree86</a></font></h3>
224: There is some special magic in the OpenBSD XFree86 configuration files
1.35 espie 225: that allows the ports tree to install imake-based applications under
226: /usr/local.
227:
1.53 naddy 228: <p>As of 2.9, OpenBSD ships with XFree86 4.0.3.
229: If you are using a previous distribution, together with XFree86 binaries
230: from the XFree86 project, you may need to apply the patch in
1.35 espie 231: <code>/usr/ports/infrastructure/patches/patch-xfree-4.0</code>
1.53 naddy 232: to a default binary XFree86 4.0.x distribution for it to work with the OpenBSD
1.35 espie 233: ports tree.
234:
1.55 heko 235: <h3><a name="Example"></a><font color="#0000e0">Example Use of the Ports Tree</font></h3>
1.54 lebel 236:
237: <p>
1.25 deraadt 238: Let's say you managed to get a ports tree and you want to compile and
1.33 espie 239: install the archiving utility <strong>unzip</strong>. You should be able to
1.23 espie 240: do something like this:
1.31 espie 241:
1.11 deraadt 242: <pre>
1.31 espie 243: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
244: % su
245: # make
246: # make install
247: # exit
1.11 deraadt 248: </pre>
1.25 deraadt 249:
1.31 espie 250: Easy, huh ? Especially considering all that happened in the background:
251: <ul>
252: <li>Fetch unzip sources from an ftp site,
253: <li>Check the source archive integrity,
254: <li>Extract the unzip source,
255: <li>Apply OpenBSD specific patches,
256: <li>Configure and build the program,
257: <li>Create a binary package under /usr/ports/packages,
258: <li>Install that package.
259: </ul>
1.25 deraadt 260:
261: <p>
1.61 brad 262: With OpenBSD 3.0, almost all ports automatically build
1.31 espie 263: packages when installing.
264:
265: <p>
266: As ports get built, the /usr/ports/distfiles directory gets filled with
267: program sources, and /usr/ports/packages gets filled with binary packages.
1.55 heko 268: Users with low connectivity may refer to
1.64 rohee 269: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=mirroring-ports&sektion=7&format=html">mirroring-ports(7)</a> for
1.45 espie 270: an efficient way to grab all distfiles at once. In OpenBSD-current, you
1.46 espie 271: can use the script /usr/ports/infrastructure/fetch/clean-old to track
272: old distfiles.
1.72 avsm 273: Note that the OpenBSD CD only includes the ports tree and selected packages.
1.31 espie 274: If you wish to have the distfiles, you will have to get them through an
275: independent way.
1.25 deraadt 276:
1.55 heko 277: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Advanced"></a>Advanced Usage of the Ports Tree</font></h3>
278:
279: <p>
280: Ports tree has many features for the advanced user that make it a valuable
281: tool beyond basic installation. Advanced users may wish to tamper with
282: the makefiles (you should read the
1.63 rohee 283: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=make&sektion=1&format=html">make(1)</a>
1.72 avsm 284: manual page first) or set various variables from the make command-line or in
1.55 heko 285: <tt>/etc/mk.conf</tt>. These variables are described in detail in the
1.63 rohee 286: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=bsd.port.mk&sektion=5&format=html">bsd.port.mk(5)</a>
1.55 heko 287: manual page, and the porting documents below.
288: </p>
289:
1.53 naddy 290: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Create">Creating New Ports</a></font></h3>
1.25 deraadt 291: <p>
292: If you are interested in helping to expand the OpenBSD ports tree
293: you should first read <a href="porting.html">porting.html</a>.
1.50 naddy 294: That page references the
1.66 jufi 295: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/index.html">
296: FreeBSD Porter's Handbook</a>
1.25 deraadt 297: as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.
1.56 heko 298:
299: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Lag">When a Port Is Lagging Behind the Mainstream Version</a></font></h3>
300:
301: <p>
302: The ports collection is a volunteer project. Sometimes the project simply
303: doesn't have the developer resources to keep everything up-to-date.
304: Developers pretty much pick up what they consider interesting and can
305: test in their environment. Your <a href="goals.html#funding">donations</a>
306: count for what platforms the ports can be tested on.
307: </p>
308:
309: <p>
310: Some individual ports may lag behind the mainstream versions because of this.
311: The ports collection may have a version back of a program from January while a new
312: version of the program has been released by its developers in May three months ago.
313: Often this is a conscious decision; the new version may have problems in it on
314: OpenBSD that the maintainer is trying to solve, or that have simply made the
315: application worse than the old version: OpenBSD may have different
316: <a href="goals.html">goals</a> than the mainstream developers in other projects,
317: which sometimes results in features and design or implementation choices
318: that are undesirable from OpenBSD developers' point of view. The update may also be
319: postponed because the new version is not considered a crucial update.
320: </p>
321:
322: <p>
323: If you really need a new version of a port, you should ask the <tt>MAINTAINER</tt>
324: of the port to update the port (see <a href="#Help">below</a> on how to find out who
325: the maintainer is); if you can send patches for this, all the better. To create proper
326: patches, you should refer to the <a href="porting.html">documentation on building
327: ports</a>.
328: </p>
1.25 deraadt 329:
1.53 naddy 330: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Help">Problems and Contacts</a></font></h3>
1.25 deraadt 331:
332: <p>
1.54 lebel 333: If you have trouble with an existing port, please send e-mail to the
334: port maintainer. To see who is the maintainer of the port, type, for
335: example:
336: <pre>
337: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
1.74 xsa 338: % make show=MAINTAINER
1.54 lebel 339: </pre>
340: Alternatively, if there is no maintainer, or you can't reach
341: him/her, send mail to the OpenBSD
1.27 brad 342: ports mailing list, <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@openbsd.org</a>.
1.54 lebel 343: Please don't use the misc@openbsd.org mailing list for questions about ports.
1.25 deraadt 344: Corrections are always welcome, but in any case do please provide:
345: <ul>
346: <li>The output of <code>uname -a</code>,
347: <li>Your OpenBSD version, including any patches you may have applied,
348: <li>A complete description of the problem.
1.45 espie 349: </ul>
350: For ports that don't build correctly, a complete build transcript is almost
1.54 lebel 351: always required. You can use the portslogger script, found in
352: /usr/ports/infrastructure/build, for this. A sample run of portslogger
353: might be:
354:
355: <pre>
356: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
357: % su
358: # mkdir -p ~/portslogs
1.63 rohee 359: # make clean install 2>&1 | /usr/ports/infrastructure/build/portslogger \
1.54 lebel 360: ~/portslogs
361: </pre>
362:
363: After this, you should have a logfile of the build in your ~/portslogs directory
364: that you can send to the port maintainer. Also, make sure you are not using
365: any special options in your build, for example in /etc/mk.conf.
366:
367: <p>
368: Alternatively, you can
1.45 espie 369: <ul>
1.47 naddy 370: <li>Use <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=script&sektion=1&format=html">script(1)</a> to create a complete build transcript. Don't remove the configure information.
371: <li>Attach the output of <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_info&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_info(1)</a> if it seems even remotely relevant.
372: <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=gcc&sektion=1&format=html">gcc(1)</a> internal compiler errors do ask you to report the bug to
1.45 espie 373: the gcc mailing-list. It does save time if you follow their direction, and
374: provide at least the various files produced by <tt>gcc -save-temps</tt>.
1.25 deraadt 375: </ul>
376:
377: <hr>
378: <a href="index.html"><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.47 naddy 379: <a href="mailto:www@openbsd.org">www@openbsd.org</a>
1.77 ! nick 380: <br><small>$OpenBSD: ports.html,v 1.76 2004/02/13 07:49:52 david Exp $</small>
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