OpenBSD ports mechanism

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History

OpenBSD is a fairly complete system of its own, but still there is a lot of software that one might want see added. However there is the problem on where to draw the line as to what to include, as well as the occasional licensing and export restriction problems. As OpenBSD is supposed to be a small stand-alone UNIX-like operating system, some things just can't be shipped with the system.

We wanted to find a way for users to easily get software we don't provide and started to look around. We didn't have to look far, as sibling project FreeBSD already had an excellent mechanism for exactly this purpose called "The ports collection".

At first we tried to use their collection as-is, but due to incompatibility problems between FreeBSD and OpenBSD we decided to branch out and create our very own OpenBSD Ports Project using FreeBSD's as a starting point. This also allows us to tune the ports better to our system.

Short description and setup

The ports idea is to have, for each piece of software, a Makefile that controls

• where to fetch it,
• how to do the fetch,
• what it depends upon (if anything),
• how to alter the sources (if needed),
• and how to configure, build and install it.

This information is kept in a directory hierarchy under the /usr/ports directory.

Getting the Ports tree

The ports source tree can be retrieved via:

• Anonymous CVS (see link). The command is essentially cvs get ports.
• Anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/ports.tar.gz. This archive is updated nightly.
• Your web browser using the CVS web interface.

You can also ftp the latest release version from the pub/OpenBSD/[version] (where [version] is the release number, e.g. 2.5) directory on any of the ftp mirror sites. The release versions are the ones we ship on our CDROM, and has gone through better testing than any snapshot. However, they age pretty quickly, due to older distribution files disappearing from the net as new releases arrive. Therefore, you likely will want to get and use a newer version of the ports tree.

Example use of the Ports tree

Let's say you managed to get a ports tree and you want to compile and install the archiving utility unzip. You should be able to do something like this:

% cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
% su
# make
# make install
# exit

Port status information

The ports status page is updated as team members add new ports and verify existing ports. Existing ports are continually verified to validate source availability and proper operation with the current OpenBSD sources. The page notes the date last checked and the nature of any change. This is a new resource that is not yet complete. If you have any information to add to the status page please send it to ports@OpenBSD.ORG.

Creating new ports

If you are interested in helping to expand the OpenBSD ports tree you should first read porting.html. That page references the porting section of the FreeBSD handbook as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.

Problems and contacts

If you have trouble with ports please send e-mail to the OpenBSD ports mailing list, ports@OpenBSD.ORG. Corrections are always welcome, but in any case do please provide:

• The output of uname -a,
• Your OpenBSD version, including any patches you may have applied,
• A complete description of the problem.