212 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
212 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
The FreeBSD Ports FAQ file
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Revision: $Id: PORTS.FAQ,v 1.1 1995/01/04 00:43:35 jkh Exp $
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The ports system is kinda new, so there haven't been too many FAQ's to
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date, but hopefully this document will pre-empt (some|most) of them!!
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The ports system is constantly changing, but hopefully this document
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will be kept reasonably up to date (and you never know, it might even
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make sense!).
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- Gary Palmer
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& jkh
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1) What is a port?
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Unfortunately, there are more variations of UN*X than most people
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know of, and hence not all software for UN*X available on the Internet
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will work on all versions of UN*X (in fact, I can guarantee it!).
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Hence, some software needs modifications to work under some UN*Xs. The
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process of making those modifications is known as ``porting'' and the
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result known as a ``port'' (not to be confused with the sockets on the
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back of your computer!).
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2) What is the FreeBSD Ports Collection?
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People who (allegedly) know what they are doing have automated the
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process of ``porting'' software to FreeBSD, and the result is the
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Ports Collection. The general idea is that a combination of various
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programming tools available in the base FreeBSD installation will
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allow you to fetch the port from a FreeBSD mirror site, type ``make''
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and get the fully working program.
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The ports collection itself normally doesn't have any of the
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original source code necessary for the compilation in the tree, just
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those shell scripts, Makefiles and source code ``diffs'' that are
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necessary to compile the program under FreeBSD. This is meant to keep
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the entire system down to a manageable size, and the current system
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has over 100 ports in the master source tree, and yet a compressed tar
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file of that tree is about 2 megabytes (all the source code needed is
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over 100Mb's!).
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3) How does the system compile with no source code?
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A ports' Makefile automatically looks in a central location on
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your system (usually /usr/ports/distfiles, though this value can be
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customized) for the associated set of original distribution files that
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have been ``ported''. These are generally provided at various places
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on the Internet, though if you have a CDROM distribution of FreeBSD
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then you've already got them available on your CD for ease of use.
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See section 3.1 if you have such a CD distribution, otherwise skip to
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section 3.2.
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3.1 Compiling ports from CD
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Type something profound here.
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3.2 Compiling ports using an Internet connection
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The ports collection can also use an auto-fetch system to keep
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your ports collection source tree up to date, updating the central
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``distfiles'' version for you the next time you compile the port.
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Of course, this always assumes you have a permanent network link,
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or don't mind heavy usage of your telephone. If you don't want heavy
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network usage when you compile your ports tree, you can pre-fetch the
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necessary tarballs beforehand and put them into /usr/ports/distfiles
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(or wherever DISTDIR points) by hand. A good way to see what files a
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port is going to need is to cd to that port's directory and do a
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``make -n fetch'' to see what it does.
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You can also chose to get the source files either from the master
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FTP site as defined in the relevant Makefile (in the MASTER_SITES
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line), or some FreeBSD mirror site also carrying a set of distfiles,
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as does the master FTP site on ftp.FreeBSD.org (aka ftp.cdrom.com) in
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the directory /pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles. Note that the files in
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that directory are not guarenteed to be kept up to date - this is a
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volunteer project! We can't make any guarantees about the mirror
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sites either - they are obviously under independant control and don't
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even have to mirror the distfiles directory.
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If you have a non-permanant link, you can fetch all the distfiles by
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going to the top of the tree and typing ``make fetch''.
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4) It doesn't work?!
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Oh. You can do one of four (4) things :
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a) Fix it yourself. Technical details can be found in the GUIDELINES file,
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available from URL ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/GUIDELINES
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b) Gripe. This is done by e-mail *ONLY*! The people at Walnut Creek are
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in no way responsible for the functionality (or lack thereof) of the
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FreeBSD system as a whole, and especially the ports system, which
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is mainly contributed by 3rd parties. (If you don't believe me, check
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the catalogue, especially the line saying "We cannot offer tech-support
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on this product")
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The e-mail address is Ports@FreeBSD.org. Please include details of
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the port, where you got both the port source & distfile(s) from, and
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what the error was.
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Note: At time of writing, lang/Sather doesn't seem to work on Pentium
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machines due to the Intel Curse (aka the Floating Point Division Bug).
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Please don't tell us about this - gripe to Intel instead - it's their
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bug!
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c) Forget it. This is the easiest for most - very few of the programs in
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ports can be classed as `essential'!
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d) Grab the pre-compiled package from a ftp server. The ``master'' package
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collection is in:
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ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/packages/
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though check your local mirror first, please!
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These are more likely to work (on the whole) than trying to compile from
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source, and a lot faster!
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5) I've ported a program and I want to make a port out of it. What now?
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See the file GUIDELINES, in:
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ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/GUIDELINES
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This contains details of the procedure and structure involved.
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6) I've got a good port, what now?
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Upload the fixed version to freefall.cdrom.com /pub/incoming or
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ftp.FreeBSD.org /pub/FreeBSD/incoming and send e-mail to
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ports@FreeBSD.org with the filename and details. Someone on the
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all-volunteer `ports committee' will (hopefully) look it over and
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commit it to the ports collection if they like the looks of it.
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7) Things go funny during the fetch stage of compilation!
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We know. Please don't blame us. There is a program called `ncftp'
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which is used instead of the normal ftp as it can do so-called
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``background'' or ``batch'' transfers, ideal for this situation.
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Unfortunately it can do strange things, and has crashed at least one
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machine (during circumstances stranger than most, I'll admit, but it
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was still responsible). Hopefully a future release of ncftp will fix
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these problems (it is not maintained by the main FreeBSD team, but a
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third party, who is I believe aware of its shortcomings)
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8) I want to leave the compile going overnight, but some ports don't
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like this.
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There is a way around this. Before starting the compilation, type:
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setenv BATCH yes # (if you use csh/tcsh) or
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BATCH=yes # (for sh/bash)
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This should miss out ports which need user interaction. Unfortunately,
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ncftp doesn't know about this trick, and can often screw up and ask
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stupid questions in unattended batch mode. See (7).
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To compile those ports left out by doing the above, using a
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different login shell (or unsetting the above BATCH variable), set the
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INTERACTIVE variable instead (you can use the same statements as above
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except replace ``BATCH'' with ``INTERACTIVE'') and re-run make. This
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should now compile only those ports which will definitely ask for user
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interaction.
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9) The ports collection is weak. What can I do to help?
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First read the bsd.port.mk file (which may be found in
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/usr/share/mk/) and the associated bsd.port.subdir.mk file. A lot of
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the weirdness can be explained properly in there (most of the current
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weirdness is due to the lack of assumptions about anything, which is
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necessary due to the generic nature of these files). Also check that
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you have an up-to-date copy, as the file can change from minute to
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minute. A reasonably up-to-date copy can be found in:
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ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/src/share/mk/bsd.port*
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If you find that you still need to go in there and alter things,
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by all means do so, and then send the diffs to ports@FreeBSD.org if
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you'd like them to be a part of the default distribution. Please also
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remember that any changes must respect backwards-compatability with
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any and all older Makefiles, unless you want a real nightmare of
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/usr/ports munging ahead of you! Large scale changes will generally
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not be warmly welcomed unless all the existing makefiles work without
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alteration. Sorry!
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10) This FAQ is weak. What can I do?
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Send changes to ports@FreeBSD.org. Changes are most welcome!
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This FAQ is also very green and should be considered no more than
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a `good start' for now. Authors? You can come out of hiding any
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time now! :-)
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11) How do I get more information on all the ports?
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One good method is to cd to the top of the ports tree (say /usr/ports)
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and type something like:
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make describe | sed -e '/===/D' -e 's;/usr/ports/;;' | expand -40
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The ``make describe'' will try to extract the one-line description from
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each port, and the ``sed'' will delete the extraneous output. ``expand''
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just makes it a little more readable (sort of - you may want to season
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the output of this more to taste).
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