FreeBSD Porter's Handbook

The FreeBSD Documentation Project

Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 The FreeBSD Documentation Project

Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Making a port yourself
3 Quick Porting
3.1 Writing the Makefile
3.2 Writing the description files
3.2.1 pkg-descr
3.2.2 pkg-plist
3.3 Creating the checksum file
3.4 Testing the port
3.5 Checking your port with portlint
3.6 Submitting the port
4 Slow Porting
4.1 How things work
4.2 Getting the original sources
4.3 Modifying the port
4.4 Patching
4.5 Configuring
4.6 Handling user input
5 Configuring the Makefile
5.1 The original source
5.2 Naming
5.2.1 PORTNAME and PORTVERSION
5.2.2 PORTREVISION and PORTEPOCH
5.2.3 PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIX
5.2.4 Package Naming Conventions
5.3 Categorization
5.3.1 CATEGORIES
5.3.2 Current list of categories
5.3.3 Choosing the right category
5.4 The distribution files
5.4.1 DISTNAME
5.4.2 MASTER_SITES
5.4.3 EXTRACT_SUFX
5.4.4 DISTFILES
5.4.5 EXTRACT_ONLY
5.4.6 PATCHFILES
5.4.7 Multiple distribution files or patches from different sites and subdirectories (MASTER_SITES:n)
5.4.8 DIST_SUBDIR
5.5 MAINTAINER
5.6 COMMENT
5.7 Dependencies
5.7.1 LIB_DEPENDS
5.7.2 RUN_DEPENDS
5.7.3 BUILD_DEPENDS
5.7.4 FETCH_DEPENDS
5.7.5 EXTRACT_DEPENDS
5.7.6 PATCH_DEPENDS
5.7.7 DEPENDS
5.7.8 USE_*
5.7.9 Notes on dependencies
5.7.10 Optional dependencies
5.7.11 Circular dependencies are fatal
5.8 Specifying the working directory
5.8.1 WRKSRC
5.8.2 NO_WRKSUBDIR
5.9 CONFLICTS
5.10 Building mechanisms
6 Special considerations
6.1 Shared Libraries
6.2 Ports with distribution restrictions
6.2.1 NO_PACKAGE
6.2.2 NO_CDROM
6.2.3 RESTRICTED
6.2.4 RESTRICTED_FILES
6.3 Using perl
6.4 Using X11
6.5 Using automake, autoconf, and libtool
6.6 Using GNOME
6.7 Using KDE
6.8 Using Bison
6.9 Using Java
6.10 Using Python
6.11 Using Emacs
6.12 Using Ruby
6.13 Using SDL
7 MASTERDIR
8 Shared library versions
9 Manpages
10 Ports that require Motif
10.1 USE_MOTIF
10.2 MOTIFLIB
11 X11 fonts
12 Info files
13 The pkg-* files
13.1 pkg-message
13.2 pkg-install
13.3 pkg-deinstall
13.4 pkg-req
13.5 Changing pkg-plist based on make variables
13.6 Changing the names of pkg-* files
14 Testing your port
14.1 Portlint
14.2 PREFIX
14.3 FreshPorts sanity tests
15 Upgrading
16 Dos and Don'ts
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Stripping Binaries
16.3 INSTALL_* macros
16.4 WRKDIR
16.5 WRKDIRPREFIX
16.6 Differentiating operating systems and OS versions
16.7 __FreeBSD_version values
16.8 Writing something after bsd.port.mk
16.9 Install additional documentation
16.10 Subdirectories
16.11 Cleaning up empty directories
16.12 UIDs
16.13 Do things rationally
16.14 Respect both CC and CXX
16.15 Respect CFLAGS
16.16 Configuration files
16.17 Feedback
16.18 README.html
16.19 Marking a port BROKEN, FORBIDDEN, or otherwise
16.20 Necessary workarounds
16.21 Miscellanea
16.22 If you are stuck...
17 A Sample Makefile
18 Automated package list creation
19 Changes to this document and the ports system
List of Tables
5-1. The USE_* variables
6-1. Variables for ports that use perl
6-2. Variables for ports that use X
6-3. Variables for ports that use automake, autoconf or libtool
6-4. Variables for ports that use KDE
16-1. __FreeBSD_version values
List of Examples
5-1. Simplified use of MASTER_SITES:n with 1 file per site
5-2. Simplified use of MASTER_SITES:n with more than 1 file per site
5-3. Detailed use of MASTER_SITES:n in MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR
5-4. Detailed use of MASTER_SITES:n with comma operator, multiple files, multiple sites and multiple subdirectories
5-5. Detailed use of MASTER_SITES:n with MASTER_SITE_SOURCEFORGE
5-6. Simplified use of MASTER_SITES:n with PATCH_SITES.
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    Introduction
For questions about the FreeBSD ports system, e-mail <ports@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.