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- The FreeBSD Ports FAQ file
-
-Revision: $Id: ports.FAQ,v 1.2 1995/01/06 19:24:13 gpalmer Exp $
-
-The ports system is kinda new, so there haven't been too many FAQ's to
-date, but hopefully this document will pre-empt (some|most) of them!!
-The ports system is constantly changing, but hopefully this document
-will be kept reasonably up to date (and you never know, it might even
-make sense!).
-
- - Gary Palmer
- & jkh
-
-1) What is a port?
-
- Unfortunately, there are more variations of UN*X than most people
-know of, and hence not all software for UN*X available on the Internet
-will work on all versions of UN*X (in fact, I can guarantee it!).
-Hence, some software needs modifications to work under some UN*Xs. The
-process of making those modifications is known as ``porting'' and the
-result known as a ``port'' (not to be confused with the sockets on the
-back of your computer!).
-
-
-2) What is the FreeBSD Ports Collection?
-
- People who (allegedly) know what they are doing have automated the
-process of ``porting'' software to FreeBSD, and the result is the
-Ports Collection. The general idea is that a combination of various
-programming tools available in the base FreeBSD installation will
-allow you to fetch the port from a FreeBSD mirror site, type ``make''
-and get the fully working program.
-
- The ports collection itself normally doesn't have any of the
-original source code necessary for the compilation in the tree, just
-those shell scripts, Makefiles and source code ``diffs'' that are
-necessary to compile the program under FreeBSD. This is meant to keep
-the entire system down to a manageable size, and the current system
-has over 100 ports in the master source tree, and yet a compressed tar
-file of that tree is about 2 megabytes (all the source code needed is
-over 100Mb's!).
-
-
-3) How does the system compile with no source code?
-
- A ports' Makefile automatically looks in a central location on
-your system (usually /usr/ports/distfiles, though this value can be
-customized) for the associated set of original distribution files that
-have been ``ported''. These are generally provided at various places
-on the Internet, though if you have a CDROM distribution of FreeBSD
-then you've already got them available on your CD for ease of use.
-See section 3.1 if you have such a CD distribution, otherwise skip to
-section 3.2.
-
-3.1 Compiling ports from CD
-
- Type something profound here.
-
-3.2 Compiling ports using an Internet connection
-
- The ports collection can also use an auto-fetch system to keep
-your ports collection source tree up to date, updating the central
-``distfiles'' version for you the next time you compile the port.
-
- Of course, this always assumes you have a permanent network link,
-or don't mind heavy usage of your telephone. If you don't want heavy
-network usage when you compile your ports tree, you can pre-fetch the
-necessary tarballs beforehand and put them into /usr/ports/distfiles
-(or wherever DISTDIR points) by hand. A good way to see what files a
-port is going to need is to cd to that port's directory and do a
-``make -n fetch'' to see what it does.
-
- You can also chose to get the source files either from the master
-FTP site as defined in the relevant Makefile (in the MASTER_SITES
-line), or some FreeBSD mirror site also carrying a set of distfiles,
-as does the master FTP site on ftp.FreeBSD.org (aka ftp.cdrom.com) in
-the directory /pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles. Note that the files in
-that directory are not guarenteed to be kept up to date - this is a
-volunteer project! We can't make any guarantees about the mirror
-sites either - they are obviously under independant control and don't
-even have to mirror the distfiles directory.
-
- If you have a non-permanant link, you can fetch all the distfiles by
-going to the top of the tree and typing ``make fetch''.
-
-
-4) It doesn't work?!
-
-Oh. You can do one of four (4) things :
-
-a) Fix it yourself. Technical details can be found in the GUIDELINES file,
- available from URL ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/GUIDELINES
-
-b) Gripe. This is done by e-mail *ONLY*! The people at Walnut Creek are
- in no way responsible for the functionality (or lack thereof) of the
- FreeBSD system as a whole, and especially the ports system, which
- is mainly contributed by 3rd parties. (If you don't believe me, check
- the catalogue, especially the line saying "We cannot offer tech-support
- on this product")
-
- The e-mail address is Ports@FreeBSD.org. Please include details of
- the port, where you got both the port source & distfile(s) from, and
- what the error was.
-
- Note: At time of writing, lang/Sather doesn't seem to work on Pentium
- machines due to the Intel Curse (aka the Floating Point Division Bug).
- Please don't tell us about this - gripe to Intel instead - it's their
- bug!
-
-c) Forget it. This is the easiest for most - very few of the programs in
- ports can be classed as `essential'!
-
-d) Grab the pre-compiled package from a ftp server. The ``master'' package
- collection is in:
- ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/packages/
-
- though check your local mirror first, please!
-
- These are more likely to work (on the whole) than trying to compile from
- source, and a lot faster!
-
-
-5) I've ported a program and I want to make a port out of it. What now?
-
- See the file GUIDELINES, in:
- ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/GUIDELINES
-
- This contains details of the procedure and structure involved.
-
-
-6) I've got a good port, what now?
-
- Upload the fixed version to freefall.cdrom.com /pub/incoming or
-ftp.FreeBSD.org /pub/FreeBSD/incoming and send e-mail to
-ports@FreeBSD.org with the filename and details. Someone on the
-all-volunteer `ports committee' will (hopefully) look it over and
-commit it to the ports collection if they like the looks of it.
-
-
-7) Things go funny during the fetch stage of compilation!
-
- We know. Please don't blame us. There is a program called `ncftp'
-which is used instead of the normal ftp as it can do so-called
-``background'' or ``batch'' transfers, ideal for this situation.
-Unfortunately it can do strange things, and has crashed at least one
-machine (during circumstances stranger than most, I'll admit, but it
-was still responsible). Hopefully a future release of ncftp will fix
-these problems (it is not maintained by the main FreeBSD team, but a
-third party, who is I believe aware of its shortcomings)
-
-
-8) I want to leave the compile going overnight, but some ports don't
- like this.
-
- There is a way around this. Before starting the compilation, type:
- setenv BATCH yes # (if you use csh/tcsh) or
- BATCH=yes # (for sh/bash)
-
- This should miss out ports which need user interaction. Unfortunately,
-ncftp doesn't know about this trick, and can often screw up and ask
-stupid questions in unattended batch mode. See (7).
-
- To compile those ports left out by doing the above, using a
-different login shell (or unsetting the above BATCH variable), set the
-INTERACTIVE variable instead (you can use the same statements as above
-except replace ``BATCH'' with ``INTERACTIVE'') and re-run make. This
-should now compile only those ports which will definitely ask for user
-interaction.
-
-
-9) The ports collection is weak. What can I do to help?
-
- First read the bsd.port.mk file (which may be found in
-/usr/share/mk/) and the associated bsd.port.subdir.mk file. A lot of
-the weirdness can be explained properly in there (most of the current
-weirdness is due to the lack of assumptions about anything, which is
-necessary due to the generic nature of these files). Also check that
-you have an up-to-date copy, as the file can change from minute to
-minute. A reasonably up-to-date copy can be found in:
-
- ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/src/share/mk/bsd.port*
-
- If you find that you still need to go in there and alter things,
-by all means do so, and then send the diffs to ports@FreeBSD.org if
-you'd like them to be a part of the default distribution. Please also
-remember that any changes must respect backwards-compatability with
-any and all older Makefiles, unless you want a real nightmare of
-/usr/ports munging ahead of you! Large scale changes will generally
-not be warmly welcomed unless all the existing makefiles work without
-alteration. Sorry!
-
-
-10) This FAQ is weak. What can I do?
-
- Send changes to ports@FreeBSD.org. Changes are most welcome!
-This FAQ is also very green and should be considered no more than
-a `good start' for now. Authors? You can come out of hiding any
-time now! :-)
-
-
-11) How do I get more information on all the ports?
-
- One good method is to cd to the top of the ports tree (say /usr/ports)
-and type something like:
-
- make describe | sed -e '/===/D' -e 's;/usr/ports/;;' | expand -40
-
-The ``make describe'' will try to extract the one-line description from
-each port, and the ``sed'' will delete the extraneous output. ``expand''
-just makes it a little more readable (sort of - you may want to season
-the output of this more to taste).
-
-
-12) I've heard of a new checksum system. What is this for?
-
- For various reasons, when using FTP over the Internet to obtain the
-source code, you may not always end up with the same copy of the code
-that the origional porter worked from, and this can lead to problems.
-So a simple checksumming system has been employed to try and highlight
-problems in this area.
-
- To check the entire system, go to the top of the ports tree
-(defaults to /usr/ports) and type
-
- make checksum
-
-This will give a report on the validity of the files you have FTP'd. If some
-are missing, the system will attempt to retrieve them before running the
-checksum routine. The same technique can be applied to a single port.
-
- The system will complain if there is no pre-computed checksum available
-for that port. Not all ports currently have checksums, but this should be
-cured soon.
-
- Some older versions of the system don't recognise the ``checksum''
-target. In that case, try the command
-
- make check-md5
-
-(``check-md5'' was the pre-cursor to the ``checksum'' target). If neither
-work, get the latest copies of bsd.port.mk and bsd.port.subdir.mk from
-
- ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/src/share/mk/bsd.port*
-
-and install them in /usr/share/mk. This will get you the latest version
-of the ports system.
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