PORTS(7) BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual PORTS(7)NAME
ports — contributed applications
DESCRIPTION
The FreeBSD Ports Collection offers a simple way for users and adminis‐
trators to install applications. Each port contains any patches neces‐
sary to make the original application source code compile and run on BSD.
Compiling an application is as simple as typing make build in the port
directory! The Makefile automatically fetches the application source
code, either from a local disk or via FTP, unpacks it on your system,
applies the patches, and compiles it. If all goes well, simply type make
install to install the application.
It is possible to download and use ports from the FreeBSD repository that
are newer than the installed system; however it is important to install
the appropriate “Upgrade Kit” from http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/ first!
The portcheckout(1) (ports/ports-mgmt/portcheckout) script (also a port,
of course!) will help to download new ports.
For more information about using ports, see “Packages and Ports” in The
FreeBSD Handbook,
(file:/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html or
http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html).
For information about creating new ports, see The Porter's Handbook
(file:/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/index.html or
http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/).
TARGETS
Some of the targets work recursively through subdirectories. This lets
you, for example, install all of the “biology” ports. The targets that
do this are build, checksum, clean, configure, depends, extract, fetch,
install, and package.
The following targets will be run automatically by each proceeding target
in order. That is, build will be run (if necessary) by install, and so
on all the way to fetch. Usually, you will only use the install target.
config Configure OPTIONS for this port using dialog(1).
fetch Fetch all of the files needed to build this port from the
sites listed in MASTER_SITES and PATCH_SITES. See FETCH_CMD,
MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE and MASTER_SITE_BACKUP.
checksum Verify that the fetched distfile's checksum matches the one
the port was tested against. Defining NO_CHECKSUM will skip
this step.
depends Install (or compile if only compilation is necessary) any
dependencies of the current port. When called by the extract
or fetch targets, this is run in piecemeal as fetch-depends,
build-depends, etc. Defining NO_DEPENDS 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 you questions during
this stage. See INTERACTIVE and BATCH.
build Build the port. This is the same as calling the all target.
install Install the port and register it with the package system.
This is all you really need to do.
The following targets are not run during the normal install process.
showconfig Display OPTIONS config for this port.
showconfig-recursive
Display OPTIONS config for this port and all its depen‐
dencies.
rmconfig Remove OPTIONS config for this port.
rmconfig-recursive
Remove OPTIONS config for this port and all its depen‐
dencies.
config-conditional
Skip the ports which have already had their OPTIONS con‐
figured.
config-recursive
Configure OPTIONS for this port and all its dependencies
using dialog(1).
fetch-list Show list of files to be fetched in order to build the
port.
fetch-recursive Fetch the distfiles of the port and all its dependen‐
cies.
fetch-recursive-list
Show list of files that would be retrieved by
fetch-recursive.
run-depends-list, build-depends-list
Print a list of all the compile and run dependencies,
and dependencies of those dependencies, by port direc‐
tory.
all-depends-list
Print a list of all dependencies for the port.
pretty-print-run-depends-list, pretty-print-build-depends-list
Print a list of all the compile and run dependencies,
and dependencies of those dependencies, by port name and
version.
missing Print a list of missing dependencies to be installed for
the port.
clean Remove the expanded source code. This recurses to
dependencies unless NOCLEANDEPENDS is defined.
distclean Remove the port's distfiles and perform the clean tar‐
get. The clean portion recurses to dependencies unless
NOCLEANDEPENDS is defined, but the distclean portion
never recurses (this is perhaps a bug).
reinstall Use this to restore a port after using pkg_delete(1)
when you should have used deinstall.
deinstall Remove an installed port from the system, similar to
pkg_delete(1).
deinstall-all Remove all installed ports with the same PKGORIGIN from
the system.
package Make a binary package for the port. The port will be
installed if it has not already been. The package is a
.tbz file that you can use to install the port on other
machines with pkg_add(1). If the directory specified by
PACKAGES does not exist, the package will be put into
the current directory. See PKGREPOSITORY and PKGFILE.
package-recursive
Like package, but makes a package for each depending
port as well.
package-name Prints the name with version of the port.
readmes Create a port's README.html. This can be used from
/usr/ports to create a browsable web of all ports on
your system!
search Search the INDEX file for the pattern specified by the
key (searches the port name, comment, and dependencies),
name (searches the port name only), path (searches the
port path), info (searches the port info), maint
(searches the port maintainer), cat (searches the port
category), bdeps (searches the port build-time depen‐
dency), rdeps (searches the port run-time dependency),
www (searches the port web site) make(1) variables, and
their exclusion counterparts: xname, xkey etc. For
example, one would type:
cd /usr/ports && make search name=query
to find all ports whose name matches “query”. Results
include the matching ports' path, comment, maintainer,
build dependencies, and run dependencies.
cd /usr/ports && make search name=pear- \
xbdeps=apache
To find all ports whose names contain “pear-” and which
do not have apache listed in build-time dependencies.
cd /usr/ports && make search name=pear- \
xname='ht(tp|ml)'
To find all ports whose names contain “pear-”, but not
“html” or “http”.
make search key=apache display=name,path,info keylim=1
To find ports that contain “apache” in either of the
name, path, info fields, ignore the rest of the record.
By default the search is not case-sensitive. In order
to make it case-sensitive you can use the icase vari‐
able:
make search name=p5-R icase=0
quicksearch Reduced search output. Only display name, path and
info.
describe Generate a one-line description of each port for use in
the INDEX file.
maintainer Display the port maintainer's email address.
index Create /usr/ports/INDEX, which is used by the
pretty-print-* and search targets. Running the index
target will ensure your INDEX file is up to date with
your ports tree.
fetchindex Fetch the INDEX file from the FreeBSD cluster.
ENVIRONMENT
You can change all of these.
PORTSDIR Location of the ports tree. This is /usr/ports on FreeBSD
and OpenBSD, and /usr/pkgsrc on NetBSD.
WRKDIRPREFIX Where to create any temporary files. Useful if PORTSDIR is
read-only (perhaps mounted from a CD-ROM).
DISTDIR Where to find/put distfiles, normally distfiles/ in
PORTSDIR.
PACKAGES Used only for the package target; the base directory for
the packages tree, normally packages/ in PORTSDIR. If this
directory exists, the package tree will be (partially) con‐
structed. This directory does not have to exist; if it
does not, packages will be placed into the current direc‐
tory, or you can define one of
PKGREPOSITORY Directory to put the package in.
PKGFILE The full path to the package.
PREFIX Where to install things in general (usually /usr/local).
MASTER_SITES Primary sites for distribution files if not found locally.
PATCH_SITES Primary locations for distribution patch files if not found
locally.
MASTER_SITE_FREEBSD
If set, go to the master FreeBSD site for all files.
MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE
Try going to these sites for all files and patches, first.
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP
Try going to these sites for all files and patches, last.
RANDOMIZE_MASTER_SITES
Try the download locations in a random order.
MASTER_SORT Sort the download locations according to user supplied pat‐
tern. Example:
.dk .sunet.se .se dk.php.net .no .de
heanet.dl.sourceforge.net
MASTER_SITE_INDEX
Where to get INDEX source built on FreeBSD cluster (for
fetchindex target). Defaults to
http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/.
FETCHINDEX Command to get INDEX (for fetchindex target). Defaults to
“fetch -am”.
NOCLEANDEPENDS
If defined, do not let clean recurse to dependencies.
FETCH_CMD Command to use to fetch files. Normally fetch(1).
FORCE_PKG_REGISTER
If set, overwrite any existing package registration on the
system.
MOTIFLIB Location of libXm.{a,so}.
INTERACTIVE If defined, only operate on a port if it requires interac‐
tion.
BATCH If defined, only operate on a port if it can be installed
100% automatically.
DISABLE_VULNERABILITIES
If defined, disable check for security vulnerabilities
using portaudit(1) (ports/ports-mgmt/portaudit) when
installing new ports.
NO_IGNORE If defined, allow installation of ports marked as
⟨FORBIDDEN⟩. The default behavior of the Ports framework
is to abort when the installation of a forbidden port is
attempted. Of course, these ports may not work as
expected, but if you really know what you are doing and are
sure about installing a forbidden port, then NO_IGNORE lets
you do it.
PORT_DBDIR Directory where the results of configuring OPTIONS are
stored. Defaults to /var/db/ports. Each port where
OPTIONS have been configured will have a uniquely named
sub-directory, containing a single file options.
FILES
/usr/ports The default ports directory (FreeBSD and
OpenBSD).
/usr/pkgsrc The default ports directory (NetBSD).
/usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk The big Kahuna.
SEE ALSOmake(1), pkg_add(1), pkg_create(1), pkg_delete(1), pkg_info(1),
pkg_version(1)
The following are part of the ports collection:
portaudit(1), portcheckout(1), portlint(1)
The FreeBSD Handbook.
http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports (searchable index of all ports)
HISTORY
The Ports Collection appeared in FreeBSD 1.0. It has since spread to
NetBSD and OpenBSD.
AUTHORS
This manual page was originated by David O'Brien.
BUGS
Ports documentation is split over four places —
/usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk, The Porter's Handbook, the “Packages and
Ports” chapter of The FreeBSD Handbook, and this manual page.
BSD January 21, 2009 BSD