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    <title>OpenBSD Port Testing Guide</title>
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    <h2><font color="#e00000">Port Testing Guide</font></h2>
    <hr>

    <h2><font color="#0000e0">Index</font></h2>

    <ul>
      <li><a href="#Introduction">Introduction</a></li>

      <li><a href="#How">How</a></li>

      <li><a href="#First">First step</a></li>

      <li><a href="#Testing">Testing</a></li>

      <li><a href="#Commenting">Commenting</a></li>

      <li><a href="#More">More testing</a></li>
    </ul>
    <hr>

    <h2><a name="Introduction"><font color=
    "#0000e0">Introduction</font></a></h2>

    <p>The <a href="ports.html">ports tree</a> is an huge piece of work that
    permits OpenBSD users to use third-party programs without wasting time 
    patching, configuring and installing each one individually. This work 
    is done by a group of volunteers who spend their time porting and testing
    applications across the range of OpenBSD platforms. Many people think 
    that they cannot help this process because they do not have enough 
    knowledge; this is false because they can help porters work better and 
    faster.</p>

    <h2><a name="How"><font color="#0000e0">How</font></a></h2>

    <p>Testing submitted updates or new ports which are posted on the
    <a href="mail.html">ports mailing list</a>. By doing this
    you reduce the latency of commits and also increase the number of ports to
    be committed (many ports are not committed because of lack of testing!).</p>

    <h2><a name="First"><font color="#0000e0">First step</font></a></h2>

    <p>The ports tree is developed against 
    <a href="plus.html">OpenBSD-current</a>; there is no guarantee that 
    new ports will work correctly on the other branches. This also means 
    you should upgrade your system and ports tree to -current 
    (instructions on how to do this can be found at the 
    <a href="../anoncvs.html">anoncvs</a> page and in the
    <a href="./upgrade-minifaq.html">FAQ</a>).
    It is also recommended that you subscribe to the ports and ports-changes
    <a href="../mail.html">mailing-lists</a>. This way you will be notified
    about new or updated ports and about changes in the ports tree.</p>
    
    <h2><a name="Testing"><font color="#0000e0">Testing</font></a></h2>

    <p>There are two types of submissions on the mailing-lists; new ports
    and updates. New ports are generally posted as tarball attachments
    or urls. A good idea is to extract them into the 
    <tt>/usr/ports/mystuff/</tt> directory and test from there.
    Updates are generally a diff against the -current ports tree, so it is best 
    to copy the port to <tt>mystuff/</tt> and apply the diff to prevent tree
    breakage.</p>

    <p>Step-by-step building is needed to verify that every target, see 
    <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ports&amp;sektion=7&amp;">
    ports(7)</a>, is achieved correctly :</p>

    <ul>
      <li><i>fetch</i>
        <ul>
         <li>Needed to verify that distfile(s) are correctly downloaded. Try to test all of the <tt>MASTER_SITES</tt> specified to make sure they are all valid sources.</li>
      </ul>

      <li><i>extract</i>
        <ul><li>Each of the distfiles should install any dependent programs (such as bzip2) beforehand.</li></ul>

      <li><i>patch</i>
        <ul>
         <li>Patches should apply cleanly without any warnings.
         <li>There shouldn't be any <tt>.orig</tt> files left behind in the
             <tt>patches/</tt> directory.
         <li>Another common mistake is to include RCS tags in a patch; this will break when the port is checked into the repository and the RCS tag expanded.
        </ul>

      <li><i>configure</i>
        <ul>
         <li>Check that configure scripts correctly detect features
             on your platform.
         <li>GNU libtool is notorious for undesired 'features' on OpenBSD,
             so check that the port is using a recent version which creates
             correct libraries on your architecture.
         <li>The configure script should not detect stray applications already
             installed on your system without explicit dependencies being
             set in the port.
        </ul>

      <li><i>build</i>
        <ul>
         <li>Check for build errors and suspicious warnings.
         <li>Warnings about <a href=
      "http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=tmpnam&amp;sektion=3&amp;">
      tmpnam(3)</a> issues should be resolved by using
      <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=mkstemp&amp;sektion=3&amp;"> mkstemp(3)</a>.</li>
         <li>Try to set the <tt>SEPARATE_BUILD</tt> variable to 'concurrent' and test if the build still works.
         <li>Make sure dependencies on GNU make are really necessary.
        </ul>

      <li><i>fake</i>
        <ul>
         <li>This target installs the application into a fake working
         directory, to ensure that all files can be easily packaged up
         without affecting the base system.
         <li>The port should <b>never</b> install files outside of the
         fake directory (such as into <tt>/usr/local</tt>).
         <li>GNU libtool occasionally has trouble relinking libraries
         during the fake process on some architectures.
        </ul>

      <li><i>package</i>
        <ul>
         <li>Package creation can break if pkg/PLIST* and/or
         pkg/PFRAG* are wrong.</li>
        </ul>

      <li><i>install</i>
        <ul>
         <li>Packages should install all of the files from their packaging
         lists successfully and with the correct permissions.  Be especially
         careful of files with the setuid bits set.
         <li>Make sure that the package <tt>INSTALL</tt> script works
         correctly, and does not overwrite any files in <tt>/etc</tt>.
        </ul>

      <li><i>deinstall</i>
        <ul>
         <li>This should remove all files installed by the package, except
         those in <tt>/etc</tt>.
         <li>Make sure that the <tt>DEINSTALL</tt> script works as expected.
        </ul>
    </ul>

    <p>Checking of pkg/ files like DESCR, MESSAGE, INSTALL,
    DEINSTALL is also to be done</p>

    <h2><a name="Commenting"><font color="#0000e0">Commenting</font></a></h2>

    <p>At the end of the test comes the really important thing : comments.
    Even if the port is working fine comments must be done. If we have ten
    posts where people say that the port runs fine under different architectures
    then the commit is done faster. If it does not work then some information
    must be given.
    There are tools that can help in this task, like <a href=
    "http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/infrastructure/build/portslogger">
    portslogger</a>.</p>

    <p>Example :<br>
    </p>

    <div style="margin-left: 2em">
      <table border="0" cellpadding="3" width="100%">
        <tr>
          <td nowrap bgcolor="#EEEEEE">
<pre>
    # make install | /usr/ports/infrastructure/build/portslogger .
</pre>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </div>
    <br>
     <br>
     

    <p>This will redirect the output into a log file located in the current
    directory.</p>

    <h2><a name="More"><font color="#0000e0">More testing</font></a></h2>

    <p>Check the port Makefile for typos, incorrect links, useless or
    missing variables, correct licensing and correct category.
    For those who are more skilled other targets can be tested like
    lib-depends-check. Patches and pkg directories deep verification
    as well as providing diffs to correct bugs, add flavors, or other
    enhancements.</p>
    <hr>
    <small>
      <p>$OpenBSD: porttest.html,v 1.9 2002/09/11 13:39:51 avsm Exp $<br>
      Copyright &copy; 2002 OpenBSD</p>
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