Building an OpenBSD port

First look at the porting information on this page. Then check out the referenced documents, especially the OpenBSD porting checklist.

Test, then re-test, and finally test again!

Submit the port. Create a gzipped tarball of the port directory. You can then either place it on a public FTP or HTTP server, sending its address to ports@openbsd.org or send the port mime encoded to the same address. Pick whichever method works best for you.

Available Porting Information

• The file /usr/share/mk/bsd.port.mk. This is the system ports makefile included at the end of each individual port makefile. Read the comments at the start of the makefile. They do a good job of describing the available make options.
• The NetBSD Package System documentation. This document describes NetBSD's version of the FreeBSD ports system and is quite helpful.
• Section 19.2.5 of the FreeBSD Handbook. This is the FreeBSD porting bible.
• OpenBSD porting checklist.
• The OpenBSD ports mailing list, ports@OpenBSD.ORG.

OpenBSD Porting Policy

• OpenBSD does NOT use /usr/local/etc/rc.d.
  /usr/local is often shared between several machines thanks to NFS. For this reason, configuration files that are specific to a given machine can't be stored under /usr/local, /etc is the central repository for per machine configuration files. Moreover, OpenBSD policy is to never update files under /etc automatically. Ports that need some specific boot setup should advise the administrator about what to do instead of blindly installing files.
• OpenBSD does NOT compress man pages.
• OpenBSD does NOT require -lcrypt.
  DES encryption is part of the standard libc.
• OpenBSD requests all mktemp warnings to be fixed. This is not as simple as s/mktemp/mkstemp/g. If you are not absolutely sure of what you are doing please request help from the ports mailing list.
• Any software to be installed as a server should be scanned for buffer overflows, especially unsafe use of strcat/strcpy/strcmp/sprintf. In general, sprintf should be replaced with snprintf.
• Be sure to add the $OpenBSD$ CVS tag to the Makefile. If importing a port from another system be sure to leave their tag in the Makefile, too. However, replace the FreeBSD $Id$ tag with the $FreeBSD$ tag.
• Do NOT use alpha or beta code when preparing a port. Use the latest regular or patch release.
• The goal is to get all ported applications to support OpenBSD. To achieve this goal you MUST feed any OpenBSD patches back to the application maintainer.

Other Helpful Hints

• Do not assume /usr/local/bin or /usr/X11R6/bin is in the installers path. A good way to verify this is to create and install your port while running as root with only /bin and /usr/bin in your path.
• Do NOT generate shared libraries for ${MACHINE_ARCH} == alpha
• In OpenBSD curses.h/libcurses/libtermlib are the ``new curses''. Change:
  ncurses.h ==> curses.h
-lncurses ==> -lcurses
  ``Old curses'' is available as ocurses.h/libocurses.