Annotation of www/ports.html, Revision 1.98
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1.30 espie 17:
1.88 nick 18: <h2><font color="#e00000">The Ports & 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">
1.98 ! ian 51: The ports & packages collection does NOT go through the thorough security audit that the OpenBSD
! 52: base system does.
1.88 nick 53: Although we strive to keep the quality of the packages collection high, we just do not have enough human
54: resources to ensure the same level of robustness and security.
1.31 espie 55: </font></strong>
1.25 deraadt 56:
57: <p>
1.88 nick 58: The port collection, originally borrowed from
1.98 ! ian 59: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a> and significantly rewritten, fills this gap.
1.88 nick 60: The concept is to have, for each third-party software, a Makefile that
61: controls
1.25 deraadt 62: <ul>
1.88 nick 63: <li>where to fetch it,
64: <li>how to do the fetch,
65: <li>what it depends upon (if anything),
66: <li>how to alter the sources (if needed),
67: <li>and how to configure, build and install it.
1.25 deraadt 68: </ul>
1.88 nick 69: This information is kept in a directory hierarchy under the
70: /usr/ports directory.
1.31 espie 71:
72: <p>
1.88 nick 73: Packages are the binary equivalent of ports. A compiled port becomes
1.98 ! ian 74: a package that can be easily installed and registered into the system using
1.63 rohee 75: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>
1.31 espie 76:
77: <p>
1.47 naddy 78: <strong><font color="#e00000">
1.88 nick 79: Packages look like simple <code>.tgz</code> bundles, but they should
80: always be added using
81: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>,
82: as there might be some extra information that only
83: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>
84: knows how to handle.</font></strong>
85: Tip: you can distinguish between packages and <strong>.tgz</strong> bundles
86: using
87: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_info&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_info(1)</a>.
1.31 espie 88:
1.88 nick 89: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Get">Getting Packages</a></font></h3>
1.31 espie 90:
1.88 nick 91: A large collection of pre-compiled packages is available for most common
1.98 ! ian 92: architectures:
1.31 espie 93: <ul>
1.88 nick 94: <li>On the CD-Rom (that you can order <a href="orders.html">here</a>),
95: <li>On the <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
96: <li>Browsed and retrieved from the web package lists:
1.40 beck 97: <ul>
1.97 steven 98: <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/4.4_packages/">Packages for OpenBSD 4.4</a>
1.95 steven 99: <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/4.3_packages/">Packages for OpenBSD 4.3</a>
1.92 pvalchev 100: <li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/4.2_packages/">Packages for OpenBSD 4.2</a>
1.40 beck 101: </ul>
1.31 espie 102: </ul>
103:
1.44 espie 104:
1.88 nick 105: Adding a package is as easy as
1.96 landry 106: <code>pkg_add pkgname</code>.
1.88 nick 107: If you are grabbing packages from a single source (a package repository),
108: set PKG_PATH to that repository URL, in order to grab dependencies.
1.31 espie 109:
110: <p>
1.98 ! ian 111: For instance, to install the Gimp package (and any needed dependencies)
! 112: for the 4.4 release on an i386 machine from the ftp site, do:
1.31 espie 113:
114: <pre>
1.97 steven 115: # export PKG_PATH=ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.4/packages/i386/
1.96 landry 116: # pkg_add gimp
1.31 espie 117: </pre>
118:
1.88 nick 119: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="stable">Ports and Packages Update for an OpenBSD Release</a></font></h3>
1.45 espie 120: <p>
1.88 nick 121: The 2.7 release saw the introduction of a stable branch for the ports tree.
1.45 espie 122: <p>
1.97 steven 123: For instance, to grab the stable branch for the 4.4 release:
1.45 espie 124: <pre>
125: $ cd /usr/ports
1.97 steven 126: $ cvs -q -d anoncvs@some.anon.server:/cvs up -r OPENBSD_4_4 -Pd
1.45 espie 127: </pre>
128: <p>
1.88 nick 129: Starting with the 2.8 release, selected binary packages are also made
130: available.
131: Please refer to the
132: <a href="pkg-stable.html">stable packages page</a> to find out about
133: updated packages and important updates to the stable branch.
134: If you want to receive security announcements, you can subscribe
135: to the ports-security mailing list.
1.45 espie 136: </p>
137: <p>
1.88 nick 138: Package names are <strong>always</strong> changed in case of a package
139: update, to avoid any risk of confusion between a package from the release
140: and a bug-fixed package.
1.45 espie 141: </p>
142:
1.88 nick 143: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Manage">Managing Installed Packages</a></font></h3>
1.31 espie 144:
1.88 nick 145: The <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=packages&sektion=7&format=html">packages(7)</a>
146: manual page holds useful information about ways to manage
147: installed packages, solve conflicts (files that already exist) and handle
148: dependencies.
1.31 espie 149: <p>
1.96 landry 150: Starting with OpenBSD 3.9, an update mechanism is provided by
151: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1&format=html">pkg_add(1)</a>.
152: To update a package (and its dependencies) you must set PKG_PATH to a
153: repository URL which contains updates, and use
154: <code>pkg_add -ui pkgname</code>.
1.31 espie 155:
1.88 nick 156: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Use">Using Ports</a></font></h3>
1.31 espie 157:
1.88 nick 158: If a given package does not exist for your architecture, you may still
159: be able to compile the port. Besides, some users will want to compile
160: everything from source for various reasons.
161:
162: <p>
163: You can ftp the release version from the pub/OpenBSD/[version] (where
164: [version] is the release number) directory on any of the
165: <a href=ftp.html>ftp mirror sites</a>.
166: The release versions are the ones we ship on our CDROM, and have gone
167: through more testing than any snapshot.
168: Further information is available in the
169: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ports&sektion=7&format=html">ports(7)</a> man page.
170:
171: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Life">Life Cycle of the Ports Tree</a></font></h3>
172:
173: <p>
174: The ports tree, like the rest of OpenBSD, is constantly changing.
175: <p>
176: The current ports tree <strong>may not</strong> be used with the previous
177: release. This is due to changes, typically with the port make process,
178: that require code based upon the OpenBSD-current source tree.
179: <p>The ports tree works as a single entity. Updating a single directory is
180: not guaranteed to work, as package dependencies may force you to update
181: and recompile vast portions of the ports tree.
182: It is strongly suggested that people don't track ports-current unless
183: they're prepared to deal with various problems.
184: <a href=mail.html>Mailing lists</a> such as
185: <code>ports-changes@openbsd.org</code> or
186: <code>tech@openbsd.org</code> will probably be invaluable.
187:
188: <p>You are advised to track ports-stable on a production machine:
189: we will try to keep the stable ports tree up-to-par with respect to
190: problems, and to provide timely binary updates as well.
191:
192: <p>Note that vanishing distfiles is not an issue, as
193: ftp.openbsd.org holds the complete repository. Even changing checksums is
194: not an issue: you can issue the command
1.59 espie 195: <pre>
196: make checksum REFETCH=true
197: </pre>
1.88 nick 198: to make sure you are grabbing the correct distfile for your ports tree.
1.59 espie 199:
1.88 nick 200: For definitions of <i>current</i> and <i>stable</i>, see the
201: <a href="faq/faq5.html#Flavors">OpenBSD's flavors</a>.
1.59 espie 202:
203:
1.88 nick 204: <p>A list of <a href="portsplus/index.html">daily changes</a> to ports
205: and ports-current is available.
1.47 naddy 206:
1.27 brad 207: <p>
1.88 nick 208: The ports-current tree can be retrieved via:
1.25 deraadt 209: <ul>
1.88 nick 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>.
215: This archive is updated nightly.
216: <li><a href="cvsup.html">CVSup</a>. See the example for using CVSup in
217: <a href="cvsup.html#checkout">checkout mode</a>.
218: <li>Your web browser using the
219: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/">CVS
220: web interface</a>.
1.25 deraadt 221: </ul>
222:
1.88 nick 223: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="X">Ports and the X Window System</a></font></h3>
224: There is some special magic in the OpenBSD X configuration files
225: that allows the ports tree to install imake-based applications under
226: /usr/local.
1.35 espie 227:
1.88 nick 228: <h3><a name="Example"></a><font color="#0000e0">Example Use of the Ports Tree</font></h3>
1.54 lebel 229:
230: <p>
1.88 nick 231: Let's say you managed to get a ports tree and you want to compile and
232: install the archiving utility <strong>unzip</strong>. You should be able to
233: do something like this:
1.31 espie 234:
1.11 deraadt 235: <pre>
1.31 espie 236: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
237: % su
1.96 landry 238: # make install clean
1.31 espie 239: # exit
1.11 deraadt 240: </pre>
1.25 deraadt 241:
1.88 nick 242: Easy, huh ? Especially considering all that happened in the background:
1.31 espie 243: <ul>
1.88 nick 244: <li>Fetch unzip sources from an ftp site,
245: <li>Check the source archive integrity,
246: <li>Extract the unzip source,
247: <li>Apply OpenBSD specific patches,
248: <li>Configure and build the program,
249: <li>Create a binary package under /usr/ports/packages,
250: <li>Install that package.
1.31 espie 251: </ul>
1.25 deraadt 252:
253: <p>
1.88 nick 254: With OpenBSD 3.0, almost all ports automatically build
255: packages when installing.
1.31 espie 256:
257: <p>
1.88 nick 258: As ports get built, the /usr/ports/distfiles directory gets filled with
259: program sources, and /usr/ports/packages gets filled with binary packages.
260: Users with low connectivity may refer to
261: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=mirroring-ports&sektion=7&format=html">mirroring-ports(7)</a> for
262: an efficient way to grab all distfiles at once. In OpenBSD-current, you
263: can use the script /usr/ports/infrastructure/fetch/clean-old to track
264: old distfiles.
265: Note that the OpenBSD CD only includes the ports tree and selected packages.
266: If you wish to have the distfiles, you will have to get them through an
267: independent way.
268:
269: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Advanced"></a>Advanced Usage of the Ports Tree</font></h3>
270:
271: <p>
272: Ports tree has many features for the advanced user that make it a valuable
273: tool beyond basic installation. Advanced users may wish to tamper with
274: the makefiles (you should read the
1.63 rohee 275: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=make&sektion=1&format=html">make(1)</a>
1.88 nick 276: manual page first) or set various variables from the make command-line or in
277: <tt>/etc/mk.conf</tt>. These variables are described in detail in the
1.63 rohee 278: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=bsd.port.mk&sektion=5&format=html">bsd.port.mk(5)</a>
1.88 nick 279: manual page, and the porting documents below.
1.55 heko 280: </p>
281:
1.88 nick 282: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Create">Creating New Ports</a></font></h3>
1.25 deraadt 283: <p>
1.88 nick 284: If you are interested in helping to expand the OpenBSD ports tree
285: you should first read <a href="porting.html">porting.html</a>.
286: That page references the
1.66 jufi 287: <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/index.html">
288: FreeBSD Porter's Handbook</a>
1.88 nick 289: as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.
1.56 heko 290:
1.88 nick 291: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Lag">When a Port Is Lagging Behind the Mainstream Version</a></font></h3>
1.56 heko 292:
293: <p>
1.88 nick 294: The ports collection is a volunteer project. Sometimes the project simply
295: doesn't have the developer resources to keep everything up-to-date.
296: Developers pretty much pick up what they consider interesting and can
297: test in their environment. Your <a href="goals.html#funding">donations</a>
298: count for what platforms the ports can be tested on.
1.56 heko 299: </p>
300:
301: <p>
1.88 nick 302: Some individual ports may lag behind the mainstream versions because of this.
303: The ports collection may have a version back of a program from January while a new
304: version of the program has been released by its developers in May three months ago.
305: Often this is a conscious decision; the new version may have problems in it on
306: OpenBSD that the maintainer is trying to solve, or that have simply made the
307: application worse than the old version: OpenBSD may have different
308: <a href="goals.html">goals</a> than the mainstream developers in other projects,
309: which sometimes results in features and design or implementation choices
310: that are undesirable from OpenBSD developers' point of view. The update may also be
311: postponed because the new version is not considered a crucial update.
1.56 heko 312: </p>
313:
314: <p>
1.88 nick 315: If you really need a new version of a port, you should ask the <tt>MAINTAINER</tt>
316: of the port to update the port (see <a href="#Help">below</a> on how to find out who
317: the maintainer is); if you can send patches for this, all the better. To create proper
318: patches, you should refer to the <a href="porting.html">documentation on building
319: ports</a>.
1.56 heko 320: </p>
1.25 deraadt 321:
1.88 nick 322: <h3><font color="#0000e0"><a name="Help">Problems and Contacts</a></font></h3>
1.25 deraadt 323:
324: <p>
1.88 nick 325: If you have trouble with an existing port, please send e-mail to the
326: port maintainer. To see who is the maintainer of the port, type, for
327: example:
1.54 lebel 328: <pre>
329: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
1.74 xsa 330: % make show=MAINTAINER
1.54 lebel 331: </pre>
1.88 nick 332: Alternatively, if there is no maintainer, or you can't reach
333: him/her, send mail to the OpenBSD
334: ports mailing list, <a href="mailto:ports@openbsd.org">ports@openbsd.org</a>.
335: Please don't use the misc@openbsd.org mailing list for questions about ports.
336: Corrections are always welcome, but in any case do please provide:
1.25 deraadt 337: <ul>
1.88 nick 338: <li>The output of <code>uname -a</code>,
339: <li>Your OpenBSD version, including any patches you may have applied,
340: <li>A complete description of the problem.
1.45 espie 341: </ul>
1.88 nick 342: For ports that don't build correctly, a complete build transcript is almost
343: always required. You can use the portslogger script, found in
344: /usr/ports/infrastructure/build, for this. A sample run of portslogger
345: might be:
1.54 lebel 346:
347: <pre>
348: % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
349: % su
350: # mkdir -p ~/portslogs
1.63 rohee 351: # make clean install 2>&1 | /usr/ports/infrastructure/build/portslogger \
1.54 lebel 352: ~/portslogs
353: </pre>
354:
1.88 nick 355: After this, you should have a logfile of the build in your ~/portslogs directory
356: that you can send to the port maintainer. Also, make sure you are not using
357: any special options in your build, for example in /etc/mk.conf.
1.54 lebel 358:
359: <p>
1.88 nick 360: Alternatively, you can
1.45 espie 361: <ul>
1.88 nick 362: <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.
363: <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.
364: <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
365: the gcc mailing-list. It does save time if you follow their direction, and
366: provide at least the various files produced by <tt>gcc -save-temps</tt>.
1.25 deraadt 367: </ul>
368:
369: <hr>
1.88 nick 370: <a href="index.html"><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.47 naddy 371: <a href="mailto:www@openbsd.org">www@openbsd.org</a>
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