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Annotation of www/ports.html, Revision 1.96

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1.47      naddy       6: <meta name="description" content="The OpenBSD Ports and Packages Collection">
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                      8: <meta name="distribution" content="global">
1.91      steven      9: <meta name="copyright" content="copyright 1997-2007 by OpenBSD.">
1.27      brad       10: <title>OpenBSD Ports and Packages</title>
1.47      naddy      11: <link rev="made" href="mailto:www@openbsd.org">
1.43      jufi       12: </head>
1.25      deraadt    13:
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                     15:
1.88      nick       16: <a href="index.html"><img alt="[OpenBSD]" height="30" width="141" src="images/smalltitle.gif" border="0"></a>
1.30      espie      17:
1.88      nick       18: <h2><font color="#e00000">The Ports &amp; Packages collection</font></h2>
1.25      deraadt    19:
1.47      naddy      20: <hr>
                     21:
1.88      nick       22: <h3><font color="#0000e0">Index</font></h3>
1.53      naddy      23: <ul>
1.88      nick       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="#X">Ports and the X Window System</a></li>
                     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>
                     33: <li><a href="#Create">Creating New Ports</a></li>
                     34: <li><a href="#Lag">When a Port Is Lagging Behind the Mainstream Version</a></li>
                     35: <li><a href="#Help">Problems and Contacts</a></li>
1.53      naddy      36: </ul>
                     37:
                     38: <hr>
                     39:
1.88      nick       40: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Motivation">Motivation</a></font></h3>
1.25      deraadt    41:
1.88      nick       42: OpenBSD is a fairly complete system of its own, but still there is a lot
                     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
                     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.
1.25      deraadt    48:
                     49: <p>
1.47      naddy      50: <strong><font color="#e00000">
1.88      nick       51: The ports &amp; 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.
1.31      espie      54: </font></strong>
1.25      deraadt    55:
                     56: <p>
1.88      nick       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
                     60: controls
1.25      deraadt    61: <ul>
1.88      nick       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.
1.25      deraadt    67: </ul>
1.88      nick       68: This information is kept in a directory hierarchy under the
                     69: /usr/ports directory.
1.31      espie      70:
                     71: <p>
1.88      nick       72: Packages are the binary equivalent of ports.  A compiled port becomes
                     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&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>
1.31      espie      75:
                     76: <p>
1.47      naddy      77: <strong><font color="#e00000">
1.88      nick       78: Packages look like simple <code>.tgz</code> bundles, but they should
                     79: always be added using
                     80: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>,
                     81: as there might be some extra information that only
                     82: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>
                     83: knows how to handle.</font></strong>
                     84: Tip: you can distinguish between packages and <strong>.tgz</strong> bundles
                     85: using
                     86: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_info&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">pkg_info(1)</a>.
1.31      espie      87:
1.88      nick       88: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Get">Getting Packages</a></font></h3>
1.31      espie      89:
1.88      nick       90: A large collection of pre-compiled packages is available for most common
                     91: architectures.
1.31      espie      92: <ul>
1.88      nick       93: <li>On the CD-Rom (that you can order <a href="orders.html">here</a>),
                     94: <li>On the <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
                     95: <li>Browsed and retrieved from the web package lists:
1.40      beck       96: <ul>
1.95      steven     97: <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/4.3_packages/">Packages for OpenBSD 4.3</a>
1.92      pvalchev   98: <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/4.2_packages/">Packages for OpenBSD 4.2</a>
1.91      steven     99: <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/4.1_packages/">Packages for OpenBSD 4.1</a>
1.40      beck      100: </ul>
1.31      espie     101: </ul>
                    102:
1.44      espie     103:
1.88      nick      104: Adding a package is as easy as
1.96    ! landry    105: <code>pkg_add pkgname</code>.
1.88      nick      106: If you are grabbing packages from a single source (a package repository),
                    107: set PKG_PATH to that repository URL, in order to grab dependencies.
1.31      espie     108:
                    109: <p>
1.94      steven    110: For instance, to install the Gimp package for the 4.3 release on an i386
1.88      nick      111: machine off the ftp site (including dependencies), do:
1.31      espie     112:
                    113: <pre>
1.94      steven    114:     # export PKG_PATH=ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.3/packages/i386/
1.96    ! landry    115:     # pkg_add gimp
1.31      espie     116: </pre>
                    117:
1.88      nick      118: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="stable">Ports and Packages Update for an OpenBSD Release</a></font></h3>
1.45      espie     119: <p>
1.88      nick      120: The 2.7 release saw the introduction of a stable branch for the ports tree.
1.45      espie     121: <p>
1.94      steven    122: For instance, to grab the stable branch for the 4.3 release:
1.45      espie     123: <pre>
                    124:     $ cd /usr/ports
1.94      steven    125:     $ cvs -q -d anoncvs@some.anon.server:/cvs up -r OPENBSD_4_3 -Pd
1.45      espie     126: </pre>
                    127: <p>
1.88      nick      128: Starting with the 2.8 release, selected binary packages are also made
                    129: available.
                    130: Please refer to the
                    131: <a href="pkg-stable.html">stable packages page</a> to find out about
                    132: updated packages and important updates to the stable branch.
                    133: If you want to receive security announcements, you can subscribe
                    134: to the ports-security mailing list.
1.45      espie     135: </p>
                    136: <p>
1.88      nick      137: Package names are <strong>always</strong> changed in case of a package
                    138: update, to avoid any risk of confusion between a package from the release
                    139: and a bug-fixed package.
1.45      espie     140: </p>
                    141:
1.88      nick      142: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Manage">Managing Installed Packages</a></font></h3>
1.31      espie     143:
1.88      nick      144: The <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=packages&amp;sektion=7&amp;format=html">packages(7)</a>
                    145: manual page holds useful information about ways to manage
                    146: installed packages, solve conflicts (files that already exist) and handle
                    147: dependencies.
1.31      espie     148: <p>
1.96    ! landry    149: Starting with OpenBSD 3.9, an update mechanism is provided by
        !           150: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>.
        !           151: To update a package (and its dependencies) you must set PKG_PATH to a
        !           152: repository URL which contains updates, and use
        !           153: <code>pkg_add -ui pkgname</code>.
1.31      espie     154:
1.88      nick      155: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Use">Using Ports</a></font></h3>
1.31      espie     156:
1.88      nick      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:
                    161: <p>
                    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.
                    167: Further information is available in the
                    168: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ports&amp;sektion=7&amp;format=html">ports(7)</a> man page.
                    169:
                    170: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Life">Life Cycle of the Ports Tree</a></font></h3>
                    171:
                    172: <p>
                    173: The ports tree, like the rest of OpenBSD, is constantly changing.
                    174: <p>
                    175: The current ports tree <strong>may not</strong> be used with the previous
                    176: release.  This is due to changes, typically with the port make process,
                    177: that require code based upon the OpenBSD-current source tree.
                    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.
                    181: It is strongly suggested that people don't track ports-current unless
                    182: they're prepared to deal with various problems.
                    183: <a href=mail.html>Mailing lists</a> such as
                    184: <code>ports-changes@openbsd.org</code> or
                    185: <code>tech@openbsd.org</code> will probably be invaluable.
                    186:
                    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
1.59      espie     194: <pre>
                    195:        make checksum REFETCH=true
                    196: </pre>
1.88      nick      197: to make sure you are grabbing the correct distfile for your ports tree.
1.59      espie     198:
1.88      nick      199: For definitions of <i>current</i> and <i>stable</i>, see the
                    200: <a href="faq/faq5.html#Flavors">OpenBSD's flavors</a>.
1.59      espie     201:
                    202:
1.88      nick      203: <p>A list of <a href="portsplus/index.html">daily changes</a> to ports
                    204: and ports-current is available.
1.47      naddy     205:
1.27      brad      206: <p>
1.88      nick      207: The ports-current tree can be retrieved via:
1.25      deraadt   208: <ul>
1.88      nick      209: <li><a href=anoncvs.html>Anonymous CVS</a> (see link).  The command is
                    210: essentially <strong>cvs get ports</strong>.
                    211: <li>Anonymous ftp from
                    212: <a href="ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz">
                    213: ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz</a>.
                    214:        This archive is updated nightly.
                    215: <li><a href="cvsup.html">CVSup</a>. See the example for using CVSup in
                    216:     <a href="cvsup.html#checkout">checkout mode</a>.
                    217: <li>Your web browser using the
                    218: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/">CVS
                    219:        web interface</a>.
1.25      deraadt   220: </ul>
                    221:
1.88      nick      222: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="X">Ports and the X Window System</a></font></h3>
                    223: There is some special magic in the OpenBSD X configuration files
                    224: that allows the ports tree to install imake-based applications under
                    225: /usr/local.
1.35      espie     226:
1.88      nick      227: <h3><a name="Example"></a><font color="#0000e0">Example Use of the Ports Tree</font></h3>
1.54      lebel     228:
                    229: <p>
1.88      nick      230: Let's say you managed to get a ports tree and you want to compile and
                    231: install the archiving utility <strong>unzip</strong>.  You should be able to
                    232:        do something like this:
1.31      espie     233:
1.11      deraadt   234: <pre>
1.31      espie     235:     % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
                    236:     % su
1.96    ! landry    237:     # make install clean
1.31      espie     238:     # exit
1.11      deraadt   239: </pre>
1.25      deraadt   240:
1.88      nick      241: Easy, huh ? Especially considering all that happened in the background:
1.31      espie     242: <ul>
1.88      nick      243: <li>Fetch unzip sources from an ftp site,
                    244: <li>Check the source archive integrity,
                    245: <li>Extract the unzip source,
                    246: <li>Apply OpenBSD specific patches,
                    247: <li>Configure and build the program,
                    248: <li>Create a binary package under /usr/ports/packages,
                    249: <li>Install that package.
1.31      espie     250: </ul>
1.25      deraadt   251:
                    252: <p>
1.88      nick      253: With OpenBSD 3.0, almost all ports automatically build
                    254: packages when installing.
1.31      espie     255:
                    256: <p>
1.88      nick      257: As ports get built, the /usr/ports/distfiles directory gets filled with
                    258: program sources, and /usr/ports/packages gets filled with binary packages.
                    259: Users with low connectivity may refer to
                    260: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=mirroring-ports&amp;sektion=7&amp;format=html">mirroring-ports(7)</a> for
                    261: an efficient way to grab all distfiles at once.  In OpenBSD-current, you
                    262: can use the script /usr/ports/infrastructure/fetch/clean-old to track
                    263: old distfiles.
                    264: Note that the OpenBSD CD only includes the ports tree and selected packages.
                    265: If you wish to have the distfiles, you will have to get them through an
                    266: independent way.
                    267:
                    268: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Advanced"></a>Advanced Usage of the Ports Tree</font></h3>
                    269:
                    270: <p>
                    271: Ports tree has many features for the advanced user that make it a valuable
                    272: tool beyond basic installation. Advanced users may wish to tamper with
                    273: the makefiles (you should read the
1.63      rohee     274: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=make&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">make(1)</a>
1.88      nick      275: manual page first) or set various variables from the make command-line or in
                    276: <tt>/etc/mk.conf</tt>. These variables are described in detail in the
1.63      rohee     277: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=bsd.port.mk&amp;sektion=5&amp;format=html">bsd.port.mk(5)</a>
1.88      nick      278: manual page, and the porting documents below.
1.55      heko      279: </p>
                    280:
1.88      nick      281: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Create">Creating New Ports</a></font></h3>
1.25      deraadt   282: <p>
1.88      nick      283: If you are interested in helping to expand the OpenBSD ports tree
                    284: you should first read <a href="porting.html">porting.html</a>.
                    285: That page references the
1.66      jufi      286: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/index.html">
                    287: FreeBSD Porter's Handbook</a>
1.88      nick      288: as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.
1.56      heko      289:
1.88      nick      290: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Lag">When a Port Is Lagging Behind the Mainstream Version</a></font></h3>
1.56      heko      291:
                    292: <p>
1.88      nick      293: The ports collection is a volunteer project. Sometimes the project simply
                    294: doesn't have the developer resources to keep everything up-to-date.
                    295: Developers pretty much pick up what they consider interesting and can
                    296: test in their environment. Your <a href="goals.html#funding">donations</a>
                    297: count for what platforms the ports can be tested on.
1.56      heko      298: </p>
                    299:
                    300: <p>
1.88      nick      301: Some individual ports may lag behind the mainstream versions because of this.
                    302: The ports collection may have a version back of a program from January while a new
                    303: version of the program has been released by its developers in May three months ago.
                    304: Often this is a conscious decision; the new version may have problems in it on
                    305: OpenBSD that the maintainer is trying to solve, or that have simply made the
                    306: application worse than the old version: OpenBSD may have different
                    307: <a href="goals.html">goals</a> than the mainstream developers in other projects,
                    308: which sometimes results in features and design or implementation choices
                    309: that are undesirable from OpenBSD developers' point of view. The update may also be
                    310: postponed because the new version is not considered a crucial update.
1.56      heko      311: </p>
                    312:
                    313: <p>
1.88      nick      314: If you really need a new version of a port, you should ask the <tt>MAINTAINER</tt>
                    315: of the port to update the port (see <a href="#Help">below</a> on how to find out who
                    316: the maintainer is); if you can send patches for this, all the better. To create proper
                    317: patches, you should refer to the <a href="porting.html">documentation on building
                    318: ports</a>.
1.56      heko      319: </p>
1.25      deraadt   320:
1.88      nick      321: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Help">Problems and Contacts</a></font></h3>
1.25      deraadt   322:
                    323: <p>
1.88      nick      324: If you have trouble with an existing port, please send e-mail to the
                    325: port maintainer. To see who is the maintainer of the port, type, for
                    326: example:
1.54      lebel     327: <pre>
                    328:        % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
1.74      xsa       329:        % make show=MAINTAINER
1.54      lebel     330: </pre>
1.88      nick      331: Alternatively, if there is no maintainer, or you can't reach
                    332: him/her, send mail to the OpenBSD
                    333: ports mailing list, <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@openbsd.org</a>.
                    334: Please don't use the misc@openbsd.org mailing list for questions about ports.
                    335: Corrections are always welcome, but in any case do please provide:
1.25      deraadt   336: <ul>
1.88      nick      337: <li>The output of <code>uname -a</code>,
                    338: <li>Your OpenBSD version, including any patches you may have applied,
                    339: <li>A complete description of the problem.
1.45      espie     340: </ul>
1.88      nick      341: For ports that don't build correctly, a complete build transcript is almost
                    342: always required. You can use the portslogger script, found in
                    343: /usr/ports/infrastructure/build, for this. A sample run of portslogger
                    344: might be:
1.54      lebel     345:
                    346: <pre>
                    347:        % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
                    348:        % su
                    349:        # mkdir -p ~/portslogs
1.63      rohee     350:        # make clean install 2>&amp;1 | /usr/ports/infrastructure/build/portslogger \
1.54      lebel     351:                ~/portslogs
                    352: </pre>
                    353:
1.88      nick      354: After this, you should have a logfile of the build in your ~/portslogs directory
                    355: that you can send to the port maintainer. Also, make sure you are not using
                    356: any special options in your build, for example in /etc/mk.conf.
1.54      lebel     357:
                    358: <p>
1.88      nick      359: Alternatively, you can
1.45      espie     360: <ul>
1.88      nick      361: <li>Use <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=script&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">script(1)</a> to create a complete build transcript. Don't remove the configure information.
                    362:     <li>Attach the output of <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_info&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">pkg_info(1)</a> if it seems even remotely relevant.
                    363:     <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=gcc&amp;sektion=1&amp;format=html">gcc(1)</a> internal  compiler errors do ask you to report the bug to
                    364: the gcc mailing-list. It does save time if you follow their direction, and
                    365: provide at least the various files produced by <tt>gcc -save-temps</tt>.
1.25      deraadt   366: </ul>
                    367:
                    368: <hr>
1.88      nick      369: <a href="index.html"><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.47      naddy     370: <a href="mailto:www@openbsd.org">www@openbsd.org</a>
1.96    ! landry    371: <br><small>$OpenBSD: ports.html,v 1.95 2008/05/01 06:13:23 steven Exp $</small>
1.25      deraadt   372: </body>
1.11      deraadt   373: </html>