NAME
ports
—
contributed applications
DESCRIPTION
The OpenBSD Ports Collection is the infrastructure used to create binary packages for third party applications.
For normal usage refer to packages(7), as most ports produce binary packages which are available from the official CD-ROM, or on a neighborly FTP mirror.
Each port contains any patches necessary to make the original
application source code compile and run on OpenBSD.
Compiling an application is as simple as typing make
in the port directory! The Makefile automatically
fetches the application source code, either from a local disk or via ftp,
unpacks it on the local system, applies the patches, and compiles it. If all
goes well, simply type sudo make install
to install
the application.
For more information about using ports, see The OpenBSD Ports System (http://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/ports.html). For information about creating new ports, see the OpenBSD Porter's Handbook (http://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/).
For a detailed description of the build process, see bsd.port.mk(5).
PORTS MASTER MAKEFILE
The ports master Makefile, normally located in
/usr/ports/Makefile (but see
PORTSDIR
below) offers a few useful targets.
- index
- rebuild the ports complete index, /usr/ports/INDEX
- pkglocatedb
- build a pkg_mklocatedb(1) database file and place it in ${PORTSDIR}/packages/${MACHINE_ARCH}/ftp, for use by locate(1),
- print-index
- display the contents of the index in a user-friendly way,
- search
- invoked with a key, e.g.,
make search key=foo
, retrieve information relevant to a given port (obsolescent).
Starting in OpenBSD 4.0, there is a port, databases/sqlports that builds an sqlite database containing most information relevant to every port in the ports tree. This database can be searched using any tool able to manipulate such databases, for instance sqlitebrowser, or a script language with an sqlite interface, e.g., perl, python, ocaml, lua, php5.
SELECTING A SET OF PORTS
One can define SUBDIRLIST
to point to a
file that contains a list of FULLPKGPATHs
, one per
line, to build stuff only in some directories.
If /usr/ports/INDEX is up to date, it is possible to select subsets by setting the following variables on the command line:
- key
- package name matching the given key,
- category
- port belonging to category,
- maintainer
- port maintained by a given person.
For instance, to invoke clean on all ports in the x11 category, one can say:
$ make category=x11 clean
The index search is done by a perl script, so all regular expressions from perlre(1) apply.
TARGETS
Individual ports are controlled through a few documented targets. Some of these targets work recursively through subdirectories, so that someone can, for example, install all of the net ports.
The variable SKIPDIR
can hold a set of
package directories to avoid during recursion. These are always specified
relative to the root of the ports tree, and can contain a flavor or
subpackage part (see
packages-specs(7)). SKIPDIR
is
handled by a case
statement, and so can contain
simple wildcards (see sh(1) “File name patterns”), e.g.,
SKIPDIR='editors/openoffice*' .
The variable STARTDIR
can hold the path to
a starting directory. The recursion will skip all directories up to that
package path. This can be used to resume a full build at some specific point
without having to go through thousands of directories first.
The variable STARTAFTER
can hold the path
to a starting directory. The recursion will skip all directories up to and
including that package path. This can be used to resume a full build after
some specific point without having to go through thousands of directories
first.
In case of failure in a subdirectory, the shell fragment held in
REPORT_PROBLEM
is executed. Default behavior is to
call exit, but this can be overridden on the command line, e.g., to avoid
stopping after each problem.
$ make REPORT_PROBLEM=true
If REPORT_PROBLEM_LOGFILE
is non empty,
then REPORT_PROBLEM
will default to:
echo $$subdir ($@) >>$${REPORT_PROBLEM_LOGFILE}
That is, any failure will append the faulty directory name together with the target that failed to ${REPORT_PROBLEM_LOGFILE} and proceed.
Some targets that do this are all, build, checksum, clean, configure, extract, fake, fetch, install, distclean, deinstall, reinstall, package, prepare, link-categories, unlink-categories, describe, show, regress, lib-depends-check, homepage-links, manpages-check, license-check, all-dir-depends, build-dir-depends, run-dir-depends and readmes.
Target names starting with ‘_’ are private to the ports infrastructure, should not be invoked directly, and are liable to change without notice.
In the following list, each target will run the preceding targets
in order automatically. That is, build will be run (if
necessary) by install, and so on all the way to
fetch. In typical use, one will only run
install explicitly (as normal user, with
SUDO
defined in
/etc/mk.conf), or build (as
user), then install (as root).
- fetch
- Fetch all of the files needed to build this port from the site(s) listed
in
MASTER_SITES
. SeeFETCH_CMD
andMASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE
. Use dpb(1) with option-F
to quickly fetch distfiles for a subtree. - checksum
- Verify that the fetched distfile matches the one the port was tested
against. Defining
NO_CHECKSUM
toYes
will skip this step. Sometimes, distfiles change without warning. The main OpenBSD mirror should still hold a copy of old distfiles, indexed by checksum. Using$ make checksum REFETCH=true
will try to get a set of distfiles that match the recorded checksum.
- prepare
- Install any build dependencies of the current port. Defining
NO_DEPENDS
toYes
will skip this step. - extract
- Expand the distfile into a work directory.
- patch
- Apply any patches that are necessary for the port.
- configure
- Configure the port. Some ports will ask questions during this stage. See
INTERACTIVE
andBATCH
. - build
- Build the port. This is the same as calling the all target.
- fake
- Pretend to install the port under a subdirectory of the work directory.
- package
- Create a binary package from the fake installation. The package is a .tgz file that can be used to install the port with pkg_add(1).
- install
- Install the resulting package.
The following targets are not run during the normal install process.
- print-build-depends, print-run-depends
- Print an ordered list of all the compile and run dependencies.
- clean
- Remove the expanded source code. This does not recurse to dependencies
unless
CLEANDEPENDS
is defined toYes
. - distclean
- Remove the port's distfile(s). This does not recurse to dependencies.
- regress
- Runs the ports regression tests. Usually needs a completed build.
- reinstall
- Use this to restore a port after using pkg_delete(1).
- update
- Alternative target to install. Does not install new packages, but updates existing ones.
- link-categories
- Populate the ports tree with symbolic links for each category the port belongs to.
- unlink-categories
- Remove the symbolic links created by link-categories.
- homepage-links
- creates an html list of links for each port
HOMEPAGE
.
LOCK INFRASTRUCTURE
The ports tree can be used concurrently for building several ports
at the same time, thanks to a locking mechanism. By default, locks are
stored under /tmp/portslocks. Defining
LOCKDIR
will point them elsewhere, or disable the
mechanism if set to an empty value.
All locks will be stored in ${LOCKDIR}.
LOCK_CMD
should be used to acquire a lock, and
UNLOCK_CMD
should be used to release it.
Locks are named ${LOCKDIR}/${FULLPKGNAME}.lock, or ${LOCKDIR}/${DISTFILE}.lock for distfiles fetching.
The default values of LOCK_CMD
and
UNLOCK_CMD
are appropriate for most uses.
The locking protocol follows a big-lock model: each top-level target in a port directory will acquire the corresponding lock, complete its job, then release the lock, e.g., running
$ make build
will acquire the lock, run the port through fetch, checksum, extract, patch, configure, build, then release the lock. If dependencies are involved, they will invoke top-level targets in other directories, and thus acquire some other locks as well.
The infrastructure contains some protection against acquiring the
same lock twice, thus recursive locking is not needed for
LOCK_CMD
.
Starting with OpenBSD 4.3, the infrastructure supports manual locking: the targets lock and unlock can be used to acquire and release individual locks. Both these targets output a shell command that must be used to update environment variables. Manual locking can be used to protect a directory against interference by an automated build job, while the user is looking at or modifying a given port.
UPDATING PACKAGES
Instead of deinstalling each package and rebuilding from scratch,
the ports tree can be used to update installed packages. The
update target will replace an installed package using
pkg_add(1) in replacement mode. If
FORCE_UPDATE
is set to Yes
,
dependencies will also be updated first, and packages will always be
updated, even if there is no difference between the old and the new
packages.
Updates use a mechanism similar to bulk cookies and deposit
cookies in the UPDATE_COOKIES_DIR
. See the next
section for more details, since most of the fine points of bulk package
building also apply to updates.
There are bugs in the ports tree, most related to libtool, which make some updates prefer the already installed libraries instead of the newly built ones. This shows up as undefined references in libraries, in which case there is no choice but to proceed the old way: deinstall the offending package and everything built on top of it, build and install new packages.
BULK PACKAGE BUILDING
Building any significant number of packages from the ports tree should use dpb(1), a tool located inside the ports tree proper (normally as /usr/ports/infrastructure/bin/dpb). In particular, it can take advantage of machine clusters (same architecture and same installation), and of multi-core machines.
A few remarks may save a lot of time
- The default limits in login.conf(5) are inappropriate for bulk builds. maxproc, openfiles, datasize should be cranked way up, especially for parallel builds. For instance, a lot of C++-based ports will require a datasize over 1G.
- cluster builds should have shared
PORTSDIR
and localWRKOBJDIR
. If possible, dedicatedWRKOBJDIR
partitions mounted ‘noatime,async’ will help. - as far as possible, the log directory should be local to the machine running dpb(1).
- a full bulk will fetch over 20G of distfiles, create over 17G of packages. The largest work directories are about 10G each.
- Take notice of
CHECKSUM_PACKAGES
in bsd.port.mk(5). This can be set to ‘ftp’ during official package builds to compute partial sha256 checksum files.At the end of the build, just
cd ${PORTSDIR}/packages/${MACHINE_ARCH}/cksums && cat * >sha256
NETWORK CONFIGURATION
The variables pertaining to network access have been marshalled into ${PORTSDIR}/infrastructure/templates/network.conf.template.
To customize that setup, copy that file into ${PORTSDIR}/infrastructure/db/network.conf and edit it.
MASTER_SITE_OPENBSD
- If set to
Yes
, include the master OpenBSD site when fetching files. MASTER_SITE_FREEBSD
- If set to
Yes
, include the master FreeBSD site when fetching files. MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE
- Go to this site first for all files.
FLAVORS
The OpenBSD ports tree comes with a
mechanism called FLAVORS
. Thanks to this mechanism,
users can select specific options provided by a given port.
If a port is "flavored", there should be a terse description of available flavors in the pkg/DESCR file.
For example, the misc/screen port comes
with a flavor called static
. This changes the
building process so a statically compiled version of the program will be
built. To avoid confusion with other packages or flavors, the package name
will be extended with a dash-separated list of the selected flavors.
In this instance, the corresponding package will be called
screen-4.0.2-static
.
To see the flavors of a port, use the show target:
$ make show=FLAVORS
To build a port with a specific flavor, just pass
FLAVOR
in the environment of the
make(1) command:
$ env FLAVOR="static" make package
and of course, use the same settings for the subsequent invocations of make:
$ env FLAVOR="static" make install $ env FLAVOR="static" make clean
More than one flavor may be specified:
$ cd /usr/ports/mail/exim $ env FLAVOR="mysql ldap" make package
Specifying a flavor that does not exist is an error. Additionally, some ports impose some further restrictions on flavor combinations, when such combinations do not make sense.
Lots of ports can be built without X11 requirement and accordingly
have a no_x11
flavor.
Flavor settings are not propagated to dependencies. If a specific combination is needed, careful hand-building of the required set of packages is still necessary.
MULTI_PACKAGES
The OpenBSD ports tree comes with a
mechanism called MULTI_PACKAGES
. This mechanism is
used when a larger package is broken down into several smaller components
referred to as subpackages.
If a port is "subpackaged", each subpackage will have a corresponding description in the pkg/DESCR-subpackage file.
For example, the database/mysql port comes
with subpackages called -main
,
-tests
and -server
.
In this instance, the build will yield multiple packages, one
corresponding to each subpackage. In the case of our mysql example, the
packages will be called
mysql-client-<version>
,
mysql-tests-<version>
, and
mysql-server-<version>
.
To install/deinstall a specific subpackage of a port, you may
pkg_add(1) them manually, or alternatively, you may set
SUBPACKAGE
in the environment of the
make(1) command during the install/deinstall phase:
$ env SUBPACKAGE="-server" make install $ env SUBPACKAGE="-server" make deinstall
PORT VARIABLES
These can be changed in the environment, or in
/etc/mk.conf for persistence. They can also be set
on make's command line, e.g., make
VAR_FOO
=foo
Boolean variables should be set to Yes
instead of simply being defined, for uniformity and future
compatibility.
Variable names starting with ‘_’ are private to the ports infrastructure, should not be changed by the user, and are liable to change without notice.
PORTSDIR
- Location of the ports tree (usually /usr/ports).
DISTDIR
- Where to find/put distfiles, normally ${PORTSDIR}/distfiles
PACKAGE_REPOSITORY
- Used only for the package target; the base directory for the packages tree, normally ${PORTSDIR}/packages. If this directory exists, the package tree will be (partially) constructed.
BULK_COOKIES_DIR
- During bulk package building, used to store cookies for already built packages to avoid rebuilding them, since the actual working directory will already have been cleaned out. Defaults to ${PORTSDIR}/bulk/${MACHINE_ARCH}.
UPDATE_COOKIES_DIR
- Used to store cookies for package updates, defaults to ${PORTSDIR}/update/${MACHINE_ARCH}. If set to empty, it will revert to a file under ${WRKDIR}.
LOCALBASE
- Where to install things in general (usually /usr/local).
MASTER_SITES
- Primary sites for distribution files if not found locally.
CLEANDEPENDS
- If set to
Yes
, let clean recurse to dependencies. FETCH_CMD
- Command to use to fetch files. Normally ftp(1).
FETCH_PACKAGES
- If set to
Yes
, try to use pkg_add(1) to install the missing packages fromPKG_PATH
. PATCH_DEBUG
- If defined, display verbose output when applying each patch.
INTERACTIVE
- If defined, only operate on a port if it requires interaction.
BATCH
- If defined, only operate on a port if it can be installed 100% automatically.
USE_SYSTRACE
- Set to
Yes
to protect the configure, build, and fake targets with systrace(1). This way it is ensured that ports do not make any network connections during build or write outside some well defined directories. The filter list is stored in ${PORTSDIR}/infrastructure/db/systrace.filter.
USING A READ-ONLY PORTS TREE
Select read-write partition(s) that can accommodate working
directories, the distfiles repository, and the built packages. Set
WRKOBJDIR
,
PACKAGE_REPOSITORY
,
BULK_COOKIES_DIR
,
UPDATE_COOKIES_DIR
, DISTDIR
,
and PLIST_DB
in /etc/mk.conf
accordingly.
FILES
- /usr/ports
- The default ports directory.
- /usr/ports/Makefile
- Ports master Makefile.
- /usr/ports/INDEX
- Ports index.
- /usr/ports/infrastructure/mk/bsd.port.mk
- The ports main engine.
- /usr/ports/infrastructure/templates/network.conf.template
- Network configuration defaults.
- /usr/ports/infrastructure/db/network.conf
- Local network configuration.
- /usr/ports/infrastructure/db/systrace.filter
- Filter list for systrace.
- /usr/ports/infrastructure/db/user.list
- List of users and groups created by ports.
SEE ALSO
dpb(1), make(1), pkg_add(1), pkg_create(1), pkg_delete(1), pkg_info(1), bsd.port.mk(5), port-modules(5), mirroring-ports(7), packages(7)
The OpenBSD Ports System: http://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/ports.html
The OpenBSD Porter's Handbook: http://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/
HISTORY
The Ports Collection
appeared in
FreeBSD 1.0. It was introduced in
OpenBSD by Ejovi Nuwere, with much initial effort by
Angelos D. Keromytis. Maintenance passed then to Marco S. Hyman, and then to
Christopher Turan. It is currently managed by Marc Espie, Christian
Weisgerber, along with a host of others found at ports@openbsd.org.
AUTHORS
This man page was originated by David O'Brien, from the FreeBSD project.