The Ports & Packages collection

Index

• Motivation
• Getting Packages
• Ports and Packages Update for an OpenBSD Release
• Managing Installed Packages
• Using Ports
• Life Cycle of the Ports Tree
• Ports and XFree86
• Example Use of the Ports Tree
• Advanced Usage of the Ports Tree
• Creating New Ports
• When a Port Is Lagging Behind the Mainstream Version
• Problems and Contacts

Motivation

The ports & packages collection does NOT go through the thorough security audit that OpenBSD follows. Although we strive to keep the quality of the packages collection high, we just do not have enough human resources to ensure the same level of robustness and security.

The port collection, originally borrowed from FreeBSD, fills this gap. The concept is to have, for each third-party 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.

Packages are the binary equivalent of ports. A compiled port becomes a package that can be registered into the system using pkg_add(1)

Packages look like simple .tgz bundles, but they should always be added using pkg_add(1), as there might be some extra information that only pkg_add(1) knows how to handle. Tip: you can distinguish between packages and .tgz bundles using pkg_info(1).

Getting Packages

• On the CD-Rom (that you can order here),
• On the ftp mirror sites.
• Browsed and retrieved from the web package lists:
  • Packages for OpenBSD 3.0
  • Packages for OpenBSD 2.9
  • Packages for OpenBSD 2.8
  • Packages for OpenBSD 2.7

For instance, to install the Gimp package for the 3.0 release on an i386 machine off the ftp site (including dependencies), do:

    # setenv PKG_PATH ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.0/packages/i386/
    # pkg_add ${PKG_PATH}gimp-1.2.2.tgz

Ports and Packages Update for an OpenBSD Release

The 2.7 release saw the introduction of a stable branch for the ports tree.

For instance, to grab the stable branch for the 3.0 release:

    $ cd /usr/ports
    $ cvs -q -d anoncvs@some.anon.server:/cvs up -r OPENBSD_3_0 -Pd

Starting with the 2.8 release, selected binary packages are also made available. Thanks to Christian Weisgerber for handling the hard work of coordinating the stable branch changes. Please refer to the stable packages page to find out about updated packages and important updates to the stable branch.

Package names are always changed in case of a package update, to avoid any risk of confusion between a package from the release and a bug-fixed package.

Managing Installed Packages

As of OpenBSD 2.8, to update a package you must:

• Remove the old package using pkg_delete(1)
• Add the new package using pkg_add(1)

Using Ports

You can ftp the release version from the pub/OpenBSD/[version] (where [version] is the release number) directory on any of the ftp mirror sites. The release versions are the ones we ship on our CDROM, and have gone through more testing than any snapshot. Further information is available in the ports(7) man page.

Life Cycle of the Ports Tree

The ports tree, like the rest of OpenBSD, is constantly changing.

The current ports tree may not be used with the previous release. This is due to changes, typically with the port make process, that require code based upon the OpenBSD-current source tree.

The ports tree works as a single entity. Updating a single directory is not guaranteed to work, as package dependencies may force you to update and recompile vast portions of the ports tree. It is strongly suggested that people don't track ports-current unless they're prepared to deal with various problems. Mailing lists such as ports-changes@openbsd.org or tech@openbsd.org will probably be invaluable.

You are advised to track ports-stable on a production machine: we will try to keep the stable ports tree up-to-par with respect to problems, and to provide timely binary updates as well.

Note that vanishing distfiles is not an issue, as ftp.openbsd.org holds the complete repository. Even changing checksums is not an issue: you can issue the command

	make checksum REFETCH=true 

A list of daily changes to ports and ports-current is available.

The ports-current 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.
• CVSup. See the example for using CVSup in checkout mode.
• Your web browser using the CVS web interface.

Ports and XFree86

As of 2.9, OpenBSD ships with XFree86 4.0.3. If you are using a previous distribution, together with XFree86 binaries from the XFree86 project, you may need to apply the patch in /usr/ports/infrastructure/patches/patch-xfree-4.0 to a default binary XFree86 4.0.x distribution for it to work with the OpenBSD 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

• Fetch unzip sources from an ftp site,
• Check the source archive integrity,
• Extract the unzip source,
• Apply OpenBSD specific patches,
• Configure and build the program,
• Create a binary package under /usr/ports/packages,
• Install that package.

With OpenBSD 3.0, almost all ports automatically build packages when installing.

As ports get built, the /usr/ports/distfiles directory gets filled with program sources, and /usr/ports/packages gets filled with binary packages. Users with low connectivity may refer to mirroring-ports(7) for an efficient way to grab all distfiles at once. In OpenBSD-current, you can use the script /usr/ports/infrastructure/fetch/clean-old to track old distfiles. Note that the OpenBSD CD only include the ports tree and selected packages. If you wish to have the distfiles, you will have to get them through an independent way.

Advanced Usage of the Ports Tree

Ports tree has many features for the advanced user that make it a valuable tool beyond basic installation. Advanced users may wish to tamper with the makefiles (you should read the make(1) manual page first) or set various variables from the make commandline or in /etc/mk.conf. These variables are described in detail in the bsd.port.mk(5) manual page, and the porting documents below.

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 FreeBSD Porter's Handbook as well as OpenBSD specific policies and hints.

When a Port Is Lagging Behind the Mainstream Version

The ports collection is a volunteer project. Sometimes the project simply doesn't have the developer resources to keep everything up-to-date. Developers pretty much pick up what they consider interesting and can test in their environment. Your donations count for what platforms the ports can be tested on.

Some individual ports may lag behind the mainstream versions because of this. The ports collection may have a version back of a program from January while a new version of the program has been released by its developers in May three months ago. Often this is a conscious decision; the new version may have problems in it on OpenBSD that the maintainer is trying to solve, or that have simply made the application worse than the old version: OpenBSD may have different goals than the mainstream developers in other projects, which sometimes results in features and design or implementation choices that are undesirable from OpenBSD developers' point of view. The update may also be postponed because the new version is not considered a crucial update.

If you really need a new version of a port, you should ask the MAINTAINER of the port to update the port (see below on how to find out who the maintainer is); if you can send patches for this, all the better. To create proper patches, you should refer to the documentation on building ports.

Problems and Contacts

If you have trouble with an existing port, please send e-mail to the port maintainer. To see who is the maintainer of the port, type, for example:

       % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
       % make show VARNAME=MAINTAINER

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

       % cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
       % su
       # mkdir -p ~/portslogs
       # make clean install 2>&1 | /usr/ports/infrastructure/build/portslogger \
               ~/portslogs

Alternatively, you can

• Use script(1) to create a complete build transcript. Don't remove the configure information.
• Attach the output of pkg_info(1) if it seems even remotely relevant.
• gcc(1) internal compiler errors do ask you to report the bug to the gcc mailing-list. It does save time if you follow their direction, and provide at least the various files produced by gcc -save-temps.