Porters Handbook

FreeBSD Porter's Handbook
The FreeBSD Documentation Project

FreeBSD Porter's Handbook
by
Revision: 50804
2017-09-07 11:21:07 by mat.
Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,
2017 The FreeBSD Documentation Project
Copyright
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Important
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PRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MER-
CHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FREE-
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Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those
designations appear in this document, and the FreeBSD Project was aware of the trademark claim, the designations have been followed
by the or the symbol.
ii
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1
2. Making a New Port .................................................................................................................. 3
3. Quick Porting .......................................................................................................................... 5
3.1. Writing the Makefile .................................................................................................. 5
3.2. Writing the Description Files ............................................................................................ 6
3.3. Creating the Checksum File .............................................................................................. 7
3.4. Testing the Port ............................................................................................................ 8
3.5. Checking the Port with portlint ..................................................................................... 8
3.6. Submitting the New Port ................................................................................................. 8
4. Slow Porting .......................................................................................................................... 11
4.1. How Things Work ......................................................................................................... 11
4.2. Getting the Original Sources ........................................................................................... 12
4.3. Modifying the Port ....................................................................................................... 12
4.4. Patching ..................................................................................................................... 13
4.5. Configuring ................................................................................................................. 15
4.6. Handling User Input ..................................................................................................... 15
5. Configuring the Makefile .......................................................................................................... 17
5.1. The Original Source ...................................................................................................... 17
5.2. Naming ...................................................................................................................... 17
5.3. Categorization ............................................................................................................. 25
5.4. The Distribution Files .................................................................................................... 30
5.5. MAINTAINER ................................................................................................................. 48
5.6. COMMENT ...................................................................................................................... 49
5.7. Licenses ..................................................................................................................... 49
5.8. PORTSCOUT ................................................................................................................... 57
5.9. Dependencies .............................................................................................................. 58
5.10. Slave Ports and MASTERDIR ............................................................................................ 63
5.11. Man Pages ................................................................................................................. 64
5.12. Info Files ................................................................................................................... 64
5.13. Makefile Options ......................................................................................................... 64
5.14. Specifying the Working Directory ................................................................................... 79
5.15. Conflict Handling ........................................................................................................ 79
5.16. Installing Files ............................................................................................................ 80
6. Special Considerations ............................................................................................................. 85
6.1. Staging ...................................................................................................................... 85
6.2. Bundled Libraries ......................................................................................................... 86
6.3. Shared Libraries ........................................................................................................... 87
6.4. Ports with Distribution Restrictions or Legal Concerns .......................................................... 88
6.5. Building Mechanisms .................................................................................................... 89
6.6. Using GNU Autotools .................................................................................................... 92
6.7. Using GNU gettext ...................................................................................................... 93
6.8. Using Perl ................................................................................................................... 94
6.9. Using X11 ................................................................................................................... 95
6.10. Using GNOME ............................................................................................................ 97
6.11. GNOME Components ................................................................................................... 99
6.12. Using Qt .................................................................................................................. 103
6.13. Using KDE ................................................................................................................ 106
6.14. Using LXQt .............................................................................................................. 107
6.15. Using Java ............................................................................................................... 107
6.16. Web Applications, Apache and PHP ............................................................................... 110
6.17. Using Python ........................................................................................................... 112
6.18. Using Tcl/Tk ............................................................................................................ 114
6.19. Using Emacs ............................................................................................................. 114
6.20. Using Ruby .............................................................................................................. 114
6.21. Using SDL ................................................................................................................ 115
6.22. Using wxWidgets ....................................................................................................... 116
Table of Contents
6.23. Using Lua ................................................................................................................ 121

6.24. Using iconv ............................................................................................................. 122
6.25. Using Xfce ............................................................................................................... 123
6.26. Using Mozilla ........................................................................................................... 124
6.27. Using Databases ........................................................................................................ 125
6.28. Starting and Stopping Services (rc Scripts) ..................................................................... 125
6.29. Adding Users and Groups ............................................................................................ 127
6.30. Ports That Rely on Kernel Sources ................................................................................ 128
7. Advanced pkg-plist Practices ............................................................................................. 129
7.1. Changing pkg-plist Based on Make Variables ............................................................... 129
7.2. Empty Directories ....................................................................................................... 130
7.3. Configuration Files ...................................................................................................... 130
7.4. Dynamic Versus Static Package List ................................................................................ 131
7.5. Automated Package List Creation ................................................................................... 131
7.6. Expanding Package List with Keywords ............................................................................ 132
8. pkg-* ............................................................................................................................... 139
8.1. pkg-message .......................................................................................................... 139
8.2. pkg-install .......................................................................................................... 139
8.3. pkg-deinstall ...................................................................................................... 139
8.4. Changing the Names of pkg-* ...................................................................................... 139
8.5. Making Use of SUB_FILES and SUB_LIST ......................................................................... 140
9. Testing the Port ................................................................................................................... 141
9.1. Running make describe .............................................................................................. 141
9.2. Portlint ..................................................................................................................... 141
9.3. Port Tools ................................................................................................................. 141
9.4. PREFIX and DESTDIR .................................................................................................... 141
9.5. Poudriere .................................................................................................................. 142
9.6. Tinderbox ................................................................................................................. 149
10. Upgrading a Port ................................................................................................................. 151
10.1. Using Subversion to Make Patches ................................................................................ 152
10.2. UPDATING and MOVED .............................................................................................. 153
11. Security ............................................................................................................................. 155
11.1. Why Security is So Important ...................................................................................... 155
11.2. Fixing Security Vulnerabilities ..................................................................................... 155
11.3. Keeping the Community Informed ................................................................................ 155
12. Dos and Don'ts .................................................................................................................... 161
12.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 161
12.2. WRKDIR .................................................................................................................... 161
12.3. WRKDIRPREFIX ........................................................................................................... 161
12.4. Differentiating Operating Systems and OS Versions ........................................................... 161
12.5. Writing Something After bsd.port.mk ....................................................................... 161
12.6. Use the exec Statement in Wrapper Scripts .................................................................... 162
12.7. Do Things Rationally .................................................................................................. 163
12.8. Respect Both CC and CXX ............................................................................................ 163
12.9. Respect CFLAGS ......................................................................................................... 163
12.10. Verbose Build Logs ................................................................................................... 164
12.11. Feedback ................................................................................................................ 164
12.12. README.html ....................................................................................................... 164
12.13. Marking a Port as Architecture Neutral ........................................................................ 164
12.14. Marking a Port Not Installable with BROKEN, FORBIDDEN, or IGNORE ...................................... 164
12.15. Marking a Port for Removal with DEPRECATED or EXPIRATION_DATE ...................................... 166
12.16. Avoid Use of the .error Construct .............................................................................. 166
12.17. Usage of sysctl .................................................................................................... 167
12.18. Rerolling Distfiles .................................................................................................... 167
12.19. Use POSIX Standards ................................................................................................ 167
12.20. Miscellanea ............................................................................................................ 168
13. A Sample Makefile ........................................................................................................... 169
14. Order of Variables in Port Makefiles ........................................................................................ 171
iv
Table of Contents
14.1. PORTNAME Block ......................................................................................................... 171

14.2. PATCHFILES Block ...................................................................................................... 172
14.3. MAINTAINER Block ...................................................................................................... 172
14.4. LICENSE Block ........................................................................................................... 172
14.5. Generic BROKEN/IGNORE/DEPRECATED Messages ................................................................. 173
14.6. The Dependencies Block ............................................................................................. 173
14.7. USES and USE_x ........................................................................................................ 174
14.8. Standard bsd.port.mk Variables ............................................................................... 174
14.9. Options and Helpers .................................................................................................. 174
14.10. The Rest of the Variables .......................................................................................... 174
14.11. The Targets ............................................................................................................ 175
15. Keeping Up ........................................................................................................................ 177
15.1. FreshPorts ............................................................................................................... 177
15.2. The Web Interface to the Source Repository .................................................................... 177
15.3. The FreeBSD Ports Mailing List ..................................................................................... 177
15.4. The FreeBSD Port Building Cluster ................................................................................ 177
15.5. Portscout: the FreeBSD Ports Distfile Scanner .................................................................. 177
15.6. The FreeBSD Ports Monitoring System ........................................................................... 178
16. Using USES Macros .............................................................................................................. 179
16.1. An Introduction to USES ............................................................................................. 179
16.2. 7z .......................................................................................................................... 179
16.3. ada ........................................................................................................................ 179
16.4. autoreconf .............................................................................................................. 180
16.5. blaslapack .............................................................................................................. 180
16.6. bdb ........................................................................................................................ 180
16.7. bison ...................................................................................................................... 181
16.8. charsetfix .............................................................................................................. 181
16.9. cmake ..................................................................................................................... 181
16.10. compiler ................................................................................................................ 181
16.11. cpe ....................................................................................................................... 181
16.12. cran ..................................................................................................................... 182
16.13. desktop-file-utils ................................................................................................ 182
16.14. desthack ............................................................................................................... 182
16.15. display ................................................................................................................. 182
16.16. dos2unix ................................................................................................................ 182
16.17. drupal ................................................................................................................... 183
16.18. execinfo ................................................................................................................ 183
16.19. fakeroot ................................................................................................................ 183
16.20. fam ....................................................................................................................... 183
16.21. firebird ................................................................................................................ 183
16.22. fmake .................................................................................................................... 183
16.23. fonts .................................................................................................................... 184
16.24. fortran ................................................................................................................. 184
16.25. fuse ..................................................................................................................... 184
16.26. gecko .................................................................................................................... 184
16.27. gem ....................................................................................................................... 184
16.28. gettext ................................................................................................................. 184
16.29. gettext-runtime ..................................................................................................... 184
16.30. gettext-tools ........................................................................................................ 185
16.31. ghostscript ........................................................................................................... 185
16.32. gmake .................................................................................................................... 185
16.33. gnome .................................................................................................................... 185
16.34. go ........................................................................................................................ 188
16.35. gperf .................................................................................................................... 188
16.36. grantlee ............................................................................................................... 188
16.37. groff .................................................................................................................... 188
16.38. gssapi ................................................................................................................... 188
16.39. horde .................................................................................................................... 189
v
Table of Contents
16.40.
iconv ....................................................................................................................
189
16.41.
imake ....................................................................................................................
190
16.42.
kde .......................................................................................................................
190
16.43.
kmod .....................................................................................................................
190
16.44.
lha .......................................................................................................................
190
16.45.
libarchive ............................................................................................................ 190
16.46.
libedit .................................................................................................................
191
16.47.
libtool ................................................................................................................191
16.48.
linux ....................................................................................................................
191
16.49.
localbase ..............................................................................................................193
16.50.
lua .......................................................................................................................
193
16.51.
lxqt ......................................................................................................................
194
16.52.
makeinfo ................................................................................................................
194
16.53.
makeself ................................................................................................................
194
16.54.
mate .....................................................................................................................
194
16.55.
meson ....................................................................................................................
195
16.56.
metaport ................................................................................................................
195
16.57.
mysql ....................................................................................................................
195
16.58.
mono .....................................................................................................................
195
16.59.
motif ....................................................................................................................
195
16.60.
ncurses .................................................................................................................
196
16.61.
ninja ....................................................................................................................
196
16.62.
objc ......................................................................................................................
196
16.63.
openal ...................................................................................................................
196
16.64.
pathfix .................................................................................................................
196
16.65.
pear .....................................................................................................................
196
16.66.
perl5 ....................................................................................................................
196
16.67.
pgsql ....................................................................................................................
197
16.68.
php .......................................................................................................................
197
16.69.
pkgconfig ..............................................................................................................198
16.70.
pure .....................................................................................................................
198
16.71.
pyqt .....................................................................................................................
198
16.72.
python ..................................................................................................................
200
16.73.
qmail ....................................................................................................................
200
16.74.
qmake ....................................................................................................................
200
16.75.
readline ................................................................................................................
200
16.76.
samba ....................................................................................................................
200
16.77.
scons ....................................................................................................................
201
16.78.
shared-mime-info .................................................................................................. 201
16.79.
shebangfix .............................................................................................................201
16.80.
sqlite ..................................................................................................................
203
16.81.
ssl .......................................................................................................................
203
16.82.
tar .......................................................................................................................
204
16.83.
tcl .......................................................................................................................
204
16.84.
terminfo ................................................................................................................
204
16.85.
tk ........................................................................................................................
204
16.86.
twisted .................................................................................................................
205
16.87.
uidfix ...................................................................................................................
205
16.88.
uniquefiles ........................................................................................................... 205
16.89.
varnish .................................................................................................................
205
16.90.
webplugin ..............................................................................................................205
16.91.
xfce .....................................................................................................................
206
16.92.
zip .......................................................................................................................
206
16.93.
zope .....................................................................................................................
206
17. __FreeBSD_version Values .................................................................................................... 207
17.1. FreeBSD 12 Versions .................................................................................................. 207
vi
Table of Contents
17.4. FreeBSD 9 Versions .................................................................................................... 230

17.11. FreeBSD 2.2 Versions ................................................................................................ 271
17.12. FreeBSD 2 Before 2.2-RELEASE Versions ........................................................................ 272
vii
List of Tables
5.1. Examples of DISTVERSION and the Derived PORTVERSION .............................................................. 18
5.2. Package Naming Examples ..................................................................................................... 24
5.3. Shortcuts for MASTER_SITE_ * Macros ....................................................................................... 33
5.4. Magic MASTER_SITES Macros .................................................................................................. 34
5.5. USE_GITHUB Description ........................................................................................................ 35
5.6. Predefined License List .......................................................................................................... 50
5.7. USE_* ................................................................................................................................ 61
6.1. Variables for Ports That Use configure .................................................................................... 90
6.2. Variables for Ports That Use cmake .......................................................................................... 90
6.3. Variables the Users Can Define for cmake Builds ......................................................................... 91
6.4. Variables for Ports That Use scons .......................................................................................... 91
6.5. Read-Only Variables for Ports That Use Perl ............................................................................... 94
6.6. Variables for Ports That Use X ................................................................................................ 96
6.7. GNOME Components ............................................................................................................. 99
6.8. GNOME Macro Components .................................................................................................. 101
6.9. GNOME Legacy Components .................................................................................................. 101
6.10. Deprecated Components: Do Not Use ..................................................................................... 103
6.11. Variables Provided to Ports That Use Qt ................................................................................. 103
6.12. Available Qt Library Components .......................................................................................... 104
6.13. Available Qt Tool Components .............................................................................................. 104
6.14. Available Qt Plugin Components ........................................................................................... 104
6.15. Variables for Ports That Use qmake ....................................................................................... 105
6.16. Available KDE 4 Components ............................................................................................... 106
6.17. Available LXQt Components ................................................................................................. 107
6.18. Variables Which May be Set by Ports That Use Java .................................................................. 108
6.19. Variables Provided to Ports That Use Java .............................................................................. 108
6.20. Constants Defined for Ports That Use Java .............................................................................. 109
6.21. Variables for Ports That Use Apache ...................................................................................... 110
6.22. Useful Variables for Porting Apache Modules .......................................................................... 111
6.23. Most Useful Variables for Ports That Use Python ...................................................................... 113
6.24. The Most Useful Read-Only Variables for Ports That Use Tcl/Tk ................................................... 114
6.25. Useful Variables for Ports That Use Ruby ............................................................................... 114
6.26. Selected Read-Only Variables for Ports That Use Ruby ............................................................... 115
6.27. Variables to Select wxWidgets Versions ................................................................................. 117
6.28. Available wxWidgets Versions .............................................................................................. 117
6.29. wxWidgets Version Specifications ......................................................................................... 117
6.30. Variables to Select Preferred wxWidgets Versions .................................................................... 117
6.31. Available wxWidgets Components ......................................................................................... 117
6.32. Available wxWidgets Dependency Types ................................................................................. 118
6.33. Default wxWidgets Dependency Types ................................................................................... 118
6.34. Variables to Select Unicode in wxWidgets Versions .................................................................. 118
6.35. Variables Defined for Ports That Use wxWidgets ...................................................................... 119
6.36. Legal Values for WX_CONF_ARGS ............................................................................................. 120
6.37. Variables Defined for Ports That Use Lua ................................................................................ 121
6.38. Variables for Ports That Use Mozilla ...................................................................................... 124
6.39. Variables for Ports Using Databases ....................................................................................... 125
10.1. Subversion Update File Prefixes ........................................................................................... 153
17.1. FreeBSD 12 __FreeBSD_version Values .................................................................................. 207
17.4. FreeBSD 9 __FreeBSD_version Values .................................................................................... 230
List of Tables

17.11. FreeBSD 2.2 __FreeBSD_version Values ................................................................................ 271
17.12. FreeBSD 2 Before 2.2-RELEASE __FreeBSD_version Values ........................................................ 272
x
List of Examples
3.1. Creating a .diff for a New Port ............................................................................................. 9
3.2. Creating a .shar for a New Port ............................................................................................. 9
4.1. Applying a Patch for a Specific FreeBSD Version ......................................................................... 15
4.2. Optionaly Applying a Patch .................................................................................................... 15
5.1. Using pkg-version(8) to Compare Versions. ................................................................................ 18
5.2. Using DISTVERSION .............................................................................................................. 19
5.3. Using DISTVERSION When the Version Starts with a Letter or a Prefix ............................................. 19
5.4. Using DISTVERSION When the Version Contains Letters Meaning alpha, beta, or pre-release .......... 19
5.5. Not Using DISTVERSION When the Version Contains Letters Meaning "Patch Level" ............................ 20
5.6. Deriving PORTVERSION Manually ............................................................................................. 30
5.7. Derive DISTNAME from PORTVERSION ......................................................................................... 31
5.8. Exotic Case 1 ....................................................................................................................... 32
5.9. Exotic Case 2 ....................................................................................................................... 32
5.10. Simple Use of USE_GITHUB .................................................................................................... 35
5.11. More Complete Use of USE_GITHUB ......................................................................................... 36
5.12. Use of USE_GITHUB with DISTVERSIONPREFIX ............................................................................ 36
5.13. Using USE_GITHUB When Upstream Does Not Use Versions .......................................................... 36
5.14. Using USE_GITHUB to Access a Commit Between Two Versions ...................................................... 37
5.15. Use of USE_GITHUB with Multiple Distribution Files .................................................................... 38
5.16. Use of USE_GITHUB with Multiple Distribution Files Using GH_TUPLE ............................................... 39
5.17. How to Use USE_GITHUB with Git Submodules? ......................................................................... 39
5.18. Simplified Use of MASTER_SITES:n with One File Per Site ............................................................ 43
5.19. Simplified Use of MASTER_SITES:n with More Than One File Per Site ............................................. 43
5.20. Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n in MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR ............................................................ 44
5.21. Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n with Comma Operator, Multiple Files, Multiple Sites and Multiple
Subdirectories ........................................................................................................................... 45
5.22. Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n with SourceForge (SF) .............................................................. 46
5.23. Simplified Use of MASTER_SITES:n with PATCH_SITES ................................................................ 47
5.24. Simplest Usage, Predefined Licenses ....................................................................................... 49
5.25. Nonstandard License ........................................................................................................... 55
5.26. Standard and Nonstandard Licenses ........................................................................................ 55
5.27. LICENSE_NAME ..................................................................................................................... 56
5.28. LICENSE_FILE ..................................................................................................................... 56
5.29. LICENSE_TEXT ..................................................................................................................... 56
5.30. LICENSE_DISTFILES ............................................................................................................. 56
5.31. Dual Licenses ..................................................................................................................... 57
5.32. Multiple Licenses ................................................................................................................ 57
5.33. Wrong Declaration of an Optional Dependency .......................................................................... 62
5.34. Correct Declaration of an Optional Dependency ......................................................................... 62
5.35. Simple Use of OPTIONS ......................................................................................................... 66
5.36. Check for Unset Port OPTIONS ................................................................................................ 66
5.37. Practical Use of OPTIONS ....................................................................................................... 66
5.38. Wrong Handling of an Option ................................................................................................ 67
5.39. Correct Handling of an Option ............................................................................................... 68
5.40. Simple Use of OPT_IMPLIES ................................................................................................... 73
5.41. Simple Use of OPT_PREVENTS ................................................................................................. 74
6.1. Inside ${PREFIX}, Create Relative Symbolic Links ..................................................................... 86
6.2. Outside ${PREFIX}, Create Absolute Symbolic Links .................................................................. 86
6.3. USES= cmake Example .......................................................................................................... 91
6.4. Perl Dependency Example ...................................................................................................... 95
6.5. USE_XORG Example ................................................................................................................ 96
6.6. Using X11-Related Variables ................................................................................................... 96
6.7. Selecting Qt 4 Components ................................................................................................... 105
6.8. USES= qmake Example ......................................................................................................... 105
6.9. USE_KDE Example ............................................................................................................... 107
6.10. USE_LXQT Example ............................................................................................................. 107
6.11. Example Makefile for PEAR Class .......................................................................................... 112
6.12. Example Makefile for Horde Module ...................................................................................... 112
6.13. Makefile for a Simple Python Module .................................................................................... 113
6.14. Selecting wxWidgets Components ......................................................................................... 118
6.15. Detecting Installed wxWidgets Versions and Components .......................................................... 119
6.16. Using wxWidgets Variables in Commands ............................................................................... 120
6.17. Simple iconv Usage ........................................................................................................... 122
6.18. iconv Usage with configure ............................................................................................... 122
6.19. Fixing Hardcoded -liconv .................................................................................................. 123
6.20. Checking for Native iconv Availability ................................................................................... 123
6.21. USES=xfce Example ........................................................................................................... 124
6.22. Using Xfce's Own GTK3 Widgets ........................................................................................... 124
7.1. Using PLIST_SUB with Regular Expressions ............................................................................... 131
7.2. Example of a @dirrmtryecho Keyword ..................................................................................... 137
7.3. Real Life Example, How @sample is Implemented ....................................................................... 137
9.1. Using make.conf to Change Default Perl ............................................................................... 149
12.1. How to Avoid Using .error ................................................................................................. 166
14.1. Options Variables Order Example .......................................................................................... 174
16.1. Using Multiple Values ........................................................................................................ 179
16.2. Adding an Argument .......................................................................................................... 179
16.3. Adding Multiple Arguments ................................................................................................. 179
16.4. Mixing it All Together ........................................................................................................ 179
16.5. Typical Use ...................................................................................................................... 189
16.6. Adding Another Interpreter to USES=shebangfix ...................................................................... 202
16.7. Specifying all the Paths When Adding an Interpreter to USES=shebangfix ...................................... 202
16.8. Adding a Strange Location for an Interpreter .......................................................................... 202
16.9. USES=shebangfix with SHEBANG_REGEX ................................................................................... 203
16.10. USES=shebangfix with SHEBANG_GLOB ................................................................................... 203
16.11. USES=shebangfix with SHEBANG_FILES .................................................................................. 203
xii
Chapter1.Introduction
The FreeBSD Ports Collection is the way almost everyone installs applications ("ports") on FreeBSD. Like every-
thing else about FreeBSD, it is primarily a volunteer effort. It is important to keep this in mind when reading this
document.
In FreeBSD, anyone may submit a new port, or volunteer to maintain an existing unmaintained port. No special
commit privilege is needed.
Chapter2.Making a New Port
Interested in making a new port, or upgrading existing ports? Great!
What follows are some guidelines for creating a new port for FreeBSD. To upgrade an existing port, read this, then
read Chapter10, Upgrading a Port.
When this document is not sufficiently detailed, refer to /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk , which is included by all
port Makefiles. Even those not hacking Makefiles daily can gain much knowledge from it. Additionally, specific
questions can be sent to the FreeBSD ports mailing list.
Note
Only a fraction of the variables (VAR ) that can be overridden are mentioned in this document.
Most (if not all) are documented at the start of /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk ; the others
probably ought to be. Note that this le uses a non-standard tab setting: Emacs and Vim will
recognize the setting on loading the le. Both vi(1) and ex(1) can be set to use the correct
value by typing :set tabstop=4 once the le has been loaded.
Looking for something easy to start with? Take a look at the list of requested ports and see if you can work on
one (or more).
Chapter3.Quick Porting
This section describes how to quickly create a new port. For applications where this quick method is not adequate,
the full Slow Porting process is described in Chapter4, Slow Porting.
First, get the original tarball and put it into DISTDIR, which defaults to /usr/ports/distfiles .
Note
These steps assume that the software compiled out-of-the-box. In other words, absolutely
no changes were required for the application to work on a FreeBSD system. If anything had
to be changed, refer to Chapter4, Slow Porting.
Note
It is recommended to set the DEVELOPER make(1) variable in /etc/make.conf before getting
into porting.
# echoDEVELOPER=yes>> /etc/make.conf
This setting enables the developer mode that displays deprecation warnings and activates
some further quality checks on calling make .
3.1.Writing the Makefile

The minimal Makefile would look something like this:
#$FreeBSD$
PORTNAME= oneko
DISTVERSION= 1.1b
CATEGORIES= games
MASTER_SITES= ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/archives/X11R5/contrib/
MAINTAINER= youremail@example.com
COMMENT= Catchasingamousealloverthescreen
.include<bsd.port.mk>
Note
In some cases, the Makefile of an existing port may contain additional lines in the header,
such as the name of the port and the date it was created. This additional information has
been declared obsolete, and is being phased out.
Try to figure it out. Do not worry about the contents of the $FreeBSD$ line, it will be lled in automatically by
Subversion when the port is imported to our main ports tree. A more detailed example is shown in the sample
Makefile section.
Writing the Description Files
3.2.Writing the Description Files

There are two description les that are required for any port, whether they actually package or not. They are pkg-
descr and pkg-plist . Their pkg- prefix distinguishes them from other les.
3.2.1.pkg-descr
This is a longer description of the port. One to a few paragraphs concisely explaining what the port does is suffi-
cient.
Note
This is not a manual or an in-depth description on how to use or compile the port! Please be
careful when copying from the README or manpage. Too often they are not a concise description
of the port or are in an awkward format. For example, manpages have justified spacing, which
looks particularly bad with monospaced fonts.
On the other hand, the content of pkg-descr must be longer than the COMMENT line from the
Makefile. It must explain in more depth what the port is all about.
A well-written pkg-descr describes the port completely enough that users would not have to consult the docu-
mentation or visit the website to understand what the software does, how it can be useful, or what particularly
nice features it has. Mentioning certain requirements like a graphical toolkit, heavy dependencies, runtime envi-
ronment, or implementation languages help users decide whether this port will work for them.
Include a URL to the official WWW homepage. Prepend one of the websites (pick the most common one) with WWW:
(followed by single space) so that automated tools will work correctly. If the URI is the root of the website or
directory, it must be terminated with a slash.
Note
If the listed webpage for a port is not available, try to search the Internet rst to see if the
official site moved, was renamed, or is hosted elsewhere.
This example shows how pkg-descr looks:

Thisisaportofoneko,inwhichacatchasesapoormouseallover
thescreen.
:
(etc.)
WWW:http://www.oneko.org/
3.2.2.pkg-plist
This le lists all the les installed by the port. It is also called the packing list because the package is generated
by packing the les listed here. The pathnames are relative to the installation prefix (usually /usr/local ).
Here is a small example:

bin/oneko
man/man1/oneko.1.gz
lib/X11/app-defaults/Oneko
lib/X11/oneko/cat1.xpm
lib/X11/oneko/cat2.xpm
6
lib/X11/oneko/mouse.xpm
Refer to the pkg-create(8) manual page for details on the packing list.
Note
It is recommended to keep all the filenames in this le sorted alphabetically. It will make
verifying changes when upgrading the port much easier.
Tip
Creating a packing list manually can be a very tedious task. If the port installs a large numbers
of les, creating the packing list automatically might save time.
There is only one case when pkg-plist can be omitted from a port. If the port installs just a handful of les, list
them in PLIST_FILES , within the port's Makefile. For instance, we could get along without pkg-plist in the
above oneko port by adding these lines to the Makefile:
PLIST_FILES= bin/oneko\
man/man1/oneko.1.gz\
lib/X11/app-defaults/Oneko\
lib/X11/oneko/cat1.xpm\
lib/X11/oneko/cat2.xpm\
lib/X11/oneko/mouse.xpm
Note
Usage of PLIST_FILES should not be abused. When looking for the origin of a le, people
usually try to grep through the pkg-plist les in the ports tree. Listing les in PLIST_FILES
in the Makefile makes that search more difficult.
Tip
If a port needs to create an empty directory, or creates directories outside of ${PREFIX} dur-
ing installation, refer to Section7.2.1, Cleaning Up Empty Directories for more information.
The price for this way of listing a port's les and directories is that the keywords described in pkg-create(8) and
Section7.6, Expanding Package List with Keywords cannot be used. Therefore, it is suitable only for simple ports
and makes them even simpler. At the same time, it has the advantage of reducing the number of les in the ports
collection. Please consider using this technique before resorting to pkg-plist .
Later we will see how pkg-plist and PLIST_FILES can be used to fulfill more sophisticated tasks.
3.3.Creating the Checksum File

Just type make makesum . The ports framework will automatically generate distinfo. Do not try to generate the
le manually.
7
Testing the Port
3.4.Testing the Port

Make sure that the port rules do exactly what is desired, including packaging up the port. These are the important
points to verify:
pkg-plist does not contain anything not installed by the port.
pkg-plist contains everything that is installed by the port.
The port can be installed using the install target. This verifies that the install script works correctly.
The port can be deinstalled properly using the deinstall target. This verifies that the deinstall script works
correctly.
The port only has access to network resources during the fetch target phase. This is important for package
builders, such as ports-mgmt/poudriere.
Make sure that make package can be run as a normal user (that is, not as root ). If that fails, the software may
need to be patched. See also Section16.19, fakeroot and Section16.87, uidfix.
Procedure3.1.Recommended Test Ordering
1. make stage
2. make check-orphans
3. make package
4. make install
5. make deinstall
6. make package (as user)
Make certain no warnings are shown in any of the stages.
Thorough automated testing can be done with ports-mgmt/poudriere from the Ports Collection, see Section9.5,
Poudriere for more information. It maintains jails where all of the steps shown above can be tested without
affecting the state of the host system.
3.5.Checking the Port with portlint

Please use portlint to see if the port conforms to our guidelines. The ports-mgmt/portlint program is part of the
ports collection. In particular, check that the Makefile is in the right shape and the package is named appropriately.
Important
Do not blindly follow the output of portlint . It is a static lint tool and sometimes gets things
wrong.
3.6.Submitting the New Port

Before submitting the new port, read the DOs and DON'Ts section.
8
Once happy with the port, the only thing remaining is to put it in the main FreeBSD ports tree and make everybody
else happy about it too.
Important
We do not need the work directory or the pkgname.tgz package, so delete them now.
Next, either create a patch(1), or a shar(1) le. Assuming the port is called oneko and is in the games category.
Example3.1.Creating a .diff for a New Port

Add all the les with svn add . cd to the base of the ports tree so full paths to the changed les are included
in the di, then generate the di with svn diff . For example:
% svnadd .
% cd ../..
% svndiff games/oneko > oneko.diff
Important
To make it easier for committers to apply the patch on their working copy of the
ports tree, please generate the .diff from the base of your ports tree.
Example3.2.Creating a .shar for a New Port

cd to the directory above where the port directory is located, and use shar to create the archive:
% cd ..
% shar`find oneko `> oneko .shar
Submit one of oneko.shar or oneko.diff with the bug submission form. Use product Ports & Packages, compo-
nent Individual Port(s), and follow the guidelines shown there. Add a short description of the program to the
Description eld of the PR (perhaps a short version of COMMENT), and remember to add oneko.shar or oneko.diff
as an attachment.
Note
Giving a good description in the summary of the problem report makes the work of port
committers a lot easier. We prefer something like New port: category/portname short de-
scription of the port for new ports. Using this scheme makes it easier and faster to
begin the work of committing the new port.
9
Submitting the New Port
After submitting the port, please be patient. The time needed to include a new port in FreeBSD can vary from
a few days to a few months. A simple search form of the Problem Report database can be searched at https://
bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/query.cgi.
To get a listing of open port PRs, select Open and Ports & Packages in the search form, then click [Search].
After looking at the new port, we will reply if necessary, and commit it to the tree. The submitter's name will also
be added to the list of Additional FreeBSD Contributors and other les.
10
Chapter4.Slow Porting
Okay, so it was not that simple, and the port required some modifications to get it to work. In this section, we will
explain, step by step, how to modify it to get it to work with the ports paradigm.
4.1.How Things Work

First, this is the sequence of events which occurs when the user rst types make in the port's directory. Having
bsd.port.mk in another window while reading this really helps to understand it.
But do not worry, not many people understand exactly how bsd.port.mk is working... :-)
1. The fetch target is run. The fetch target is responsible for making sure that the tarball exists locally in
DISTDIR. If fetch cannot nd the required les in DISTDIR it will look up the URL MASTER_SITES , which is
set in the Makefile, as well as our FTP mirrors where we put distfiles as backup. It will then attempt to fetch
the named distribution le with FETCH , assuming that the requesting site has direct access to the Internet. If
that succeeds, it will save the le in DISTDIR for future use and proceed.
2. The extract target is run. It looks for the port's distribution le (typically a gzip ped tarball) in DISTDIR and
unpacks it into a temporary subdirectory specified by WRKDIR (defaults to work ).
3. The patch target is run. First, any patches defined in PATCHFILES are applied. Second, if any patch les named
patch- * are found in PATCHDIR (defaults to the files subdirectory), they are applied at this time in alpha-
betical order.
4. The configure target is run. This can do any one of many different things.
1. If it exists, scripts/configure is run.
2. If HAS_CONFIGURE or GNU_CONFIGURE is set, WRKSRC/configure is run.
5. The build target is run. This is responsible for descending into the port's private working directory (WRKSRC )
and building it.
6. The stage target is run. This puts the final set of built les into a temporary directory (STAGEDIR , see Sec-
tion6.1, Staging). The hierarchy of this directory mirrors that of the system on which the package will be
installed.
7. The package target is run. This creates a package using the les from the temporary directory created during
the stage target and the port's pkg-plist .
8. The install target is run. This installs the package created during the package target into the host system.
The above are the default actions. In addition, define targets pre-something or post- something, or put scripts
with those names, in the scripts subdirectory, and they will be run before or after the default actions are done.
For example, if there is a post-extract target defined in the Makefile, and a le pre-build in the scripts sub-
directory, the post-extract target will be called after the regular extraction actions, and pre-build will be exe-
cuted before the default build rules are done. It is recommended to use Makefile targets if the actions are simple
enough, because it will be easier for someone to figure out what kind of non-default action the port requires.
The default actions are done by the do-something targets from bsd.port.mk. For example, the commands to ex-
tract a port are in the target do-extract . If the default target does not do the job right, redefine the do-something
target in the Makefile.
Getting the Original Sources
Note
The main targets (for example, extract, configure, etc.) do nothing more than make sure
all the stages up to that one are completed and call the real targets or scripts, and they are
not intended to be changed. To x the extraction, x do-extract , but never ever change the
way extract operates! Additionally, the target post-deinstall is invalid and is not run by
the ports infrastructure.
Now that what goes on when the user types make install is better understood, let us go through the recommended
steps to create the perfect port.
4.2.Getting the Original Sources

Get the original sources (normally) as a compressed tarball (foo.tar.gz or foo.tar.bz2 ) and copy it into DISTDIR.
Always use mainstream sources when and where possible.
Set the variable MASTER_SITES to reflect where the original tarball resides. Shorthand definitions exist for most
mainstream sites in bsd.sites.mk. Please use these sitesand the associated definitionsif at all possible, to help
avoid the problem of having the same information repeated over again many times in the source base. As these
sites tend to change over time, this becomes a maintenance nightmare for everyone involved. See Section5.4.2,
MASTER_SITES for details.
If there is no FTP/HTTP site that is well-connected to the net, or can only nd sites that have irritatingly non-
standard formats, put a copy on a reliable FTP or HTTP server (for example, a home page).
If a convenient and reliable place to put the distfile cannot be found, we can house it ourselves on ftp.Free-
BSD.org; however, this is the least-preferred solution. The distfile must be placed into ~/public_distfiles/
of someone's freefall account. Ask the person who commits the port to do this. This person will also set
MASTER_SITES to LOCAL/username where username is their FreeBSD cluster login.
If the port's distfile changes all the time without any kind of version update by the author, consider putting the
distfile on a home page and listing it as the rst MASTER_SITES . Try to talk the port author out of doing this; it
really does help to establish some kind of source code control. Hosting a specific version will prevent users from
getting checksum mismatch errors, and also reduce the workload of maintainers of our FTP site. Also, if there is
only one master site for the port, it is recommended to house a backup on a home page and list it as the second
MASTER_SITES .
If the port requires additional patches that are available on the Internet, fetch them too and put them in DISTDIR.
Do not worry if they come from a site other than where the main source tarball comes, we have a way to handle
these situations (see the description of PATCHFILES below).
4.3.Modifying the Port

Unpack a copy of the tarball in a private directory and make whatever changes are necessary to get the port to
compile properly under the current version of FreeBSD. Keep careful track of steps, as they will be needed to au-
tomate the process shortly. Everything, including the deletion, addition, or modification of les has to be doable
using an automated script or patch le when the port is finished.
If the port requires significant user interaction/customization to compile or install, take a look at one of Larry
Wall's classic Configure scripts and perhaps do something similar. The goal of the new ports collection is to make
each port as plug-and-play as possible for the end-user while using a minimum of disk space.
12
Note
Unless explicitly stated, patch les, scripts, and other les created and contributed to the
FreeBSD ports collection are assumed to be covered by the standard BSD copyright condi-
tions.
4.4.Patching
In the preparation of the port, les that have been added or changed can be recorded with di(1) for later feeding
to patch(1). Doing this with a typical le involves saving a copy of the original le before making any changes
using a .orig suffix.
% cp file file.orig
After all changes have been made, cd back to the port directory. Use make makepatch to generate updated patch
les in the files directory.
4.4.1.General Rules for Patching
Patch les are stored in PATCHDIR , usually files/ , from where they will be automatically applied. All patches must
be relative to WRKSRC . Typically WRKSRC is a subdirectory of WRKDIR , the directory where the distfile is extracted.
Use make -V WRKSRC to see the actual path. The patch names are to follow these rules:
Avoid having more than one patch modify the same le. For example, having both patch-foobar.c and patch-
foobar.c2 making changes to ${WRKSRC}/foobar.c makes them fragile and difficult to debug.
When creating names for patch les, replace each underscore (_) with two underscores (__) and each slash (/)
with one underscore (_). For example, to patch a le named src/freeglut_joystick.c , name the corresponding
patch patch-src_freeglut__joystick.c . Do not name patches like patch-aa or patch-ab . Always use the path
and le name in patch names. Using make makepatch automatically generates the correct names.
A patch may modify multiple les if the changes are related and the patch is named appropriately. For example,
patch-add-missing-stdlib.h .
Only use characters [-+._a-zA-Z0-9] for naming patches. In particular, do not use :: as a path separator, use
_ instead.
Minimize the amount of non-functional whitespace changes in patches. It is common in the Open Source world for
projects to share large amounts of a code base, but obey different style and indenting rules. When taking a working
piece of functionality from one project to x similar areas in another, please be careful: the resulting patch may
be full of non-functional changes. It not only increases the size of the ports repository but makes it hard to nd
out what exactly caused the problem and what was changed at all.
If a le must be deleted, do it in the post-extract target rather than as part of the patch.
13
Manual Patch Generation
4.4.2.Manual Patch Generation
Note
Manual patch creation is usually not necessary. Automatic patch generation as described
earlier in this section is the preferred method. However, manual patching may be required
occasionally.
Patches are saved into les named patch-* where * indicates the pathname of the le that is patched, such as
patch-Imakefile or patch-src-config.h .
After the le has been modified, di(1) is used to record the differences between the original and the modified
version. -u causes di(1) to produce unified dis, the preferred form.
% diff -u file.orig file >patch- pathname-file
When generating patches for new, added les, -N is used to tell di(1) to treat the non-existent original le as if
it existed but was empty:
% diff -u -N newfile .orig newfile >patch- pathname-newfile
Do not add $FreeBSD$ RCS strings in patches. When patches are added to the Subversion repository with svn
add , the fbsd:nokeywords property is set to yes automatically so keywords in the patch are not modified when
committed. The property can be added manually with svn propset fbsd:nokeywords yes files... .
Using the recurse (-r) option to di(1) to generate patches is ne, but please look at the resulting patches to make
sure there is no unnecessary junk in there. In particular, dis between two backup les, Makefiles when the port
uses Imake or GNU configure, etc., are unnecessary and have to be deleted. If it was necessary to edit configure.in
and run autoconf to regenerate configure, do not take the dis of configure (it often grows to a few thousand
lines!). Instead, define USE_AUTOTOOLS=autoconf:261 and take the dis of configure.in.
4.4.3.Simple Automatic Replacements
Simple replacements can be performed directly from the port Makefile using the in-place mode of sed(1). This is
useful when changes use the value of a variable:
post-patch:
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e 's|forLinux|forFreeBSD|g'${WRKSRC}/README
Quite often, software being ported uses the CR/LF convention in source les. This may cause problems with further
patching, compiler warnings, or script execution (like /bin/sh^M not found .) To quickly convert all les from
CR/LF to just LF, add this entry to the port Makefile:
USES= dos2unix
A list of specific les to convert can be given:
USES= dos2unix
DOS2UNIX_FILES= util.cutil.h
Use DOS2UNIX_REGEX to convert a group of les across subdirectories. Its argument is a nd(1)-compatible regular
expression. More on the format is in re_format(7). This option is useful for converting all les of a given extension.
For example, convert all source code les, leaving binary les intact:
USES= dos2unix
DOS2UNIX_REGEX= .*\.([ch]|cpp)
14
A similar option is DOS2UNIX_GLOB , which runs find for each element listed in it.
USES= dos2unix
DOS2UNIX_GLOB= *.c*.cpp*.h
The base directory for the conversion can be set. This is useful when there are multiple distfiles and several contain
les which require line-ending conversion.
USES= dos2unix
DOS2UNIX_WRKSRC= ${WRKDIR}
4.4.4.Patching Conditionally
Some ports need patches that are only applied for specific FreeBSD versions or when a particular option is enabled
or disabled. Conditional patches are specified by placing the full paths to the patch les in EXTRA_PATCHES.
Example4.1.Applying a Patch for a Specic FreeBSD Version

.include<bsd.port.options.mk>
#Patchintheiconvconstqualifierbeforethis
.if${OPSYS}==FreeBSD&&${OSVERSION}<1100069
EXTRA_PATCHES= ${PATCHDIR}/extra-patch-fbsd10
.endif
Example4.2.Optionaly Applying a Patch

When an option requires a patch, use opt_EXTRA_PATCHES and opt_EXTRA_PATCHES_OFF to make the patch
conditional on the opt option. See Section5.13.3.11, Generic Variables Replacement, OPT_VARIABLE and
OPT_VARIABLE _OFF for more information.
OPTIONS_DEFINE= FOOBAR
FOO_EXTRA_PATCHES= ${PATCHDIR}/extra-patch-foo
BAR_EXTRA_PATCHES_OFF= ${PATCHDIR}/extra-patch-bar.c\
${PATCHDIR}/extra-patch-bar.h
4.5.Configuring
Include any additional customization commands in the configure script and save it in the scripts subdirectory.
As mentioned above, it is also possible do this with Makefile targets and/or scripts with the name pre-configure
or post-configure .
4.6.Handling User Input

If the port requires user input to build, configure, or install, set IS_INTERACTIVE in the Makefile. This will allow
overnight builds to skip it. If the user sets the variable BATCH in their environment (and if the user sets the
variable INTERACTIVE, then only those ports requiring interaction are built). This will save a lot of wasted time on
the set of machines that continually build ports (see below).
15
Handling User Input
It is also recommended that if there are reasonable default answers to the questions, PACKAGE_BUILDING be used
to turn o the interactive script when it is set. This will allow us to build the packages for CDROMs and FTP.
16
Chapter5.Configuring the Makefile
Configuring the Makefile is pretty simple, and again we suggest looking at existing examples before starting. Also,
there is a sample Makefile in this handbook, so take a look and please follow the ordering of variables and sections
in that template to make the port easier for others to read.
Consider these problems in sequence during the design of the new Makefile:
5.1.The Original Source

Does it live in DISTDIR as a standard gzip ped tarball named something like foozolix-1.2.tar.gz ? If so, go on to
the next step. If not, the distribution le format might require overriding one or more of DISTVERSION , DISTNAME,
EXTRACT_CMD, EXTRACT_BEFORE_ARGS, EXTRACT_AFTER_ARGS, EXTRACT_SUFX, or DISTFILES.
In the worst case, create a custom do-extract target to override the default. This is rarely, if ever, necessary.
5.2.Naming
The rst part of the port's Makefile names the port, describes its version number, and lists it in the correct cat-
egory.
5.2.1.PORTNAME
Set PORTNAME to the base name of the software. It is used as the base for the FreeBSD package, and for DISTNAME.
Important
The package name must be unique across the entire ports tree. Make sure that the PORTNAME
is not already in use by an existing port, and that no other port already has the same PKGBASE.
If the name has already been used, add either PKGNAMEPREFIX or PKGNAMESUFFIX.
5.2.2.Versions, DISTVERSION or PORTVERSION
Set DISTVERSION to the version number of the software.
PORTVERSION is the version used for the FreeBSD package. It will be automatically derived from DISTVERSION to
be compatible with FreeBSD's package versioning scheme. If the version contains letters, it might be needed to set
PORTVERSION and not DISTVERSION .
Important
Only one of PORTVERSION and DISTVERSION can be set at a time.
From time to time, some software will use a version scheme that is not compatible with how DISTVERSION trans-
lates in PORTVERSION .
Versions, DISTVERSION or PORTVERSION
Tip
When updating a port, it is possible to use pkg-version(8)'s -t argument to check if the new
version is greater or lesser than before. See Example5.1, Using pkg-version(8) to Compare
Versions..
Example5.1.Using pkg-version(8) to Compare Versions.

pkg version -t takes two versions as arguments, it will respond with <, = or > if the rst version is less,
equal, or more than the second version, respectively.
% pkgversion -t1.21.3
<
=
% pkgversion -t1.21.2.0
=
% pkgversion -t1.21.2.p1
>
% pkgversion -t1.2.a11.2.b1
<
% pkgversion -t1.21.2p1
<
1.2 is before 1.3 .

1.2 and 1.2 are equal as they have the same version.
1.2 and 1.2.0 are equal as nothing equals zero.
1.2 is after 1.2.p1 as .p1 , think pre-release 1.
1.2.a1 is before 1.2.b1 , think alpha and beta, and a is before b.
1.2 is before 1.2p1 as 2p1 , think 2, patch level 1 which is a version after any 2.X but before 3.
Note
In here, the a, b, and p are used as if meaning alpha, beta or pre-release and
patch level, but they are only letters and are sorted alphabetically, so any letter
can be used, and they will be sorted appropriately.
Table5.1.Examples of DISTVERSION and the Derived PORTVERSION

DISTVERSION PORTVERSION
0.7.1d 0.7.1.d
10Alpha3 10.a3
3Beta7-pre2 3.b7.p2
8:f_17 8f.17
18
Example5.2.Using DISTVERSION
When the version only contains numbers separated by dots, dashes or underscores, use DISTVERSION .
PORTNAME= nekoto
DISTVERSION= 1.2-4
It will generate a PORTVERSION of 1.2.4 .
Example5.3.Using DISTVERSION When the Version Starts with a Letter or

a Prex
When the version starts or ends with a letter, or a prefix or a suffix that is not part of the version, use
DISTVERSIONPREFIX, DISTVERSION , and DISTVERSIONSUFFIX.
If the version is v1.2-4 :

PORTNAME= nekoto
DISTVERSIONPREFIX= v
DISTVERSION= 1_2_4
Some of the time, projects using GitHub will use their name in their versions. For example, the version
could be nekoto-1.2-4:
PORTNAME= nekoto
DISTVERSIONPREFIX= nekoto-
DISTVERSION= 1.2_4
Those projects also sometimes use some string at the end of the version, for example, 1.2-4_RELEASE:
PORTNAME= nekoto
DISTVERSION= 1.2-4
DISTVERSIONSUFFIX= _RELEASE
Or they do both, for example, nekoto-1.2-4_RELEASE:

PORTNAME= nekoto
DISTVERSIONPREFIX= nekoto-
DISTVERSION= 1.2-4
DISTVERSIONSUFFIX= _RELEASE
DISTVERSIONPREFIX and DISTVERSIONSUFFIX will not be used while constructing PORTVERSION , but only
used in DISTNAME.
All will generate a PORTVERSION of 1.2.4 .
Example 5.4. Using DISTVERSION When the Version Contains Letters

Meaning alpha, beta, or pre-release
When the version contains numbers separated by dots, dashes or underscores, and letters are used to mean
alpha, beta or pre-release, which is, before the version without the letters, use DISTVERSION .
PORTNAME= nekoto
19
PORTREVISION and PORTEPOCH
DISTVERSION= 1.2-pre4
PORTNAME= nekoto
DISTVERSION= 1.2p4
Both will generate a PORTVERSION of 1.2.p4 .
Example 5.5. Not Using DISTVERSION When the Version Contains Letters
Meaning "Patch Level"
When the version contains letters that are not meant as alpha, beta, or pre, but more in a patch
level, and meaning after the version without the letters, use PORTVERSION .
PORTNAME= nekoto
PORTVERSION= 1.2p4
In this case, using DISTVERSION is not possible because it would generate a version of 1.2.p4 which would
be before 1.2 and not after.
For some more advanced examples of setting PORTVERSION , when the software's versioning is really not compat-
ible with FreeBSD's, or DISTNAME when the distribution le does not contain the version itself, see Section5.4.1,
DISTNAME.
5.2.3.PORTREVISION and PORTEPOCH

5.2.3.1.PORTREVISION
PORTREVISION is a monotonically increasing value which is reset to 0 with every increase of DISTVERSION , typically
every time there is a new official vendor release. If PORTREVISION is non-zero, the value is appended to the package
name. Changes to PORTREVISION are used by automated tools like pkg-version(8) to determine that a new package
is available.
PORTREVISION must be increased each time a change is made to the port that changes the generated package in
any way. That includes changes that only affect a package built with non-default options.
Examples of when PORTREVISION must be bumped:
Addition of patches to correct security vulnerabilities, bugs, or to add new functionality to the port.
Changes to the port Makefile to enable or disable compile-time options in the package.
Changes in the packing list or the install-time behavior of the package. For example, a change to a script which
generates initial data for the package, like ssh(1) host keys.
Version bump of a port's shared library dependency (in this case, someone trying to install the old package after
installing a newer version of the dependency will fail since it will look for the old libfoo.x instead of libfoo.(x+1)).
Silent changes to the port distfile which have significant functional differences. For example, changes to the
distfile requiring a correction to distinfo with no corresponding change to DISTVERSION , where a diff -ru
of the old and new versions shows non-trivial changes to the code.
Examples of changes which do not require a PORTREVISION bump:
Style changes to the port skeleton with no functional change to what appears in the resulting package.
Changes to MASTER_SITES or other functional changes to the port which do not affect the resulting package.
20
Trivial patches to the distfile such as correction of typos, which are not important enough that users of the
package have to go to the trouble of upgrading.
Build fixes which cause a package to become compilable where it was previously failing. As long as the changes
do not introduce any functional change on any other platforms on which the port did previously build. Since
PORTREVISION reflects the content of the package, if the package was not previously buildable then there is no
need to increase PORTREVISION to mark a change.
A rule of thumb is to decide whether a change committed to a port is something which some people would benefit
from having. Either because of an enhancement, x, or by virtue that the new package will actually work at all.
Then weigh that against that fact that it will cause everyone who regularly updates their ports tree to be compelled
to update. If yes, PORTREVISION must be bumped.
Note
People using binary packages will never see the update if PORTREVISION is not bumped. With-
out increasing PORTREVISION , the package builders have no way to detect the change and
thus, will not rebuild the package.
5.2.3.2.PORTEPOCH
From time to time a software vendor or FreeBSD porter will do something silly and release a version of their
software which is actually numerically less than the previous version. An example of this is a port which goes from
foo-20000801 to foo-1.0 (the former will be incorrectly treated as a newer version since 20000801 is a numerically
greater value than 1).
Tip
The results of version number comparisons are not always obvious. pkg version (see pkg-
version(8)) can be used to test the comparison of two version number strings. For example:
>
The > output indicates that version 0.031 is considered greater than version 0.29, which may
not have been obvious to the porter.
In situations such as this, PORTEPOCH must be increased. If PORTEPOCH is nonzero it is appended to the package
name as described in section 0 above. PORTEPOCH must never be decreased or reset to zero, because that would
cause comparison to a package from an earlier epoch to fail. For example, the package would not be detected as out
of date. The new version number, 1.0,1 in the above example, is still numerically less than the previous version,
20000801, but the ,1 suffix is treated specially by automated tools and found to be greater than the implied suffix
,0 on the earlier package.
Dropping or resetting PORTEPOCH incorrectly leads to no end of grief. If the discussion above was not clear enough,
please consult the FreeBSD ports mailing list.
It is expected that PORTEPOCH will not be used for the majority of ports, and that sensible use of DISTVERSION ,
or that use PORTVERSION carefully, can often preempt it becoming necessary if a future release of the software
changes the version structure. However, care is needed by FreeBSD porters when a vendor release is made without
an official version number such as a code snapshot release. The temptation is to label the release with the
release date, which will cause problems as in the example above when a new official release is made.
21
PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIX
For example, if a snapshot release is made on the date 20000917 , and the previous version of the software was
version 1.2 , do not use 20000917 for DISTVERSION . The correct way is a DISTVERSION of 1.2.20000917 , or similar,
so that the succeeding release, say 1.3 , is still a numerically greater value.
5.2.3.3.Example of PORTREVISION and PORTEPOCH Usage
The gtkmumble port, version 0.10 , is committed to the ports collection:
PORTNAME= gtkmumble
DISTVERSION= 0.10
PKGNAME becomes gtkmumble-0.10.
A security hole is discovered which requires a local FreeBSD patch. PORTREVISION is bumped accordingly.
PORTNAME= gtkmumble
DISTVERSION= 0.10
PORTREVISION= 1
PKGNAME becomes gtkmumble-0.10_1
A new version is released by the vendor, numbered 0.2 (it turns out the author actually intended 0.10 to actually
mean 0.1.0 , not what comes after 0.9 - oops, too late now). Since the new minor version 2 is numerically less
than the previous version 10, PORTEPOCH must be bumped to manually force the new package to be detected as
newer. Since it is a new vendor release of the code, PORTREVISION is reset to 0 (or removed from the Makefile).
PORTNAME= gtkmumble
DISTVERSION= 0.2
PORTEPOCH= 1
PKGNAME becomes gtkmumble-0.2,1
The next release is 0.3. Since PORTEPOCH never decreases, the version variables are now:
PORTNAME= gtkmumble
DISTVERSION= 0.3
PORTEPOCH= 1
PKGNAME becomes gtkmumble-0.3,1
Note
If PORTEPOCH were reset to 0 with this upgrade, someone who had installed the gtkmum-
ble-0.10_1 package would not detect the gtkmumble-0.3 package as newer, since 3 is still
numerically less than 10. Remember, this is the whole point of PORTEPOCH in the rst place.
5.2.4.PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIX

Two optional variables, PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIX, are combined with PORTNAME and PORTVERSION to form
PKGNAME as ${PKGNAMEPREFIX}${PORTNAME}${PKGNAMESUFFIX}-${PORTVERSION} . Make sure this conforms to our
guidelines for a good package name. In particular, the use of a hyphen (-) in PORTVERSION is not allowed. Also,
if the package name has the language- or the -compiled.specifics part (see below), use PKGNAMEPREFIX and
PKGNAMESUFFIX, respectively. Do not make them part of PORTNAME.
5.2.5.Package Naming Conventions

These are the conventions to follow when naming packages. This is to make the package directory easy to scan, as
there are already thousands of packages and users are going to turn away if they hurt their eyes!
22
Package names take the form of language_region-name-compiled.specifics-version.numbers .
The package name is defined as ${PKGNAMEPREFIX}${PORTNAME}${PKGNAMESUFFIX}-${PORTVERSION} . Make sure

to set the variables to conform to that format.
language_region-
FreeBSD strives to support the native language of its users. The language- part is a two letter abbreviation of
the natural language defined by ISO-639 when the port is specific to a certain language. Examples are ja for
Japanese, ru for Russian, vi for Vietnamese, zh for Chinese, ko for Korean and de for German.
If the port is specific to a certain region within the language area, add the two letter country code as well.
Examples are en_US for US English and fr_CH for Swiss French.
The language- part is set in PKGNAMEPREFIX.
name
Make sure that the port's name and version are clearly separated and placed into PORTNAME and DISTVERSION .
The only reason for PORTNAME to contain a version part is if the upstream distribution is really named that way,
as in the textproc/libxml2 or japanese/kinput2-freewnn ports. Otherwise, PORTNAME cannot contain any ver-
sion-specific information. It is quite normal for several ports to have the same PORTNAME, as the www/apache*
ports do; in that case, different versions (and different index entries) are distinguished by PKGNAMEPREFIX and
PKGNAMESUFFIX values.
There is a tradition of naming Perl 5 modules by prepending p5- and converting the double-colon separator
to a hyphen. For example, the Data::Dumper module becomes p5-Data-Dumper .
-compiled.specifics
If the port can be built with different hardcoded defaults (usually part of the directory name in a family of
ports), the -compiled.specifics part states the compiled-in defaults. The hyphen is optional. Examples are
paper size and font units.
The -compiled.specifics part is set in PKGNAMESUFFIX.
-version.numbers
The version string follows a dash (-) and is a period-separated list of integers and single lowercase alphabetics.
In particular, it is not permissible to have another dash inside the version string. The only exception is the
string pl (meaning patchlevel), which can be used only when there are no major and minor version numbers
in the software. If the software version has strings like alpha, beta, rc, or pre, take the rst letter and
put it immediately after a period. If the version string continues after those names, the numbers follow the
single alphabet without an extra period between them (for example, 1.0b2 ).
The idea is to make it easier to sort ports by looking at the version string. In particular, make sure version num-
ber components are always delimited by a period, and if the date is part of the string, use the 0.0.yyyy.mm.dd
format, not dd.mm.yyyy or the non-Y2K compliant yy.mm.dd format. It is important to prefix the version with
0.0. in case a release with an actual version number is made, which would be numerically less than yyyy .
Important
Package name must be unique among all of the ports tree, check that there is not already a
port with the same PORTNAME and if there is add one of PKGNAMEPREFIX or PKGNAMESUFFIX.
Here are some (real) examples on how to convert the name as called by the software authors to a suitable package
name, for each line, only one of DISTVERSION or PORTVERSION is set in, depending on which would be used in the
port's Makefile:
23
Package Naming Conventions
Table5.2.Package Naming Examples

Distribution PKGNAMEPRE- PORTNAME PKGNAMESUF- DISTVERSION PORTVERSION Reason or
Name FIX FIX comment
mule-2.2.2 (empty) mule (empty) 2.2.2 No changes re-
quired
mule-1.0.1 (empty) mule 1 1.0.1 This is version
1 of mule, and
version 2 al-
ready exists
EmiClock-1.0.2 (empty) emiclock (empty) 1.0.2 No uppercase
names for sin-
gle programs
rdist-1.3alpha (empty) rdist (empty) 1.3alpha Version will be
1.3.a
es-0.9-beta1 (empty) es (empty) 0.9-beta1 Version will be

0.9.b1
mail- (empty) mailman (empty) 2.0rc3 Version will be

man-2.0rc3 2.0.r3
v3.3beta021.s- (empty) ti (empty) 3.3 What the heck

rc was that any-
way?
tvtwm (empty) tvtwm (empty) p11 No version in
the filename,
use what up-
stream says it
is
piewm (empty) piewm (empty) 1.0 No version in
the filename,
use what up-
stream says it
is
xvgr-2.10pl1 (empty) xvgr (empty) 2.10.pl1 In that case,
pl1 means
patch lev-
el, so using
DISTVERSION
is not possible.
gawk-2.15.6 ja- gawk (empty) 2.15.6 Japanese lan-
guage version
psutils-1.13 (empty) psutils -letter 1.13 Paper size
hardcoded at
package build
time
pkfonts (empty) pkfonts 300 1.0 Package for
300dpi fonts
If there is absolutely no trace of version information in the original source and it is unlikely that the original author
will ever release another version, just set the version string to 1.0 (like the piewm example above). Otherwise, ask
the original author or use the date string the source le was released on (0.0.yyyy.mm.dd) as the version.
24
5.3.Categorization
5.3.1.CATEGORIES
When a package is created, it is put under /usr/ports/packages/All and links are made from one or more sub-
directories of /usr/ports/packages . The names of these subdirectories are specified by the variable CATEGORIES.
It is intended to make life easier for the user when he is wading through the pile of packages on the FTP site or the
CDROM. Please take a look at the current list of categories and pick the ones that are suitable for the port.
This list also determines where in the ports tree the port is imported. If there is more than one category here, the
port les must be put in the subdirectory with the name of the rst category. See below for more discussion about
how to pick the right categories.
5.3.2.Current List of Categories
Here is the current list of port categories. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are virtual categoriesthose that do
not have a corresponding subdirectory in the ports tree. They are only used as secondary categories, and only for
search purposes.
Note
For non-virtual categories, there is a one-line description in COMMENT in that subdirectory's
Makefile.
Category Description Notes

accessibility Ports to help disabled users.
afterstep * Ports to support the AfterStep win-
dow manager.
arabic Arabic language support.
archivers Archiving tools.
astro Astronomical ports.
audio Sound support.
benchmarks Benchmarking utilities.
biology Biology-related software.
cad Computer aided design tools.
chinese Chinese language support.
comms Communication software. Mostly software to talk to the serial
port.
converters Character code converters.
databases Databases.
deskutils Things that used to be on the desktop
before computers were invented.
devel Development utilities. Do not put libraries here just because
they are libraries. They should not be
in this category unless they truly do
not belong anywhere else.
dns DNS-related software.
25
Current List of Categories

docs * Meta-ports for FreeBSD documenta-
tion.
editors General editors. Specialized editors go in the section
for those tools. For example, a math-
ematical-formula editor will go in
math , and have editors as a second
category.
elisp * Emacs-lisp ports.
emulators Emulators for other operating sys- Terminal emulators do not belong
tems. here. X-based ones go to x11 and
text-based ones to either comms or
misc , depending on the exact func-
tionality.
finance Monetary, financial and related ap-
plications.
french French language support.
ftp FTP client and server utilities. If the port speaks both FTP and HTTP,
put it in ftp with a secondary cate-
gory of www .
games Games.
geography * Geography-related software.
german German language support.
gnome * Ports from the GNOME Project.
gnustep * Software related to the GNUstep
desktop environment.
graphics Graphics utilities.
hamradio * Software for amateur radio.
haskell * Software related to the Haskell lan-
guage.
hebrew Hebrew language support.
hungarian Hungarian language support.
ipv6 * IPv6 related software.
irc Internet Relay Chat utilities.
japanese Japanese language support.
java Software related to the Java lan- The java category must not be the
guage. only one for a port. Save for ports di-
rectly related to the Java language,
porters are also encouraged not to
use java as the main category of a
port.
kde * Ports from the KDE Project.
kld * Kernel loadable modules.
korean Korean language support.
lang Programming languages.
26

linux * Linux applications and support utili-
ties.
lisp * Software related to the Lisp lan-
guage.
mail Mail software.
math Numerical computation software
and other utilities for mathematics.
mbone * MBone applications.
misc Miscellaneous utilities Things that do not belong anywhere
else. If at all possible, try to nd a bet-
ter category for the port than misc ,
as ports tend to be overlooked in
here.
multimedia Multimedia software.
net Miscellaneous networking software.
net-im Instant messaging software.
net-mgmt Networking management software.
net-p2p Peer to peer network applications.
news USENET news software.
palm Software support for the Palm se-
ries.
parallel * Applications dealing with paral-
lelism in computing.
pear * Ports related to the Pear PHP frame-
work.
perl5 * Ports that require Perl version 5 to
run.
plan9 * Various programs from Plan9.
polish Polish language support.
ports-mgmt Ports for managing, installing and
developing FreeBSD ports and pack-
ages.
portuguese Portuguese language support.
print Printing software. Desktop publishing tools (preview-
ers, etc.) belong here too.
python * Software related to the Python lan-
guage.
ruby * Software related to the Ruby lan-
guage.
rubygems * Ports of RubyGems packages.
russian Russian language support.
scheme * Software related to the Scheme lan-
guage.
27
Choosing the Right Category

science Scientific ports that do not t into
other categories such as astro, bi-
ology and math .
security Security utilities.

shells Command line shells.
spanish * Spanish language support.
sysutils System utilities.
tcl * Ports that use Tcl to run.
textproc Text processing utilities. It does not include desktop publish-
ing tools, which go to print .
tk * Ports that use Tk to run.
ukrainian Ukrainian language support.
vietnamese Vietnamese language support.
windowmaker * Ports to support the WindowMaker
window manager.
www Software related to the World Wide HTML language support belongs
Web. here too.
x11 The X Window System and friends. This category is only for software
that directly supports the window
system. Do not put regular X applica-
tions here. Most of them go into oth-
er x11-* categories (see below).
x11-clocks X11 clocks.
x11-drivers X11 drivers.
x11-fm X11 le managers.
x11-fonts X11 fonts and font utilities.
x11-servers X11 servers.
x11-themes X11 themes.
x11-toolkits X11 toolkits.
x11-wm X11 window managers.
xfce * Ports related to the Xfce desktop en-
vironment.
zope * Zope support.
5.3.3.Choosing the Right Category
As many of the categories overlap, choosing which of the categories will be the primary category of the port can
be tedious. There are several rules that govern this issue. Here is the list of priorities, in decreasing order of prece-
dence:
The rst category must be a physical category (see above). This is necessary to make the packaging work. Virtual
categories and physical categories may be intermixed after that.
Language specific categories always come rst. For example, if the port installs Japanese X11 fonts, then the
CATEGORIES line would read japanese x11-fonts .
28
Specific categories are listed before less-specific ones. For instance, an HTML editor is listed as www editors ,
not the other way around. Also, do not list net when the port belongs to any of irc , mail , news , security, or
www , as net is included implicitly.
x11 is used as a secondary category only when the primary category is a natural language. In particular, do not
put x11 in the category line for X applications.
Emacs modes are placed in the same ports category as the application supported by the mode, not in editors.
For example, an Emacs mode to edit source les of some programming language goes into lang .
Ports installing loadable kernel modules also have the virtual category kld in their CATEGORIES line. This is one
of the things handled automatically by adding USES=kmod.
misc does not appear with any other non-virtual category. If there is misc with something else in CATEGORIES,
that means misc can safely be deleted and the port placed only in the other subdirectory.
If the port truly does not belong anywhere else, put it in misc .
If the category is not clearly defined, please put a comment to that effect in the port submission in the bug database
so we can discuss it before we import it. As a committer, send a note to the FreeBSD ports mailing list so we can
discuss it rst. Too often, new ports are imported to the wrong category only to be moved right away. This causes
unnecessary and undesirable bloat in the master source repository.
5.3.4.Proposing a New Category

As the Ports Collection has grown over time, various new categories have been introduced. New categories can
either be virtual categoriesthose that do not have a corresponding subdirectory in the ports tree or physical
categoriesthose that do. This section discusses the issues involved in creating a new physical category. Read it
thouroughly before proposing a new one.
Our existing practice has been to avoid creating a new physical category unless either a large number of ports
would logically belong to it, or the ports that would belong to it are a logically distinct group that is of limited
general interest (for instance, categories related to spoken human languages), or preferably both.
The rationale for this is that such a change creates a fair amount of work for both the committers and also for
all users who track changes to the Ports Collection. In addition, proposed category changes just naturally seem
to attract controversy. (Perhaps this is because there is no clear consensus on when a category is too big, nor
whether categories should lend themselves to browsing (and thus what number of categories would be an ideal
number), and so forth.)
Here is the procedure:
1. Propose the new category on FreeBSD ports mailing list. Include a detailed rationale for the new category,
including why the existing categories are not sufficient, and the list of existing ports proposed to move. (If
there are new ports pending in Bugzilla that would t this category, list them too.) If you are the maintainer
and/or submitter, respectively, mention that as it may help the case.
2. Participate in the discussion.
3. If it seems that there is support for the idea, le a PR which includes both the rationale and the list of existing
ports that need to be moved. Ideally, this PR would also include these patches:
Makefiles for the new ports once they are repocopied
Makefile for the new category
Makefile for the old ports' categories
Makefiles for ports that depend on the old ports
(for extra credit, include the other les that have to change, as per the procedure in the Committer's Guide.)
29
Proposing Reorganizing All the Categories
4. Since it affects the ports infrastructure and involves moving and patching many ports but also possibly run-
ning regression tests on the build cluster, assign the PR to the Ports Management Team <portmgr@Free-
BSD.org>.
5. If that PR is approved, a committer will need to follow the rest of the procedure that is outlined in the Com-
mitter's Guide.
Proposing a new virtual category is similar to the above but much less involved, since no ports will actually have
to move. In this case, the only patches to include in the PR would be those to add the new category to CATEGORIES
of the affected ports.
5.3.5.Proposing Reorganizing All the Categories

Occasionally someone proposes reorganizing the categories with either a 2-level structure, or some other kind of
keyword structure. To date, nothing has come of any of these proposals because, while they are very easy to make,
the effort involved to retrofit the entire existing ports collection with any kind of reorganization is daunting to
say the very least. Please read the history of these proposals in the mailing list archives before posting this idea.
Furthermore, be prepared to be challenged to offer a working prototype.
5.4.The Distribution Files

The second part of the Makefile describes the les that must be downloaded to build the port, and where they
can be downloaded.
5.4.1.DISTNAME
DISTNAME is the name of the port as called by the authors of the software. DISTNAME defaults to ${PORT-
NAME}-${DISTVERSIONPREFIX}${DISTVERSION}${DISTVERSIONSUFFIX} , and if not set, DISTVERSION defaults to
${PORTVERSION} so override DISTNAME only if necessary. DISTNAME is only used in two places. First, the distribution
le list (DISTFILES) defaults to ${DISTNAME}${EXTRACT_SUFX}. Second, the distribution le is expected to extract
into a subdirectory named WRKSRC , which defaults to work/${DISTNAME} .
Some vendor's distribution names which do not t into the ${PORTNAME}-${PORTVERSION} -scheme can be handled
automatically by setting DISTVERSIONPREFIX, DISTVERSION , and DISTVERSIONSUFFIX. PORTVERSION will be derived
from DISTVERSION automatically.
Important
Only one of PORTVERSION and DISTVERSION can be set at a time. If DISTVERSION does not
derive a correct PORTVERSION , do not use DISTVERSION .
If the upstream version scheme can be derived into a ports-compatible version scheme, set some variable to the
upstream version, do not use DISTVERSION as the variable name. Set PORTVERSION to the computed version based
on the variable you created, and set DISTNAME accordingly.
If the upstream version scheme cannot easily be coerced into a ports-compatible value, set PORTVERSION to a
sensible value, and set DISTNAME with PORTNAME with the verbatim upstream version.
Example5.6.Deriving PORTVERSION Manually

BIND9 uses a version scheme that is not compatible with the ports versions (it has - in its versions) and
cannot be derived using DISTVERSION because after the 9.9.9 release, it will release a patchlevels in
30
the form of 9.9.9-P1 . DISTVERSION would translate that into 9.9.9.p1 , which, in the ports versioning
scheme means 9.9.9 pre-release 1, which is before 9.9.9 and not after. So PORTVERSION is manually derived
from an ISCVERSION variable in order to output 9.9.9p1 .
The order into which the ports framework, and pkg, will sort versions is checked using the -t argument
of pkg-version(8):
% pkgversion -t9.9.99.9.9.p1
>
% pkgversion -t9.9.99.9.9p1
<
The > sign means that the rst argument passed to -t is greater than the second argument. 9.9.9
is after 9.9.9.p1 .
The < sign means that the rst argument passed to -t is less than the second argument. 9.9.9 is
before 9.9.9p1 .
In the port Makefile, for example dns/bind99, it is achieved by:
PORTNAME= bind
PORTVERSION= ${ISCVERSION:S/-P/P/:S/b/.b/:S/a/.a/:S/rc/.rc/}
CATEGORIES= dnsnetipv6
MASTER_SITES= ISC/bind9/${ISCVERSION}
PKGNAMESUFFIX= 99
DISTNAME= ${PORTNAME}-${ISCVERSION}
MAINTAINER= mat@FreeBSD.org
COMMENT= BINDDNSsuitewithupdatedDNSSECandDNS64
LICENSE= ISCL
#ISCreleasesthingslike9.8.0-P1or9.8.1rc1,whichourversioningdoesnotlike
ISCVERSION= 9.9.9-P6
Define upstream version in ISCVERSION , with a comment saying why it is needed.

Use ISCVERSION to get a ports-compatible PORTVERSION .
Use ISCVERSION directly to get the correct URL for fetching the distribution le.
Use ISCVERSION directly to name the distribution le.
Example5.7.Derive DISTNAME from PORTVERSION

From time to time, the distribution le name has little or no relation to the version of the software.
In comms/kermit, only the last element of the version is present in the distribution le:
PORTNAME= kermit
PORTVERSION= 9.0.304
CATEGORIES= commsftpnet
MASTER_SITES= ftp://ftp.kermitproject.org/kermit/test/tar/
DISTNAME= cku${PORTVERSION:E}-dev20
The :E make(1) modifier returns the suffix of the variable, in this case, 304 . The distribution le is
correctly generated as cku304-dev20.tar.gz .
31
MASTER_SITES
Example5.8.Exotic Case 1
Sometimes, there is no relation between the software name, its version, and the distribution le it is dis-
tributed in.
From audio/libworkman:
PORTNAME= libworkman
PORTVERSION= 1.4
CATEGORIES= audio
MASTER_SITES= LOCAL/jim
DISTNAME= ${PORTNAME}-1999-06-20
Example5.9.Exotic Case 2
In comms/librs232, the distribution le is not versioned, so using DIST_SUBDIR is needed:
PORTNAME= librs232
PORTVERSION= 20160710
CATEGORIES= comms
MASTER_SITES= http://www.teuniz.net/RS-232/
DISTNAME= RS-232
DIST_SUBDIR= ${PORTNAME}-${PORTVERSION}
Note
PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIX do not affect DISTNAME. Also note that if WRKSRC is equal
to ${WRKDIR}/${DISTNAME} while the original source archive is named something other than
${PORTNAME}-${PORTVERSION}${EXTRACT_SUFX} , leave DISTNAME alone defining only DIST-
FILES is easier than both DISTNAME and WRKSRC (and possibly EXTRACT_SUFX).
5.4.2.MASTER_SITES
Record the directory part of the FTP/HTTP-URL pointing at the original tarball in MASTER_SITES . Do not forget
the trailing slash (/)!
The make macros will try to use this specification for grabbing the distribution le with FETCH if they cannot nd
it already on the system.
It is recommended that multiple sites are included on this list, preferably from different continents. This will safe-
guard against wide-area network problems. We are even planning to add support for automatically determining
the closest master site and fetching from there; having multiple sites will go a long way towards helping this effort.
Important
MASTER_SITES must not be blank. It must point to the actual site hosting the distribution
les. It cannot point to web archives, or the FreeBSD distribution les cache sites. The only
32
exception to this rule is ports that do not have any distribution les. For example, meta-ports
do not have any distribution les, so MASTER_SITES does not need to be set.
5.4.2.1.Using MASTER_SITE_ * Variables
Shortcut abbreviations are available for popular archives like SourceForge (SOURCEFORGE), GNU (GNU ), or Perl CPAN
(PERL_CPAN). MASTER_SITES can use them directly:
MASTER_SITES= GNU/make
The older expanded format still works, but all ports have been converted to the compact format. The expanded
format looks like this:
MASTER_SITES= ${MASTER_SITE_GNU}
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= make
These values and variables are defined in Mk/bsd.sites.mk . New entries are added often, so make sure to check
the latest version of this le before submitting a port.
Tip
For any MASTER_SITE_ FOO variable, the shorthand FOO can be used. For example, use:
MASTER_SITES= FOO
If MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR is needed, use this:
MASTER_SITES= FOO/bar
Note
Some MASTER_SITE_ * names are quite long, and for ease of use, shortcuts have been defined:
Table5.3.Shortcuts for MASTER_SITE_ * Macros

Macro Shortcut
PERL_CPAN CPAN
GITHUB GH
GITHUB_CLOUD GHC
LIBREOFFICE_DEV LODEV
NETLIB NL
RUBYGEMS RG
SOURCEFORGE SF
SOURCEFORGE_JP SFJP
5.4.2.2.Magic MASTER_SITES Macros
Several magic macros exist for popular sites with a predictable directory structure. For these, just use the ab-
breviation and the system will choose a subdirectory automatically. For a port named Stardict, of version 1.2.3 ,
and hosted on SourceForge, adding this line:
33
MASTER_SITES
MASTER_SITES= SF
infers a subdirectory named /project/stardict/stardict/1.2.3 . If the inferred directory is incorrect, it can be

overridden:
MASTER_SITES= SF/stardict/WyabdcRealPeopleTTS/${PORTVERSION}
This can also be written as
MASTER_SITES= SF
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= stardict/WyabdcRealPeopleTTS/${PORTVERSION}
Table5.4.Magic MASTER_SITES Macros

Macro Assumed subdirectory
APACHE_COMMONS_BINARIES ${PORTNAME:S,commons-,,}
APACHE_COMMONS_SOURCE ${PORTNAME:S,commons-,,}
APACHE_JAKARTA ${PORTNAME:S,-,/,}/source
BERLIOS ${PORTNAME:tl}.berlios
CHEESESHOP source/${DISTNAME:C/(.).*/\1/}/
${DISTNAME:C/(.*)-[0-9].*/\1/}
CPAN ${PORTNAME:C/-.*//}
DEBIAN pool/main/${PORTNAME:C/^((lib)?.).*$/\1/}/
${PORTNAME}
FARSIGHT ${PORTNAME}
FESTIVAL ${PORTREVISION}
GCC releases/${DISTNAME}
GENTOO distfiles
GIMP ${PORTNAME}/${PORTVERSION:R}/
GH ${GH_ACCOUNT}/${GH_PROJECT}/tar.gz/
${GH_TAGNAME}?dummy=/
GHC ${GH_ACCOUNT}/${GH_PROJECT}/
GNOME sources/${PORTNAME}/${PORTVERSION:C/^([0-9]+
\.[0-9]+).*/\1/}
GNU ${PORTNAME}
GNUPG ${PORTNAME}
GNU_ALPHA ${PORTNAME}
HORDE ${PORTNAME}
LODEV ${PORTNAME}
MATE ${PORTVERSION:C/^([0-9]+\.[0-9]+).*/\1/}
MOZDEV ${PORTNAME:tl}
NL ${PORTNAME}
QT archive/qt/${PORTVERSION:R}
SAMBA ${PORTNAME}
SAVANNAH ${PORTNAME:tl}
SF ${PORTNAME:tl}/${PORTNAME:tl}/${PORTVERSION}
34
5.4.3.USE_GITHUB
If the distribution le comes from a specific commit or tag on GitHub for which there is no officially released le,
there is an easy way to set the right DISTNAME and MASTER_SITES automatically. These variables are available:
Table5.5.USE_GITHUB Description
Variable Description Default
GH_ACCOUNT Account name of the GitHub user ${PORTNAME}
hosting the project
GH_PROJECT Name of the project on GitHub ${PORTNAME}
GH_TAGNAME Name of the tag to download (2.0.1, ${DISTVERSIONPRE-

hash, ...) Using the name of a branch FIX}${DISTVERSION}${DISTVERSIONSUF-
here is incorrect. It is also possible to FIX}
use the hash of a commit id to do a
snapshot.
GH_SUBDIR When the software needs an addi- (none)
tional distribution le to be extract-
ed within ${WRKSRC} , this variable
can be used. See the examples in Sec-
tion5.4.3.1, Fetching Multiple Files
from GitHub for more information.
GH_TUPLE GH_TUPLE allows putting GH_AC-
COUNT, GH_PROJECT , GH_TAGNAME, and
GH_SUBDIR into a single variable. The
format is account:project :tag-
name:group /subdir. The /subdir
part is optional. It is helpful when
there is more than one GitHub
project from which to fetch.
Important
Do not use GH_TUPLE for the default distribution le, as it has no default.
Example5.10.Simple Use of USE_GITHUB

While trying to make a port for version 1.2.7 of pkg from the FreeBSD user on github, at https://
github.com/freebsd/pkg, The Makefile would end up looking like this (slightly stripped for the example):
PORTNAME= pkg
DISTVERSION= 1.2.7
USE_GITHUB= yes
GH_ACCOUNT= freebsd
It will automatically have MASTER_SITES set to GH GHC and WRKSRC to ${WRKDIR}/pkg-1.2.7 .
35
USE_GITHUB
Example5.11.More Complete Use of USE_GITHUB

While trying to make a port for the bleeding edge version of pkg from the FreeBSD user on github, at
https://github.com/freebsd/pkg, the Makefile ends up looking like this (slightly stripped for the exam-
ple):
PORTNAME= pkg-devel
DISTVERSION= 1.3.0.a.20140411
USE_GITHUB= yes
GH_ACCOUNT= freebsd
GH_PROJECT= pkg
GH_TAGNAME= 6dbb17b
It will automatically have MASTER_SITES set to GH GHC and WRKSRC to ${WRKDIR}/pkg-6dbb17b .
Tip
20140411 is the date of the commit referenced in GH_TAGNAME, not the date the Make-
file is edited, or the date the commit is made.
Example5.12.Use of USE_GITHUB with DISTVERSIONPREFIX

From time to time, GH_TAGNAME is a slight variation from DISTVERSION . For example, if the version is 1.0.2 ,
the tag is v1.0.2 . In those cases, it is possible to use DISTVERSIONPREFIX or DISTVERSIONSUFFIX:
PORTNAME= foo
DISTVERSION= 1.0.2
USE_GITHUB= yes
It will automatically set GH_TAGNAME to v1.0.2 , while WRKSRC will be kept to ${WRKDIR}/foo-1.0.2 .
Example5.13.Using USE_GITHUB When Upstream Does Not Use Versions

If there never was a version upstream, do not invent one like 0.1 or 1.0 . Create the port with a
DISTVERSION of gYYYYMMDD, where g is for Git, and YYYYMMDD represents the date the commit referenced
in GH_TAGNAME.
PORTNAME= bar
DISTVERSION= g20140411
USE_GITHUB= yes
GH_TAGNAME= c472d66b
This creates a versioning scheme that increases over time, and that is still before version 0 (see Example5.1,
Using pkg-version(8) to Compare Versions. for details on pkg-version(8)):
36
% pkgversion -tg201404110
<
Which means using PORTEPOCH will not be needed in case upstream decides to cut versions in the future.
Example5.14.Using USE_GITHUB to Access a Commit Between Two Versions

If the current version of the software uses a Git tag, and the port needs to be updated to a newer, interme-
diate version, without a tag, use git-describe(1) to nd out the version to use:
% gitdescribe --tags f0038b1
v0.7.3-14-gf0038b1
v0.7.3-14-gf0038b1 can be split into three parts:
v0.7.3
This is the last Git tag that appears in the commit history before the requested commit.
-14
This means that the requested commit, f0038b1 , is the 14th commit after the v0.7.3 tag.
-gf0038b1
The -g means Git, and the f0038b1 is the commit hash that this reference points to.
PORTNAME= bar
DISTVERSION= 0.7.3-14
DISTVERSIONSUFFIX= -gf0038b1
USE_GITHUB= yes
This creates a versioning scheme that increases over time (well, over commits), and does not conflict with
the creation of a 0.7.4 version. (See Example5.1, Using pkg-version(8) to Compare Versions. for details
on pkg-version(8)):
% pkgversion -t0.7.30.7.3.14
<
% pkgversion -t0.7.3.140.7.4
<
Note
If the requested commit is the same as a tag, a shorter description is shown by default.
The longer version is equivalent:
% gitdescribe --tags c66c71d
v0.7.3
% gitdescribe --tags --long c66c71d
v0.7.3-0-gc66c71d
5.4.3.1.Fetching Multiple Files from GitHub
The USE_GITHUB framework also supports fetching multiple distribution les from different places in GitHub. It
works in a way very similar to Section5.4.8, Multiple Distribution or Patches Files from Multiple Locations.
37
USE_GITHUB
When fetching multiple les from GitHub, sometimes the default distribution le is not required. To disable fetch-
ing the default distribution, set:
USE_GITHUB= nodefault
Multiple values are added to GH_ACCOUNT, GH_PROJECT , and GH_TAGNAME. Each different value is assigned a group.
The main value can either have no group, or the :DEFAULT group. A value can be omitted if it is the same as the
default as listed in Table5.5, USE_GITHUB Description.
GH_TUPLE can also be used when there are a lot of distribution les. It helps keep the account, project, tagname,
and group information at the same place.
For each group, a ${WRKSRC_group } helper variable is created, containing the directory into which the le has been
extracted. The ${WRKSRC_group } variables can be used to move directories around during post-extract , or add
to CONFIGURE_ARGS, or whatever is needed so that the software builds correctly.
Caution
The :group part must be used for only one distribution le. It is used as a unique key and using
it more than once will overwrite the previous values.
Note
As this is only syntastic sugar above DISTFILES and MASTER_SITES , the group names must
adhere to the restrictions on group names outlined in Section5.4.8, Multiple Distribution
or Patches Files from Multiple Locations
Example5.15.Use of USE_GITHUB with Multiple Distribution Files

From time to time, there is a need to fetch more than one distribution le. For example, when the upstream
git repository uses submodules. This can be done easily using groups in the GH_* variables:
PORTNAME= foo
DISTVERSION= 1.0.2
USE_GITHUB= yes
GH_ACCOUNT= bar:icons,contrib
GH_PROJECT= foo-icons:iconsfoo-contrib:contrib
GH_TAGNAME= 1.0:iconsfa579bc:contrib
GH_SUBDIR= ext/icons:icons
CONFIGURE_ARGS= --with-contrib=${WRKSRC_contrib}
This will fetch three distribution les from github. The default one comes from foo/foo and is ver-
sion 1.0.2 . The second one, with the icons group, comes from bar/foo-icons and is in version
1.0 . The third one comes from bar/foo-contrib and uses the Git commit fa579bc . The distribu-
tion les are named foo-foo-1.0.2_GH0.tar.gz , bar-foo-icons-1.0_GH0.tar.gz , and bar-foo-con-
trib-fa579bc_GH0.tar.gz .
All the distribution les are extracted in ${WRKDIR} in their respective subdirectories. The default le
is still extracted in ${WRKSRC} , in this case, ${WRKDIR}/foo-1.0.2 . Each additional distribution le is
extracted in ${WRKSRC_group }. Here, for the icons group, it is called ${WRKSRC_icons} and it contains
38
${WRKDIR}/foo-icons-1.0 . The le with the contrib group is called ${WRKSRC_contrib} and contains
${WRKDIR}/foo-contrib-fa579bc .
The software's build system expects to nd the icons in a ext/icons subdirectory in its sources, so GH_SUB-
DIR is used. GH_SUBDIR makes sure that ext exists, but that ext/icons does not already exist. Then it does
this:
post-extract:
@${MV}${WRKSRC_icons}${WRKSRC}/ext/icons
Example 5.16. Use of USE_GITHUB with Multiple Distribution Files Using

GH_TUPLE
This is functionally equivalent to Example5.15, Use of USE_GITHUB with Multiple Distribution Files, but
using GH_TUPLE:
PORTNAME= foo
DISTVERSION= 1.0.2
USE_GITHUB= yes
GH_TUPLE= bar:foo-icons:1.0:icons/ext/icons\
bar:foo-contrib:fa579bc:contrib
CONFIGURE_ARGS= --with-contrib=${WRKSRC_contrib}
Grouping was used in the previous example with bar:icons,contrib. Some redundant information is
present with GH_TUPLE because grouping is not possible.
Example5.17.How to Use USE_GITHUB with Git Submodules?

Ports with GitHub as an upstream repository sometimes use submodules. See git-submodule(1) for more
information.
The problem with submodules is that each is a separate repository. As such, they each must be fetched
separately.
Using finance/moneymanagerex as an example, its GitHub repository is https://github.com/moneyman-

agerex/moneymanagerex. It has a .gitmodules le at the root. This le describes all the submodules used
in this repository, and lists additional repositories needed. This le will tell what additional repositories
are needed:
[submodule "lib/wxsqlite3"]
path=lib/wxsqlite3
url=https://github.com/utelle/wxsqlite3.git
[submodule "3rd/mongoose"]
path=3rd/mongoose
url=https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose.git
[submodule "3rd/LuaGlue"]
path=3rd/LuaGlue
url=https://github.com/moneymanagerex/LuaGlue.git
[submodule "3rd/cgitemplate"]
path=3rd/cgitemplate
url=https://github.com/moneymanagerex/html-template.git
39
USE_GITHUB
[...]
The only information missing from that le is the commit hash or tag to use as a version. This information
is found after cloning the repository:
% gitclone --recurse-submoduleshttps://github.com/moneymanagerex/moneymanagerex.
git
Cloninginto 'moneymanagerex'...
remote:Countingobjects:32387,done.
[...]
Submodule '3rd/LuaGlue'(https://github.com/moneymanagerex/LuaGlue.git)
registeredforpath '3rd/LuaGlue'
Submodule '3rd/cgitemplate'(https://github.com/moneymanagerex/html-template.git)
registeredforpath '3rd/cgitemplate'
Submodule '3rd/mongoose'(https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose.git)registeredfor
path '3rd/mongoose'
Submodule 'lib/wxsqlite3'(https://github.com/utelle/wxsqlite3.git)registered
forpath 'lib/wxsqlite3'
[...]
Cloninginto '/home/mat/work/freebsd/ports/finance/moneymanagerex/
moneymanagerex/3rd/LuaGlue'...
moneymanagerex/3rd/cgitemplate'...
moneymanagerex/3rd/mongoose'...
Cloninginto '/home/mat/work/freebsd/ports/finance/moneymanagerex/moneymanagerex/
lib/wxsqlite3'...
[...]
Submodulepath '3rd/LuaGlue':checkedout
'c51d11a247ee4d1e9817dfa2a8da8d9e2f97ae3b'
Submodulepath '3rd/cgitemplate':checkedout
'cd434eeeb35904ebcd3d718ba29c281a649b192c'
Submodulepath '3rd/mongoose':checkedout
'2140e5992ab9a3a9a34ce9a281abf57f00f95cda'
Submodulepath 'lib/wxsqlite3':checkedout
'fb66eb230d8aed21dec273b38c7c054dcb7d6b51'
[...]
% cdmoneymanagerex
% gitsubmodulestatus
c51d11a247ee4d1e9817dfa2a8da8d9e2f97ae3b3rd/LuaGlue(heads/master)
cd434eeeb35904ebcd3d718ba29c281a649b192c3rd/cgitemplate(cd434ee)
2140e5992ab9a3a9a34ce9a281abf57f00f95cda3rd/mongoose(6.2-138-g2140e59)
fb66eb230d8aed21dec273b38c7c054dcb7d6b51lib/wxsqlite3(v3.4.0)
[...]
It can also be found on GitHub. Each subdirectory that is a submodule is shown as directory@hash , for
example, mongoose@2140e59 .
Note
While getting the information from GitHub seems more straightforward, the infor-
mation found using git submodule status will provide more meaningful infor-
mation. For example, here, lib/wxsqlite3 's commit hash fb66eb2 correspond to
v3.4.0 . Both can be used interchangeably, but when a tag is available, use it.
Now that all the required information has been gathered, the Makefile can be written (only GitHub-related
lines are shown):
PORTNAME= moneymanagerex
DISTVERSION= 1.3.0
40
USE_GITHUB= yes
GH_TUPLE= utelle:wxsqlite3:v3.4.0:wxsqlite3/lib/wxsqlite3\
moneymanagerex:LuaGlue:c51d11a:lua_glue/3rd/LuaGlue\
moneymanagerex:html-template:cd434ee:html_template/3rd/cgitemplate\
cesanta:mongoose:2140e59:mongoose/3rd/mongoose\
[...]
5.4.4.EXTRACT_SUFX
If there is one distribution le, and it uses an odd suffix to indicate the compression mechanism, set EXTRACT_SUFX.
For example, if the distribution le was named foo.tar.gzip instead of the more normal foo.tar.gz , write:
DISTNAME= foo
EXTRACT_SUFX= .tar.gzip
The USES=tar[: xxx], USES=lha or USES=zip automatically set EXTRACT_SUFX to the most common archives ex-
tensions as necessary, see Chapter16, Using USES Macros for more details. If neither of these are set then EXTRAC-
T_SUFX defaults to .tar.gz .
Note
As EXTRACT_SUFX is only used in DISTFILES, only set one of them..
5.4.5.DISTFILES
Sometimes the names of the les to be downloaded have no resemblance to the name of the port. For example, it
might be called source.tar.gz or similar. In other cases the application's source code might be in several different
archives, all of which must be downloaded.
If this is the case, set DISTFILES to be a space separated list of all the les that must be downloaded.
DISTFILES= source1.tar.gzsource2.tar.gz
If not explicitly set, DISTFILES defaults to ${DISTNAME}${EXTRACT_SUFX}.
5.4.6.EXTRACT_ONLY
If only some of the DISTFILES must be extractedfor example, one of them is the source code, while another is an
uncompressed documentlist the filenames that must be extracted in EXTRACT_ONLY.
DISTFILES= source.tar.gzmanual.html
EXTRACT_ONLY= source.tar.gz
When none of the DISTFILES need to be uncompressed, set EXTRACT_ONLY to the empty string.
EXTRACT_ONLY=
5.4.7.PATCHFILES
If the port requires some additional patches that are available by FTP or HTTP, set PATCHFILES to the names of the
les and PATCH_SITES to the URL of the directory that contains them (the format is the same as MASTER_SITES ).
If the patch is not relative to the top of the source tree (that is, WRKSRC ) because it contains some extra pathnames,
set PATCH_DIST_STRIP accordingly. For instance, if all the pathnames in the patch have an extra foozolix-1.0/
in front of the filenames, then set PATCH_DIST_STRIP=-p1 .
41
Multiple Distribution or Patches Files from Multiple Lo-
cations
Do not worry if the patches are compressed; they will be decompressed automatically if the filenames end with
.Z, .gz , .bz2 or .xz .
If the patch is distributed with some other les, such as documentation, in a gzip ped tarball, using PATCHFILES is
not possible. If that is the case, add the name and the location of the patch tarball to DISTFILES and MASTER_SITES .
Then, use EXTRA_PATCHES to point to those les and bsd.port.mk will automatically apply them. In particular, do
not copy patch les into ${PATCHDIR} . That directory may not be writable.
Tip
If there are multiple patches and they need mixed values for the strip parameter, it can be
added alongside the patch name in PATCHFILES, e.g:
PATCHFILES= patch1patch2:-p1
This does not conflict with the master site grouping feature, adding a group also works:
PATCHFILES= patch2:-p1:source2
Note
The tarball will have been extracted alongside the regular source by then, so there is no need
to explicitly extract it if it is a regular gzip ped or compressed tarball. Take extra care not to
overwrite something that already exists in that directory if extracting it manually. Also, do
not forget to add a command to remove the copied patch in the pre-clean target.
5.4.8.Multiple Distribution or Patches Files from Multiple Locations

(Consider this to be a somewhat advanced topic; those new to this document may wish to skip this section at
rst).
This section has information on the fetching mechanism known as both MASTER_SITES:n and MASTER_SITES_NN .
We will refer to this mechanism as MASTER_SITES:n .
A little background rst. OpenBSD has a neat feature inside DISTFILES and PATCHFILES which allows les and
patches to be postfixed with :n identifiers. Here, n can be any word containing [0-9a-zA-Z_] and denote a group
designation. For example:
DISTFILES= alpha:0beta:1
In OpenBSD, distribution le alpha will be associated with variable MASTER_SITES0 instead of our common
MASTER_SITES and beta with MASTER_SITES1 .
This is a very interesting feature which can decrease that endless search for the correct download site.
Just picture 2 les in DISTFILES and 20 sites in MASTER_SITES , the sites slow as hell where beta is carried by all
sites in MASTER_SITES , and alpha can only be found in the 20th site. It would be such a waste to check all of them
if the maintainer knew this beforehand, would it not? Not a good start for that lovely weekend!
Now that you have the idea, just imagine more DISTFILES and more MASTER_SITES . Surely our distfiles survey
meister would appreciate the relief to network strain that this would bring.
In the next sections, information will follow on the FreeBSD implementation of this idea. We improved a bit on
OpenBSD's concept.
42
Important
The group names cannot have dashes in them (-), in fact, they cannot have any characters
out of the [a-zA-Z0-9_] range. This is because, while make(1) is ok with variable names
containing dashes, sh(1) is not.
5.4.8.1.Simplified Information
This section explains how to quickly prepare ne grained fetching of multiple distribution les and patches from
different sites and subdirectories. We describe here a case of simplified MASTER_SITES:n usage. This will be suffi-
cient for most scenarios. More detailed information are available in Section5.4.8.2, Detailed Information.
Some applications consist of multiple distribution les that must be downloaded from a number of different sites.
For example, Ghostscript consists of the core of the program, and then a large number of driver les that are used
depending on the user's printer. Some of these driver les are supplied with the core, but many others must be
downloaded from a variety of different sites.
To support this, each entry in DISTFILES may be followed by a colon and a group name. Each site listed in
MASTER_SITES is then followed by a colon, and the group that indicates which distribution les are downloaded
from this site.
For example, consider an application with the source split in two parts, source1.tar.gz and source2.tar.gz ,
which must be downloaded from two different sites. The port's Makefile would include lines like Example5.18,
Simplified Use of MASTER_SITES:n with One File Per Site.
Example5.18.Simplied Use of MASTER_SITES:n with One File Per Site

MASTER_SITES= ftp://ftp1.example.com/:source1\
http://www.example.com/:source2
DISTFILES= source1.tar.gz:source1\
source2.tar.gz:source2
Multiple distribution les can have the same group. Continuing the previous example, suppose that there was a
third distfile, source3.tar.gz , that is downloaded from ftp.example2.com. The Makefile would then be written
like Example5.19, Simplified Use of MASTER_SITES:n with More Than One File Per Site.
Example5.19.Simplied Use of MASTER_SITES:n with More Than One File Per

Site
MASTER_SITES= ftp://ftp.example.com/:source1\
http://www.example.com/:source2
DISTFILES= source1.tar.gz:source1\
source2.tar.gz:source2\
source3.tar.gz:source2
5.4.8.2.Detailed Information
Okay, so the previous example did not reflect the new port's needs? In this section we will explain in detail how
the ne grained fetching mechanism MASTER_SITES:n works and how it can be used.
43
cations
1. Elements can be postfixed with :n where n is [^:,]+ , that is, n could conceptually be any alphanumeric string
but we will limit it to [a-zA-Z_][0-9a-zA-Z_]+ for now.
Moreover, string matching is case sensitive; that is, n is different from N.
However, these words cannot be used for postfixing purposes since they yield special meaning: default, all
and ALL (they are used internally in item ii). Furthermore, DEFAULT is a special purpose word (check item 3).
2. Elements postfixed with :n belong to the group n, :m belong to group m and so forth.
3. Elements without a postfix are groupless, they all belong to the special group DEFAULT. Any elements postfixed
with DEFAULT, is just being redundant unless an element belongs to both DEFAULT and other groups at the same
time (check item 5).
These examples are equivalent but the rst one is preferred:

MASTER_SITES= alpha
MASTER_SITES= alpha:DEFAULT
4. Groups are not exclusive, an element may belong to several different groups at the same time and a group can
either have either several different elements or none at all.
5. When an element belongs to several groups at the same time, use the comma operator (,).
Instead of repeating it several times, each time with a different postfix, we can list several groups at once in a
single postfix. For instance, :m,n,o marks an element that belongs to group m, n and o.
All these examples are equivalent but the last one is preferred:
MASTER_SITES= alphaalpha:SOME_SITE
MASTER_SITES= alpha:DEFAULTalpha:SOME_SITE
MASTER_SITES= alpha:SOME_SITE,DEFAULT
MASTER_SITES= alpha:DEFAULT,SOME_SITE
6. All sites within a given group are sorted according to MASTER_SORT_AWK . All groups within MASTER_SITES and
PATCH_SITES are sorted as well.
7. Group semantics can be used in any of the variables MASTER_SITES , PATCH_SITES , MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR,
PATCH_SITE_SUBDIR, DISTFILES, and PATCHFILES according to this syntax:
a. All MASTER_SITES , PATCH_SITES , MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR and PATCH_SITE_SUBDIR elements must be terminat-

ed with the forward slash / character. If any elements belong to any groups, the group postfix :n must come
right after the terminator /. The MASTER_SITES:n mechanism relies on the existence of the terminator / to
avoid confusing elements where a :n is a valid part of the element with occurrences where :n denotes group
n. For compatibility purposes, since the / terminator was not required before in both MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR
and PATCH_SITE_SUBDIR elements, if the postfix immediate preceding character is not a / then :n will be
considered a valid part of the element instead of a group postfix even if an element is postfixed with :n. See
both Example5.20, Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n in MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR and Example5.21, Detailed
Use of MASTER_SITES:n with Comma Operator, Multiple Files, Multiple Sites and Multiple Subdirectories.
Example5.20.Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n in MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR

MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= old:nnew/:NEW
Directories within group DEFAULT -> old:n
44
Directories within group NEW -> new
Example 5.21. Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n with Comma Operator,

Multiple Files, Multiple Sites and Multiple Subdirectories
MASTER_SITES= http://site1/%SUBDIR%/http://site2/:DEFAULT\
http://site3/:group3http://site4/:group4\
http://site5/:group5http://site6/:group6\
http://site7/:DEFAULT,group6\
http://site8/%SUBDIR%/:group6,group7\
http://site9/:group8
DISTFILES= file1file2:DEFAULTfile3:group3\
file4:group4,group5,group6file5:grouping\
file6:group7
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= directory-trial:1directory-n/:groupn\
directory-one/:group6,DEFAULT\
directory
The previous example results in this ne grained fetching. Sites are listed in the exact order they
will be used.
file1 will be fetched from
MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE
http://site1/directory-trial:1/
http://site1/directory-one/
http://site1/directory/
http://site2/
http://site7/
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP
file2 will be fetched exactly as file1 since they both belong to the same group
http://site1/directory-trial:1/
http://site1/directory/
http://site2/
http://site7/
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP
45
cations
http://site3/
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP
http://site4/
http://site5/
http://site6/
http://site7/
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP
http://site8/
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP
8. How do I group one of the special macros from bsd.sites.mk, for example, SourceForge (SF)?
This has been simplified as much as possible. See Example5.22, Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n with Source-
Forge (SF).
Example5.22.Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n with SourceForge (SF)

MASTER_SITES= http://site1/SF/something/1.0:sourceforge,TEST
DISTFILES= something.tar.gz:sourceforge
something.tar.gz will be fetched from all sites within SourceForge.
9. How do I use this with PATCH *?
All examples were done with MASTER * but they work exactly the same for PATCH * ones as can be seen in Exam-
ple5.23, Simplified Use of MASTER_SITES:n with PATCH_SITES .
46
Example5.23.Simplied Use of MASTER_SITES:n with PATCH_SITES

PATCH_SITES= http://site1/http://site2/:test
PATCHFILES= patch1:test
5.4.8.3.What Does Change for Ports? What Does Not?
i. All current ports remain the same. The MASTER_SITES:n feature code is only activated if there are elements
postfixed with :n like elements according to the aforementioned syntax rules, especially as shown in item 7.
ii. The port targets remain the same: checksum, makesum, patch , configure, build , etc. With the obvious excep-
tions of do-fetch , fetch-list , master-sites and patch-sites .
do-fetch : deploys the new grouping postfixed DISTFILES and PATCHFILES with their matching group el-
ements within both MASTER_SITES and PATCH_SITES which use matching group elements within both
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR and PATCH_SITE_SUBDIR. Check Example5.21, Detailed Use of MASTER_SITES:n with
Comma Operator, Multiple Files, Multiple Sites and Multiple Subdirectories.
fetch-list : works like old fetch-list with the exception that it groups just like do-fetch .
master-sites and patch-sites : (incompatible with older versions) only return the elements of group DE-
FAULT; in fact, they execute targets master-sites-default and patch-sites-default respectively.
Furthermore, using target either master-sites-all or patch-sites-all is preferred to directly checking

either MASTER_SITES or PATCH_SITES . Also, directly checking is not guaranteed to work in any future ver-
sions. Check item B for more information on these new port targets.
iii. New port targets
A. There are master-sites- n and patch-sites- n targets which will list the elements of the respective group
n within MASTER_SITES and PATCH_SITES respectively. For instance, both master-sites-DEFAULT and
patch-sites-DEFAULT will return the elements of group DEFAULT, master-sites-test and patch-sites-
test of group test , and thereon.
B. There are new targets master-sites-all and patch-sites-all which do the work of the old master-sites
and patch-sites ones. They return the elements of all groups as if they all belonged to the same group with
the caveat that it lists as many MASTER_SITE_BACKUP and MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE as there are groups defined
within either DISTFILES or PATCHFILES; respectively for master-sites-all and patch-sites-all .
5.4.9.DIST_SUBDIR
Do not let the port clutter /usr/ports/distfiles . If the port requires a lot of les to be fetched, or contains a le
that has a name that might conflict with other ports (for example, Makefile), set DIST_SUBDIR to the name of the
port (${PORTNAME} or ${PKGNAMEPREFIX}${PORTNAME} are ne). This will change DISTDIR from the default /usr/
ports/distfiles to /usr/ports/distfiles/${DIST_SUBDIR} , and in effect puts everything that is required for
the port into that subdirectory.
It will also look at the subdirectory with the same name on the backup master site at ftp.FreeBSD.org. (Setting
DISTDIR explicitly in Makefile will not accomplish this, so please use DIST_SUBDIR.)
47
MAINTAINER
Note
This does not affect MASTER_SITES defined in the Makefile.
5.5.MAINTAINER
Set your mail-address here. Please. :-)
Only a single address without the comment part is allowed as a MAINTAINER value. The format used is user@host-
name.domain. Please do not include any descriptive text such as a real name in this entry. That merely confuses
the Ports infrastructure and most tools using it.
The maintainer is responsible for keeping the port up to date and making sure that it works correctly. For a detailed
description of the responsibilities of a port maintainer, refer to The challenge for port maintainers.
Note
A maintainer volunteers to keep a port in good working order. Maintainers have the primary
responsibility for their ports, but not exclusive ownership. Ports exist for the benefit of the
community and, in reality, belong to the community. What this means is that people other
than the maintainer can make changes to a port. Large changes to the Ports Collection might
require changes to many ports. The FreeBSD Ports Management Team or members of other
teams might modify ports to x dependency issues or other problems, like a version bump
for a shared library update.
Some types of fixes have blanket approval from the Ports Management Team <portm-
gr@FreeBSD.org>, allowing any committer to x those categories of problems on any port.
These fixes do not need approval from the maintainer. Blanket approval does not apply
to ports that are maintained by teams like <autotools@FreeBSD.org>, <x11@FreeBSD.org>,
<gnome@FreeBSD.org>, or <kde@FreeBSD.org>. These teams use external repositories and
can have work that would conflict with changes that would normally fall under blanket ap-
proval.
Blanket approval for most ports applies to these types of fixes:
Most infrastructure changes to a port (that is, modernizing, but not changing the func-
tionality). For example, converting to staging, USE_GMAKE to USES=gmake, the new LIB_DE-
PENDS format...
Trivial and tested build and runtime fixes.
Other changes to the port will be sent to the maintainer for review and approval before being committed. If the
maintainer does not respond to an update request after two weeks (excluding major public holidays), then that
is considered a maintainer timeout, and the update may be made without explicit maintainer approval. If the
maintainer does not respond within three months, or if there have been three consecutive timeouts, then that
maintainer is considered absent without leave, and can be replaced as the maintainer of the particular port in
question. Exceptions to this are anything maintained by the Ports Management Team <portmgr@FreeBSD.org>,
or the Security Officer Team <security-officer@FreeBSD.org>. No unauthorized commits may ever be made to
ports maintained by those groups.
48
We reserve the right to modify the maintainer's submission to better match existing policies and style of the Ports
Collection without explicit blessing from the submitter or the maintainer. Also, large infrastructural changes can
result in a port being modified without the maintainer's consent. These kinds of changes will never affect the
port's functionality.
The Ports Management Team <portmgr@FreeBSD.org> reserves the right to revoke or override anyone's maintain-
ership for any reason, and the Security Officer Team <security-officer@FreeBSD.org> reserves the right to re-
voke or override maintainership for security reasons.
5.6.COMMENT
The comment is a one-line description of a port shown by pkg info . Please follow these rules when composing it:
1. The COMMENT string should be 70 characters or less.
2. Do not include the package name or version number of software.
3. The comment must begin with a capital and end without a period.
4. Do not start with an indefinite article (that is, A or An).
5. Capitalize names such as Apache, JavaScript, or Perl.
6. Use a serial comma for lists of words: "green, red, and blue."
7. Check for spelling errors.
Here is an example:
COMMENT= Catchasingamousealloverthescreen
The COMMENT variable immediately follows the MAINTAINER variable in the Makefile.
5.7.Licenses
Each port must document the license under which it is available. If it is not an OSI approved license it must also
document any restrictions on redistribution.
5.7.1.LICENSE
A short name for the license or licenses if more than one license apply.
If it is one of the licenses listed in Table5.6, Predefined License List, only LICENSE_FILE and LICENSE_DISTFILES
variables can be set.
If this is a license that has not been defined in the ports framework (see Table5.6, Predefined License List), the
LICENSE_PERMS and LICENSE_NAME must be set, along with either LICENSE_FILE or LICENSE_TEXT. LICENSE_DIST-
FILES and LICENSE_GROUPS can also be set, but are not required.
The predefined licenses are shown in Table5.6, Predefined License List. The current list is always available in
Mk/bsd.licenses.db.mk .
Example5.24.Simplest Usage, Predened Licenses

When the README of some software says This software is under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option)
any later version. but does not provide the license le, use this:
49
LICENSE
LICENSE= LGPL21+
When the software provides the license le, use this:
LICENSE= LGPL21+
LICENSE_FILE= ${WRKSRC}/COPYING
For the predefined licenses, the default permissions are dist-mirror dist-sell pkg-mirror pkg-sell au-
to-accept .
Table5.6.Predened License List

Short Name Name Group Permissions
AGPLv3 GNU Affero General Public FSF GPL OSI (default)
License version 3
AGPLv3+ GNU Affero General Public FSF GPL OSI (default)
License version 3 (or later)
APACHE10 Apache License 1.0 FSF (default)
APACHE11 Apache License 1.1 FSF OSI (default)
APACHE20 Apache License 2.0 FSF OSI (default)
ART10 Artistic License version 1.0 OSI (default)
ART20 Artistic License version 2.0 FSF GPL OSI (default)
ARTPERL10 Artistic License (perl) ver- OSI (default)
sion 1.0
BSD BSD license Generic Ver- FSF OSI COPYFREE (default)
sion (deprecated)
BSD2CLAUSE BSD 2-clause "Simplified" FSF OSI COPYFREE (default)
License
BSD3CLAUSE BSD 3-clause "New" or "Re- FSF OSI COPYFREE (default)
vised" License
BSD4CLAUSE BSD 4-clause "Original" or FSF (default)
"Old" License
BSL Boost Software License FSF OSI COPYFREE (default)
CC-BY-1.0 Creative Commons Attri- (default)
bution 1.0
bution 2.0
bution 2.5
bution 3.0
bution 4.0
CC-BY-NC-1.0 Creative Commons Attri- dist-mirror pkg-mirror
bution Non Commercial 1.0 auto-accept

50



CC-BY-NC-ND-1.0 Creative Commons Attri- dist-mirror pkg-mirror

bution Non Commercial No auto-accept
Derivatives 1.0
Derivatives 2.0
Derivatives 2.5
Derivatives 3.0
Derivatives 4.0
CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0 Creative Commons Attri- dist-mirror pkg-mirror
bution Non Commercial auto-accept
Share Alike 1.0
Share Alike 2.0
Share Alike 2.5
Share Alike 3.0
Share Alike 4.0
CC-BY-ND-1.0 Creative Commons Attri- (default)
bution No Derivatives 1.0
51
LICENSE

CC-BY-SA-1.0 Creative Commons Attri- (default)
bution Share Alike 1.0
CC0-1.0 Creative Commons Zero FSF GPL COPYFREE (default)
v1.0 Universal
CDDL Common Development and FSF OSI (default)
Distribution License
CPAL-1.0 Common Public Attribu- FSF OSI (default)
tion License
ClArtistic Clarified Artistic License FSF GPL OSI (default)
EPL Eclipse Public License FSF OSI (default)
GFDL GNU Free Documentation FSF (default)
License
GMGPL GNAT Modified General FSF GPL OSI (default)
Public License
GPLv1 GNU General Public License FSF GPL OSI (default)
version 1
GPLv1+ GNU General Public License FSF GPL OSI (default)
version 1 (or later)
version 2
version 3
GPLv3RLE GNU GPL version 3 Run- FSF GPL OSI (default)
time Library Exception
GPLv3RLE+ GNU GPL version 3 Run- FSF GPL OSI (default)
time Library Exception (or
later)
ISCL Internet Systems Consor- FSF GPL OSI COPYFREE (default)
tium License
LGPL20 GNU Library General Public FSF GPL OSI (default)
License version 2.0
52

LGPL20+ GNU Library General Public FSF GPL OSI (default)
License version 2.0 (or lat-
er)
LGPL21 GNU Lesser General Public FSF GPL OSI (default)
License version 2.1
LGPL21+ GNU Lesser General Public FSF GPL OSI (default)
License version 2.1 (or lat-
er)
LGPL3 GNU Lesser General Public FSF GPL OSI (default)
License version 3
LGPL3+ GNU Lesser General Public FSF GPL OSI (default)
License version 3 (or later)
LPPL10 LaTeX Project Public Li- FSF OSI dist-mirror dist-sell
cense version 1.0
cense version 1.1
cense version 1.2
cense version 1.3
LPPL13a LaTeX Project Public Li- FSF OSI dist-mirror dist-sell
cense version 1.3a
LPPL13b LaTeX Project Public Li- FSF OSI dist-mirror dist-sell
cense version 1.3b
LPPL13c LaTeX Project Public Li- FSF OSI dist-mirror dist-sell
cense version 1.3c
MIT MIT license / X11 license COPYFREE FSF GPL OSI (default)
MPL Mozilla Public License FSF OSI (default)
NCSA University of Illinois/NCSA COPYFREE FSF GPL OSI (default)
Open Source License
NONE No license specified none
OFL10 SIL Open Font License FONTS (default)

version 1.0 (http://script-
s.sil.org/OFL)
OFL11 SIL Open Font License FONTS (default)
version 1.1 (http://script-
s.sil.org/OFL)
OWL Open Works License COPYFREE (default)
(owl.apotheon.org)
OpenSSL OpenSSL License FSF (default)
PD Public Domain GPL COPYFREE (default)
PHP202 PHP License version 2.02 FSF OSI (default)
53
LICENSE_PERMS and LICENSE_PERMS_NAME

PSFL Python Software Founda- FSF GPL OSI (default)
tion License
PostgreSQL PostgreSQL Licence FSF GPL OSI COPYFREE (default)
RUBY Ruby License FSF (default)
WTFPL Do What the Fuck You Want GPL FSF COPYFREE (default)
To Public License version 2
WTFPL1 Do What the Fuck You Want GPL FSF COPYFREE (default)
To Public License version 1
ZLIB zlib License GPL FSF OSI (default)
ZPL21 Zope Public License version GPL OSI (default)
2.1
5.7.2.LICENSE_PERMS and LICENSE_PERMS_NAME

Permissions. use none if empty.
dist-mirror
Redistribution of the distribution les is permitted. The distribution les will be added to the FreeBSD
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP CDN.
no-dist-mirror
Redistribution of the distribution les is prohibited. This is equivalent to setting RESTRICTED. The distribution
les will not be added to the FreeBSD MASTER_SITE_BACKUP CDN.
dist-sell
Selling of distribution les is permitted. The distribution les will be present on the installer images.
no-dist-sell
Selling of distribution les is prohibited. This is equivalent to setting NO_CDROM.
pkg-mirror
Free redistribution of package is permitted. The package will be distributed on the FreeBSD package CDN
http://pkg.freebsd.org/.
no-pkg-mirror
Free redistribution of package is prohibited. Equivalent to setting NO_PACKAGE. The package will not be distrib-
uted otn the FreeBSD package CDN http://pkg.freebsd.org/.
pkg-sell
Selling of package is permitted. The package will be present on the installer images.
no-pkg-sell
Selling of package is prohibited. This is equivalent to setting NO_CDROM. The package will not be present on
the installer images.
auto-accept
License is accepted by default. Prompts to accept a license are not displayed unless the user has defined LI-
CENSES_ASK. Use this unless the license states the user must accept the terms of the license.
no-auto-accept
License is not accepted by default. The user will always be asked to confirm the acceptance of this license. This
must be used if the license states that the user must accept its terms.
When both permission and no-permission is present the no-permission will cancel permission.
54
When permission is not present, it is considered to be a no-permission.
Example5.25.Nonstandard License
Read the terms of the license and translate those using the available permissions.
LICENSE= UNKNOWN
LICENSE_NAME= unknown
LICENSE_TEXT= ThisprogramisNOTinpublicdomain.\
Itcanbefreelydistributedfornon-commercialpurposesonly.
LICENSE_PERMS= dist-mirrorno-dist-sellpkg-mirrorno-pkg-sellauto-accept
Example5.26.Standard and Nonstandard Licenses

Read the terms of the license and express those using the available permissions. In case of doubt, please
ask for guidance on the FreeBSD ports mailing list.
LICENSE= WARSOWGPLv2
LICENSE_COMB= multi
LICENSE_NAME_WARSOW= WarsowContentLicense
LICENSE_FILE_WARSOW= ${WRKSRC}/docs/license.txt
LICENSE_PERMS_WARSOW= dist-mirrorpkg-mirrorauto-accept
When the permissions of the GPLv2 and the UNKNOWN licenses are mixed, the port ends up with dist-
mirror dist-sell pkg-mirror pkg-sell auto-accept dist-mirror no-dist-sell pkg-mirror no-
pkg-sell auto-accept . The no-permissions cancel the permissions. The resulting list of permissions
are dist-mirror pkg-mirror auto-accept . The distribution les and the packages will not be available
on the installer images.
5.7.3.LICENSE_GROUPS and LICENSE_GROUPS_NAME
Groups the license belongs.
FSF
Free Software Foundation Approved, see the FSF Licensing & Compliance Team.
GPL
GPL Compatible
OSI
OSI Approved, see the Open Source Initiative Open Source Licenses page.
COPYFREE
Comply with Copyfree Standard Definition, see the Copyfree Licenses page.
FONTS
Font licenses
5.7.4.LICENSE_NAME and LICENSE_NAME_NAME
Full name of the license.
55
LICENSE_FILE and LICENSE_FILE_NAME
Example5.27.LICENSE_NAME
LICENSE= UNRAR
LICENSE_NAME= UnRARLicense
LICENSE_FILE= ${WRKSRC}/license.txt
LICENSE_PERMS= dist-mirrordist-sellpkg-mirrorpkg-sellauto-accept
5.7.5.LICENSE_FILE and LICENSE_FILE_NAME

Full path to the le containing the license text, usually ${WRKSRC}/some/file . If the le is not in the distfile, and
its content is too long to be put in LICENSE_TEXT, put it in a new le in ${FILESDIR} .
Example5.28.LICENSE_FILE
LICENSE= GPLv3+
LICENSE_FILE= ${WRKSRC}/COPYING
5.7.6.LICENSE_TEXT and LICENSE_TEXT_NAME

Text to use as a license. Useful when the license is not in the distribution les and its text is short.
Example5.29.LICENSE_TEXT
LICENSE= UNKNOWN
LICENSE_NAME= unknown
LICENSE_TEXT= ThisprogramisNOTinpublicdomain.\
Itcanbefreelydistributedfornon-commercialpurposesonly,\
andTHEREISNOWARRANTYFORTHISPROGRAM.
LICENSE_PERMS= dist-mirrorno-dist-sellpkg-mirrorno-pkg-sellauto-accept
5.7.7.LICENSE_DISTFILES and LICENSE_DISTFILES_NAME

The distribution les to which the licenses apply. Defaults to all the distribution les.
Example5.30.LICENSE_DISTFILES
Used when the distribution les do not all have the same license. For example, one has a code license, and
another has some artwork that cannot be redistributed:
MASTER_SITES= SF/some-game
DISTFILES= ${DISTNAME}${EXTRACT_SUFX}artwork.zip
LICENSE= BSD3CLAUSEARTWORK
LICENSE_COMB= dual
LICENSE_NAME_ARTWORK= Thegameartworklicense
56
LICENSE_TEXT_ARTWORK= TheREADMEsaysthatthefilescannotberedistributed
LICENSE_PERMS_ARTWORK= pkg-mirrorpkg-sellauto-accept
LICENSE_DISTFILES_BSD3CLAUSE= ${DISTNAME}${EXTRACT_SUFX}
LICENSE_DISTFILES_ARTWORK=artwork.zip
5.7.8.LICENSE_COMB
Set to multi if all licenses apply. Set to dual if any license applies. Defaults to single.
Example5.31.Dual Licenses
When a port says This software may be distributed under the GNU General Public License or the Artistic
License, it means that either license can be used. Use this:
LICENSE= ART10GPLv1
LICENSE_COMB= dual
If license les are provided, use this:
LICENSE= ART10GPLv1
LICENSE_COMB= dual
LICENSE_FILE_ART10= ${WRKSRC}/Artistic
LICENSE_FILE_GPLv1= ${WRKSRC}/Copying
Example5.32.Multiple Licenses
When part of a port has one license, and another part has a different license, use multi:
LICENSE= GPLv2LGPL21+
LICENSE_COMB= multi
5.8.PORTSCOUT
Portscout is an automated distfile check utility for the FreeBSDPorts Collection, described in detail in Section15.5,
Portscout: the FreeBSD Ports Distfile Scanner.
PORTSCOUT defines special conditions within which the Portscout distfile scanner is restricted.
Situations where PORTSCOUT is set include:
When distfiles have to be ignored, whether for specific versions, or specific minor revisions. For example, to
exclude version 8.2 from distfile version checks because it is known to be broken, add:
PORTSCOUT= ignore:8.2
When specific versions or specific major and minor revisions of a distfile must be checked. For example, if only
version 0.6.4 must be monitored because newer versions have compatibility issues with FreeBSD, add:
PORTSCOUT= limit:^0\.6\.4
57
Dependencies
When URLs listing the available versions differ from the download URLs. For example, to limit distfile version
checks to the download page for the databases/pgtune port, add:
PORTSCOUT= site:http://pgfoundry.org/frs/?group_id=1000416
5.9.Dependencies
Many ports depend on other ports. This is a very convenient feature of most Unix-like operating systems, including
FreeBSD. Multiple ports can share a common dependency, rather than bundling that dependency with every port
or package that needs it. There are seven variables that can be used to ensure that all the required bits will be on
the user's machine. There are also some pre-supported dependency variables for common cases, plus a few more
to control the behavior of dependencies.
5.9.1.LIB_DEPENDS
This variable specifies the shared libraries this port depends on. It is a list of lib :dir tuples where lib is the name
of the shared library, dir is the directory in which to nd it in case it is not available. For example,
LIB_DEPENDS= libjpeg.so:graphics/jpeg
will check for a shared jpeg library with any version, and descend into the graphics/jpeg subdirectory of the ports
tree to build and install it if it is not found.
The dependency is checked twice, once from within the build target and then from within the install target.
Also, the name of the dependency is put into the package so that pkg install (see pkg-install(8)) will automatically
install it if it is not on the user's system.
5.9.2.RUN_DEPENDS
This variable specifies executables or les this port depends on during run-time. It is a list of path :dir [:target]
tuples where path is the name of the executable or le, dir is the directory in which to nd it in case it is not
available, and target is the target to call in that directory. If path starts with a slash (/), it is treated as a le and its
existence is tested with test -e ; otherwise, it is assumed to be an executable, and which -s is used to determine
if the program exists in the search path.
For example,
RUN_DEPENDS= ${LOCALBASE}/news/bin/innd:news/inn\
xmlcatmgr:textproc/xmlcatmgr
will check if the le or directory /usr/local/news/bin/innd exists, and build and install it from the news/inn
subdirectory of the ports tree if it is not found. It will also see if an executable called xmlcatmgr is in the search
path, and descend into textproc/xmlcatmgr to build and install it if it is not found.
Note
In this case, innd is actually an executable; if an executable is in a place that is not expected
to be in the search path, use the full pathname.
Note
The official search PATH used on the ports build cluster is
58
/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin
The dependency is checked from within the install target. Also, the name of the dependency is put into the
package so that pkg install (see pkg-install(8)) will automatically install it if it is not on the user's system. The
target part can be omitted if it is the same as DEPENDS_TARGET.
A quite common situation is when RUN_DEPENDS is literally the same as BUILD_DEPENDS, especially if ported software
is written in a scripted language or if it requires the same build and run-time environment. In this case, it is both
tempting and intuitive to directly assign one to the other:
RUN_DEPENDS= ${BUILD_DEPENDS}
However, such assignment can pollute run-time dependencies with entries not defined in the port's original
BUILD_DEPENDS. This happens because of make(1)'s lazy evaluation of variable assignment. Consider a Makefile
with USE_*, which are processed by ports/Mk/bsd.*.mk to augment initial build dependencies. For example,
USES= gmake adds devel/gmake to BUILD_DEPENDS. To prevent such additional dependencies from polluting
RUN_DEPENDS, create another variable with the current content of BUILD_DEPENDS and assign it to both BUILD_DE-
PENDS and RUN_DEPENDS:
MY_DEPENDS= some:devel/some\
other:lang/other
BUILD_DEPENDS= ${MY_DEPENDS}
RUN_DEPENDS= ${MY_DEPENDS}
Important
Do not use := to assign BUILD_DEPENDS to RUN_DEPENDS or vice-versa. All variables are expand-
ed immediately, which is exactly the wrong thing to do and almost always a failure.
5.9.3.BUILD_DEPENDS
This variable specifies executables or les this port requires to build. Like RUN_DEPENDS, it is a list of path :dir [:tar-
get] tuples. For example,
BUILD_DEPENDS= unzip:archivers/unzip
will check for an executable called unzip, and descend into the archivers/unzip subdirectory of the ports tree
to build and install it if it is not found.
Note
build here means everything from extraction to compilation. The dependency is checked
from within the extract target. The target part can be omitted if it is the same as DE-
PENDS_TARGET
5.9.4.FETCH_DEPENDS
This variable specifies executables or les this port requires to fetch. Like the previous two, it is a list of
path :dir [:target] tuples. For example,
FETCH_DEPENDS= ncftp2:net/ncftp2
59
EXTRACT_DEPENDS
will check for an executable called ncftp2 , and descend into the net/ncftp2 subdirectory of the ports tree to
build and install it if it is not found.
The dependency is checked from within the fetch target. The target part can be omitted if it is the same as
DEPENDS_TARGET.
5.9.5.EXTRACT_DEPENDS
This variable specifies executables or les this port requires for extraction. Like the previous, it is a list of
path :dir [:target] tuples. For example,
EXTRACT_DEPENDS= unzip:archivers/unzip
will check for an executable called unzip, and descend into the archivers/unzip subdirectory of the ports tree
to build and install it if it is not found.
The dependency is checked from within the extract target. The target part can be omitted if it is the same as
DEPENDS_TARGET.
Note
Use this variable only if the extraction does not already work (the default assumes tar ) and
cannot be made to work using USES=tar , USES=lha or USES=zip described in Chapter16,
Using USES Macros.
5.9.6.PATCH_DEPENDS
This variable specifies executables or les this port requires to patch. Like the previous, it is a list of path :dir [:tar-
get] tuples. For example,
PATCH_DEPENDS= ${NONEXISTENT}:java/jfc:extract
will descend into the java/jfc subdirectory of the ports tree to extract it.
The dependency is checked from within the patch target. The target part can be omitted if it is the same as
DEPENDS_TARGET.
5.9.7.USES
Parameters can be added to define different features and dependencies used by the port. They are specified by
adding this line to the Makefile:
USES=feature[:arguments]
For the complete list of values, please see Chapter16, Using USES Macros.
Warning
USES cannot be assigned after inclusion of bsd.port.pre.mk.
5.9.8.USE_*
Several variables exist to define common dependencies shared by many ports. Their use is optional, but helps to
reduce the verbosity of the port Makefiles. Each of them is styled as USE_*. These variables may be used only in
60
the port Makefiles and ports/Mk/bsd.*.mk . They are not meant for user-settable options use PORT_OPTIONS
for that purpose.
Note
It is always incorrect to set any USE_* in /etc/make.conf . For instance, setting
USE_GCC=X.Y
(where X.Y is version number) would add a dependency on gccXY for every port, including
lang/gccXY itself!
Table5.7.USE_*
Variable Means
USE_GCC The port requires GCC (gcc or g++ ) to build. Some ports
need any GCC version, some require modern, recent ver-
sions. It is typically set to any (in this case, GCC from
base would be used on versions of FreeBSD that still have
it, or lang/gcc port would be installed when default C/
C++ compiler is Clang); or yes (means always use sta-
ble, modern GCC from lang/gcc port). The exact ver-
sion can also be specified, with a value such as 4.7 . The
minimal required version can be specified as 4.6+ . The
GCC from the base system is used when it satisfies the
requested version, otherwise an appropriate compiler is
built from the port, and CC and CXX are adjusted accord-
ingly.
Variables related to gmake and configure are described in Section6.5, Building Mechanisms, while autoconf,
automake and libtool are described in Section6.6, Using GNU Autotools. Perl related variables are described in
Section6.8, Using Perl. X11 variables are listed in Section6.9, Using X11. Section6.10, Using GNOME deals
with GNOME and Section6.13, Using KDE with KDE related variables. Section6.15, Using Java documents Ja-
va variables, while Section6.16, Web Applications, Apache and PHP contains information on Apache, PHP and
PEAR modules. Python is discussed in Section6.17, Using Python, while Ruby in Section6.20, Using Ruby. Sec-
tion6.21, Using SDL provides variables used for SDL applications and finally, Section6.25, Using Xfce contains
information on Xfce.
5.9.9.Minimal Version of a Dependency

A minimal version of a dependency can be specified in any *_DEPENDS except LIB_DEPENDS using this syntax:
p5-Spiffy>=0.26:devel/p5-Spiffy
The rst eld contains a dependent package name, which must match the entry in the package database, a compar-
ison sign, and a package version. The dependency is satisfied if p5-Spiy-0.26 or newer is installed on the machine.
5.9.10.Notes on Dependencies
As mentioned above, the default target to call when a dependency is required is DEPENDS_TARGET. It defaults to
install. This is a user variable; it is never defined in a port's Makefile. If the port needs a special way to handle a
dependency, use the :target part of *_DEPENDS instead of redefining DEPENDS_TARGET.
When running make clean , the port dependencies are automatically cleaned too. If this is not desirable, define
NOCLEANDEPENDS in the environment. This may be particularly desirable if the port has something that takes a long
time to rebuild in its dependency list, such as KDE, GNOME or Mozilla.
61
Circular Dependencies Are Fatal
To depend on another port unconditionally, use the variable ${NONEXISTENT} as the rst eld of BUILD_DEPENDS
or RUN_DEPENDS. Use this only when the source of the other port is needed. Compilation time can be saved by
specifying the target too. For instance
BUILD_DEPENDS= ${NONEXISTENT}:graphics/jpeg:extract
will always descend to the jpeg port and extract it.
5.9.11.Circular Dependencies Are Fatal
Important
Do not introduce any circular dependencies into the ports tree!
The ports building technology does not tolerate circular dependencies. If one is introduced, someone, somewhere
in the world, will have their FreeBSD installation broken almost immediately, with many others quickly to follow.
These can really be hard to detect. If in doubt, before making that change, make sure to run: cd /usr/ports;
make index . That process can be quite slow on older machines, but it may be able to save a large number of people,
including yourself, a lot of grief in the process.
5.9.12.Problems Caused by Automatic Dependencies
Dependencies must be declared either explicitly or by using the OPTIONS framework. Using other methods like
automatic detection complicates indexing, which causes problems for port and package management.
Example5.33.Wrong Declaration of an Optional Dependency

.include<bsd.port.pre.mk>
.ifexists(${LOCALBASE}/bin/foo)
LIB_DEPENDS= libbar.so:foo/bar
.endif
The problem with trying to automatically add dependencies is that les and settings outside an individual port
can change at any time. For example: an index is built, then a batch of ports are installed. But one of the ports
installs the tested le. The index is now incorrect, because an installed port unexpectedly has a new dependency.
The index may still be wrong even after rebuilding if other ports also determine their need for dependencies based
on the existence of other les.
Example5.34.Correct Declaration of an Optional Dependency

OPTIONS_DEFINE= BAR
BAR_DESC= Callingcellphonesviabar
BAR_LIB_DEPENDS= libbar.so:foo/bar
62
Testing option variables is the correct method. It will not cause inconsistencies in the index of a batch of ports,
provided the options were defined prior to the index build. Simple scripts can then be used to automate the build-
ing, installation, and updating of these ports and their packages.
5.9.13.USE_* and WANT_ *

USE_* are set by the port maintainer to define software on which this port depends. A port that needs Firefox
would set
USE_FIREFOX= yes
Some USE_* can accept version numbers or other parameters. For example, a port that requires Apache 2.2 would
set
USE_APACHE= 22
For more control over dependencies in some cases, WANT_ * are available to more precisely specify what is needed.
For example, consider the mail/squirrelmail port. This port needs some PHP modules, which are listed in USE_PHP :
USE_PHP= sessionmhashgettextmbstringpcreopensslxml
Those modules may be available in CLI or web versions, so the web version is selected with WANT_ *:
WANT_PHP_WEB= yes
Available USE_* and WANT_ * are defined in the les in /usr/ports/Mk .
5.10.Slave Ports and MASTERDIR

If the port needs to build slightly different versions of packages by having a variable (for instance, resolution, or
paper size) take different values, create one subdirectory per package to make it easier for users to see what to do,
but try to share as many les as possible between ports. Typically, by using variables cleverly, only a very short
Makefile is needed in all but one of the directories. In the sole Makefile, use MASTERDIR to specify the directory
where the rest of the les are. Also, use a variable as part of PKGNAMESUFFIX so the packages will have different
names.
This will be best demonstrated by an example. This is part of print/pkfonts300/Makefile ;
PORTNAME= pkfonts${RESOLUTION}
PORTVERSION= 1.0
DISTFILES= pk${RESOLUTION}.tar.gz
PLIST= ${PKGDIR}/pkg-plist.${RESOLUTION}
.if !defined(RESOLUTION)
RESOLUTION= 300
.else
.if${RESOLUTION} !=118&&${RESOLUTION} !=240&&\
${RESOLUTION} !=300&&${RESOLUTION} !=360&&\
${RESOLUTION} !=400&&${RESOLUTION} !=600
.BEGIN:
@${ECHO_MSG} "Error:invalidvalueforRESOLUTION:\"${RESOLUTION}\""
@${ECHO_MSG} "Possiblevaluesare:118,240,300,360,400and600."
@${FALSE}
.endif
.endif
print/pkfonts300 also has all the regular patches, package les, etc. Running make there, it will take the default
value for the resolution (300) and build the port normally.
As for other resolutions, this is the entire print/pkfonts360/Makefile :
63
Man Pages
RESOLUTION= 360
MASTERDIR= ${.CURDIR}/../pkfonts300
.include "${MASTERDIR}/Makefile"
(print/pkfonts118/Makefile , print/pkfonts600/Makefile , and all the other are similar). MASTERDIR definition
tells bsd.port.mk that the regular set of subdirectories like FILESDIR and SCRIPTDIR are to be found under pk-
fonts300. The RESOLUTION=360 line will override the RESOLUTION=300 line in pkfonts300/Makefile and the port
will be built with resolution set to 360.
5.11.Man Pages
If the port anchors its man tree somewhere other than PREFIX, use MANDIRS to specify those directories. Note that
the les corresponding to manual pages must be placed in pkg-plist along with the rest of the les. The purpose
of MANDIRS is to enable automatic compression of manual pages, therefore the le names are suffixed with .gz .
5.12.Info Files
If the package needs to install GNU info les, list them in INFO (without the trailing .info), one entry per document.
These les are assumed to be installed to PREFIX/INFO_PATH . Change INFO_PATH if the package uses a different
location. However, this is not recommended. These entries contain just the path relative to PREFIX/INFO_PATH . For
example, lang/gcc34 installs info les to PREFIX/INFO_PATH/gcc34 , and INFO will be something like this:
INFO= gcc34/cppgcc34/cppinternalsgcc34/g77 ...
Appropriate installation/de-installation code will be automatically added to the temporary pkg-plist before
package registration.
5.13.Makefile Options
Many applications can be built with optional or differing configurations. Examples include choice of natural (hu-
man) language, GUI versus command-line, or type of database to support. Users may need a different configura-
tion than the default, so the ports system provides hooks the port author can use to control which variant will
be built. Supporting these options properly will make users happy, and effectively provide two or more ports for
the price of one.
5.13.1.OPTIONS
5.13.1.1.Background
OPTIONS_* give the user installing the port a dialog showing the available options, and then saves those options
to ${PORT_DBDIR}/${OPTIONS_NAME}/options . The next time the port is built, the options are reused. PORT_DBDIR
defaults to /var/db/ports . OPTIONS_NAME is to the port origin with an underscore as the space separator, for
example, for dns/bind99 it will be dns_bind99 .
When the user runs make config (or runs make build for the rst time), the framework checks for ${PORT_DB-
DIR}/${OPTIONS_NAME}/options . If that le does not exist, the values of OPTIONS_* are used, and a dialog box is
displayed where the options can be enabled or disabled. Then options is saved and the configured variables are
used when building the port.
If a new version of the port adds new OPTIONS, the dialog will be presented to the user with the saved values of
old OPTIONS prefilled.
make showconfig shows the saved configuration. Use make rmconfig to remove the saved configuration.
64
5.13.1.2.Syntax
OPTIONS_DEFINE contains a list of OPTIONS to be used. These are independent of each other and are not grouped:
OPTIONS_DEFINE= OPT1OPT2
Once defined, OPTIONS are described (optional, but strongly recommended):
OPT1_DESC= DescribeOPT1
ports/Mk/bsd.options.desc.mk has descriptions for many common OPTIONS. While often useful, override them
if the description is insufficient for the port.
Tip
When describing options, view it from the perspective of the user: What functionality does
it change? and Why would I want to enable this? Do not just repeat the name. For example,
describing the NLS option as include NLS support does not help the user, who can already
see the option name but may not know what it means. Describing it as Native Language
Support via gettext utilities is much more helpful.
Important
Option names are always in all uppercase. They cannot use mixed case or lowercase.
OPTIONS can be grouped as radio choices, where only one choice from each group is allowed:
OPTIONS_SINGLE= SG1
OPTIONS_SINGLE_SG1= OPT3OPT4
Warning
There must be one of each OPTIONS_SINGLE group selected at all times for the options to be
valid. One option of each group must be added to OPTIONS_DEFAULT.
OPTIONS can be grouped as radio choices, where none or only one choice from each group is allowed:
OPTIONS_RADIO= RG1
OPTIONS_RADIO_RG1= OPT7OPT8
OPTIONS can also be grouped as multiple-choice lists, where at least one option must be enabled:
OPTIONS_MULTI= MG1
OPTIONS_MULTI_MG1= OPT5OPT6
OPTIONS can also be grouped as multiple-choice lists, where none or any option can be enabled:
OPTIONS_GROUP= GG1
65
OPTIONS
OPTIONS_GROUP_GG1= OPT9OPT10
OPTIONS are unset by default, unless they are listed in OPTIONS_DEFAULT:
OPTIONS_DEFAULT= OPT1OPT3OPT6
OPTIONS definitions must appear before the inclusion of bsd.port.options.mk. PORT_OPTIONS values can only be
tested after the inclusion of bsd.port.options.mk. Inclusion of bsd.port.pre.mk can be used instead, too, and is
still widely used in ports written before the introduction of bsd.port.options.mk. But be aware that some variables
will not work as expected after the inclusion of bsd.port.pre.mk, typically some USE_* ags.
Example5.35.Simple Use of OPTIONS

OPTIONS_DEFINE= FOOBAR
FOO_DESC= Optionfoosupport
BAR_DESC= Featurebarsupport
OPTIONS_DEFAULT=FOO
#Willadd --with-foo / --without-foo

FOO_CONFIGURE_WITH= foo
BAR_RUN_DEPENDS= bar:bar/bar
Example5.36.Check for Unset Port OPTIONS

.if !${PORT_OPTIONS:MEXAMPLES}
CONFIGURE_ARGS+=--without-examples
.endif
The form shown above is discouraged. The preferred method is using a configure knob to really enable and
disable the feature to match the option:
#Willadd --with-examples / --without-examples

EXAMPLES_CONFIGURE_WITH= examples
Example5.37.Practical Use of OPTIONS

OPTIONS_DEFINE= EXAMPLES
OPTIONS_SINGLE= BACKEND
OPTIONS_SINGLE_BACKEND= MYSQLPGSQLBDB
OPTIONS_MULTI= AUTH
OPTIONS_MULTI_AUTH= LDAPPAMSSL
EXAMPLES_DESC= Installextraexamples
MYSQL_DESC= UseMySQLasbackend
PGSQL_DESC= UsePostgreSQLasbackend
BDB_DESC= UseBerkeleyDBasbackend
66
LDAP_DESC= BuildwithLDAPauthenticationsupport
PAM_DESC= BuildwithPAMsupport
SSL_DESC= BuildwithOpenSSLsupport
OPTIONS_DEFAULT= PGSQLLDAPSSL
#WilladdUSE_PGSQL=yes
PGSQL_USE= pgsql=yes
#Willadd --enable-postgres / --disable-postgres
PGSQL_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= postgres
ICU_LIB_DEPENDS= libicuuc.so:devel/icu
#Willadd --with-examples / --without-examples

EXAMPLES_CONFIGURE_WITH= examples
#CheckotherOPTIONS
5.13.1.3.Default Options
These options are always on by default.
DOCS build and install documentation.
NLS Native Language Support.
EXAMPLES build and install examples.
IPV6 IPv6 protocol support.
Note
There is no need to add these to OPTIONS_DEFAULT. To have them active, and show up in the
options selection dialog, however, they must be added to OPTIONS_DEFINE.
5.13.2.Feature Auto-Activation
When using a GNU configure script, keep an eye on which optional features are activated by auto-detection. Explic-
itly disable optional features that are not needed by adding --without-xxx or --disable-xxx in CONFIGURE_ARGS.
Example5.38.Wrong Handling of an Option

.if${PORT_OPTIONS:MFOO}
LIB_DEPENDS+= libfoo.so:devel/foo
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-foo
.endif
In the example above, imagine a library libfoo is installed on the system. The user does not want this application
to use libfoo, so he toggled the option o in the make config dialog. But the application's configure script detects
the library present in the system and includes its support in the resulting executable. Now when the user decides
67
Options Helpers
to remove libfoo from the system, the ports system does not protest (no dependency on libfoo was recorded) but
the application breaks.
Example5.39.Correct Handling of an Option

FOO_LIB_DEPENDS= libfoo.so:devel/foo
#Willadd --enable-foo / --disable-foo
FOO_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= foo
Note
Under some circumstances, the shorthand conditional syntax can cause problems with com-
plex constructs. The errors are usually Malformed conditional, an alternative syntax can
be used.
.if !empty(VARIABLE:MVALUE)
as an alternative to
.if${VARIABLE:MVALUE}
5.13.3.Options Helpers
There are some macros to help simplify conditional values which differ based on the options set.
5.13.3.1.OPTIONS_SUB
If OPTIONS_SUB is set to yes then each of the options added to OPTIONS_DEFINE will be added to PLIST_SUB and
SUB_LIST , for example:
OPTIONS_DEFINE= OPT1
OPTIONS_SUB= yes
is equivalent to:
.if${PORT_OPTIONS:MOPT1}
PLIST_SUB+= OPT1=""NO_OPT1="@comment "
SUB_LIST+= OPT1=""NO_OPT1="@comment "
.else
PLIST_SUB+= OPT1="@comment "NO_OPT1=""
SUB_LIST+= OPT1="@comment "NO_OPT1=""
.endif
Note
The value of OPTIONS_SUB is ignored. Setting it to any value will add PLIST_SUB and
SUB_LIST entries for all options.
68
5.13.3.2.OPT_USE and OPT_USE_OFF

When option OPT is selected, for each key=value pair in OPT_USE , value is appended to the corresponding USE_KEY .
If value has spaces in it, replace them with commas and they will be changed back to spaces during processing.
OPT_USE_OFF works the same way, but when OPT is not selected. For example:
OPT1_USE= mysql=yesxorg=x11,xextproto,xext,xrandr
OPT1_USE_OFF= openssl=yes
is equivalent to:
USE_MYSQL= yes
USE_XORG= x11xextprotoxextxrandr
.else
USE_OPENSSL= yes
.endif
5.13.3.3.CONFIGURE_ARGS Helpers
5.13.3.3.1.OPT_CONFIGURE_ENABLE
When option OPT is selected, for each entry in OPT_CONFIGURE_ENABLE then --enable-entry is appended to CON-
FIGURE_ARGS. When option OPT is not selected, --disable-entry is appended to CONFIGURE_ARGS. An optional ar-
gument can be specified with an = symbol. This argument is only appended to the --enable-entry configure op-
tion. For example:
OPT1_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= test1test2
OPT2_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= test2=exhaustive
is equivalent to:
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-test1 --enable-test2
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --disable-test1 --disable-test2
.endif
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-test2=exhaustive
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --disable-test2
.endif
5.13.3.3.2.OPT_CONFIGURE_WITH
When option OPT is selected, for each entry in OPT_CONFIGURE_WITH then --with- entry is appended to CON-
FIGURE_ARGS. When option OPT is not selected, --without-entry is appended to CONFIGURE_ARGS. An optional ar-
gument can be specified with an = symbol. This argument is only appended to the --with- entry configure option.
For example:
OPT1_CONFIGURE_WITH= test1
OPT2_CONFIGURE_WITH= test2=exhaustive
is equivalent to:
69
Options Helpers
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --with-test1
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --without-test1
.endif
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --with-test2=exhaustive
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --without-test2
.endif
5.13.3.3.3.OPT_CONFIGURE_ON and OPT_CONFIGURE_OFF

When option OPT is selected, the value of OPT_CONFIGURE_ON, if defined, is appended to CONFIGURE_ARGS. OPT_CON-
FIGURE_OFF works the same way, but when OPT is not selected. For example:
OPT1_CONFIGURE_ON= --add-test
OPT1_CONFIGURE_OFF= --no-test
is equivalent to:
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --add-test
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --no-test
.endif
Tip
Most of the time, the helpers in Section 5.13.3.3.1, OPT_CONFIGURE_ENABLE and Sec-
tion5.13.3.3.2, OPT_CONFIGURE_WITH provide a shorter and more comprehensive function-
ality.
5.13.3.4.CMAKE_ARGS Helpers
5.13.3.4.1.OPT_CMAKE_ON and OPT_CMAKE_OFF

When option OPT is selected, the value of OPT_CMAKE_ON, if defined, is appended to CMAKE_ARGS . OPT_CMAKE_OFF
works the same way, but when OPT is not selected. For example:
OPT1_CMAKE_ON= -DTEST:BOOL=true -DDEBUG:BOOL=true
OPT1_CMAKE_OFF= -DOPTIMIZE:BOOL=true
is equivalent to:
CMAKE_ARGS+= -DTEST:BOOL=true -DDEBUG:BOOL=true
70
.else
CMAKE_ARGS+= -DOPTIMIZE:BOOL=true
.endif
Tip
See Section5.13.3.4.2, OPT_CMAKE_BOOL and OPT_CMAKE_BOOL_OFF for a shorter helper when
the value is boolean.
5.13.3.4.2.OPT_CMAKE_BOOL and OPT_CMAKE_BOOL_OFF

When option OPT is selected, for each entry in OPT_CMAKE_BOOL then -Dentry:BOOL=true is appended to
CMAKE_ARGS . When option OPT is not selected, -Dentry:BOOL=false is appended to CONFIGURE_ARGS. OPT_C-
MAKE_BOOL_OFF is the oposite, -Dentry:BOOL=false is appended to CMAKE_ARGS when the option is selected, and
-Dentry:BOOL=true when the option is not selected. For example:
OPT1_CMAKE_BOOL= TESTDEBUG
OPT1_CMAKE_BOOL_OFF= OPTIMIZE
is equivalent to:
CMAKE_ARGS+= -DTEST:BOOL=true -DDEBUG:BOOL=true\
-DOPTIMIZE:BOOL=false
.else
CMAKE_ARGS+= -DTEST:BOOL=false -DDEBUG:BOOL=false\
-DOPTIMIZE:BOOL=true
.endif
5.13.3.5.MESON_ARGS Helpers
5.13.3.5.1.OPT_MESON_ON and OPT_MESON_OFF

When option OPT is selected, the value of OPT_MESON_ON , if defined, is appended to MESON_ARGS . OPT_MESON_OFF
OPT1_MESON_ON= -Dopt=1
OPT1_MESON_OFF= -Dopt=2
is equivalent to:
MESON_ARGS+= -Dopt=1
.else
MESON_ARGS+= -Dopt=2
.endif
5.13.3.5.2.OPT_MESON_TRUE and OPT_MESON_FALSE

When option OPT is selected, for each entry in OPT_MESON_TRUE then -Dentry=true is appended to CMAKE_ARGS .
When option OPT is not selected, -Dentry=false is appended to CONFIGURE_ARGS. OPT_MESON_FALSE is the oposite,
71
Options Helpers
-Dentry=false is appended to CMAKE_ARGS when the option is selected, and -Dentry=true when the option is
not selected. For example:
OPT1_MESON_TRUE= testdebug
OPT1_MESON_FALSE= optimize
is equivalent to:
CMAKE_ARGS+= -Dtest=true -Ddebug=true\
-Doptimize=false
.else
CMAKE_ARGS+= -Dtest=false -Ddebug=false\
-Doptimize=true
.endif
5.13.3.5.3.OPT_MESON_YES and OPT_MESON_NO

When option OPT is selected, for each entry in OPT_MESON_YES then -Dentry=yes is appended to CMAKE_ARGS .
When option OPT is not selected, -Dentry=no is appended to CONFIGURE_ARGS. OPT_MESON_NO is the oposite, -Den-
try=no is appended to CMAKE_ARGS when the option is selected, and -Dentry=yes when the option is not selected.
For example:
OPT1_MESON_YES= testdebug
OPT1_MESON_NO= optimize
is equivalent to:
CMAKE_ARGS+= -Dtest=yes -Ddebug=yes\
-Doptimize=no
.else
CMAKE_ARGS+= -Dtest=no -Ddebug=no\
-Doptimize=yes
.endif
5.13.3.6.OPT_QMAKE_ON and OPT_QMAKE_OFF
When option OPT is selected, the value of OPT_QMAKE_ON, if defined, is appended to QMAKE_ARGS . OPT_QMAKE_OFF
OPT1_QMAKE_ON= -DTEST:BOOL=true
OPT1_QMAKE_OFF= -DPRODUCTION:BOOL=true
is equivalent to:
QMAKE_ARGS+= -DTEST:BOOL=true
.else
QMAKE_ARGS+= -DPRODUCTION:BOOL=true
72
.endif
5.13.3.7.OPT_IMPLIES
Provides a way to add dependencies between options.
When OPT is selected, all the options listed in this variable will be selected too. Using the OPT_CONFIGURE_ENABLE
described earlier to illustrate:
OPT1_IMPLIES= OPT2
OPT1_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= opt1
OPT2_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= opt2
Is equivalent to:
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-opt1
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --disable-opt1
.endif
.if${PORT_OPTIONS:MOPT2} ||${PORT_OPTIONS:MOPT1}
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-opt2
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --disable-opt2
.endif
Example5.40.Simple Use of OPT_IMPLIES

This port has a X11 option, and a GNOME option that needs the X11 option to be selected to build.
OPTIONS_DEFINE= X11GNOME
OPTIONS_DEFAULT= X11
X11_USE= xorg=xi,xextproto
GNOME_USE= gnome=gtk30
GNOME_IMPLIES= X11
5.13.3.8.OPT_PREVENTS and OPT_PREVENTS_MSG
Provides a way to add conflicts between options.
When OPT is selected, all the options listed in this variable must be un-selected. If OPT_PREVENTS_MSG is also select-
ed, its content will be shown, explaining why they conflict. For example:
OPT1_PREVENTS= OPT2
OPT1_PREVENTS_MSG= OPT1andOPT2enableconflictingoptions
Is roughly equivalent to:

73
Options Helpers
.if${PORT_OPTIONS:MOPT2}&&${PORT_OPTIONS:MOPT1}
BROKEN= OptionOPT1conflictswithOPT2(selectonlyone)
.endif
The only difference is that the rst one will write an error after running make config , suggesting changing the
selected options.
Example5.41.Simple Use of OPT_PREVENTS

This port has X509 and SCTP options. Both options add patches, but the patches conflict with each other,
so they cannot be selected at the same time.
OPTIONS_DEFINE= X509SCTP
SCTP_PATCHFILES= ${PORTNAME}-6.8p1-sctp-2573.patch.gz:-p1
SCTP_CONFIGURE_WITH= sctp
X509_PATCH_SITES= http://www.roumenpetrov.info/openssh/x509/:x509
X509_PATCHFILES= ${PORTNAME}-7.0p1+x509-8.5.diff.gz:-p1:x509
X509_PREVENTS= SCTP
X509_PREVENTS_MSG= X509andSCTPpatchesconflict
5.13.3.9.OPT_VARS and OPT_VARS_OFF
Provides a generic way to set and append to variables.
Warning
Before using OPT_VARS and OPT_VARS_OFF , see if there is already a more specific helper
available in Section 5.13.3.11, Generic Variables Replacement, OPT_VARIABLE and OP-
T_VARIABLE _OFF.
When option OPT is selected, and OPT_VARS defined, key=value and key+=value pairs are evaluated from OPT_VARS .
An = cause the existing value of KEY to be overwritten, an += appends to the value. OPT_VARS_OFF works the same
way, but when OPT is not selected.
OPTIONS_DEFINE= OPT1OPT2OPT3
OPT1_VARS= also_build+=bin1
OPT2_VARS= also_build+=bin2
OPT3_VARS= bin3_build=yes
OPT3_VARS_OFF= bin3_build=no
MAKE_ARGS= ALSO_BUILD="${ALSO_BUILD}"BIN3_BUILD="${BIN3_BUILD}"
is equivalent to:
MAKE_ARGS= ALSO_BUILD="${ALSO_BUILD}"BIN3_BUILD="${BIN3_BUILD}"
ALSO_BUILD+= bin1
.endif
74
ALSO_BUILD+= bin2
.endif
BIN3_BUILD= yes
.else
BIN3_BUILD= no
.endif
Tip
Values containing whitespace must be enclosed in quotes:
OPT_VARS= foo="barbaz"
This is due to the way make(1) variable expansion deals with whitespace. When OPT_VARS=
foo=bar baz is expanded, the variable ends up containing two strings, foo=bar and baz .
But the submitter probably intended there to be only one string, foo=bar baz . Quoting the
value prevents whitespace from being used as a delimiter.
5.13.3.10.Dependencies, OPT_DEPTYPE and OPT_DEPTYPE_OFF
For any of these dependency types:
PKG_DEPENDS
EXTRACT_DEPENDS
PATCH_DEPENDS
FETCH_DEPENDS
BUILD_DEPENDS
LIB_DEPENDS
RUN_DEPENDS
When option OPT is selected, the value of OPT_DEPTYPE, if defined, is appended to DEPTYPE. OPT_DEPTYPE_OFF works
the same, but when OPT is not selected. For example:
OPT1_LIB_DEPENDS= liba.so:devel/a
OPT1_LIB_DEPENDS_OFF= libb.so:devel/b
is equivalent to:
LIB_DEPENDS+= liba.so:devel/a
.else
LIB_DEPENDS+= libb.so:devel/b
.endif
5.13.3.11.Generic Variables Replacement, OPT_VARIABLE and OPT_VARIABLE _OFF
For any of these variables:
75
Options Helpers
ALL_TARGET
BROKEN
CATEGORIES
CFLAGS
CONFIGURE_ENV
CONFLICTS
CONFLICTS_BUILD
CONFLICTS_INSTALL
CPPFLAGS
CXXFLAGS
DESKTOP_ENTRIES
DISTFILES
EXTRA_PATCHES
EXTRACT_ONLY
GH_ACCOUNT
GH_PROJECT
GH_SUBDIR
GH_TAGNAME
GH_TUPLE
IGNORE
INFO
INSTALL_TARGET
LDFLAGS
LIBS
MAKE_ARGS
MAKE_ENV
MASTER_SITES
PATCHFILES
PATCH_SITES
PLIST_DIRS
PLIST_DIRSTRY
PLIST_FILES
PLIST_SUB
76
PORTDOCS
PORTEXAMPLES
SUB_FILES
SUB_LIST
TEST_TARGET
USES
When option OPT is selected, the value of OPT_ABOVEVARIABLE, if defined, is appended to ABOVEVARIABLE. OP-
T_ABOVEVARIABLE_OFF works the same way, but when OPT is not selected. For example:
OPT1_USES= gmake
OPT1_CFLAGS_OFF= -DTEST
is equivalent to:
USES+= gmake
.else
CFLAGS+= -DTEST
.endif
Note
Some variables are not in this list, in particular PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIX. This is
intentional. A port must not change its name when its option set changes.
Warning
Some of these variables, at least ALL_TARGET and INSTALL_TARGET, have their default values
set after the options are processed.
With these lines in the Makefile:
ALL_TARGET= all
DOCS_ALL_TARGET= doc
If the DOCS option is enabled, ALL_TARGET will have a final value of all doc ; if the option is
disabled, it would have a value of all .
With only the options helper line in the Makefile:
DOCS_ALL_TARGET= doc
If the DOCS option is enabled, ALL_TARGET will have a final value of doc ; if the option is dis-
abled, it would have a value of all .
77
Options Helpers
5.13.3.12.Additional Build Targets, TARGET-OPT-on and TARGET-OPT-off
These Makefile targets can accept optional extra build targets:
pre-fetch
do-fetch
post-fetch
pre-extract
do-extract
post-extract
pre-patch
do-patch
post-patch
pre-configure
do-configure
post-configure
pre-build
do-build
post-build
pre-install
do-install
post-install
post-stage
pre-package
do-package
post-package
When option OPT is selected, the target TARGET-OPT-on , if defined, is executed after TARGET. TARGET-OPT-off works
the same way, but when OPT is not selected. For example:
post-patch:
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e 's/echo/true/'${WRKSRC}/Makefile
post-patch-OPT1-on:
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e '/opt1/d'${WRKSRC}/Makefile
post-patch-OPT1-off:
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e '/opt1/s|/usr/bin/|${LOCALBASE}/bin/|'${WRKSRC}/Makefile
is equivalent to:
78
post-patch:
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e 's/echo/true/'${WRKSRC}/Makefile
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e '/opt1/d'${WRKSRC}/Makefile
.else
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e '/opt1/s|/usr/bin/|${LOCALBASE}/bin/|'${WRKSRC}/Makefile
.endif
5.14.Specifying the Working Directory

Each port is extracted into a working directory, which must be writable. The ports system defaults to having DIST-
FILES unpack in to a directory called ${DISTNAME}. In other words, if the Makefile has:
PORTNAME= foo
DISTVERSION= 1.0
then the port's distribution les contain a top-level directory, foo-1.0 , and the rest of the les are located under
that directory.
A number of variables can be overridden if that is not the case.
5.14.1.WRKSRC
The variable lists the name of the directory that is created when the application's distfiles are extracted. If our
previous example extracted into a directory called foo (and not foo-1.0 ) write:
WRKSRC= ${WRKDIR}/foo
or possibly
WRKSRC= ${WRKDIR}/${PORTNAME}
5.14.2.WRKSRC_SUBDIR
If the source les needed for the port are in a subdirectory of the extracted distribution le, set WRKSRC_SUBDIR
to that directory.
WRKSRC_SUBDIR= src
5.14.3.NO_WRKSUBDIR
If the port does not extract in to a subdirectory at all, then set NO_WRKSUBDIR to indicate that.
NO_WRKSUBDIR= yes
Note
Because WRKDIR is the only directory that is supposed to be writable during the build, and is
used to store many les recording the status of the build, the port's extraction will be forced
into a subdirectory.
5.15.Conflict Handling
There are three different variables to register a conflict between packages and ports: CONFLICTS, CONFLICTS_INS-
TALL and CONFLICTS_BUILD.
79
CONFLICTS_INSTALL
Note
The conflict variables automatically set the variable IGNORE, which is more fully documented
in Section12.14, Marking a Port Not Installable with BROKEN, FORBIDDEN, or IGNORE.
When removing one of several conflicting ports, it is advisable to retain CONFLICTS in those other ports for a few
months to cater for users who only update once in a while.
5.15.1.CONFLICTS_INSTALL
If the package cannot coexist with other packages (because of le conflicts, runtime incompatibilities, etc.), list the
other package names in CONFLICTS_INSTALL. Use shell globs like * and ? here. Enumerate package names in there,
not port names or origins. Please make sure that CONFLICTS_INSTALL does not match this port's package itself.
Otherwise enforcing its installation with FORCE_PKG_REGISTER will no longer work. CONFLICTS_INSTALL check is
done after the build stage and prior to the install stage.
5.15.2.CONFLICTS_BUILD
If the port cannot be built when other specific ports are already installed, list the other port names in CONFLIC-
TS_BUILD. Use shell globs like * and ? here. Use package names, not port names or origins. CONFLICTS_BUILD check
is done prior to the build stage. Build conflicts are not recorded in the resulting package.
5.15.3.CONFLICTS
If the port cannot be built if a certain port is already installed and the resulting package cannot coexist with the
other package, list the other package name in CONFLICTS. use shell globs like * and ? here. Enumerate package
names in there, not port names or origins. Please make sure that CONFLICTS does not match this port's package
itself. Otherwise enforcing its installation with FORCE_PKG_REGISTER will no longer work. CONFLICTS check is done
prior to the build stage and prior to the install stage.
5.16.Installing Files
Important
The install phase is very important to the end user because it adds les to their system. All
the additional commands run in the port Makefile's *-install targets should be echoed to
the screen. Do not silence these commands with @ or .SILENT.
5.16.1.INSTALL_* Macros
Use the macros provided in bsd.port.mk to ensure correct modes of les in the port's *-install targets. Set
ownership directly in pkg-plist with the corresponding entries, such as @(owner,group ,), @owner owner, and
@group group . These operators work until overridden, or until the end of pkg-plist , so remember to reset them
after they are no longer needed. The default ownership is root:wheel . See Section7.6.13, Base Keywords for
more information.
INSTALL_PROGRAM is a command to install binary executables.
INSTALL_SCRIPT is a command to install executable scripts.
INSTALL_LIB is a command to install shared libraries (but not static libraries).
80
INSTALL_KLD is a command to install kernel loadable modules. Some architectures do not like having the modules
stripped, so use this command instead of INSTALL_PROGRAM.
INSTALL_DATA is a command to install sharable data, including static libraries.
INSTALL_MAN is a command to install manpages and other documentation (it does not compress anything).
These variables are set to the install(1) command with the appropriate ags for each situation.
Important
Do not use INSTALL_LIB to install static libraries, because stripping them renders them use-
less. Use INSTALL_DATA instead.
5.16.2.Stripping Binaries and Shared Libraries

Installed binaries should be stripped. Do not strip binaries manually unless absolutely required. The INSTALL_PRO-
GRAM macro installs and strips a binary at the same time. The INSTALL_LIB macro does the same thing to shared
libraries.
When a le must be stripped, but neither INSTALL_PROGRAM nor INSTALL_LIB macros are desirable, ${STRIP_CMD}
strips the program or shared library. This is typically done within the post-install target. For example:
post-install:
${STRIP_CMD}${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/bin/xdl
When multiple les need to be stripped:
post-install:
.forlingeometrymediabodytrackworld
${STRIP_CMD}${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/lib/lib${PORTNAME}-${l}.so.0
.endfor
Use le(1) on a le to determine if it has been stripped. Binaries are reported by le(1) as stripped , or not
stripped . Additionally, strip(1) will detect programs that have already been stripped and exit cleanly.
5.16.3.Installing a Whole Tree of Files

Sometimes, a large number of les must be installed while preserving their hierarchical organization. For exam-
ple, copying over a whole directory tree from WRKSRC to a target directory under PREFIX. Note that PREFIX, EX-
AMPLESDIR, DATADIR , and other path variables must always be prepended with STAGEDIR to respect staging (see
Section6.1, Staging).
Two macros exist for this situation. The advantage of using these macros instead of cp is that they guarantee proper
le ownership and permissions on target les. The rst macro, COPYTREE_BIN, will set all the installed les to be
executable, thus being suitable for installing into PREFIX/bin . The second macro, COPYTREE_SHARE, does not set
executable permissions on les, and is therefore suitable for installing les under PREFIX/share target.
post-install:
${MKDIR}${STAGEDIR}${EXAMPLESDIR}
(cd${WRKSRC}/examples&&${COPYTREE_SHARE} .${STAGEDIR}${EXAMPLESDIR})
This example will install the contents of the examples directory in the vendor distfile to the proper examples
location of the port.
post-install:
${MKDIR}${STAGEDIR}${DATADIR}/summer
(cd${WRKSRC}/temperatures&&${COPYTREE_SHARE} "JuneJulyAugust"
${STAGEDIR}${DATADIR}/summer)
81
Install Additional Documentation
And this example will install the data of summer months to the summer subdirectory of a DATADIR .
Additional find arguments can be passed via the third argument to COPYTREE_* macros. For example, to install all
les from the rst example except Makefiles, one can use these commands.
post-install:
(cd${WRKSRC}/examples&&\
${COPYTREE_SHARE} .${STAGEDIR}${EXAMPLESDIR} "! -nameMakefile")
These macros do not add the installed les to pkg-plist . They must be added manually. For optional documenta-
tion (PORTDOCS, see Section5.16.4, Install Additional Documentation) and examples (PORTEXAMPLES), the %%PORT-
DOCS%% or %%PORTEXAMPLES%% prefixes must be prepended in pkg-plist .
5.16.4.Install Additional Documentation

If the software has some documentation other than the standard man and info pages that is useful for the user,
install it under DOCSDIR This can be done, like the previous item, in the post-install target.
Create a new directory for the port. The directory name is DOCSDIR . This usually equals PORTNAME. However, if the
user might want different versions of the port to be installed at the same time, the whole PKGNAME can be used.
Since only the les listed in pkg-plist are installed, it is safe to always install documentation to STAGEDIR (see
Section6.1, Staging). Hence .if blocks are only needed when the installed les are large enough to cause sig-
nificant I/O overhead.
post-install:
${MKDIR}${STAGEDIR}${DOCSDIR}
${INSTALL_MAN}${WRKSRC}/docs/xvdocs.ps${STAGEDIR}${DOCSDIR}
On the other hand, if there is a DOCS option in the port, install the documentation in a post-install-DOCS-on
target. These targets are described in Section5.13.3.12, Additional Build Targets, TARGET-OPT-on and TARGET-OPT-
off .
Here are some handy variables and how they are expanded by default when used in the Makefile:
DATADIR gets expanded to PREFIX/share/PORTNAME .
DATADIR_REL gets expanded to share/PORTNAME .
DOCSDIR gets expanded to PREFIX/share/doc/PORTNAME .
DOCSDIR_REL gets expanded to share/doc/PORTNAME .
EXAMPLESDIR gets expanded to PREFIX/share/examples/PORTNAME .
EXAMPLESDIR_REL gets expanded to share/examples/PORTNAME .
Note
The DOCS option only controls additional documentation installed in DOCSDIR . It does not
apply to standard man pages and info pages. Things installed in DATADIR and EXAMPLESDIR
are controlled by DATA and EXAMPLES options, respectively.
These variables are exported to PLIST_SUB . Their values will appear there as pathnames relative to PREFIX if pos-
sible. That is, share/doc/PORTNAME will be substituted for %%DOCSDIR%% in the packing list by default, and so on.
(See more on pkg-plist substitution here.)
82
All conditionally installed documentation les and directories are included in pkg-plist with the %%PORTDOCS%
% prefix, for example:
%%PORTDOCS%%%%DOCSDIR%%/AUTHORS
%%PORTDOCS%%%%DOCSDIR%%/CONTACT
As an alternative to enumerating the documentation les in pkg-plist , a port can set the variable PORTDOCS to
a list of le names and shell glob patterns to add to the final packing list. The names will be relative to DOCSDIR .
Therefore, a port that utilizes PORTDOCS, and uses a non-default location for its documentation, must set DOCSDIR
accordingly. If a directory is listed in PORTDOCS or matched by a glob pattern from this variable, the entire subtree
of contained les and directories will be registered in the final packing list. If the DOCS option has been unset
then les and directories listed in PORTDOCS would not be installed or added to port packing list. Installing the
documentation at PORTDOCS as shown above remains up to the port itself. A typical example of utilizing PORTDOCS
looks as follows:
PORTDOCS= README.*ChangeLogdocs/*
Note
The equivalents of PORTDOCS for les installed under DATADIR and EXAMPLESDIR are PORTDATA
and PORTEXAMPLES, respectively.
The contents of pkg-message are displayed upon installation. See the section on using pkg-
message for details. pkg-message does not need to be added to pkg-plist .
5.16.5.Subdirectories Under PREFIX

Try to let the port put things in the right subdirectories of PREFIX. Some ports lump everything and put it in the
subdirectory with the port's name, which is incorrect. Also, many ports put everything except binaries, header
les and manual pages in a subdirectory of lib , which does not work well with the BSD paradigm. Many of the les
must be moved to one of these directories: etc (setup/configuration les), libexec (executables started internal-
ly), sbin (executables for superusers/managers), info (documentation for info browser) or share (architecture
independent les). See hier(7) for details; the rules governing /usr pretty much apply to /usr/local too. The
exception are ports dealing with USENET news. They may use PREFIX/news as a destination for their les.
83
Chapter6.Special Considerations
This section explains the most common things to consider when creating a port.
6.1.Staging
bsd.port.mk expects ports to work with a stage directory. This means that a port must not install les directly to
the regular destination directories (that is, under PREFIX, for example) but instead into a separate directory from
which the package is then built. In many cases, this does not require root privileges, making it possible to build
packages as an unprivileged user. With staging, the port is built and installed into the stage directory, STAGEDIR . A
package is created from the stage directory and then installed on the system. Automake tools refer to this concept
as DESTDIR, but in FreeBSD, DESTDIR has a different meaning (see Section9.4, PREFIX and DESTDIR).
Note
No port really needs to be root. It can mostly be avoided by using USES=uidfix. If the port
still runs commands like chown(8), chgrp(1), or forces owner or group with install(1) then
use USES=fakeroot to fake those calls. Some patching of the port's Makefiles will be needed.
Meta ports, or ports that do not install les themselves but only depend on other ports, must avoid needlessly
extracting the mtree(8) to the stage directory. This is the basic directory layout of the package, and these empty
directories will be seen as orphans. To prevent mtree(8) extraction, add this line:
NO_MTREE= yes
Tip
Metaports should use USES=metaport. It sets up defaults for ports that do not fetch, build,
or install anything.
Staging is enabled by prepending STAGEDIR to paths used in the pre-install , do-install , and post-install
targets (see the examples through the book). Typically, this includes PREFIX, ETCDIR , DATADIR , EXAMPLESDIR, MAN-
PREFIX, DOCSDIR , and so on. Directories should be created as part of the post-install target. Avoid using absolute
paths whenever possible.
Tip
Ports that install kernel modules must prepend STAGEDIR to their destination, by default /
boot/modules .
6.1.1.Handling Symbolic Links
When creating a symlink, there are two cases, either the source and target are both within ${PREFIX}. In that case,
use ${RLN} . In the other case, if one or both of the paths are outside of ${PREFIX} use ${LN} -s and only prepend
${STAGEDIR} to the target's path.
Bundled Libraries
Example6.1.Inside ${PREFIX}, Create Relative Symbolic Links

${RLN} uses install(1)'s relative symbolic feature which frees the porter of computing the relative path.
${RLN}${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/lib/libfoo.so.42 ${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/lib/libfoo.so
Will generate:
% ls -lF${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/lib
lrwxr-xr-x 1nobody nobody 181Aug 311:27libfoo.so@ ->libfoo.so.42
-rwxr-xr-x 1nobody nobody 15Aug 311:24libfoo.so.42*
When used with paths not in the same directory:
${RLN}${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/libexec/foo/bar${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/bin/bar
Will automatically generate the relative symbolic links:
% ls -lF${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/bin
lrwxr-xr-x 1nobody nobody 181Aug 311:27bar@ -> ../libexec/foo/bar
Example6.2.Outside ${PREFIX}, Create Absolute Symbolic Links

When creating a symbolic link outside of ${PREFIX}, the source must not contain ${STAGEDIR} , the target,
however, must:
${LN} -sf /var/cache/${PORTNAME} ${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/share/${PORTNAME}
Will generate:
% ls -lF${STAGEDIRDIR}${PREFIX}/share
lrwxr-xr-x 1nobody nobody 181Aug 311:27foo@ -> /var/cache/foo
6.2.Bundled Libraries
This section explains why bundled dependencies are considered bad and what to do about them.
6.2.1.Why Bundled Libraries Are Bad

Some software requires the porter to locate third-party libraries and add the required dependencies to the port.
Other software bundles all necessary libraries into the distribution le. The second approach seems easier at rst,
but there are some serious drawbacks:
This list is loosely based on the Fedora and Gentoo wikis, both licensed under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.
Security
If vulnerabilities are found in the upstream library and xed there, they might not be xed in the library
bundled with the port. One reason could be that the author is not aware of the problem. This means that
the porter must x them, or upgrade to a non-vulnerable version, and send a patch to the author. This all
takes time, which results in software being vulnerable longer than necessary. This in turn makes it harder to
coordinate a x without unnecessarily leaking information about the vulnerability.
86
Bugs
This problem is similar to the problem with security in the last paragraph, but generally less severe.
Forking
It is easier for the author to fork the upstream library once it is bundled. While convenient on rst sight, it
means that the code diverges from upstream making it harder to address security or other problems with the
software. A reason for this is that patching becomes harder.
Another problem of forking is that because code diverges from upstream, bugs get solved over and over again
instead of just once at a central location. This defeats the idea of open source software in the rst place.
Symbol collision
When a library is installed on the system, it might collide with the bundled version. This can cause immediate
errors at compile or link time. It can also cause errors when running the program which might be harder to
track down. The latter problem could be caused because the versions of the two libraries are incompatible.
Licensing
When bundling projects from different sources, license issues can arise more easily, especially when licenses
are incompatible.
Waste of resources
Bundled libraries waste resources on several levels. It takes longer to build the actual application, especially if
these libraries are already present on the system. At run-time, they can take up unnecessary memory when the
system-wide library is already loaded by one program and the bundled library is loaded by another program.
Waste of effort
When a library needs patches for FreeBSD, these patches have to be duplicated again in the bundled library.
This wastes developer time because the patches might not apply cleanly. It can also be hard to notice that
these patches are required in the rst place.
6.2.2.What to do About Bundled Libraries

Whenever possible, use the unbundled version of the library by adding a LIB_DEPENDS to the port. If such a port
does not exist yet, consider creating it.
Only use bundled libraries if the upstream has a good track record on security and using unbundled versions leads
to overly complex patches.
Note
In some very special cases, for example emulators, like Wine, a port has to bundle libraries,
because they are in a different architecture, or they have been modified to t the software's
use. In that case, those libraries should not be exposed to other ports for linking. Add BUN-
DLE_LIBS=yes to the port's Makefile. This will tell pkg(8) to not compute provided libraries.
Always ask the Ports Management Team <portmgr@FreeBSD.org> before adding this to a
port.
6.3.Shared Libraries
If the port installs one or more shared libraries, define a USE_LDCONFIG make variable, which will instruct a bs-
d.port.mk to run ${LDCONFIG} -m on the directory where the new library is installed (usually PREFIX/lib ) during
post-install target to register it into the shared library cache. This variable, when defined, will also facilitate
addition of an appropriate @exec /sbin/ldconfig -m and @unexec /sbin/ldconfig -R pair into pkg-plist , so
that a user who installed the package can start using the shared library immediately and de-installation will not
cause the system to still believe the library is there.
87
Ports with Distribution Restrictions or Legal Concerns
USE_LDCONFIG= yes
The default directory can be overridden by setting USE_LDCONFIG to a list of directories into which shared libraries
are to be installed. For example, if the port installs shared libraries into PREFIX/lib/foo and PREFIX/lib/bar use
this in Makefile:
USE_LDCONFIG= ${PREFIX}/lib/foo${PREFIX}/lib/bar
Please double-check, often this is not necessary at all or can be avoided through -rpath or setting LD_RUN_PATH
during linking (see lang/mosml for an example), or through a shell-wrapper which sets LD_LIBRARY_PATH before
invoking the binary, like www/seamonkey does.
When installing 32-bit libraries on 64-bit system, use USE_LDCONFIG32 instead.
If the software uses autotools, and specifically libtool , add USES=libtool .
When the major library version number increments in the update to the new port version, all other ports that link
to the affected library must have their PORTREVISION incremented, to force recompilation with the new library
version.
6.4.Ports with Distribution Restrictions or Legal Concerns

Licenses vary, and some of them place restrictions on how the application can be packaged, whether it can be sold
for profit, and so on.
Important
It is the responsibility of a porter to read the licensing terms of the software and make sure
that the FreeBSD project will not be held accountable for violating them by redistributing
the source or compiled binaries either via FTP/HTTP or CD-ROM. If in doubt, please contact
the FreeBSD ports mailing list.
In situations like this, the variables described in the next sections can be set.
6.4.1.NO_PACKAGE
This variable indicates that we may not generate a binary package of the application. For instance, the license may
disallow binary redistribution, or it may prohibit distribution of packages created from patched sources.
However, the port's DISTFILES may be freely mirrored on FTP/HTTP. They may also be distributed on a CD-ROM
(or similar media) unless NO_CDROM is set as well.
If the binary package is not generally useful, and the application must always be compiled from the source code,
use NO_PACKAGE. For example, if the application has configuration information that is site specific hard coded into
it at compile time, set NO_PACKAGE.
Set NO_PACKAGE to a string describing the reason why the package cannot be generated.
6.4.2.NO_CDROM
This variable alone indicates that, although we are allowed to generate binary packages, we may put neither those
packages nor the port's DISTFILES onto a CD-ROM (or similar media) for resale. However, the binary packages and
the port's DISTFILES will still be available via FTP/HTTP.
If this variable is set along with NO_PACKAGE, then only the port's DISTFILES will be available, and only via FTP/
HTTP.
88
Set NO_CDROM to a string describing the reason why the port cannot be redistributed on CD-ROM. For instance, use
this if the port's license is for non-commercial use only.
6.4.3.NOFETCHFILES
Files defined in NOFETCHFILES are not fetchable from any of MASTER_SITES . An example of such a le is when the
le is supplied on CD-ROM by the vendor.
Tools which check for the availability of these les on MASTER_SITES have to ignore these les and not report
about them.
6.4.4.RESTRICTED
Set this variable alone if the application's license permits neither mirroring the application's DISTFILES nor dis-
tributing the binary package in any way.
Do not set NO_CDROM or NO_PACKAGE along with RESTRICTED, since the latter variable implies the former ones.
Set RESTRICTED to a string describing the reason why the port cannot be redistributed. Typically, this indicates that
the port contains proprietary software and that the user will need to manually download the DISTFILES, possibly
after registering for the software or agreeing to accept the terms of an EULA.
6.4.5.RESTRICTED_FILES
When RESTRICTED or NO_CDROM is set, this variable defaults to ${DISTFILES} ${PATCHFILES}, otherwise it is empty.
If only some of the distribution les are restricted, then set this variable to list them.
6.4.6.LEGAL_TEXT
If the port has legal concerns not addressed by the above variables, set LEGAL_TEXT to a string explaining the
concern. For example, if special permission was obtained for FreeBSD to redistribute the binary, this variable must
indicate so.
6.4.7./usr/ports/LEGAL and LEGAL

A port which sets any of the above variables must also be added to /usr/ports/LEGAL . The rst column is a glob
which matches the restricted distfiles. The second column is the port's origin. The third column is the output of
make -VLEGAL .
6.4.8.Examples
The preferred way to state "the distfiles for this port must be fetched manually" is as follows:
.if !exists(${DISTDIR}/${DISTNAME}${EXTRACT_SUFX})
IGNORE= maynotberedistributedbecauseoflicensingreasons.Pleasevisit some-
website toaccepttheirlicenseanddownload${DISTFILES}into${DISTDIR}
.endif
This both informs the user, and sets the proper metadata on the user's machine for use by automated programs.
Note that this stanza must be preceded by an inclusion of bsd.port.pre.mk.
6.5.Building Mechanisms
6.5.1.Building Ports in Parallel
The FreeBSD ports framework supports parallel building using multiple make sub-processes, which allows SMP
systems to utilize all of their available CPU power, allowing port builds to be faster and more effective.
89
make , gmake , fmake , and imake
This is achieved by passing -jX ag to make(1) running on vendor code. This is the default build behavior of ports.
Unfortunately, not all ports handle parallel building well and it may be required to explicitly disable this feature
by adding the MAKE_JOBS_UNSAFE=yes variable. It is used when a port is known to be broken with -jX .
6.5.2.make , gmake , fmake , and imake

Several differing make implementations exist. Ported software often requires a particular implementation, like
GNU make , known in FreeBSD as gmake , or fmake , the legacy FreeBSD make .
If the port uses GNU make, add gmake to USES . If the legacy FreeBSD make is needed, add fmake there.
MAKE_CMD can be used to reference the specific command configured by the USES setting in the port's Makefile. In
rare cases when more than one make implementation is listed in USES , the variables GMAKE (for the GNU version)
or FMAKE (for the legacy FreeBSD version) are available. Only use MAKE_CMD within the application Makefiles in
WRKSRC to call the make implementation expected by the ported software.
If the port is an X application that uses imake to create Makefiles from Imakefiles, set USES= imake .. See the
USES=imake section of Chapter16, Using USES Macros for more details.
If the port's source Makefile has something other than all as the main build target, set ALL_TARGET accordingly.
The same goes for install and INSTALL_TARGET.
6.5.3.configure Script
If the port uses the configure script to generate Makefile from Makefile.in, set GNU_CONFIGURE=yes. To give extra
arguments to the configure script (the default argument is --prefix=${PREFIX} --infodir=${PREFIX}/${IN-
FO_PATH} --mandir=${MANPREFIX}/man --build=${CONFIGURE_TARGET} ), set those extra arguments in CON-
FIGURE_ARGS. Extra environment variables can be passed using CONFIGURE_ENV.
Table6.1.Variables for Ports That Use configure

Variable Means
GNU_CONFIGURE The port uses configure script to prepare build.
HAS_CONFIGURE Same as GNU_CONFIGURE, except default configure target
is not added to CONFIGURE_ARGS.
CONFIGURE_ARGS Additional arguments passed to configure script.
CONFIGURE_ENV Additional environment variables to be set for config-
ure script run.
CONFIGURE_TARGET Override default configure target. Default value is

${MACHINE_ARCH}-portbld-freebsd${OSREL} .
6.5.4.Using cmake
For ports that use CMake, define USES= cmake , or USES= cmake:outsource to build in a separate directory (see
below).
Table6.2.Variables for Ports That Use cmake

Variable Means
CMAKE_ARGS Port specific CMake ags to be passed to the cmake bi-
nary.
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Type of build (CMake predefined build profiles). Default
is Release, or Debug if WITH_DEBUG is set.
CMAKE_ENV Environment variables to be set for the cmake binary.
Default is ${CONFIGURE_ENV}.
90
Variable Means
CMAKE_SOURCE_PATH Path to the source directory. Default is ${WRKSRC} .
Table6.3.Variables the Users Can Dene for cmake Builds

Variable Means
CMAKE_VERBOSE Enable verbose build output. Default not set, unless
BATCH or PACKAGE_BUILDING are set.
CMAKE_NOCOLOR Disables color build output. Default not set, unless BATCH
or PACKAGE_BUILDING are set.
CMake supports these build profiles: Debug, Release, RelWithDebInfo and MinSizeRel. Debug and Release profiles
respect system *FLAGS , RelWithDebInfo and MinSizeRel will set CFLAGS to -O2 -g and -Os -DNDEBUG correspond-
ingly. The lower-cased value of CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE is exported to PLIST_SUB and must be used if the port installs
*.cmake depending on the build type (see deskutils/strigi for an example). Please note that some projects may de-
fine their own build profiles and/or force particular build type by setting CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE in CMakeLists.txt.
To make a port for such a project respect CFLAGS and WITH_DEBUG, the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE definitions must be
removed from those les.
Most CMake-based projects support an out-of-source method of building. The out-of-source build for a port can be
requested by using the :outsource suffix. When enabled, CONFIGURE_WRKSRC, BUILD_WRKSRC and INSTALL_WRKSRC
will be set to ${WRKDIR}/.build and this directory will be used to keep all les generated during configuration
and build stages, leaving the source directory intact.
Example6.3.USES= cmake Example

This snippet demonstrates the use of CMake for a port. CMAKE_SOURCE_PATH is not usually required, but
can be set when the sources are not located in the top directory, or if only a subset of the project is intended
to be built by the port.
USES= cmake:outsource
CMAKE_SOURCE_PATH= ${WRKSRC}/subproject
6.5.5.Using scons
If the port uses SCons, define USE_SCONS=yes.
Table6.4.Variables for Ports That Use scons

Variable Means
SCONS_ARGS Port specific SCons ags passed to the SCons environ-
ment.
SCONS_BUILDENV Variables to be set in system environment.
SCONS_ENV Variables to be set in SCons environment.
SCONS_TARGET Last argument passed to SCons, similar to MAKE_TARGET.
To make third party SConstruct respect everything that is passed to SCons in SCONS_ENV (that is, most importantly,
CC/CXX/CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS ), patch SConstruct so build Environment is constructed like this:
env=Environment(**ARGUMENTS)
It may be then modified with env.Append and env.Replace.
91
Using GNU Autotools
6.6.Using GNU Autotools

6.6.1.Introduction
The various GNU autotools provide an abstraction mechanism for building a piece of software over a wide variety
of operating systems and machine architectures. Within the Ports Collection, an individual port can make use of
these tools via a simple construct:
USE_AUTOTOOLS= tool[:env] ...
At the time of writing, tool can be one of autoconf, autoheader, automake, aclocal, libtoolize . It can also be
one the older legacy of autoconf213, autoheader213, automake14, aclocal14.
env is used to specify that the environmental variables are needed. It also adds a build dependency on the tool.
The relevant tool is not ran as part of the run-autotools target.
Multiple tools can be specified at once, either by including them all on a single line, or using the += Makefile
construct.
6.6.2.libtool and libtoolize

Ports shipping with their own copy of libtool (search for a le named ltmain.sh) need to have USES=libtool .
If a port has USE_AUTOTOOLS=libtoolize it probably also needs USES=libtool . See the USES=libtool section in
Chapter16, Using USES Macros for more details.
6.6.3.libltdl.so
Some ports make use of the libltdl.so library package, which is part of the libtool suite. Use of this library does
not automatically necessitate the use of libtool itself. If the port needs libltdl.so, add a dependency on it:
LIB_DEPENDS= libltdl.so:devel/libltdl
6.6.4.autoconf and autoheader

Some ports do not contain a configure script, but do contain an autoconf template in configure.ac. Use these
assignments to let autoconf create the configure script, and also have autoheader create template headers for use
by the configure script.
USE_AUTOTOOLS= autoconf[:env]
and
USE_AUTOTOOLS= autoheader
which also implies the use of autoconf.
The additional optional variables AUTOCONF_ARGS and AUTOHEADER_ARGS can be overridden by the port Makefile if
specifically requested. Most ports are unlikely to need this. See bsd.autotools.mk for further details.
6.6.5.automake and aclocal

Some packages only contain Makefile.am. These have to be converted into Makefile.in using automake, and the
further processed by configure to generate an actual Makefile.
Similarly, packages occasionally do not ship with an included aclocal.m4, again required to build the software.
This can be achieved with aclocal, which scans configure.ac or configure.in.
aclocal has a similar relationship to automake as autoheader does to autoconf, described in the previous section.
aclocal implies the use of automake, thus we have:
92
USE_AUTOTOOLS= automake[:env]
and
USE_AUTOTOOLS= aclocal
As with autoconf and autoheader, both automake and aclocal have optional argument variables, AUTOMAKE_ARGS
and ACLOCAL_ARGS respectively, which may be overridden by the port Makefile if required.
6.7.Using GNU gettext

6.7.1.Basic Usage
If the port requires gettext, set USES= gettext , and the port will inherit a dependency on libintl.so from
devel/gettext. Other values for gettext usage are listed in USES=gettext.
A rather common case is a port using gettext and configure. Generally, GNU configure should be able to locate
gettext automatically.
USES= gettext
GNU_CONFIGURE= yes
If it ever fails to, hints at the location of gettext can be passed in CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS as follows:
USES= gettext
CPPFLAGS+= -I${LOCALBASE}/include
LDFLAGS+= -L${LOCALBASE}/lib
GNU_CONFIGURE= yes
6.7.2.Optional Usage
Some software products allow for disabling NLS. For example, through passing --disable-nls to configure. In
that case, the port must use gettext conditionally, depending on the status of the NLS option. For ports of low to
medium complexity, use this idiom:
GNU_CONFIGURE= yes
OPTIONS_DEFINE= NLS
OPTIONS_SUB= yes
NLS_USES= gettext
NLS_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= nls
Or using the older way of using options:
GNU_CONFIGURE= yes
OPTIONS_DEFINE= NLS
.if${PORT_OPTIONS:MNLS}
USES+= gettext
PLIST_SUB+= NLS=""
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --disable-nls
PLIST_SUB+= NLS="@comment "
.endif
93
Handling Message Catalog Directories
The next item on the to-do list is to arrange so that the message catalog les are included in the packing list condi-
tionally. The Makefile part of this task is already provided by the idiom. It is explained in the section on advanced
pkg-plist practices. In a nutshell, each occurrence of %%NLS%% in pkg-plist will be replaced by @comment
if NLS is disabled, or by a null string if NLS is enabled. Consequently, the lines prefixed by %%NLS%% will become
mere comments in the final packing list if NLS is o; otherwise the prefix will be just left out. Then insert %%NLS%
% before each path to a message catalog le in pkg-plist . For example:
%%NLS%%share/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/foobar.mo
%%NLS%%share/locale/no/LC_MESSAGES/foobar.mo
In high complexity cases, more advanced techniques may be needed, such as dynamic packing list generation.
6.7.3.Handling Message Catalog Directories

There is a point to note about installing message catalog les. The target directories for them, which reside under
LOCALBASE/share/locale , must not be created and removed by a port. The most popular languages have their
respective directories listed in PORTSDIR/Templates/BSD.local.dist . The directories for many other languages
are governed by the devel/gettext port. Consult its pkg-plist and see whether the port is going to install a mes-
sage catalog le for a unique language.
6.8.Using Perl
If MASTER_SITES is set to CPAN , the correct subdirectory is usually selected automatically. If the default subdirec-
tory is wrong, CPAN/Module can be used to change it. MASTER_SITES can also be set to the old MASTER_SITE_PER-
L_CPAN, then the preferred value of MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR is the top-level hierarchy name. For example, the recom-
mended value for p5-Module-Name is Module. The top-level hierarchy can be examined at cpan.org. This keeps the
port working when the author of the module changes.
The exception to this rule is when the relevant directory does not exist or the distfile does not exist in that direc-
tory. In such case, using author's id as MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR is allowed. The CPAN:AUTHOR macro can be used, which
will be translated to the hashed author directory. For example, CPAN:AUTHOR will be converted to authors/id/A/
AU/AUTHOR .
When a port needs Perl support, it must set USES=perl5 with the optional USE_PERL5 described in the perl5 USES
description.
Table6.5.Read-Only Variables for Ports That Use Perl

Read only variables Means
PERL The full path of the Perl 5 interpreter, either in the sys-
tem or installed from a port, but without the version
number. Use this when the software needs the path to
the Perl interpreter. To replace #!lines in scripts, use
USES=shebangfix.
PERL_VERSION The full version of Perl installed (for example, 5.8.9 ).
PERL_LEVEL The installed Perl version as an integer of the form
MNNNPP (for example, 500809 ).
PERL_ARCH Where Perl stores architecture dependent libraries. De-

faults to ${ARCH}-freebsd .
PERL_PORT Name of the Perl port that is installed (for example,
perl5 ).
SITE_PERL Directory name where site specific Perl packages go.

This value is added to PLIST_SUB .
94
Note
Ports of Perl modules which do not have an official website must link to cpan.org in the
WWW line of pkg-descr . The preferred URL form is http://search.cpan.org/dist/Mod-
ule-Name/ (including the trailing slash).
Note
Do not use ${SITE_PERL} in dependency declarations. Doing so assumes that perl5.mk has
been included, which is not always true. Ports depending on this port will have incorrect de-
pendencies if this port's les move later in an upgrade. The right way to declare Perl module
dependencies is shown in the example below.
Example6.4.Perl Dependency Example

p5-IO-Tee>=0.64:devel/p5-IO-Tee
For Perl ports that install manual pages, the macro PERL5_MAN3 can be used inside pkg-plist . For example,
lib/perl5/5.14/man/man3/AnyEvent::I3.3.gz
can be replaced with

%%PERL5_MAN3%%/AnyEvent::I3.3.gz
Note
There are no PERL5_MANx macros for the other sections (x in 1, 2 and 4 to 9) because those
get installed in the regular directories.
6.9.Using X11
6.9.1.X.Org Components
The X11 implementation available in The Ports Collection is X.Org. If the application depends on X components,
set USE_XORG to the list of required components. Available components, at the time of writing, are:
bigreqsproto compositeproto damageproto dmx dmxproto dri2proto dri3proto evieproto fixesproto

fontcacheproto fontenc fontsproto fontutil glproto ice inputproto kbproto libfs oldx pciaccess
pixman presentproto printproto randrproto recordproto renderproto resourceproto scrnsaverproto sm
trapproto videoproto x11 xau xaw xaw6 xaw7 xbitmaps xcb xcmiscproto xcomposite xcursor xdamage
xdmcp xevie xext xextproto xf86bigfontproto xf86dgaproto xf86driproto xf86miscproto xf86rushproto
xf86vidmodeproto xfixes xfont xfontcache xft xi xinerama xineramaproto xkbfile xkbui xmu xmuu
xorg-macros xorg-server xp xpm xprintapputil xprintutil xproto xproxymngproto xrandr xrender xres
xscrnsaver xshmfence xt xtrans xtrap xtst xv xvmc xxf86dga xxf86misc xxf86vm .
95
Ports That Require Motif
Always up-to-date list can be found in /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.xorg.mk .
The Mesa Project is an effort to provide free OpenGL implementation. To specify a dependency on various compo-
nents of this project, use USE_GL . Valid options are: egl, gl, glesv2, glew, glu, glut, glw and linux. For
backwards compatibility, the value of yes maps to glu .
Example6.5.USE_XORG Example
USE_XORG= xrenderxftxkbfilextxaw
USE_GL= glu
Table6.6.Variables for Ports That Use X

USES= imake The port uses imake .
XMKMF Set to the path of xmkmf if not in the PATH . Defaults to
xmkmf -a .
Example6.6.Using X11-Related Variables

#UsesomeX11libraries
USE_XORG= x11xpm
6.9.2.Ports That Require Motif

If the port requires a Motif library, define USES= motif in the Makefile. Default Motif implementation is x11-
toolkits/open-motif. Users can choose x11-toolkits/lesstif instead by setting WANT_LESSTIF in their make.conf .
MOTIFLIB will be set by motif.mk to reference the appropriate Motif library. Please patch the source of the port
to use ${MOTIFLIB} wherever the Motif library is referenced in the original Makefile or Imakefile.
There are two common cases:
If the port refers to the Motif library as -lXm in its Makefile or Imakefile, substitute ${MOTIFLIB} for it.
If the port uses XmClientLibs in its Imakefile, change it to ${MOTIFLIB} ${XTOOLLIB} ${XLIB} .
Note that MOTIFLIB (usually) expands to -L/usr/local/lib -lXm -lXp or /usr/local/lib/libXm.a , so there
is no need to add -L or -l in front.
6.9.3.X11 Fonts
If the port installs fonts for the X Window System, put them in LOCALBASE/lib/X11/fonts/local .
6.9.4.Getting a Fake DISPLAY with Xvfb

Some applications require a working X11 display for compilation to succeed. This poses a problem for machines
that operate headless. When this variable is used, the build infrastructure will start the virtual framebuffer X
server. The working DISPLAY is then passed to the build. See USES=display for the possible arguments.
USES= display
96
6.9.5.Desktop Entries
Desktop entries (a Freedesktop standard) provide a way to automatically adjust desktop features when a new pro-
gram is installed, without requiring user intervention. For example, newly-installed programs automatically ap-
pear in the application menus of compatible desktop environments. Desktop entries originated in the GNOME
desktop environment, but are now a standard and also work with KDE and Xfce. This bit of automation provides
a real benefit to the user, and desktop entries are encouraged for applications which can be used in a desktop en-
vironment.
6.9.5.1.Using Predefined .desktop Files
Ports that include predefined *.desktop must include those les in pkg-plist and install them in the $LOCAL-
BASE/share/applications directory. The INSTALL_DATA macro is useful for installing these les.
6.9.5.2.Updating Desktop Database
If a port has a MimeType entry in its portname.desktop, the desktop database must be updated after install and
deinstall. To do this, define USES = desktop-le-utils.
6.9.5.3.Creating Desktop Entries with DESKTOP_ENTRIES
Desktop entries can be easily created for applications by using DESKTOP_ENTRIES. A le named name.desktop will
be created, installed, and added to pkg-plist automatically. Syntax is:
DESKTOP_ENTRIES= "NAME" "COMMENT" "ICON" "COMMAND" "CATEGORY"StartupNotify
The list of possible categories is available on the Freedesktop website. StartupNotify indicates whether the ap-
plication is compatible with startup notifications. These are typically a graphic indicator like a clock that appear at
the mouse pointer, menu, or panel to give the user an indication when a program is starting. A program that is
compatible with startup notifications clears the indicator after it has started. Programs that are not compatible
with startup notifications would never clear the indicator (potentially confusing and infuriating the user), and
must have StartupNotify set to false so the indicator is not shown at all.
Example:
DESKTOP_ENTRIES= "ToME" "RoguelikegamebasedonJRRTolkien'swork"\

"${DATADIR}/xtra/graf/tome-128.png"\
"tome -v -g" "Application;Game;RolePlaying;"\
false
6.10.Using GNOME
6.10.1.Introduction
This chapter explains the GNOME framework as used by ports. The framework can be loosely divided into the base
components, GNOME desktop components, and a few special macros that simplify the work of port maintainers.
While developing a port or changing one, please set
DEVELOPER=yes
in the environment or in /etc/make.conf . This causes the ports framework to enable additional checks.
6.10.2.Using USE_GNOME
Adding this variable to the port allows the use of the macros and components defined in bsd.gnome.mk. The code
in bsd.gnome.mk adds the needed build-time, run-time or library dependencies or the handling of special les.
GNOME applications under FreeBSD use the USE_GNOME infrastructure. Include all the needed components as a
97
Variables
space-separated list. The USE_GNOME components are divided into these virtual lists: basic components, GNOME 3
components and legacy components. If the port needs only GTK3 libraries, this is the shortest way to define it:
USE_GNOME= gtk30
USE_GNOME components automatically add the dependencies they need. Please see Section6.11, GNOME Compo-
nents for an exhaustive list of all USE_GNOME components and which other components they imply and their de-
pendencies.
Here is an example Makefile for a GNOME port that uses many of the techniques outlined in this document. Please
use it as a guide for creating new ports.
#$FreeBSD$
PORTNAME= regexxer
DISTVERSION= 0.10
CATEGORIES= develtextprocgnome
MASTER_SITES= GNOME
MAINTAINER= kwm@FreeBSD.org
COMMENT= Interactivetoolforperformingsearchandreplaceoperations
USES= gettextgmakepathfixpkgconfigtar:xz
GNU_CONFIGURE= yes
USE_GNOME= gnomeprefixintlhackgtksourceviewmm3
CPPFLAGS+= -I${LOCALBASE}/include
LDFLAGS+= -L${LOCALBASE}/lib
INSTALLS_ICONS=yes
GLIB_SCHEMAS= org.regexxer.gschema.xml
Note
The USE_GNOME macro without any arguments does not add any dependencies to the port.
USE_GNOME cannot be set after bsd.port.pre.mk.
6.10.3.Variables
This section explains which macros are available and how they are used. Like they are used in the above example.
The Section6.11, GNOME Components has a more in-depth explanation. USE_GNOME has to be set for these macros
to be of use.
INSTALLS_ICONS
GTK+ ports which install Freedesktop-style icons to ${LOCALBASE}/share/icons should use this macro to
ensure that the icons are cached and will display correctly. The cache le is named icon-theme.cache . Do
not include that le in pkg-plist . This macro handles that automatically. This macro is not needed for Qt,
which use a internal method.
GLIB_SCHEMAS
List of all the glib schema les the port installs. The macro will add the les to the port plist and handle the
registration of these les on install and deinstall.
The glib schema les are written in XML and end with the gschema.xml extension. They are installed in the
share/glib-2.0/schemas/ directory. These schema les contain all application config values with there
default settings. The actual database used by the applications is built by glib-compile-schema, which is run
by the GLIB_SCHEMAS macro.
GLIB_SCHEMAS=foo.gschema.xml
98
Note
Do not add glib schemas to the pkg-plist . If they are listed in pkg-plist , they will not
be registered and the applications might not work properly.
GCONF_SCHEMAS
List all the gconf schema les. The macro will add the schema les to the port plist and will handle their
registration on install and deinstall.
GConf is the XML-based database that virtually all GNOME applications use for storing their settings. These
les are installed into the etc/gconf/schemas directory. This database is defined by installed schema les
that are used to generate %gconf.xml key les. For each schema le installed by the port, there be an entry
in the Makefile:
GCONF_SCHEMAS=my_app.schemasmy_app2.schemasmy_app3.schemas
Note
Gconf schemas are listed in the GCONF_SCHEMAS macro rather than pkg-plist . If they
are listed in pkg-plist , they will not be registered and the applications might not work
properly.
INSTALLS_OMF
Open Source Metadata Framework (OMF) les are commonly used by GNOME 2 applications. These les con-
tain the application help le information, and require special processing by ScrollKeeper/rarian. To properly
register OMF les when installing GNOME applications from packages, make sure that omf les are listed in
pkg-plist and that the port Makefile has INSTALLS_OMF defined:
INSTALLS_OMF=yes
When set, bsd.gnome.mk automatically scans pkg-plist and adds appropriate @exec and @unexec directives
for each .omf to track in the OMF registration database.
6.11.GNOME Components
For further help with a GNOME port, look at some of the existing ports for examples. The FreeBSD GNOME page
has contact information if more help is needed. The components are divided into GNOME components that are
currently in use and legacy components. If the component supports argument, they are listed between parenthesis
in the description. The rst is the default. "Both" is shown if the component defaults to adding to both build and
run dependencies.
Table6.7.GNOME Components
Component Associated program Description
atk accessibility/atk Accessibility toolkit (ATK)
atkmm accessibility/atkmm c++ bindings for atk
cairo graphics/cairo Vector graphics library with cross-
device output support
cairomm graphics/cairomm c++ bindings for cairo
99
GNOME Components

dconf devel/dconf Configuration database system
(both, build, run)
evolutiondataserver3 databases/evolution-data-server Data backends for the Evolution inte-
grated mail/PIM suite
gdkpixbuf2 graphics/gdk-pixbuf2 Graphics library for GTK+
glib20 devel/glib20 GNOME core library glib20
glibmm devel/glibmm c++ bindings for glib20
gnomecontrolcenter3 sysutils/gnome-control-center GNOME 3 Control Center
gnomedesktop3 x11/gnome-desktop GNOME 3 desktop UI library
gsound audio/gsound GObject library for playing system
sounds (both, build, run)
gtk-update-icon-cache graphics/gtk-update-icon-cache Gtk-update-icon-cache utility from
the Gtk+ toolkit
gtk20 x11-toolkits/gtk20 Gtk+ 2 toolkit
gtk30 x11-toolkits/gtk30 Gtk+ 3 toolkit
gtkmm20 x11-toolkits/gtkmm20 c++ bindings 2.0 for the gtk20 toolkit
gtksourceview2 x11-toolkits/gtksourceview2 Widget that adds syntax highlighting
to GtkTextView
gtksourceview3 x11-toolkits/gtksourceview3 Text widget that adds syntax high-
lighting to the GtkTextView widget
gtksourceviewmm3 x11-toolkits/gtksourceviewmm3 c++ bindings for the gtksourceview3
library
gvfs devel/gvfs GNOME virtual le system
intltool textproc/intltool Tool for internationalization (also
see intlhack)
introspection devel/gobject-introspection Basic introspection bindings and
tools to generate introspection bind-
ings. Most of the time :build is
enough, :both/:run is only need for
applications that use introspection
bindings. (both, build, run)
libgda5 databases/libgda5 Provides uniform access to different
kinds of data sources
libgda5-ui databases/libgda5-ui UI library from the libgda5 library
libgdamm5 databases/libgdamm5 c++ bindings for the libgda5 library
libgsf devel/libgsf Extensible I/O abstraction for deal-
ing with structured le formats
librsvg2 graphics/librsvg2 Library for parsing and rendering
SVG vector-graphic les
libsigc++20 devel/libsigc++20 Callback Framework for C++
libxml++26 textproc/libxml++26 c++ bindings for the libxml2 library
100

libxml2 textproc/libxml2 XML parser library (both, build, run)
libxslt textproc/libxslt XSLT C library (both, build, run)
metacity x11-wm/metacity Window manager from GNOME
nautilus3 x11-fm/nautilus GNOME le manager
pango x11-toolkits/pango Open-source framework for the lay-
out and rendering of i18n text
pangomm x11-toolkits/pangomm c++ bindings for the pango library
py3gobject3 devel/py3-gobject3 Python 3, GObject 3.0 bindings
pygobject3 devel/py-gobject3 Python 2, GObject 3.0 bindings
vte3 x11-toolkits/vte3 Terminal widget with improved ac-
cessibility and I18N support
Table6.8.GNOME Macro Components

Component Description
gnomeprefix Supply configure with some default locations.
intlhack Same as intltool, but patches to make sure share/lo-
cale/ is used. Please only use when intltool alone is
not enough.
referencehack This macro is there to help splitting of the API or refer-
ence documentation into its own port.
Table6.9.GNOME Legacy Components

atspi accessibility/at-spi Assistive Technology Service
Provider Interface
esound audio/esound Enlightenment sound package
gal2 x11-toolkits/gal2 Collection of widgets taken from
GNOME 2 gnumeric
gconf2 devel/gconf2 Configuration database system for
GNOME 2
gconfmm26 devel/gconfmm26 c++ bindings for gconf2
gdkpixbuf graphics/gdk-pixbuf Graphics library for GTK+
glib12 devel/glib12 glib 1.2 core library
gnomedocutils textproc/gnome-doc-utils GNOME doc utils
gnomemimedata misc/gnome-mime-data MIME and Application database for
GNOME 2
gnomesharp20 x11-toolkits/gnome-sharp20 GNOME 2 interfaces for the .NET run-
time
gnomespeech accessibility/gnome-speech GNOME 2 text-to-speech API
gnomevfs2 devel/gnome-vfs GNOME 2 Virtual File System
gtk12 x11-toolkits/gtk12 Gtk+ 1.2 toolkit
gtkhtml3 www/gtkhtml3 Lightweight HTML rendering/print-
ing/editing engine
101
GNOME Components

gtkhtml4 www/gtkhtml4 Lightweight HTML rendering/print-
ing/editing engine
gtksharp20 x11-toolkits/gtk-sharp20 GTK+ and GNOME 2 interfaces for
the .NET runtime
gtksourceview x11-toolkits/gtksourceview Widget that adds syntax highlighting
to GtkTextView
libartgpl2 graphics/libart_lgpl Library for high-performance 2D
graphics
libbonobo devel/libbonobo Component and compound docu-
ment system for GNOME 2
libbonoboui x11-toolkits/libbonoboui GUI frontend to the libbonobo com-
ponent of GNOME 2
libgda4 databases/libgda4 Provides uniform access to different
kinds of data sources
libglade2 devel/libglade2 GNOME 2 glade library
libgnome x11/libgnome Libraries for GNOME 2, a GNU desk-
top environment
libgnomecanvas graphics/libgnomecanvas Graphics library for GNOME 2
libgnomekbd x11/libgnomekbd GNOME 2 keyboard shared library
libgnomeprint print/libgnomeprint Gnome 2 print support library
libgnomeprintui x11-toolkits/libgnomeprintui Gnome 2 print support library
libgnomeui x11-toolkits/libgnomeui Libraries for the GNOME 2 GUI, a GNU
desktop environment
libgtkhtml www/libgtkhtml Lightweight HTML rendering/print-
ing/editing engine
libgtksourceviewmm x11-toolkits/libgtksourceviewmm c++ binding of GtkSourceView
libidl devel/libIDL Library for creating trees of CORBA
IDL le
libsigc++12 devel/libsigc++12 Callback Framework for C++
libwnck x11-toolkits/libwnck Library used for writing pagers and
taskslists
libwnck3 x11-toolkits/libwnck3 Library used for writing pagers and
taskslists
orbit2 devel/ORBit2 High-performance CORBA ORB with
support for the C language
pygnome2 x11-toolkits/py-gnome2 Python bindings for GNOME 2
pygobject devel/py-gobject Python 2, GObject 2.0 bindings
pygtk2 x11-toolkits/py-gtk2 Set of Python bindings for GTK+
pygtksourceview x11-toolkits/py-gtksourceview Python bindings for GtkSourceView
2
vte x11-toolkits/vte Terminal widget with improved ac-
cessibility and I18N support
102
Table6.10.Deprecated Components: Do Not Use

Component Description
HAVE_GNOME Deprecated, do not use. Was used to check if a compo-
nent was installed. This was used for ports that did not
have --enable /--disable switches for their configure
script. But the building of parts of a port without a im-
plicit request is discouraged.
WANT_GNOME Deprecated, do not use. Was used by ports that need-
ed USE_GNOME for optional dependencies, which where
defined after bsd.port.pre.mk. Since USE_GNOME can be
used after the inclusion of bsd.port.options.mk, there
is little need for this macro any more.
pangox-compat pangox-compat has been deprecated and split o from
the pango package.
6.12.Using Qt
6.12.1.Ports That Require Qt
The Ports Collection provides support for Qt 4 and Qt 5 frameworks with USE_QT x, where x is 4 or 5. Set USE_QT x
to the list of required Qt components (libraries, tools, plugins). The Qt 4 and Qt 5 frameworks are quite similar. The
main difference is the set of supported components.
The Qt framework exports a number of variables which can be used by ports, some of them listed below:
Table6.11.Variables Provided to Ports That Use Qt

QT_PREFIX Set to the path where Qt was installed (${LOCALBASE}).
QMAKE Full path to qmake binary.
LRELEASE Full path to lrelease utility.
MOC Full path to moc .
RCC Full path to rcc .
UIC Full path to uic .
QT_INCDIR Qt include directory.
QT_LIBDIR Qt libraries path.
QT_PLUGINDIR Qt plugins path.
When using the Qt framework, these settings are deployed:
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --with-qt-includes=${QT_INCDIR}\
--with-qt-libraries=${QT_LIBDIR}\
--with-extra-libs=${LOCALBASE}/lib\
--with-extra-includes=${LOCALBASE}/include
CONFIGURE_ENV+= QTDIR="${QT_PREFIX}"QMAKE="${QMAKE}"\
MOC="${MOC}"RCC="${RCC}"UIC="${UIC}"\
QMAKESPEC="${QMAKESPEC}"
PLIST_SUB+= QT_INCDIR=${QT_INCDIR_REL}\
QT_LIBDIR=${QT_LIBDIR_REL}\
QT_PLUGINDIR=${QT_PLUGINDIR_REL}
Some configure scripts do not support the arguments above. To suppress modification ofCONFIGURE_ENV and CON-
FIGURE_ARGS, set QT_NONSTANDARD.
103
Component Selection
6.12.2.Component Selection
Individual Qt tool and library dependencies must be specified in USE_QT x. Every component can be suffixed with
_build or _run , the suffix indicating whether the dependency on the component is at buildtime or runtime. If
unsuffixed, the component will be depended on at both build- and runtime. Usually, library components are spec-
ified unsuffixed, tool components are mostly specified with the _build suffix and plugin components are specified
with the _run suffix. The most commonly used components are listed below (all available components are listed
in _USE_QT_ALL , _USE_QT4_ONLY, and _USE_QT5_ONLY in /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.qt.mk ):
Table6.12.Available Qt Library Components

Name Description
core core library (Qt 5 only)
corelib core library (Qt 4 only)
dbus Qt DBus library
gui graphical user interface library
network network library
opengl Qt OpenGL library
script script library
sql SQL library
testlib unit testing library
webkit Qt WebKit library
xml Qt XML library
To determine the libraries an application depends on, run ldd on the main executable after a successful compila-
tion.
Table6.13.Available Qt Tool Components

Name Description
qmake Makefile generator/build utility
buildtools build tools (moc , rcc ), needed for almost every Qt appli-
cation (Qt 5 only)
linguisttools localization tools: lrelease, lupdate (Qt 5 only)
linguist localization tools: lrelease, lupdate (Qt 4 only)
moc meta object compiler, needed for almost every Qt appli-
cation at buildtime (Qt 4 only)
rcc resource compiler, needed if the application comes with
*.rc or *.qrc les (Qt 4 only)
uic user interface compiler, needed if the application comes

with *.ui les, in practice, every Qt application with a
GUI (Qt 4 only)
Table6.14.Available Qt Plugin Components

Name Description
iconengines SVG icon engine plugin, needed if the application ships
SVG icons (Qt 4 only)
imageformats plugins for TGA, TIFF, and MNG image formats
104
Example6.7.Selecting Qt 4 Components
In this example, the ported application uses the Qt 4 graphical user interface library, the Qt 4 core library, all
of the Qt 4 code generation tools and Qt 4's Makefile generator. Since the gui library implies a dependency
on the core library, corelib does not need to be specified. The Qt 4 code generation tools moc , uic and
rcc , as well as the Makefile generator qmake are only needed at buildtime, thus they are specified with
the _build suffix:
USE_QT4= guimoc_buildqmake_buildrcc_builduic_build
6.12.3.Using qmake
If the application provides a qmake project le (*.pro ), define USES= qmake along with USE_QT x. Note that
USES= qmake already implies a build dependency on qmake, therefore the qmake component can be omitted from
USE_QT x. Similar to CMake, qmake supports out-of-source builds, which can be enabled by specifying the outsource
argument (see USES= qmake example).
Table6.15.Variables for Ports That Use qmake

Variable Means
QMAKE_ARGS Port specific qmake ags to be passed to the qmake bi-
nary.
QMAKE_ENV Environment variables to be set for the qmake binary.
The default is ${CONFIGURE_ENV}.
QMAKE_SOURCE_PATH Path to qmake project les (.pro ). The default is
${WRKSRC} if an out-of-source build is requested, empty
otherwise.
Example6.8.USES= qmake Example

This snippet demonstrates the use of qmake for a Qt 4 port:
USES= qmake:outsource
USE_QT4= moc_build
For a Qt 5 port:
USES= qmake:outsource
USE_QT5= buildtools_build
Qt applications are often written to be cross-platform and often X11/Unix is not the platform they are developed
on, which in turn leads to certain loose ends, like:
Missing additional include paths. Many applications come with system tray icon support, but neglect to look for
includes and/or libraries in the X11 directories. To add directories to qmake 's include and library search paths
via the command line, use:
QMAKE_ARGS+= INCLUDEPATH+=${LOCALBASE}/include\
LIBS+=-L${LOCALBASE}/lib
105
Using KDE
Bogus installation paths. Sometimes data such as icons or .desktop les are by default installed into directories
which are not scanned by XDG-compatible applications. editors/texmaker is an example for this - look at patch-
texmaker.pro in the files directory of that port for a template on how to remedy this directly in the qmake
project le.
6.13.Using KDE
6.13.1.KDE 4 Variable Definitions
If the application depends on KDE 4, set USES+=kde:4 and USE_KDE to the list of required components. _build
and _run suffixes can be used to force components dependency type (for example, baseapps_run). If no suffix
is set, a default dependency type will be used. To force both types, add the component twice with both suffixes
(for example, automoc4_build automoc4_run). The most commonly used components are listed below (up-to-date
components are documented at the top of /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.kde4.mk ):
Table6.16.Available KDE 4 Components

Name Description
kdehier Hierarchy of common KDE directories
kdelibs KDE core libraries
kdeprefix If set, port will be installed into ${KDE_PREFIX}
automoc4 Build tool to automatically generate moc les
akonadi Storage server for KDE PIM data
soprano Library for Resource Description Framework (RDF)
strigi Strigi desktop search library
libkcddb KDE CDDB (compact disc database) library
libkcompactdisc KDE library for interfacing with audio CDs
libkdeedu Libraries used by educational applications
libkdcraw KDE LibRaw library
libkexiv2 KDE Exiv2 library
libkipi KDE Image Plugin Interface
libkonq Konqueror core library
libksane KDE SANE ("Scanner Access Now Easy") library
pimlibs Personal information management libraries
kate Advanced text editor framework
marble Virtual globe and world atlas
okular Universal document viewer
korundum KDE Ruby bindings
perlkde KDE Perl bindings
pykde4 KDE Python bindings
pykdeuic4 PyKDE user interface compiler
smokekde KDE SMOKE libraries
KDE 4 ports are installed into KDE_PREFIX. This is achieved by specifying the kdeprefix component, which over-
rides the default PREFIX. The ports, however, respect any PREFIX set via the MAKEFLAGS environment variable and/
or make arguments. Currently KDE_PREFIX is identical to the default PREFIX, ${LOCALBASE}.
106
Example6.9.USE_KDE Example
This is a simple example for a KDE 4 port. USES= cmake:outsource instructs the port to utilize CMake,
a configuration tool widely used by KDE 4 projects (see Section6.5.4, Using cmake for detailed usage).
USE_KDE brings dependency on KDE libraries and makes port using automoc4 at build stage. Required KDE
components and other dependencies can be determined through configure log. USE_KDE does not imply
USE_QT4 . If a port requires some Qt 4 components, specify them in USE_QT4 .
USES= cmake:outsourcekde:4
USE_KDE= kdelibskdeprefixautomoc4
USE_QT4= moc_buildqmake_buildrcc_builduic_build
6.14.Using LXQt
Applications depending on LXQt should set USES+= lxqt and set USE_LXQT to the list of required components from
the table below
Table6.17.Available LXQt Components

Name Description
buildtools Helpers for additional CMake modules
libfmqt Libfm Qt bindings
lxqt LXQt core library
qtxdg Qt implementation of freedesktop.org XDG specifica-
tions
Example6.10.USE_LXQT Example
This is a simple example, USE_LXQT adds a dependency on LXQt libraries. Required LXQt components and
other dependencies can be determined from the configure log.
USES= cmake:outsourcelxqttar:xz
USE_QT5= buildtools_buildqmake_buildcoredbuswidgets
USE_LXQT= buildtoolslibfmqt
6.15.Using Java
6.15.1.Variable Definitions
If the port needs a Java Development Kit (JDK) to either build, run or even extract the distfile, then define
USE_JAVA.
There are several JDKs in the ports collection, from various vendors, and in several versions. If the port must use
a particular version, specify it using the JAVA_VERSION variable. The most current version is java/openjdk8, with
java/openjdk6 and java/openjdk7 also available.
107
Variable Definitions
Table6.18.Variables Which May be Set by Ports That Use Java

Variable Means
USE_JAVA Define for the remaining variables to have any effect.
JAVA_VERSION List of space-separated suitable Java versions for the
port. An optional "+" allows specifying a range of ver-
sions (allowed values: 1.5[+] 1.6[+] 1.7[+] ).
JAVA_OS List of space-separated suitable JDK port operating sys-
tems for the port (allowed values: native linux).
JAVA_VENDOR List of space-separated suitable JDK port vendors for the
port (allowed values: freebsd bsdjava sun openjdk ).
JAVA_BUILD When set, add the selected JDK port to the build depen-
dencies.
JAVA_RUN When set, add the selected JDK port to the run depen-
dencies.
JAVA_EXTRACT When set, add the selected JDK port to the extract de-
pendencies.
Below is the list of all settings a port will receive after setting USE_JAVA:
Table6.19.Variables Provided to Ports That Use Java

Variable Value
JAVA_PORT The name of the JDK port (for example, java/openjdk6 ).
JAVA_PORT_VERSION The full version of the JDK port (for example, 1.6.0 ).
Only the rst two digits of this version number are need-
ed, use ${JAVA_PORT_VERSION:C/^([0-9])\.([0-9])
(.*)$/\1.\2/} .
JAVA_PORT_OS The operating system used by the JDK port (for example,
'native').
JAVA_PORT_VENDOR The vendor of the JDK port (for example, 'openjdk').

JAVA_PORT_OS_DESCRIPTION Description of the operating system used by the JDK port
(for example, 'Native').
JAVA_PORT_VENDOR_DESCRIPTION Description of the vendor of the JDK port (for example,
'OpenJDK BSD Porting Team' ).
JAVA_HOME Path to the installation directory of the JDK (for exam-

ple, '/usr/local/openjdk6' ).
JAVAC Path to the Java compiler to use (for example, '/usr/
local/openjdk6/bin/javac' ).
JAR Path to the jar tool to use (for example, '/usr/lo-

cal/openjdk6/bin/jar' or '/usr/local/bin/fast-
jar').
APPLETVIEWER Path to the appletviewer utility (for example, '/usr/

local/openjdk6/bin/appletviewer' ).
JAVA Path to the java executable. Use this for executing Java
programs (for example, '/usr/local/openjdk6/bin/
java').
JAVADOC Path to the javadoc utility program.

JAVAH Path to the javah program.
108
Variable Value
JAVAP Path to the javap program.
JAVA_KEYTOOL Path to the keytool utility program.
JAVA_N2A Path to the native2ascii tool.
JAVA_POLICYTOOL Path to the policytool program.
JAVA_SERIALVER Path to the serialver utility program.
RMIC Path to the RMI stub/skeleton generator, rmic .
RMIREGISTRY Path to the RMI registry program, rmiregistry.
RMID Path to the RMI daemon program rmid .
JAVA_CLASSES Path to the archive that contains the JDK class les,
${JAVA_HOME}/jre/lib/rt.jar .
Use the java-debug make target to get information for debugging the port. It will display the value of many of
the previously listed variables.
Additionally, these constants are defined so all Java ports may be installed in a consistent way:
Table6.20.Constants Dened for Ports That Use Java

Constant Value
JAVASHAREDIR The base directory for everything related to Java. De-
fault: ${PREFIX}/share/java .
JAVAJARDIR The directory where JAR les is installed. Default:
${JAVASHAREDIR}/classes .
JAVALIBDIR The directory where JAR les installed by other ports are
located. Default: ${LOCALBASE}/share/java/classes .
The related entries are defined in both PLIST_SUB (documented in Section7.1, Changing pkg-plist Based on
Make Variables) and SUB_LIST .
6.15.2.Building with Ant

When the port is to be built using Apache Ant, it has to define USE_ANT . Ant is thus considered to be the sub-make
command. When no do-build target is defined by the port, a default one will be set that runs Ant according to
MAKE_ENV , MAKE_ARGS and ALL_TARGET. This is similar to the USES= gmake mechanism, which is documented in
Section6.5, Building Mechanisms.
6.15.3.Best Practices
When porting a Java library, the port has to install the JAR le(s) in ${JAVAJARDIR}, and everything else under
${JAVASHAREDIR}/${PORTNAME} (except for the documentation, see below). To reduce the packing le size, ref-
erence the JAR le(s) directly in the Makefile. Use this statement (where myport.jar is the name of the JAR le
installed as part of the port):
PLIST_FILES+= ${JAVAJARDIR}/myport .jar
When porting a Java application, the port usually installs everything under a single directory (including its JAR
dependencies). The use of ${JAVASHAREDIR}/${PORTNAME} is strongly encouraged in this regard. It is up the porter
to decide whether the port installs the additional JAR dependencies under this directory or uses the already in-
stalled ones (from ${JAVAJARDIR}).
When porting a Java application that requires an application server such as www/tomcat7 to run the service, it
is quite common for a vendor to distribute a .war . A .war is a Web application ARchive and is extracted when called
109
Web Applications, Apache and PHP
by the application. Avoid adding a .war to pkg-plist . It is not considered best practice. An application server will
expand war archive, but not clean it up properly if the port is removed. A more desirable way of working with this
le is to extract the archive, then install the les, and lastly add these les to pkg-plist .
TOMCATDIR= ${LOCALBASE}/apache-tomcat-7.0
WEBAPPDIR= myapplication
post-extract:
@${MKDIR}${WRKDIR}/${PORTDIRNAME}
@${TAR}xf${WRKDIR}/myapplication.war -C${WRKDIR}/${PORTDIRNAME}
do-install:
cd${WRKDIR}&&\
${INSTALL} -d -o${WWWOWN} -g${WWWGRP}${TOMCATDIR}/webapps/${PORTDIRNAME}
cd${WRKDIR}/${PORTDIRNAME}&&${COPYTREE_SHARE}\*${WEBAPPDIR}/${PORTDIRNAME}
Regardless of the type of port (library or application), the additional documentation is installed in the same location
as for any other port. The Javadoc tool is known to produce a different set of les depending on the version of the
JDK that is used. For ports that do not enforce the use of a particular JDK, it is therefore a complex task to specify
the packing list (pkg-plist ). This is one reason why porters are strongly encouraged to use PORTDOCS. Moreover,
even if the set of les that will be generated by javadoc can be predicted, the size of the resulting pkg-plist
advocates for the use of PORTDOCS.
The default value for DATADIR is ${PREFIX}/share/${PORTNAME} . It is a good idea to override DATADIR to
${JAVASHAREDIR}/${PORTNAME} for Java ports. Indeed, DATADIR is automatically added to PLIST_SUB (document-
ed in Section7.1, Changing pkg-plist Based on Make Variables) so use %%DATADIR%% directly in pkg-plist .
As for the choice of building Java ports from source or directly installing them from a binary distribution, there
is no defined policy at the time of writing. However, people from the FreeBSD Java Project encourage porters to
have their ports built from source whenever it is a trivial task.
All the features that have been presented in this section are implemented in bsd.java.mk. If the port needs more
sophisticated Java support, please rst have a look at the bsd.java.mk Subversion log as it usually takes some time
to document the latest features. Then, if the needed support that is lacking would be beneficial to many other Java
ports, feel free to discuss it on the FreeBSD Java Language mailing list.
Although there is a java category for PRs, it refers to the JDK porting effort from the FreeBSD Java project. There-
fore, submit the Java port in the ports category as for any other port, unless the issue is related to either a JDK
implementation or bsd.java.mk.
Similarly, there is a defined policy regarding the CATEGORIES of a Java port, which is detailed in Section5.3, Cat-
egorization.
6.16.Web Applications, Apache and PHP

6.16.1.Apache
Table6.21.Variables for Ports That Use Apache

USE_APACHE The port requires Apache. Possible values: yes (gets any
version), 22, 24, 22-24 , 22+ , etc. The default APACHE
version is 22. More details are available in ports/Mk/
bsd.apache.mk and at wiki.freebsd.org/Apache/.
APXS Full path to the apxs binary. Can be overridden in the

port.
HTTPD Full path to the httpd binary. Can be overridden in the
port.
110
APACHE_VERSION The version of present Apache installation (read-only

variable). This variable is only available after inclusion
of bsd.port.pre.mk. Possible values: 22, 24.
APACHEMODDIR Directory for Apache modules. This variable is automat-
ically expanded in pkg-plist .
APACHEINCLUDEDIR Directory for Apache headers. This variable is automat-
ically expanded in pkg-plist .
APACHEETCDIR Directory for Apache configuration les. This variable is
automatically expanded in pkg-plist .
Table6.22.Useful Variables for Porting Apache Modules

MODULENAME Name of the module. Default value is PORTNAME. Example:
mod_hello
SHORTMODNAME Short name of the module. Automatically derived from

MODULENAME, but can be overridden. Example: hello
AP_FAST_BUILD Use apxs to compile and install the module.

AP_GENPLIST Also automatically creates a pkg-plist .
AP_INC Adds a directory to a header search path during compi-
lation.
AP_LIB Adds a directory to a library search path during compi-
lation.
AP_EXTRAS Additional ags to pass to apxs .
6.16.2.Web Applications
Web applications must be installed into PREFIX/www/ appname. This path is available both in Makefile and in pkg-
plist as WWWDIR , and the path relative to PREFIX is available in Makefile as WWWDIR_REL .
The user and group of web server process are available as WWWOWN and WWWGRP, in case the ownership of some les
needs to be changed. The default values of both are www . Use WWWOWN?= myuser and WWWGRP?= mygroup if the port
needs different values. This allows the user to override them easily.
Important
Use WWWOWN and WWWGRP sparingly. Remember that every le the web server can write to is
a security risk waiting to happen.
Do not depend on Apache unless the web app explicitly needs Apache. Respect that users may wish to run a web
application on a web server other than Apache.
6.16.3.PHP
PHP web applications declare their dependency on it with USES=php . See Section16.68, php for more information.
6.16.4.PEAR Modules
Porting PEAR modules is a very simple process.
Add USES=pear to the port's Makefile. The framework will install the relevant les in the right places and auto-
matically generate the plist at install time.
111
Using Python
Example6.11.Example Makele for PEAR Class

PORTNAME= Date
DISTVERSION= 1.4.3
CATEGORIES= develwwwpear
MAINTAINER= example@domain.com
COMMENT= PEARDateandTimeZoneClasses
USES= pear
6.16.4.1.Horde Modules
In the same way, porting Horde modules is a simple process.
Add USES=horde to the port's Makefile. The framework will install the relevant les in the right places and auto-
matically generate the plist at install time.
The USE_HORDE_BUILD and USE_HORDE_RUN variables can be used to add buildtime and runtime dependencies on
other Horde modules. See Mk/Uses/horde.mk for a complete list of available modules.
Example6.12.Example Makele for Horde Module

PORTNAME= Horde_Core
DISTVERSION= 2.14.0
CATEGORIES= develwwwpear
MAINTAINER= horde@FreeBSD.org
COMMENT= HordeCoreFrameworklibraries
OPTIONS_DEFINE= KOLABSOCKETS
KOLAB_DESC= EnableKolabserversupport
SOCKETS_DESC= DependonsocketsPHPextension
USES= horde
USE_PHP= session
USE_HORDE_BUILD= Horde_Role
USE_HORDE_RUN= Horde_RoleHorde_HistoryHorde_Pack\
Horde_Text_FilterHorde_View
KOLAB_USE= HORDE_RUN=Horde_Kolab_Server,Horde_Kolab_Session
SOCKETS_USE= PHP=sockets
6.17.Using Python
The Ports Collection supports parallel installation of multiple Python versions. Ports must use a correct python
interpreter, according to the user-settable PYTHON_VERSION . Most prominently, this means replacing the path to
python executable in scripts with the value of PYTHON_CMD .
112
Ports that install les under PYTHON_SITELIBDIR must use the pyXY- package name prefix, so their package name
embeds the version of Python they are installed into.
PKGNAMEPREFIX= ${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}
Table6.23.Most Useful Variables for Ports That Use Python

USES=python The port needs Python. The minimal required version
can be specified with values such as 2.7+ . Version
ranges can also be specified by separating two version
numbers with a dash: USES=python:3.2-3.3
USE_PYTHON=distutils Use Python distutils for configuring, compiling, and in-
stalling. This is required when the port comes with set-
up.py. This overrides the do-build and do-install tar-
gets and may also override do-configure if GNU_CON-
FIGURE is not defined.
USE_PYTHON=autoplist Create the packaging list automatically. This also re-

quires USE_PYTHON=distutils to be set.
USE_PYTHON=concurrent The port will use an unique prefix, typically PYTHON_P-
KGNAMEPREFIX for certain directories, such as EXAM-
PLESDIR and DOCSDIR and also will append a suffix,
the python version from PYTHON_VER , to binaries and
scripts to be installed. This allows ports to be installed
for different Python versions at the same time, which
otherwise would install conflicting les.
PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX Used as a PKGNAMEPREFIX to distinguish packages for dif-
ferent Python versions. Example: py27-
PYTHON_SITELIBDIR Location of the site-packages tree, that contains
installation path of Python (usually LOCALBASE).
PYTHON_SITELIBDIR can be very useful when installing
Python modules.
PYTHONPREFIX_SITELIBDIR The PREFIX-clean variant of PYTHON_SITELIBDIR. Al-
ways use %%PYTHON_SITELIBDIR%% in pkg-plist when
possible. The default value of %%PYTHON_SITELIBDIR%%
is lib/python%%PYTHON_VERSION%%/site-packages
PYTHON_CMD Python interpreter command line, including version
number.
PYNUMERIC Dependency line for numeric extension.
PYNUMPY Dependency line for the new numeric extension, numpy.
(PYNUMERIC is deprecated by upstream vendor).
PYXML Dependency line for XML extension (not needed for
Python 2.0 and higher as it is also in base distribution).
A complete list of available variables can be found in /usr/ports/Mk/Uses/python.mk .
Example6.13.Makele for a Simple Python Module

PORTNAME= sample
DISTVERSION= 1.2.3
CATEGORIES= devel
MAINTAINER= john@doe.tld
113
Using Tcl/Tk
COMMENT= Pythonsamplemodule
USES= python
USE_PYTHON= autoplistdistutils
Some Python applications claim to have DESTDIR support (which would be required for staging) but it is broken
(Mailman up to 2.1.16, for instance). This can be worked around by recompiling the scripts. This can be done, for ex-
ample, in the post-build target. Assuming the Python scripts are supposed to reside in PYTHONPREFIX_SITELIB-
DIR after installation, this solution can be applied:
(cd${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}\
&&${PYTHON_CMD}${PYTHON_LIBDIR}/compileall.py\
-d${PREFIX} -f${PYTHONPREFIX_SITELIBDIR:S;${PREFIX}/;;})
This recompiles the sources with a path relative to the stage directory, and prepends the value of PREFIX to the le
name recorded in the byte-compiled output le by -d. -f is required to force recompilation, and the :S;${PRE-
FIX}/;; strips prefixes from the value of PYTHONPREFIX_SITELIBDIR to make it relative to PREFIX.
6.18.Using Tcl/Tk
The Ports Collection supports parallel installation of multiple Tcl/Tk versions. Ports should try to support at least
the default Tcl/Tk version and higher with USES=tcl. It is possible to specify the desired version of tcl by append-
ing :xx, for example, USES=tcl:85.
Table6.24.The Most Useful Read-Only Variables for Ports That Use Tcl/Tk
TCL_VER chosen major.minor version of Tcl
TCLSH full path of the Tcl interpreter
TCL_LIBDIR path of the Tcl libraries
TCL_INCLUDEDIR path of the Tcl C header les
TK_VER chosen major.minor version of Tk
WISH full path of the Tk interpreter
TK_LIBDIR path of the Tk libraries
TK_INCLUDEDIR path of the Tk C header les
See the USES=tcl and USES=tk of Chapter16, Using USES Macros for a full description of those variables. A complete
list of those variables is available in /usr/ports/Mk/Uses/tcl.mk .
6.19.Using Emacs
This section is yet to be written.
6.20.Using Ruby
Table6.25.Useful Variables for Ports That Use Ruby
Variable Description
USE_RUBY Adds build and run dependencies on Ruby.
USE_RUBY_EXTCONF The port uses extconf.rb to configure.
114
USE_RUBY_SETUP The port uses setup.rb to configure.
RUBY_SETUP Override the name of the setup script from setup.rb.
Another common value is install.rb.
This table shows the selected variables available to port authors via the ports infrastructure. These variables are
used to install les into their proper locations. Use them in pkg-plist as much as possible. Do not redefine these
variables in the port.
Table6.26.Selected Read-Only Variables for Ports That Use Ruby

Variable Description Example value
RUBY_PKGNAMEPREFIX Used as a PKGNAMEPREFIX to distin- ruby19-
guish packages for different Ruby
versions.
RUBY_VERSION Full version of Ruby in the form of 1.9.3.484
x.y.z[.p] .
RUBY_SITELIBDIR Architecture independent libraries /usr/local/lib/

installation path. ruby/site_ruby/1.9
RUBY_SITEARCHLIBDIR Architecture dependent libraries in- /usr/local/lib/

stallation path. ruby/site_ruby/1.9/amd64-
freebsd10
RUBY_MODDOCDIR Module documentation installation /usr/local/share/doc/

path. ruby19/patsy
RUBY_MODEXAMPLESDIR Module examples installation path. /usr/local/share/

examples/ruby19/patsy
A complete list of available variables can be found in /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.ruby.mk .
6.21.Using SDL
USE_SDL is used to autoconfigure the dependencies for ports which use an SDL based library like devel/sdl12 and
graphics/sdl_image.
These SDL libraries for version 1.2 are recognized:
sdl: devel/sdl12
console: devel/sdl_console
gfx: graphics/sdl_gfx
image: graphics/sdl_image
mixer: audio/sdl_mixer
mm: devel/sdlmm
net: net/sdl_net
pango: x11-toolkits/sdl_pango
sound: audio/sdl_sound
115
Using wxWidgets
ttf: graphics/sdl_ttf
These SDL libraries for version 2.0 are recognized:
sdl: devel/sdl20
gfx: graphics/sdl2_gfx
image: graphics/sdl2_image
mixer: audio/sdl2_mixer
net: net/sdl2_net
ttf: graphics/sdl2_ttf
Therefore, if a port has a dependency on net/sdl_net and audio/sdl_mixer, the syntax will be:
USE_SDL= netmixer
The dependency devel/sdl12, which is required by net/sdl_net and audio/sdl_mixer, is automatically added as well.
Using USE_SDL with entries for SDL 1.2, it will automatically:
Add a dependency on sdl12-config to BUILD_DEPENDS
Add the variable SDL_CONFIG to CONFIGURE_ENV
Add the dependencies of the selected libraries to LIB_DEPENDS
Using USE_SDL with entries for SDL 2.0, it will automatically:
Add a dependency on sdl2-config to BUILD_DEPENDS
Add the variable SDL2_CONFIG to CONFIGURE_ENV
Add the dependencies of the selected libraries to LIB_DEPENDS
6.22.Using wxWidgets
This section describes the status of the wxWidgets libraries in the ports tree and its integration with the ports
system.
6.22.1.Introduction
There are many versions of the wxWidgets libraries which conflict between them (install les under the same
name). In the ports tree this problem has been solved by installing each version under a different name using
version number suffixes.
The obvious disadvantage of this is that each application has to be modified to nd the expected version. Fortu-
nately, most of the applications call the wx-config script to determine the necessary compiler and linker ags. The
script is named differently for every available version. Majority of applications respect an environment variable,
or accept a configure argument, to specify which wx-config script to call. Otherwise they have to be patched.
6.22.2.Version Selection
To make the port use a specific version of wxWidgets there are two variables available for defining (if only one is
defined the other will be set to a default value):
116
Table6.27.Variables to Select wxWidgets Versions

Variable Description Default value
USE_WX List of versions the port can use All available versions
USE_WX_NOT List of versions the port cannot use None
The available wxWidgets versions and the corresponding ports in the tree are:
Table6.28.Available wxWidgets Versions

Version Port
2.4 x11-toolkits/wxgtk24
Note
The versions starting from 2.5 also come in Unicode version and are installed by a slave port
named like the normal one plus a -unicode suffix, but this can be handled with variables (see
Section6.22.4, Unicode).
The variables in Table6.27, Variables to Select wxWidgets Versions can be set to one or more of these combina-
tions separated by spaces:
Table6.29.wxWidgets Version Specications

Description Example
Single version 2.4
Ascending range 2.4+
Descending range 2.6-
Full range (must be ascending) 2.4-2.6
There are also some variables to select the preferred versions from the available ones. They can be set to a list of
versions, the rst ones will have higher priority.
Table6.30.Variables to Select Preferred wxWidgets Versions

Name Designed for
WANT_WX_VER the port
WITH_WX_VER the user
6.22.3.Component Selection
There are other applications that, while not being wxWidgets libraries, are related to them. These applications can
be specified in WX_COMPS. These components are available:
Table6.31.Available wxWidgets Components

Name Description Version restriction
wx main library none
contrib contributed libraries none
python wxPython (Python bindings) 2.4-2.6
117
Unicode
Name Description Version restriction

mozilla wxMozilla 2.4
svg wxSVG 2.6
The dependency type can be selected for each component by adding a suffix separated by a semicolon. If not
present then a default type will be used (see Table6.33, Default wxWidgets Dependency Types). These types are
available:
Table6.32.Available wxWidgets Dependency Types

Name Description
build Component is required for building, equivalent to
BUILD_DEPENDS
run Component is required for running, equivalent to

RUN_DEPENDS
lib Component is required for building and running, equiv-

alent to LIB_DEPENDS
The default values for the components are detailed in this table:
Table6.33.Default wxWidgets Dependency Types

Component Dependency type
wx lib
contrib lib
python run
mozilla lib
svg lib
Example6.14.Selecting wxWidgets Components

This fragment corresponds to a port which uses wxWidgets version 2.4 and its contributed libraries.
USE_WX= 2.4
WX_COMPS= wxcontrib
6.22.4.Unicode
The wxWidgets library supports Unicode since version 2.5 . In the ports tree both versions are available and can
be selected with these variables:
Table6.34.Variables to Select Unicode in wxWidgets Versions

Variable Description Designed for
WX_UNICODE The port works only with the Unicode the port
version
WANT_UNICODE The port works with both versions the port
but prefers the Unicode one
WITH_UNICODE The port will use the Unicode version the user
118
Variable Description Designed for

WITHOUT_UNICODE The port will use the normal version the user
if supported (when WX_UNICODE is not
defined)
Warning
Do not use WX_UNICODE for ports that can use both Unicode and normal versions. If the port
needs to use Unicode by default, define WANT_UNICODE instead.
6.22.5.Detecting Installed Versions

To detect an installed version, define WANT_WX. If it is not set to a specific version then the components will have
a version suffix. HAVE_WX will be lled after detection.
Example6.15.Detecting Installed wxWidgets Versions and Components

This fragment can be used in a port that uses wxWidgets if it is installed, or an option is selected.
WANT_WX= yes
.ifdefined(WITH_WX) || !empty(PORT_OPTIONS:MWX) || !empty(HAVE_WX:Mwx-2.4)

USE_WX= 2.4
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-wx
.endif
This fragment can be used in a port that enables wxPython support if it is installed or if an option is selected,
in addition to wxWidgets, both version 2.6 .
USE_WX= 2.6
WX_COMPS= wx
WANT_WX= 2.6
.ifdefined(WITH_WXPYTHON) || !empty(PORT_OPTIONS:MWXPYTHON) || !empty

(HAVE_WX:Mpython)
WX_COMPS+= python
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-wxpython
.endif
6.22.6.Defined Variables
These variables are available in the port (after defining one from Table6.27, Variables to Select wxWidgets Ver-
sions).
Table6.35.Variables Dened for Ports That Use wxWidgets

Name Description
WX_CONFIG The path to the wxWidgets wx-config script (with dif-
ferent name)
119
Processing in bsd.port.pre.mk
Name Description
WXRC_CMD The path to the wxWidgets wxrc program (with differ-
ent name)
WX_VERSION The wxWidgets version that is going to be used (for ex-
ample, 2.6 )
WX_UNICODE If not defined but Unicode is going to be used then it will
be defined
6.22.7.Processing in bsd.port.pre.mk
Define WX_PREMK to be able to use the variables right after including bsd.port.pre.mk.
Important
When defining WX_PREMK , then the version, dependencies, components and defined variables
will not change if modifying the wxWidgets port variables after including bsd.port.pre.mk.
Example6.16.Using wxWidgets Variables in Commands

This fragment illustrates the use of WX_PREMK by running the wx-config script to obtain the full version
string, assign it to a variable and pass it to the program.
USE_WX= 2.4
WX_PREMK= yes
.ifexists(${WX_CONFIG})
VER_STR!= ${WX_CONFIG} --release
PLIST_SUB+= VERSION="${VER_STR}"
.endif
Note
The wxWidgets variables can be safely used in commands when they are inside targets with-
out the need of WX_PREMK .
6.22.8.Additional configure Arguments
Some GNU configure scripts cannot nd wxWidgets with just the WX_CONFIG environment variable set, requiring
additional arguments. WX_CONF_ARGS can be used for provide them.
Table6.36.Legal Values for WX_CONF_ARGS

Possible value Resulting argument
absolute --with-wx-config=${WX_CONFIG}
120
Possible value Resulting argument

relative --with-wx=${LOCALBASE} --with-wx-con-
fig=${WX_CONFIG:T}
6.23.Using Lua
This section describes the status of the Lua libraries in the ports tree and its integration with the ports system.
6.23.1.Introduction
There are many versions of the Lua libraries and corresponding interpreters, which conflict between them (install
les under the same name). In the ports tree this problem has been solved by installing each version under a
different name using version number suffixes.
The obvious disadvantage of this is that each application has to be modified to nd the expected version. But it
can be solved by adding some additional ags to the compiler and linker.
6.23.2.Version Selection
A port using Lua only needs to have this line:
USES= lua
If a specific version of Lua is needed, instructions on how to select it are given in the USES=lua part of Chapter16,
Using USES Macros.
6.23.3.Defined Variables
These variables are available in the port.
Table6.37.Variables Dened for Ports That Use Lua

Name Description
LUA_VER The Lua version that is going to be used (for example,
5.1 )
LUA_VER_STR The Lua version without the dots (for example, 51)
LUA_PREFIX The prefix where Lua (and components) is installed
LUA_SUBDIR The directory under ${PREFIX}/bin , ${PREFIX}/share
and ${PREFIX}/lib where Lua is installed
LUA_INCDIR The directory where Lua and tolua header les are in-
stalled
LUA_LIBDIR The directory where Lua and tolua libraries are installed
LUA_MODLIBDIR The directory where Lua module libraries (.so ) are in-
stalled
LUA_MODSHAREDIR The directory where Lua modules (.lua ) are installed
LUA_PKGNAMEPREFIX The package name prefix used by Lua modules
LUA_CMD The path to the Lua interpreter
LUAC_CMD The path to the Lua compiler
121
Using iconv
6.24.Using iconv
After 2013-10-08 (254273), FreeBSD 10-CURRENT and newer versions have a native iconv in the operating system.
On earlier versions, converters/libiconv was used as a dependency.
For software that needs iconv , define USES=iconv. FreeBSD versions before 10-CURRENT on 2013-08-13 (254273)
do not have a native iconv . On these earlier versions, a dependency on converters/libiconv will be added auto-
matically.
When a port defines USES=iconv, these variables will be available:
Variable name Purpose Value before Free- Value after Free-

BSD 10-CURRENT 254273 BSD 10-CURRENT 254273
(2013-08-13) (2013-08-13)
ICONV_CMD Directory where the iconv ${LOCALBASE}/bin/iconv /usr/bin/iconv
binary resides
ICONV_LIB ld argument to link to li- -liconv (empty)
biconv (if needed)
ICONV_PREFIX Directory where the ${LOCALBASE} /usr

iconv implementation re-
sides (useful for configure
scripts)
ICONV_CONFIGURE_ARG Preconstructed configure --with- (empty)
argument for configure libiconv-prefix=${LO-
scripts CALBASE}
ICONV_CONFIGURE_BASE Preconstructed configure --with- (empty)

argument for configure libiconv=${LOCALBASE}
scripts
These two examples automatically populate the variables with the correct value for systems using converters/li-
biconv or the native iconv respectively:
Example6.17.Simple iconv Usage

USES= iconv
LDFLAGS+= -L${LOCALBASE}/lib${ICONV_LIB}
Example6.18.iconv Usage with configure

USES= iconv
CONFIGURE_ARGS+=${ICONV_CONFIGURE_ARG}
As shown above, ICONV_LIB is empty when a native iconv is present. This can be used to detect the native iconv
and respond appropriately.
Sometimes a program has an ld argument or search path hardcoded in a Makefile or configure script. This ap-
proach can be used to solve that problem:
122
Example6.19.Fixing Hardcoded -liconv

USES= iconv
post-patch:
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e 's/-liconv/${ICONV_LIB}/'${WRKSRC}/Makefile
In some cases it is necessary to set alternate values or perform operations depending on whether there is a native
iconv . bsd.port.pre.mk must be included before testing the value of ICONV_LIB:
Example6.20.Checking for Native iconv Availability

USES= iconv
post-patch:
.ifempty(ICONV_LIB)
#nativeiconvdetected
@${REINPLACE_CMD} -e 's|iconv||'${WRKSRC}/Config.sh
.endif
.include<bsd.port.post.mk>
6.25.Using Xfce
Ports that need Xfce libraries or applications set USES=xfce .
Specific Xfce library and application dependencies are set with values assigned to USE_XFCE . They are defined in
/usr/ports/Mk/Uses/xfce.mk . The possible values are:
garcon
sysutils/garcon
libexo
x11/libexo
libgui
x11-toolkits/libxfce4gui
libmenu
x11/libxfce4menu
libutil
x11/libxfce4util
panel
x11-wm/xfce4-panel
thunar
x11-fm/thunar
123
Using Mozilla
xfconf
x11/xfce4-conf
Example6.21.USES=xfce Example
USES= xfce
USE_XFCE= libmenu
Example6.22.Using Xfce's Own GTK3 Widgets

In this example, the ported application uses the GTK3-specific widgets x11/libxfce4menu and x11/xfce4-
conf.
USES= xfce:gtk3
USE_XFCE= libmenuxfconf
Tip
Xfce components included this way will automatically include any dependencies they need.
It is no longer necessary to specify the entire list. If the port only needs x11-wm/xfce4-panel,
use:
USES= xfce
USE_XFCE= panel
There is no need to list the components x11-wm/xfce4-panel needs itself like this:
USES= xfce
USE_XFCE= libexolibmenulibutilpanel
However, Xfce components and non-Xfce dependencies of the port must be included explic-
itly. Do not count on an Xfce component to provide a sub-dependency other than itself for
the main port.
6.26.Using Mozilla
Table6.38.Variables for Ports That Use Mozilla
USE_GECKO Gecko backend the port can handle. Possible values:
libxul (libxul.so), seamonkey (libgtkembedmoz.so,
deprecated, must not be used any more).
USE_FIREFOX The port requires Firefox as a runtime dependency. Pos-
sible values: yes (get default version), 40, 36, 35. Default
dependency is on version 40.
USE_FIREFOX_BUILD The port requires Firefox as a buildtime dependency.
Possible values: see USE_FIREFOX. This automatically
sets USE_FIREFOX and assigns the same value.
124
USE_SEAMONKEY The port requires SeaMonkey as a runtime dependency.

Possible values: yes (get default version), 20, 11 (depre-
cated, must not be used any more). Default dependency
is on version 20.
USE_SEAMONKEY_BUILD The port requires SeaMonkey as a buildtime dependen-
cy. Possible values: see USE_SEAMONKEY. This automat-
ically sets USE_SEAMONKEY and assigns the same value.
USE_THUNDERBIRD The port requires Thunderbird as a runtime dependen-
cy. Possible values: yes (get default version), 31, 30 (dep-
recated, must not be used any more). Default dependen-
cy is on version 31.
USE_THUNDERBIRD_BUILD The port requires Thunderbird as a buildtime depen-
dency. Possible values: see USE_THUNDERBIRD. This
automatically sets USE_THUNDERBIRD and assigns the
same value.
A complete list of available variables can be found in /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.gecko.mk .
6.27.Using Databases
Table6.39.Variables for Ports Using Databases
Variable Means
USE_BDB Obsolete. Replaced by USES=bdb
USE_MYSQL Obsolete. Replaced by USES=mysql
USE_PGSQL Obsolete. Replaced by USES=pgsql .
USE_SQLITE Obsolete. Replaced by USES=sqlite
6.28.Starting and Stopping Services (rc Scripts)

rc.d scripts are used to start services on system startup, and to give administrators a standard way of stopping,
starting and restarting the service. Ports integrate into the system rc.d framework. Details on its usage can be
found in the rc.d Handbook chapter. Detailed explanation of the available commands is provided in rc(8) and rc.sub-
r(8). Finally, there is an article on practical aspects of rc.d scripting.
With a mythical port called doorman, which needs to start a doormand daemon. Add the following to the Makefile:
USE_RC_SUBR= doormand
Multiple scripts may be listed and will be installed. Scripts must be placed in the files subdirectory and a .in suffix
must be added to their filename. Standard SUB_LIST expansions will be ran against this le. Use of the %%PREFIX%
% and %%LOCALBASE%% expansions is strongly encouraged as well. More on SUB_LIST in the relevant section.
As of FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE, local rc.d scripts (including those installed by ports) are included in the overall
rcorder(8) of the base system.
An example simple rc.d script to start the doormand daemon:
#!/bin/sh
#$FreeBSD$
#
#PROVIDE: doormand
#REQUIRE:LOGIN
125
Pre-Commit Checklist
#KEYWORD:shutdown
#
#Addtheselinesto /etc/rc.conf.localor /etc/rc.conf
#toenablethisservice:
#
# doormand _enable(bool): SettoNObydefault.
# SetittoYEStoenable doormand .
# doormand _config(path): Setto%%PREFIX%%/etc/doormand/doormand.cf
# bydefault.
. /etc/rc.subr
name=doormand
rcvar=doormand _enable
load_rc_config$name
:${doormand _enable:="NO"}
:${doormand _config="%%PREFIX%%/etc/doormand/doormand.cf "}
command=%%PREFIX%%/sbin/${name}
pidfile=/var/run/${name}.pid
command_args="-p$pidfile -f$doormand_config "
run_rc_command "$1"
Unless there is a very good reason to start the service earlier, or it runs as a particular user (other than root), all
ports scripts must use:
REQUIRE:LOGIN
If the startup script launches a daemon that must be shutdown, the following will trigger a stop of the service on
system shutdown:
KEYWORD:shutdown
If the script is not starting a persistent service this is not necessary.
For optional configuration elements the "=" style of default variable assignment is preferable to the ":=" style here,
since the former sets a default value only if the variable is unset, and the latter sets one if the variable is unset or
null. A user might very well include something like:
doormand _flags=""
in their rc.conf.local, and a variable substitution using ":=" would inappropriately override the user's intention.
The _enable variable is not optional, and must use the ":" for the default.
6.28.1.Pre-Commit Checklist
Before contributing a port with an rc.d script, and more importantly, before committing one, please consult this
checklist to be sure that it is ready.
The devel/rclint port can check for most of these, but it is not a substitute for proper review.
1. If this is a new le, does it have a .sh extension? If so, that must be changed to just file.in since rc.d les
may not end with that extension.
2. Does the le have a $FreeBSD$ tag?
3. Do the name of the le (minus .in ), the PROVIDE line, and $name all match? The le name matching PROVIDE
makes debugging easier, especially for rcorder(8) issues. Matching the le name and $name makes it easier to
figure out which variables are relevant in rc.conf[.local]. It is also a policy for all new scripts, including
those in the base system.
126
4. Is the REQUIRE line set to LOGIN ? This is mandatory for scripts that run as a non-root user. If it runs as root,
is there a good reason for it to run prior to LOGIN ? If not, it must run after so that local scrips can be loosely
grouped to a point in rcorder(8) after most everything in the base is already running.
5. Does the script start a persistent service? If so, it must have KEYWORD: shutdown.
6. Make sure there is no KEYWORD: FreeBSD present. This has not been necessary nor desirable for years. It is
also an indication that the new script was copy/pasted from an old script, so extra caution must be given to
the review.
7. If the script uses an interpreted language like perl , python , or ruby, make certain that command_interpreter
is set appropriately, for example, for Perl, by adding PERL=${PERL} to SUB_LIST and using %%PERL%% . Oth-
erwise,
# service name stop
will probably not work properly. See service(8) for more information.
8. Have all occurrences of /usr/local been replaced with %%PREFIX%% ?
9. Do the default variable assignments come after load_rc_config?
10. Are there default assignments to empty strings? They should be removed, but double-check that the option
is documented in the comments at the top of the le.
11. Are things that are set in variables actually used in the script?
12. Are options listed in the default name_flags things that are actually mandatory? If so, they must be in com-
mand_args. -d is a red ag (pardon the pun) here, since it is usually the option to daemonize the process,
and therefore is actually mandatory.
13. name_flags must never be included in command_args (and vice versa, although that error is less common).
14. Does the script execute any code unconditionally? This is frowned on. Usually these things must be dealt with
through a start_precmd .
15. All boolean tests must use the checkyesno function. No hand-rolled tests for [Yy][Ee][Ss] , etc.
16. If there is a loop (for example, waiting for something to start) does it have a counter to terminate the loop?
We do not want the boot to be stuck forever if there is an error.
17. Does the script create les or directories that need specific permissions, for example, a pid that needs to be
owned by the user that runs the process? Rather than the traditional touch(1)/chown(8)/chmod(1) routine,
consider using install(1) with the proper command line arguments to do the whole procedure with one step.
6.29.Adding Users and Groups

Some ports require a particular user account to be present, usually for daemons that run as that user. For these
ports, choose a unique UID from 50 to 999 and register it in ports/UIDs (for users) and ports/GIDs (for groups).
The unique identification should be the same for users and groups.
Please include a patch against these two les when requiring a new user or group to be created for the port.
Then use USERS and GROUPS in Makefile, and the user will be automatically created when installing the port.
USERS= pulse
GROUPS= pulsepulse-accesspulse-rt
The current list of reserved UIDs and GIDs can be found in ports/UIDs and ports/GIDs .
127
Ports That Rely on Kernel Sources
6.30.Ports That Rely on Kernel Sources

Some ports (such as kernel loadable modules) need the kernel source les so that the port can compile. Here is the
correct way to determine if the user has them installed:
USES= kmod
Apart from this check, the kmod feature takes care of most items that these ports need to take into account.
128
Chapter7.Advanced pkg-plist
Practices
7.1.Changing pkg-plist Based on Make Variables
Some ports, particularly the p5- ports, need to change their pkg-plist depending on what options they are con-
figured with (or version of perl , in the case of p5- ports). To make this easy, any instances in pkg-plist of %
%OSREL%% , %%PERL_VER%% , and %%PERL_VERSION%% will be substituted appropriately. The value of %%OSREL%% is the
numeric revision of the operating system (for example, 4.9 ). %%PERL_VERSION%% and %%PERL_VER%% is the full ver-
sion number of perl (for example, 5.8.9 ). Several other %%VARS%% related to port's documentation les are de-
scribed in the relevant section.
To make other substitutions, set PLIST_SUB with a list of VAR=VALUE pairs and instances of %%VAR%% will be substi-
tuted with VALUE in pkg-plist .
For instance, if a port installs many les in a version-specific subdirectory, use a placeholder for the version so
that pkg-plist does not have to be regenerated every time the port is updated. For example:
OCTAVE_VERSION= ${PORTREVISION}
PLIST_SUB= OCTAVE_VERSION=${OCTAVE_VERSION}
in the Makefile and use %%OCTAVE_VERSION%% wherever the version shows up in pkg-plist . When the port is
upgraded, it will not be necessary to edit dozens (or in some cases, hundreds) of lines in pkg-plist .
If les are installed conditionally on the options set in the port, the usual way of handling it is prefixing pkg-plist
lines with a %%OPT%% for lines needed when the option is enabled, or %%NO_OPT%% when the option is disabled, and
adding OPTIONS_SUB=yes to the Makefile. See Section5.13.3.1, OPTIONS_SUB for more information.
For instance, if there are les that are only installed when the X11 option is enabled, and Makefile has:
OPTIONS_DEFINE= X11
OPTIONS_SUB= yes
In pkg-plist , put %%X11%% in front of the lines only being installed when the option is enabled, like this :
%%X11%%bin/foo-gui
This substitution will be done between the pre-install and do-install targets, by reading from PLIST and writ-
ing to TMPPLIST (default: WRKDIR/.PLIST.mktmp). So if the port builds PLIST on the y, do so in or before pre-
install. Also, if the port needs to edit the resulting le, do so in post-install to a le named TMPPLIST.
Another way of modifying a port's packing list is based on setting the variables PLIST_FILES and PLIST_DIRS .
The value of each variable is regarded as a list of pathnames to write to TMPPLIST along with PLIST contents. While
names listed in PLIST_FILES and PLIST_DIRS are subject to %%VAR%% substitution as described above, it is better to
use the ${VAR} directly. Except for that, names from PLIST_FILES will appear in the final packing list unchanged,
while @dir will be prepended to names from PLIST_DIRS . To take effect, PLIST_FILES and PLIST_DIRS must be
set before TMPPLIST is written, that is, in pre-install or earlier.
From time to time, using OPTIONS_SUB is not enough. In those cases, adding a specific TAG to PLIST_SUB inside the
Makefile with a special value of @comment, makes package tools to ignore the line. For instance, if some les are
only installed when the X11 option is on and the architecture is i386 :
.if${PORT_OPTIONS:MX11}&&${ARCH}== "i386"
PLIST_SUB+= X11I386=""
.else
Empty Directories
PLIST_SUB+= X11I386="@comment "

.endif
7.2.Empty Directories
7.2.1.Cleaning Up Empty Directories
When being de-installed, a port has to remove empty directories it created. Most of these directories are removed
automatically by pkg(8), but for directories created outside of ${PREFIX}, or empty directories, some more work
needs to be done. This is usually accomplished by adding @dir lines for those directories. Subdirectories must be
deleted before deleting parent directories.
[...]
@dir /var/games/oneko/saved-games
@dir /var/games/oneko
7.2.2.Creating Empty Directories

Empty directories created during port installation need special attention. They must be present when the package
is created. If they are not created by the port code, create them in the Makefile:
post-install:
${MKDIR}${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/some/directory
Add the directory to pkg-plist like any other. For example:

@dirsome/directory
7.3.Configuration Files
If the port installs configuration les to PREFIX/etc (or elsewhere) do not list them in pkg-plist . That will cause
pkg delete to remove les that have been carefully edited by the user, and a re-installation will wipe them out.
Instead, install sample les with a filename.sample extension. The @sample macro automates this, see Sec-
tion7.6.9, @sample le [le] for what it does exactly. For each sample le, add a line to pkg-plist :
@sampleetc/orbit.conf.sample
If there is a very good reason not to install a working configuration le by default, only list the sample filename
in pkg-plist , without the @sample followed by a space part, and add a message pointing out that the user must
copy and edit the le before the software will work.
Tip
When a port installs its configuration in a subdirectory of ${PREFIX}/etc , use ETCDIR , which
defaults to ${PREFIX}/etc/${PORTNAME} , it can be overridden in the ports Makefile if there
is a convention for the port to use some other directory. The %%ETCDIR%% macro will be used
in its stead in pkg-plist .
Note
The sample configuration les should always have the .sample suffix. If for some historical
reason using the standard suffix is not possible, or if the sample les come from some other
directory, use this construct:
130
Chapter7.Advanced pkg-plist Practices
@sampleetc/orbit.conf-distetc/orbit.conf
or
@sample%%EXAMPLESDIR%%/orbit.confetc/orbit.conf
The format is @sample sample-file actual-config-file .
7.4.Dynamic Versus Static Package List

A static package list is a package list which is available in the Ports Collection either as pkg-plist (with or without
variable substitution), or embedded into the Makefile via PLIST_FILES and PLIST_DIRS . Even if the contents are
auto-generated by a tool or a target in the Makefile before the inclusion into the Ports Collection by a committer
(for example, using make makeplist> ), this is still considered a static list, since it is possible to examine it without
having to download or compile the distfile.
A dynamic package list is a package list which is generated at the time the port is compiled based upon the les and
directories which are installed. It is not possible to examine it before the source code of the ported application is
downloaded and compiled, or after running a make clean .
While the use of dynamic package lists is not forbidden, maintainers should use static package lists wherever
possible, as it enables users to grep(1) through available ports to discover, for example, which port installs a certain
le. Dynamic lists should be primarily used for complex ports where the package list changes drastically based
upon optional features of the port (and thus maintaining a static package list is infeasible), or ports which change
the package list based upon the version of dependent software used. For example, ports which generate docs with
Javadoc.
7.5.Automated Package List Creation

First, make sure the port is almost complete, with only pkg-plist missing. Running make makeplist will show an
example for pkg-plist . The output of makeplist must be double checked for correctness as it tries to automati-
cally guess a few things, and can get it wrong.
User configuration les should be installed as filename.sample, as it is described in Section7.3, Configuration

Files. info/dir must not be listed and appropriate install-info lines must be added as noted in the info les
section. Any libraries installed by the port must be listed as specified in the shared libraries section.
7.5.1.Expanding PLIST_SUB with Regular Expressions

Strings to be replaced sometimes need to be very specific to avoid undesired replacements. This is a common
problem with shorter values.
To address this problem, for each PLACEHOLDER=value, a PLACEHOLDER_regex= regex can be set, with the regex
part matching value more precisely.
Example7.1.Using PLIST_SUB with Regular Expressions

Perl ports can install architecture dependent les in a specific tree. On FreeBSD to ease porting, this tree
is called mach . For example, a port that installs a le whose path contains mach could have that part of the
path string replaced with the wrong values. Consider this Makefile:
PORTNAME= Machine-Build
DISTVERSION= 1
131
Expanding Package List with Keywords
CATEGORIES= develperl5
MASTER_SITES= CPAN
PKGNAMEPREFIX= p5-
MAINTAINER= perl@FreeBSD.org
COMMENT= Buildingmachine
USES= perl5
USE_PERL5= configure
PLIST_SUB= PERL_ARCH=mach
The les installed by the port are:

/usr/local/bin/machine-build
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/man/man1/machine-build.1.gz
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/man/man3/Machine::Build.3.gz
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/Machine/Build.pm
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/mach/5.20/Machine/Build/Build.so
Running make makeplist wrongly generates:

bin/%%PERL_ARCH%%ine-build
%%PERL5_MAN1%%/%%PERL_ARCH%%ine-build.1.gz
%%PERL5_MAN3%%/Machine::Build.3.gz
%%SITE_PERL%%/Machine/Build.pm
%%SITE_PERL%%/%%PERL_ARCH%%/%%PERL_VER%%/Machine/Build/Build.so
Change the PLIST_SUB line from the Makefile to:

PLIST_SUB= PERL_ARCH=mach\
PERL_ARCH_regex=\bmach\b
Now make makeplist correctly generates:

bin/machine-build
%%PERL5_MAN1%%/machine-build.1.gz
%%PERL5_MAN3%%/Machine::Build.3.gz
%%SITE_PERL%%/Machine/Build.pm
%%SITE_PERL%%/%%PERL_ARCH%%/%%PERL_VER%%/Machine/Build/Build.so
7.6.Expanding Package List with Keywords

All keywords can also take optional arguments in parentheses. The arguments are owner, group, and mode. This
argument is used on the le or directory referenced. To change the owner, group, and mode of a configuration
le, use:
@sample(games,games,640)etc/config.sample
The arguments are optional. If only the group and mode need to be changed, use:
@sample(,games,660)etc/config.sample
7.6.1.@desktop-file-utils
Will run update-desktop-database -q after installation and deinstallation.
7.6.2.@fc directory
Add a @dir entry for the directory passed as an argument, and run fc-cache -fs on that directory after instal-
lation and deinstallation.
132
7.6.3.@fcfontsdir directory
Add a @dir entry for the directory passed as an argument, and run fc-cache -fs , mkfontscale and mkfontdir on
that directory after installation and deinstallation. Additionally, on deinstallation, it removes the fonts.scale and
fonts.dir cache les if they are empty. This keyword is equivalent to adding both @fc directory and @fontsdir
directory.
7.6.4.@fontsdir directory
Add a @dir entry for the directory passed as an argument, and run mkfontscale and mkfontdir on that directory
after installation and deinstallation. Additionally, on deinstallation, it removes the fonts.scale and fonts.dir
cache les if they are empty.
7.6.5.@glib-schemas
Runs glib-compile-schemas on installation and deinstallation.
7.6.6.@info file
Add the le passed as argument to the plist, and updates the info document index on installation and deinstallation.
Additionally, it removes the index if empty on deinstallation. This should never be used manually, but always
through INFO. See Section5.12, Info Files for more information.
7.6.7.@kld directory
Runs kldxref on the directory on installation and deinstallation. Additionally, on deinstallation, it will remove
the directory if empty.
7.6.8.@rmtry file
Will remove the le on deinstallation, and not give an error if the le is not there.
7.6.9.@sample file [file]

This is used to handle installation of configuration les, through example les bundled with the package. The ac-
tual, non-sample, le is either the second filename, if present, or the rst filename without the .sample extension.
This does three things. First, add the rst le passed as argument, the sample le, to the plist. Then, on installation,
if the actual le is not found, copy the sample le to the actual le. And finally, on deinstallation, remove the actual
le if it has not been modified. See Section7.3, Configuration Files for more information.
7.6.10.@shared-mime-info directory
Runs update-mime-database on the directory on installation and deinstallation.
7.6.11.@shell file
Add the le passed as argument to the plist.
On installation, add the full path to file to /etc/shells , while making sure it is not added twice. On deinstallation,
remove it from /etc/shells .
7.6.12.@terminfo
Do not use by itself. If the port installs *.terminfo les, add USES=terminfo to its Makefile.
On installation and deinstallation, if tic is present, refresh ${PREFIX}/share/misc/terminfo.db from the *.ter-
minfo les in ${PREFIX}/share/misc .
133
Base Keywords
7.6.13.Base Keywords
There are a few keywords that are hardcoded, and documented in pkg-create(8). For the sake of completeness,
they are also documented here.
7.6.13.1.@ [file]
The empty keyword is a placeholder to use when the le's owner, group, or mode need to be changed. For example,
to set the group of the le to games and add the setgid bit, add:
@(,games,2755)sbin/daemon
7.6.13.2.@preexec command, @postexec command, @preunexec command, @postunexec command
Execute command as part of the package installation or deinstallation process.
@preexec command
Execute command as part of the pre-install scripts.
@postexec command
Execute command as part of the post-install scripts.
@preunexec command
Execute command as part of the pre-deinstall scripts.
@postunexec command
Execute command as part of the post-deinstall scripts.
If command contains any of these sequences somewhere in it, they are expanded inline. For these examples, assume
that @cwd is set to /usr/local and the last extracted le was bin/emacs .
%F
Expand to the last filename extracted (as specified). In the example case bin/emacs .
%D
Expand to the current directory prefix, as set with @cwd . In the example case /usr/local .
%B
Expand to the basename of the fully qualified filename, that is, the current directory prefix plus the last file-
spec, minus the trailing filename. In the example case, that would be /usr/local/bin .
%f
Expand to the filename part of the fully qualified name, or the converse of %B. In the example case, emacs .
7.6.13.3.@mode mode
Set default permission for all subsequently extracted les to mode . Format is the same as that used by chmod(1).
Use without an arg to set back to default permissions (mode of the le while being packed).
Important
This must be a numeric mode, like 644 , 4755 , or 600 . It cannot be a relative mode like u+s .
7.6.13.4.@owner user
Set default ownership for all subsequent les to user . Use without an argument to set back to default ownership
(root ).
134
7.6.13.5.@group group
Set default group ownership for all subsequent les to group . Use without an arg to set back to default group
ownership (wheel ).
7.6.13.6.@comment string
This line is ignored when packing.
7.6.13.7.@dir directory
Declare directory name. By default, directories created under PREFIX by a package installation are automatically
removed. Use this when an empty directory under PREFIX needs to be created, or when the directory needs to
have non default owner, group, or mode. Directories outside of PREFIX need to be registered. For example, /var/
db/${PORTNAME} needs to have a @dir entry whereas ${PREFIX}/share/${PORTNAME} does not if it contains les
or uses the default owner, group, and mode.
7.6.13.8.@exec command, @unexec command (Deprecated)
Execute command as part of the installation or deinstallation process. Please use Section7.6.13.2, @preexec com-
mand, @postexec command, @preunexec command, @postunexec command instead.
7.6.13.9.@dirrm directory (Deprecated)
Declare directory name to be deleted at deinstall time. By default, directories created under PREFIX by a package
installation are deleted when the package is deinstalled.
7.6.13.10.@dirrmtry directory (Deprecated)
Declare directory name to be removed, as for @dirrm , but does not issue a warning if the directory cannot be
removed.
7.6.14.Creating New Keywords
Package list les can be extended by keywords that are defined in the ${PORTSDIR}/Keywords directory. The set-
tings for each keyword are stored in a UCL le named keyword.ucl. The le must contain at least one of these
sections:
attributes
action
pre-install
post-install
pre-deinstall
post-deinstall
pre-upgrade
post-upgrade
7.6.14.1.attributes
Changes the owner, group, or mode used by the keyword. Contains an associative array where the possible keys
are owner, group , and mode . The values are, respectively, a user name, a group name, and a le mode. For example:
135
Creating New Keywords
attributes:{owner: "games",group: "games",mode:0555 }
7.6.14.2.action
Defines what happens to the keyword's parameter. Contains an array where the possible values are:
setprefix
Set the prefix for the next plist entries.
dir
Register a directory to be created on install and removed on deinstall.
dirrm
Register a directory to be deleted on deinstall. Deprecated.
dirrmtry
Register a directory to try and deleted on deinstall. Deprecated.
file
Register a le.
setmode
Set the mode for the next plist entries.
setowner
Set the owner for the next plist entries.
setgroup
Set the group for the next plist entries.
comment
Does not do anything, equivalent to not entering an action section.
ignore_next
Ignore the next entry in the plist.
7.6.14.3.arguments
If set to true , adds argument handling, splitting the whole line, %@, into numbered arguments, %1, %2, and so on.
For example, for this line:
@foosome.contentother.content
%1 and %2 will contain:
some.content
other.content
It also affects how the action entry works. When there is more than one argument, the argument number must
be specified. For example:
actions:[file(1)]
7.6.14.4.pre-install , post-install , pre-deinstall , post-deinstall , pre-upgrade , post-upgrade
These keywords contains a sh(1) script to be executed before or after installation, deinstallation, or upgrade of
the package. In addition to the usual @exec %foo placeholders described in Section7.6.13.2, @preexec command,
@postexec command, @preunexec command, @postunexec command, there is a new one, %@, which represents the
argument of the keyword.
136
7.6.14.5.Custom Keyword Examples
Example7.2.Example of a @dirrmtryecho Keyword

This keyword does two things, it adds a @dirrmtry directory line to the packing list, and echoes the fact
that the directory is removed when deinstalling the package.
actions:[dirrmtry]
post-deinstall:<<EOD
echo "Directory%D/%@removed."
EOD
Example7.3.Real Life Example, How @sample is Implemented

This keyword does three things. It adds the rst filename passed as an argument to @sample to the packing
list, it adds to the post-install script instructions to copy the sample to the actual configuration le if
it does not already exist, and it adds to the post-deinstall instructions to remove the configuration le
if it has not been modified.
actions:[file(1)]
arguments:true
post-install:<<EOD
case "%1"in
/*)sample_file="%1";;
*)sample_file="%D/%1";;
esac
target_file="${sample_file%.sample}"
set --%@
if[$# -eq2];then
target_file=${2}
fi
case "${target_file}"in
/*)target_file="${target_file}";;
*)target_file="%D/${target_file}";;
esac
if ![ -f "${target_file}"];then
/bin/cp -p "${sample_file}" "${target_file}"&&\
/bin/chmodu+w "${target_file}"
fi
EOD
pre-deinstall:<<EOD
case "%1"in
/*)sample_file="%1";;
*)sample_file="%D/%1";;
esac
target_file="${sample_file%.sample}"
set --%@
if[$# -eq2];then
set --%@
target_file=${2}
fi
case "${target_file}"in
/*)target_file="${target_file}";;
*)target_file="%D/${target_file}";;
esac
ifcmp -s "${target_file}" "${sample_file}";then
rm -f "${target_file}"
else
137
Creating New Keywords
echo "Youmayneedtomanuallyremove${target_file}ifitisnolonger
needed."
fi
EOD
138
Chapter8.pkg-*
There are some tricks we have not mentioned yet about the pkg-* les that come in handy sometimes.
8.1.pkg-message
To display a message when the package is installed, place the message in pkg-message . This capability is often
useful to display additional installation steps to be taken after a pkg install or to display licensing information.
When some lines about the build-time knobs or warnings have to be displayed, use ECHO_MSG . pkg-message is only
for post-installation steps. Likewise, the distinction between ECHO_MSG is for printing informational text to the
screen and ECHO_CMD is for command pipelining:
update-etc-shells:
@${ECHO_MSG} "updating /etc/shells"
@${CP} /etc/shells /etc/shells.bak
@(${GREP} -v${PREFIX}/bin/bash /etc/shells.bak;\
${ECHO_CMD}${PREFIX}/bin/bash)>/etc/shells
@${RM} /etc/shells.bak
Note
Do not add an entry for pkg-message in pkg-plist .
8.2.pkg-install
If the port needs to execute commands when the binary package is installed with pkg add or pkg install , use
pkg-install . This script will automatically be added to the package. It will be run twice by pkg , the rst time as
${SH} pkg-install ${PKGNAME} PRE-INSTALL before the package is installed, and the second time as ${SH} pkg-
install ${PKGNAME} POST-INSTALL after it has been installed. $2 can be tested to determine which mode the
script is being run in. The PKG_PREFIX environmental variable will be set to the package installation directory.
8.3.pkg-deinstall
This script executes when a package is removed.
This script will be run twice by pkg delete The rst time as ${SH} pkg-deinstall ${PKGNAME} DEINSTALL before
the port is de-installed and the second time as ${SH} pkg-deinstall ${PKGNAME} POST-DEINSTALL after the
port has been de-installed. $2 can be tested to determine which mode the script is being run in. The PKG_PREFIX
environmental variable will be set to the package installation directory
8.4.Changing the Names of pkg-*

All the names of pkg-* are defined using variables that can be changed in the Makefile if needed. This is especially
useful when sharing the same pkg-* les among several ports or when it is necessary to write to one of these les.
See writing to places other than WRKDIR for why it is a bad idea to write directly into the directory containing
the pkg-* les.
Here is a list of variable names and their default values. (PKGDIR defaults to ${MASTERDIR}.)
Making Use of SUB_FILES and SUB_LIST
Variable Default value

DESCR ${PKGDIR}/pkg-descr
PLIST ${PKGDIR}/pkg-plist
PKGINSTALL ${PKGDIR}/pkg-install
PKGDEINSTALL ${PKGDIR}/pkg-deinstall
PKGMESSAGE ${PKGDIR}/pkg-message
8.5.Making Use of SUB_FILES and SUB_LIST

SUB_FILES and SUB_LIST are useful for dynamic values in port les, such as the installation PREFIX in pkg-mes-
sage.
SUB_FILES specifies a list of les to be automatically modified. Each file in the SUB_FILES list must have a cor-
responding file.in present in FILESDIR . A modified version will be created as ${WRKDIR}/ file . Files defined as
a value of USE_RC_SUBR (or the deprecated USE_RCORDER) are automatically added to SUB_FILES . For the les pkg-
message, pkg-install , and pkg-deinstall , the corresponding Makefile variable is automatically set to point to
the processed version.
SUB_LIST is a list of VAR=VALUE pairs. For each pair, %%VAR%% will be replaced with VALUE in each le listed in
SUB_FILES . Several common pairs are automatically defined: PREFIX, LOCALBASE, DATADIR , DOCSDIR , EXAMPLESDIR,
WWWDIR , and ETCDIR . Any line beginning with @comment followed by a space, will be deleted from resulting les
after a variable substitution.
This example replaces %%ARCH%% with the system architecture in a pkg-message :
SUB_FILES= pkg-message
SUB_LIST= ARCH=${ARCH}
Note that for this example, pkg-message.in must exist in FILESDIR .
Example of a good pkg-message.in :
Nowitistimetoconfigurethispackage.
Copy%%PREFIX%%/share/examples/putsy/%%ARCH%%.confintoyourhomedirectory
as .putsy.confandeditit.
140
Chapter9.Testing the Port
9.1.Running make describe
Several of the FreeBSD port maintenance tools, such as portupgrade(1), rely on a database called /usr/ports/
INDEX which keeps track of such items as port dependencies. INDEX is created by the top-level ports/Makefile
via make index , which descends into each port subdirectory and executes make describe there. Thus, if make
describe fails in any port, no one can generate INDEX, and many people will quickly become unhappy.
Note
It is important to be able to generate this le no matter what options are present in
make.conf , so please avoid doing things such as using .error statements when (for instance)
a dependency is not satisfied. (See Section12.16, Avoid Use of the .error Construct.)
If make describe produces a string rather than an error message, everything is probably safe. See bsd.port.mk
for the meaning of the string produced.
Also note that running a recent version of portlint (as specified in the next section) will cause make describe
to be run automatically.
9.2.Portlint
Do check the port with portlint before submitting or committing it. portlint warns about many common errors,
both functional and stylistic. For a new (or repocopied) port, portlint -A is the most thorough; for an existing
port, portlint -C is sufficient.
Since portlint uses heuristics to try to figure out errors, it can produce false positive warnings. In addition,
occasionally something that is agged as a problem really cannot be done in any other way due to limitations in
the ports framework. When in doubt, the best thing to do is ask on FreeBSD ports mailing list.
9.3.Port Tools
The ports-mgmt/porttools program is part of the Ports Collection.
port is the front-end script, which can help simplify the testing job. Whenever a new port or an update to an
existing one needs testing, use port test to test the port, including the portlint checking. This command also
detects and lists any les that are not listed in pkg-plist . For example:
# porttest /usr/ports/net/csup
9.4.PREFIX and DESTDIR

PREFIX determines where the port will be installed. It defaults to /usr/local , but can be set by the user to a custom
path like /opt . The port must respect the value of this variable.
DESTDIR, if set by the user, determines the complete alternative environment, usually a jail or an installed system
mounted somewhere other than /. A port will actually install into DESTDIR/PREFIX , and register with the package
Poudriere
database in DESTDIR/var/db/pkg . As DESTDIR is handled automatically by the ports infrastructure with chroot(8).
There is no need for modifications or any extra care to write DESTDIR-compliant ports.
The value of PREFIX will be set to LOCALBASE (defaulting to /usr/local ). If USE_LINUX_PREFIX is set, PREFIX will
be LINUXBASE (defaulting to /compat/linux ).
Avoiding hard-coded /usr/local paths in the source makes the port much more flexible and able to cater to
the needs of other sites. Often, this can be accomplished by replacing occurrences of /usr/local in the port's
various Makefiles with ${PREFIX}. This variable is automatically passed down to every stage of the build and
install processes.
Make sure the application is not installing things in /usr/local instead of PREFIX. A quick test for such hard-
coded paths is:
% makeclean;makepackagePREFIX=/var/tmp/`make -VPORTNAME`
If anything is installed outside of PREFIX, the package creation process will complain that it cannot nd the les.
In addition, it is worth checking the same with the stage directory support (see Section6.1, Staging):
% makestage&&makecheck-plist&&makestage-qa&&makepackage
check-plist checks for les missing from the plist, and les in the plist that are not installed by the port.
stage-qa checks for common problems like bad shebang, symlinks pointing outside the stage directory, setuid
les, and non-stripped libraries...
These tests will not nd hard-coded paths inside the port's les, nor will it verify that LOCALBASE is being used to
correctly refer to les from other ports. The temporarily-installed port in /var/tmp/`make -V PORTNAME` must
be tested for proper operation to make sure there are no problems with paths.
PREFIX must not be set explicitly in a port's Makefile. Users installing the port may have set PREFIX to a custom
location, and the port must respect that setting.
Refer to programs and les from other ports with the variables mentioned above, not explicit pathnames. For
instance, if the port requires a macro PAGER to have the full pathname of less , do not use a literal path of /usr/
local/bin/less . Instead, use ${LOCALBASE}:
-DPAGER=\"${LOCALBASE}/bin/less\"
The path with LOCALBASE is more likely to still work if the system administrator has moved the whole /usr/local
tree somewhere else.
Tip
All these tests are done automatically when running poudriere testport or poudriere
bulk -t . It is highly recommended that every ports contributor install and test their ports
with it. See Section9.5, Poudriere for more information.
9.5.Poudriere
For a ports contributor, Poudriere is one of the most important and helpful testing and build tools. Its main features
include:
Bulk building of the entire ports tree, specific subsets of the ports tree, or a single port including its dependencies
Automatic packaging of build results
142
Generation of build log les per port
Providing a signed pkg(8) repository
Testing of port builds before submitting a patch to the FreeBSD bug tracker or committing to the ports tree
Testing for successful ports builds using different options
Because Poudriere performs its building in a clean jail(8) environment and uses zfs(8) features, it has several ad-
vantages over traditional testing on the host system:
No pollution of the host environment: No leftover les, no accidental removals, no changes of existing config-
uration les.
Verify pkg-plist for missing or superfluous entries
Ports committers sometimes ask for a Poudriere log alongside a patch submission to assess whether the patch
is ready for integration into the ports tree
It is also quite straightforward to set up and use, has no dependencies, and will run on any supported FreeBSD
release. This section shows how to install, configure, and run Poudriere as part of the normal workflow of a ports
contributor.
The examples in this section show a default le layout, as standard in FreeBSD. Substitute any local changes ac-
cordingly. The ports tree, represented by ${PORTSDIR} , is located in /usr/ports . Both ${LOCALBASE} and ${PRE-
FIX} are /usr/local by default.
9.5.1.Installing Poudriere
Poudriere is available in the ports tree in ports-mgmt/poudriere. It can be installed using pkg(8) or from ports:
# pkginstallpoudriere
or
# make -C /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/poudriereinstallclean
There is also a work-in-progress version of Poudriere which will eventually become the next release. It is available
in ports-mgmt/poudriere-devel. This development version is used for the official FreeBSD package builds, so it is
well tested. It often has newer interesting features. A ports committer will want to use the development version
because it is what is used in production, and has all the new features that will make sure everything is exactly right.
A contributor will not necessarily need those as the most important fixes are backported to released version. The
main reason for the use of the development version to build the official package is because it is faster, in a way that
will shorten a full build from 18 hours to 17 hours when using a high end 32 CPU server with 128GB of RAM. Those
optimizations will not matter a lot when building ports on a desktop machine.
9.5.2.Setting Up Poudriere
The port installs a default configuration le, /usr/local/etc/poudriere.conf . Each parameter is documented
in the configuration le and in poudriere(8). Here is a minimal example config le:
ZPOOL=tank
ZROOTFS=/poudriere
BASEFS=/poudriere
DISTFILES_CACHE=/usr/ports/distfiles
RESOLV_CONF=/etc/resolv.conf
FREEBSD_HOST=ftp://ftp.freebsd.org
SVN_HOST=svn.FreeBSD.org
ZPOOL
The name of the ZFS storage pool which Poudriere shall use. Must be listed in the output of zpool status .
143
Creating Poudriere Jails
ZROOTFS
The root of Poudriere-managed le systems. This entry will cause Poudriere to create zfs(8) le systems under
tank/poudriere .
BASEFS
The root mount point for Poudriere le systems. This entry will cause Poudriere to mount tank/poudriere
to /poudriere .
DISTFILES_CACHE
Defines where distfiles are stored. In this example, Poudriere and the host share the distfiles storage directory.
This avoids downloading tarballs which are already present on the system.
RESOLV_CONF
Use the host /etc/resolv.conf inside jails for DNS. This is needed so jails can resolve the URLs of distfiles
when downloading. It is not needed when using a proxy. Refer to the default configuration le for proxy
configuration.
FREEBSD_HOST
The FTP/HTTP server to use when the jails are installed from FreeBSD releases and updated with freebsd-up-
date(8). Choose a server location which is close, for example if the machine is located in Australia, use ft-
p.au.freebsd.org.
SVN_HOST
The server from where jails are installed and updated when using Subversion. Also used for ports tree when
not using portsnap(8). Again, choose a nearby location. A list of official Subversion mirrors can be found in
the FreeBSD Handbook Subversion section.
9.5.3.Creating Poudriere Jails

Create the base jails which Poudriere will use for building:
# poudrierejail -c -j93Ramd64 -v9.3-RELEASE -aamd64
Fetch a 9.3-RELEASE for amd64 from the FTP server given by FREEBSD_HOST in poudriere.conf , create the zfs
le system tank/poudriere/jails/93Ramd64 , mount it on /poudriere/jails/93Ramd64 and extract the 9.3-
RELEASE tarballs into this le system.
# poudrierejail -c -j10i386 -vstable/10 -ai386 -msvn+https
Create tank/poudriere/jails/10i386 , mount it on /poudriere/jails/10i386 , then check out the tip of the Sub-
version branch of FreeBSD-10-STABLE from SVN_HOST in poudriere.conf into /poudriere/jails/10i386/usr/
src , then complete a buildworld and install it into /poudriere/jails/10i386 .
Tip
If a specific Subversion revision is needed, append it to the version string. For example:
# poudrierejail -c -j10i386 -vstable/10@123456 -ai386 -msvn+https
Note
While it is possible to build a newer version of FreeBSD on an older version, most of the time
it will not run. For example, if a stable/10 jail is needed, the host will have to run stable/10
too. Running 10.0-RELEASE is not enough.
144
Caution
The default svn protocol works but is not very secure. Using svn+https along with verifying
the remote server's SSL fingerprint is advised. It will ensure that the les used for building
the jail are from a trusted source.
A list of jails currently known to Poudriere can be shown with poudriere jail -l :
# poudrierejail -l
JAILNAME VERSION ARCH METHOD
93Ramd64 9.3-RELEASE amd64 ftp
10i386 10.0-STABLE i386 svn+https
9.5.4.Keeping Poudriere Jails Updated

Managing updates is very straightforward. The command:
# poudrierejail -u -j JAILNAME
updates the specified jail to the latest version available. For FreeBSD releases, update to the latest patchlevel with
freebsd-update(8). For FreeBSD versions built from source, update to the latest Subversion revision in the branch.
Tip
For jails employing a svn+* method, it is helpful to add -J NumberOfParallelBuildJobs to
speed up the build by increasing the number of parallel compile jobs used. For example, if
the building machine has 6 CPUs, use:
# poudrierejail -u -J6 -j JAILNAME
9.5.5.Setting Up Ports Trees for Use with Poudriere

There are multiple ways to use ports trees in Poudriere. The most straightforward way is to have Poudriere create
a default ports tree for itself:
# poudriereports -c
This command creates tank/poudriere/ports/default , mount it on /poudriere/ports/default , and populate

it using portsnap(8). Afterward it is included in the list of known ports trees:
# poudriereports -l
PORTSTREE METHOD PATH
default portsnap /poudriere/ports/default
Note
Note that the default ports tree is special. Each of the build commands explained later will
implicitly use this ports tree unless specifically specified otherwise. To use another tree, add
-p treename to the commands.
While useful for regular bulk builds, having this default ports tree with the portsnap(8) method may not be the
best way to deal with local modifications for a ports contributor. As with the creation of jails, it is possible to use
145
Using Manually Managed Ports Trees with Poudriere
a different method for creating the ports tree. To add an additional ports tree for testing local modifications and
ports development, checking out the tree via Subversion is possible:
# poudriereports -c -msvn+https -psubversive
Note
The http and https methods need devel/subversion built with the SERF option enabled. It
is enabled by default.
Creates tank/poudriere/ports/subversive and mounts it on /poudriere/ports/subversive . It is then popu-

lated using Subversion. Finally, it is added to the list of known ports trees:
# poudriereports -l
default portsnap /poudriere/ports/default
subversive svn+https /poudriere/ports/subversive
Tip
The svn method allows extra qualifiers to tell Subversion exactly how to fetch data. This is
explained in poudriere(8). For instance, poudriere ports -c -m svn+ssh -p subversive
uses SSH for the checkout.
9.5.6.Using Manually Managed Ports Trees with Poudriere
Depending on the workflow, it can be extremely helpful to use ports trees which are maintained manually. For
instance, if there is a local copy of the ports tree in /work/ports , point Poudriere to the location:
# poudriereports -c -F -fnone -M /work/ports -pdevelopment
This will be listed in the table of known trees:
# poudriereports -l
development - /work/ports
Note
The dash in the METHOD column means that Poudriere will not update or change this ports
tree, ever. It is completely up to the user to maintain this tree, including all local modifica-
tions that may be used for testing new ports and submitting patches.
9.5.7.Keeping Poudriere Ports Trees Updated
As straightforward as with jails described earlier:
# poudriereports -u -p PORTSTREE
Will update the given PORTSTREE , one tree given by the output of poudriere -l , to the latest revision available
on the official servers.
146
Note
Ports trees without a method, see Section9.5.6, Using Manually Managed Ports Trees with
Poudriere, cannot be updated like this. They must be updated manually by the porter.
9.5.8.Testing Ports
After jails and ports trees have been set up, the result of a contributor's modifications to the ports tree can be tested.
For example, local modifications to the www/firefox port located in /work/ports/www/firefox can be tested in
the previously created 9.3-RELEASE jail:
# poudrieretestport -j93Ramd64 -pdevelopment -owww/firefox
This will build all dependencies of Firefox. If a dependency has been built previously and is still up-to-date, the
pre-built package is installed. If a dependency has no up-to-date package, one will be built with default options in
a jail. Then Firefox itself is built.
The complete build of every port is logged to /poudriere/data/logs/bulk/93Ri386-development/ build-

time/logs .
The directory name 93Ri386-development is derived from the arguments to -j and -p, respectively. For conve-
nience, a symbolic link /poudriere/data/logs/bulk/93Ri386-development/latest is also maintained. The link
points to the latest build-time directory. Also in this directory is an index.html for observing the build process
with a web browser.
By default, Poudriere cleans up the jails and leaves log les in the directories mentioned above. To ease investiga-
tion, jails can be kept running after the build by adding -i to testport:
# poudrieretestport -j93Ramd64 -pdevelopment -i -owww/firefox
After the build completes, and regardless of whether it was successful, a shell is provided within the jail. The shell is
used to investigate further. Poudriere can be told to leave the jail running after the build finishes with -I. Poudriere
will show the command to run when the jail is no longer needed. It is then possible to jexec(8) into it:
# poudrieretestport -j93Ramd64 -pdevelopment -I -owww/firefox

[...]
====>>InstallinglocalPkgrepositoryto /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos
====>>Leavingjail93Ramd64-development-nrunning,mountedat /poudriere/data/.
m/93Ramd64-development/refforinteractiveruntesting
====>>Toenterjail:jexec93Ramd64-development-nenv -iTERM=$TERM /usr/bin/login -fp
root
====>>Tostopjail:poudrierejail -k -j93Ramd64 -pdevelopment
# jexec93Ramd64-development-nenv -iTERM=$TERM /usr/bin/login -fproot
# [dosomestuffinthejail]
# exit
# poudrierejail -k -j93Ramd64 -pdevelopment
====>>Umountingfilesystems
An integral part of the FreeBSD ports build infrastructure is the ability to tweak ports to personal preferences with
options. These can be tested with Poudriere as well. Adding the -c:
# poudrieretestport -c -owww/firefox
Presents the port configuration dialog before the port is built. The ports given after -o in the format catego-
ry/portname will use the specified options, all dependencies will use the default options. Testing dependent ports
with non-default options can be accomplished using sets, see Section9.5.9, Using Sets.
147
Using Sets
Tip
When testing ports where pkg-plist is altered during build depending on the selected op-
tions, it is recommended to perform a test run with all options selected and one with all op-
tions deselected.
9.5.9.Using Sets
For all actions involving builds, a so-called set can be specified using -z setname. A set refers to a fully independent
build. This allows, for instance, usage of testport with non-standard options for the dependent ports.
To use sets, Poudriere expects an existing directory structure similar to PORT_DBDIR, defaults to /var/db/ports in
its configuration directory. This directory is then nullfs-mounted into the jails where the ports and their dependen-
cies are built. Usually a suitable starting point can be obtained by recursively copying the existing PORT_DBDIR to /
usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/ jailname-portname-setname-options . This is described in detail in poudriere(8).
For instance, testing www/firefox in a specific set named devset, add the -z devset parameter to the testport
command:
# poudrieretestport -j93Ramd64 -pdevelopment -zdevset -owww/firefox
This will look for the existence of these directories in this order:
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-development-devset-options
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-devset-options
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-development-options
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/devset-options
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/development-options
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-options
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/options
From this list, Poudriere nullfs-mounts the rst existing directory tree into the /var/db/ports directory of the
build jails. Hence, all custom options are used for all the ports during this run of testport.
After the directory structure for a set is provided, the options for a particular port can be altered. For example:
# poudriereoptions -cwww/firefox -zdevset
The configuration dialog for www/firefox is shown, and options can be edited. The selected options are saved to
the devset set.
Note
Poudriere is very flexible in the option configuration. They can be set for particular jails,
ports trees, and for multiple ports by one command. Refer to poudriere(8) for details.
9.5.10.Providing a Custom make.conf File

Similar to using sets, Poudriere will also use a custom make.conf if it is provided. No special command line argu-
ment is necessary. Instead, Poudriere looks for existing les matching a name scheme derived from the command
line. For instance:
148
# poudrieretestport -j93Ramd64 -pdevelopment -zdevset -owww/firefox
causes Poudriere to check for the existence of these les in this order:
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/make.conf
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/devset-make.conf
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/development-make.conf
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-make.conf
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-development-make.conf
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-devset-make.conf
/usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-development-devset-make.conf
Unlike with sets, all of the found les will be appended, in that order, into one make.conf inside the build jails. It
is hence possible to have general make variables, intended to affect all builds in /usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/
make.conf . Special variables, intended to affect only certain jails or sets can be set in specialised make.conf les,
such as /usr/local/etc/poudriere.d/93Ramd64-development-devset-make.conf .
Example9.1.Using make.conf to Change Default Perl

To build a set with a non default Perl version, for example, 5.20 , using a set named perl5-20 , create a
perl5-20-make.conf with this line:
DEFAULT_VERSIONS+=perl=5.20
Note
Note the use of += so that if the variable is already set in the default make.conf its
content will not be overwritten.
9.5.11.Pruning no Longer Needed Distfiles

Poudriere comes with a built-in mechanism to remove outdated distfiles that are no longer used by any port of
a given tree. The command
# poudrieredistclean -p portstree
will scan the distfiles folder, DISTFILES_CACHE in poudriere.conf , versus the ports tree given by the -p port-
stree argument and prompt for removal of those distfiles. To skip the prompt and remove all unused les uncon-
ditionally, the -y argument can be added:
# poudrieredistclean -p portstree -y
9.6.Tinderbox
As an avid ports contributor, take a look at Tinderbox. It is a powerful system for building and testing ports. Install
Tinderbox using ports-mgmt/tinderbox port. Be sure to read supplied documentation since the configuration is
not trivial.
149
Tinderbox
Visit the Tinderbox website for more details.
150
Chapter10.Upgrading a Port
When a port is not the most recent version available from the authors, update the local working copy of /usr/
ports . The port might have already been updated to the new version.
When working with more than a few ports, it will probably be easier to use Subversion to keep the whole ports
collection up-to-date, as described in the Handbook. This will have the added benefit of tracking all the port's
dependencies.
The next step is to see if there is an update already pending. To do this, there are two options. There is a searchable
interface to the FreeBSD Problem Report (PR) or bug database. Select Ports & Packages in the Product multiple
select menu, and enter the name of the port in the Summary eld.
However, sometimes people forget to put the name of the port into the Summary eld in an unambiguous fashion.
In that case, try searching in the Comment eld in the Detailled Bug Information section, or try the FreeBSD Ports
Monitoring System (also known as portsmon ). This system attempts to classify port PRs by portname. To search
for PRs about a particular port, use the Overview of One Port.
If there is no pending PR, the next step is to send an email to the port's maintainer, as shown by make maintainer .
That person may already be working on an upgrade, or have a reason to not upgrade the port right now (because
of, for example, stability problems of the new version), and there is no need to duplicate their work. Note that
unmaintained ports are listed with a maintainer of ports@FreeBSD.org, which is just the general ports mailing list,
so sending mail there probably will not help in this case.
If the maintainer asks you to do the upgrade or there is no maintainer, then help out FreeBSD by preparing the
update! Please do this by using the di(1) command in the base system.
To create a suitable diff for a single patch, copy the le that needs patching to something.orig , save the changes
to something and then create the patch:
% diff -u something .orig something >something.diff
Otherwise, either use the svn diff method (Section10.1, Using Subversion to Make Patches) or copy the con-
tents of the port to an entire different directory and use the result of the recursive di(1) output of the new and
old ports directories (for example, if the modified port directory is called superedit and the original is in our tree
as superedit.bak, then save the result of diff -ruN superedit.bak superedit ). Either unified or context di is
ne, but port committers generally prefer unified dis. Note the use of the -N optionthis is the accepted way to
force di to properly deal with the case of new les being added or old les being deleted. Before sending us the
di, please examine the output to make sure all the changes make sense. (In particular, make sure to rst clean
out the work directories with make clean ).
Note
If some les have been added, copied, moved, or removed, add this information to the prob-
lem report so that the committer picking up the patch will know what svn(1) commands to
run.
To simplify common operations with patch les, use make makepatch as described in Section4.4, Patching. Other
tools exists, like /usr/ports/Tools/scripts/patchtool.py . Before using it, please read /usr/ports/Tools/
scripts/README.patchtool .
If the port is unmaintained, and you are actively using it, please consider volunteering to become its maintainer.
FreeBSD has over 4000 ports without maintainers, and this is an area where more volunteers are always needed.
(For a detailed description of the responsibilities of maintainers, refer to the section in the Developer's Handbook.)
Using Subversion to Make Patches
To submit the di, use the bug submit form (product Ports & Packages , component Individual Port(s) ). If
the submitter is also maintaining the port, be sure to put [MAINTAINER] at the beginning of the Summary line.
Always include the category with the port name, followed by colon, and brief descripton of the issue. For example:
category/portname: add FOO option , or if maintaining the port, [MAINTAINER] category/portname: Update
to X.Y . Please mention any added or deleted les in the message, as they have to be explicitly specified to svn(1)
when doing a commit. Do not compress or encode the di.
Before submitting the bug, review the Writing the problem report section in the Problem Reports article. It con-
tains far more information about how to write useful problem reports.
Important
If the upgrade is motivated by security concerns or a serious fault in the currently commit-
ted port, please notify the Ports Management Team <portmgr@FreeBSD.org> to request im-
mediate rebuilding and redistribution of the port's package. Unsuspecting users of pkg will
otherwise continue to install the old version via pkg install for several weeks.
Note
Please use di(1) or svn diff to create updates to existing ports. Other formats include the
whole le and make it impossible to see just what has changed. When dis are not included,
the entire update might be ignored.
Now that all of that is done, read about how to keep up-to-date in Chapter15, Keeping Up.
10.1.Using Subversion to Make Patches

When possible, please submit a svn(1) di. They are easier to handle than dis between new and old directories.
It is easier to see what has changed, and to update the di if something was modified in the Ports Collection since
the work on it began, or if the committer asks for something to be xed. Also, a patch generated with svn diff
can be easily applied with svn patch and will save some time to the committer.
% cd~/my_wrkdir
% svnco https://svn.FreeBSD.org /ports/head/dns/pdnsd
% cd~/my_wrkdir/pdnsd
This can be anywhere, of course. Building ports is not limited to within /usr/ports/ .
svn.FreeBSD.org is the FreeBSD public Subversion server. See Subversion mirror sites for more information.
While in the port directory, make any changes that are needed. If adding, copying, moving, or removing a le, use
svn to track these changes:
% svnadd new_file
% svncopy some_file file_copy
% svnmove old_name new_name
% svnremove deleted_file
Make sure to check the port using the checklist in Section3.4, Testing the Port and Section3.5, Checking the
Port with portlint .
% svnstatus
% svnupdate
152
Chapter10.Upgrading a Port
This will attempt to merge the differences between the patch and current repository version. Watch the out-
put carefully. The letter in front of each le name indicates what was done with it. See Table10.1, Subversion
Update File Prefixes for a complete list.
Table10.1.Subversion Update File Prexes

U The le was updated without problems.
G The le was updated without problems (only when
working against a remote repository).
M The le had been modified, and was merged without
conflicts.
C The le had been modified, and was merged with con-
flicts.
If C is displayed as a result of svn update , it means something changed in the Subversion repository and svn(1) was
not able to merge the local changes with those from the repository. It is always a good idea to inspect the changes
anyway, since svn(1) does not know anything about the structure of a port, so it might (and probably will) merge
things that do not make sense.
The last step is to make a unified di(1) of the changes:
% svndiff> ../`make -VPKGNAME`.diff
Note
If les have been added, copied, moved, or removed, include the svn(1) add , copy , move , and
remove commands that were used. svn move or svn copy must be run before the patch can
be applied. svn add or svn remove must be run after the patch is applied.
Send the patch following the problem report submission guidelines.
Tip
The patch can be automatically generated and the PR pre-lled with the contact information
by using port submit . See Section9.3, Port Tools for more details.
10.2.UPDATING and MOVED

10.2.1./usr/ports/UPDATING
If upgrading the port requires special steps like changing configuration les or running a specific program, it must
be documented in this le. The format of an entry in this le is:
YYYYMMDD:
AFFECTS:usersofportcategory/portname
AUTHOR:Yourname<Youremailaddress>
Specialinstructions
153
/usr/ports/MOVED
Tip
When including exact portmaster, portupgrade, and/or pkg instructions, please make sure
to get the shell escaping right. For example, do not use:
# pkgdelete -g -fdocbook-xml*docbook-sk*docbook[2345]??-*docbook-4*
As shown, the command will only work with bourne shells. Instead, use the form shown
below, which will work with both bourne shell and c-shell:
# pkgdelete -g -fdocbook-xml\*docbook-sk\*docbook\[2345\]\?\?-\*
docbook-4\*
Note
It is recommended that the AFFECTS line contains a glob matching all the ports affected by
the entry so that automated tools can parse it as easily as possible. If an update concerns all
the existing BIND 9 versions the AFFECTS content must be users of dns/bind9* , it must
not be users of BIND 9
10.2.2./usr/ports/MOVED
This le is used to list moved or removed ports. Each line in the le is made up of the name of the port, where
the port was moved, when, and why. If the port was removed, the section detailing where it was moved can be left
blank. Each section must be separated by the | (pipe) character, like so:
oldname|newname(blankfordeleted)|dateofmove|reason
The date must be entered in the form YYYY-MM-DD . New entries are added to the end of the list to keep it in chrono-
logical order, with the oldest entry at the top of the list.
If a port was removed but has since been restored, delete the line in this le that states that it was removed.
If a port was renamed and then renamed back to its original name, add a new one with the intermediate name to
the old name, and remove the old entry as to not create a loop.
Note
Any changes must be validated with Tools/scripts/MOVEDlint.awk .
If using a ports directory other than /usr/ports , use:
% cd /home/user/ports
% envPORTSDIR=$PWDTools/scripts/MOVEDlint.awk
154
Chapter11.Security
11.1.Why Security is So Important
Bugs are occasionally introduced to the software. Arguably, the most dangerous of them are those opening security
vulnerabilities. From the technical viewpoint, such vulnerabilities are to be closed by exterminating the bugs that
caused them. However, the policies for handling mere bugs and security vulnerabilities are very different.
A typical small bug affects only those users who have enabled some combination of options triggering the bug.
The developer will eventually release a patch followed by a new version of the software, free of the bug, but the
majority of users will not take the trouble of upgrading immediately because the bug has never vexed them. A
critical bug that may cause data loss represents a graver issue. Nevertheless, prudent users know that a lot of
possible accidents, besides software bugs, are likely to lead to data loss, and so they make backups of important
data; in addition, a critical bug will be discovered really soon.
A security vulnerability is all different. First, it may remain unnoticed for years because often it does not cause
software malfunction. Second, a malicious party can use it to gain unauthorized access to a vulnerable system, to
destroy or alter sensitive data; and in the worst case the user will not even notice the harm caused. Third, exposing
a vulnerable system often assists attackers to break into other systems that could not be compromised otherwise.
Therefore closing a vulnerability alone is not enough: notify the audience of it in the most clear and comprehensive
manner, which will allow them to evaluate the danger and take appropriate action.
11.2.Fixing Security Vulnerabilities

While on the subject of ports and packages, a security vulnerability may initially appear in the original distribution
or in the port les. In the former case, the original software developer is likely to release a patch or a new version
instantly. Update the port promptly with respect to the author's x. If the x is delayed for some reason, either
mark the port as FORBIDDEN or introduce a patch le to the port. In the case of a vulnerable port, just x the port
as soon as possible. In either case, follow the standard procedure for submitting changes unless having rights to
commit it directly to the ports tree.
Important
Being a ports committer is not enough to commit to an arbitrary port. Remember that ports
usually have maintainers, must be respected.
Please make sure that the port's revision is bumped as soon as the vulnerability has been closed. That is how the
users who upgrade installed packages on a regular basis will see they need to run an update. Besides, a new package
will be built and distributed over FTP and WWW mirrors, replacing the vulnerable one. Bump PORTREVISION unless
DISTVERSION has changed in the course of correcting the vulnerability. That is, bump PORTREVISION if adding
a patch le to the port, but do not bump it if updating the port to the latest software version and thus already
touched DISTVERSION . Please refer to the corresponding section for more information.
11.3.Keeping the Community Informed

11.3.1.The VuXML Database
A very important and urgent step to take as early after a security vulnerability is discovered as possible is to notify
the community of port users about the jeopardy. Such notification serves two purposes. First, if the danger is
A Short Introduction to VuXML
really severe it will be wise to apply an instant workaround. For example, stop the affected network service or
even deinstall the port completely until the vulnerability is closed. Second, a lot of users tend to upgrade installed
packages only occasionally. They will know from the notification that they must update the package without delay
as soon as a corrected version is available.
Given the huge number of ports in the tree, a security advisory cannot be issued on each incident without creat-
ing a ood and losing the attention of the audience when it comes to really serious matters. Therefore security
vulnerabilities found in ports are recorded in the FreeBSD VuXML database. The Security Officer Team members
also monitor it for issues requiring their intervention.
Committers can update the VuXML database themselves, assisting the Security Officer Team and delivering crucial
information to the community more quickly. Those who are not committers or have discovered an exceptionally
severe vulnerability should not hesitate to contact the Security Officer Team directly, as described on the FreeBSD
Security Information page.
The VuXML database is an XML document. Its source le vuln.xml is kept right inside the port security/vuxml.
Therefore the le's full pathname will be PORTSDIR/security/vuxml/vuln.xml . Each time a security vulnerability
is discovered in a port, please add an entry for it to that le. Until familiar with VuXML, the best thing to do is to
nd an existing entry fitting the case at hand, then copy it and use it as a template.
11.3.2.A Short Introduction to VuXML

The full-blown XML format is complex, and far beyond the scope of this book. However, to gain basic insight on the
structure of a VuXML entry only the notion of tags is needed. XML tag names are enclosed in angle brackets. Each
opening <tag> must have a matching closing </tag>. Tags may be nested. If nesting, the inner tags must be closed
before the outer ones. There is a hierarchy of tags, that is, more complex rules of nesting them. This is similar to
HTML. The major difference is that XML is eXtensible, that is, based on defining custom tags. Due to its intrinsic
structure XML puts otherwise amorphous data into shape. VuXML is particularly tailored to mark up descriptions
of security vulnerabilities.
Now consider a realistic VuXML entry:
<vulnvid="f4bc80f4-da62-11d8-90ea-0004ac98a7b9">
<topic>SeveralvulnerabilitiesfoundinFoo</topic>
<affects>
<package>
<name>foo</name>
<name>foo-devel</name>
<name>ja-foo</name>
<range><ge>1.6</ge><lt>1.9</lt></range>
<range><ge>2.*</ge><lt>2.4_1</lt></range>
<range><eq>3.0b1</eq></range>
</package>
<package>
<name>openfoo</name>
<range><lt>1.10_7</lt></range>
<range><ge>1.2,1</ge><lt>1.3_1,1</lt></range>
</package>
</affects>
<description>
<bodyxmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
J.RandomHackerreports:
<blockquote
cite="http://j.r.hacker.com/advisories/1">
SeveralissuesintheFoosoftwaremaybeexploited
viacarefullycraftedQUUXrequests. Theserequestswill
permittheinjectionofBarcode,mumbletheft,andthe
readabilityoftheFooadministratoraccount.
</blockquote>
</body>
</description>
156
Chapter11.Security
<references>
<freebsdsa>SA-10:75.foo</freebsdsa>
<freebsdpr>ports/987654</freebsdpr>
<cvename>CAN-2010-0201</cvename>
<cvename>CAN-2010-0466</cvename>
<bid>96298</bid>
<certsa>CA-2010-99</certsa>
<certvu>740169</certvu>
<uscertsa>SA10-99A</uscertsa>
<uscertta>SA10-99A</uscertta>
<mlistmsgid="201075606@hacker.com">http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?
l=bugtraq&m=203886607825605</mlist>
<url>http://j.r.hacker.com/advisories/1</url>
</references>
<dates>
<discovery>2010-05-25</discovery>
<entry>2010-07-13</entry>
<modified>2010-09-17</modified>
</dates>
</vuln>
The tag names are supposed to be self-explanatory so we shall take a closer look only at elds which needs to be
lled in:
This is the top-level tag of a VuXML entry. It has a mandatory attribute, vid , specifying a universally unique
identifier (UUID) for this entry (in quotes). Generate a UUID for each new VuXML entry (and do not forget
to substitute it for the template UUID unless writing the entry from scratch). use uuidgen(1) to generate a
VuXML UUID.
This is a one-line description of the issue found.
The names of packages affected are listed there. Multiple names can be given since several packages may
be based on a single master port or software product. This may include stable and development branches,
localized versions, and slave ports featuring different choices of important build-time configuration options.
Important
It is the submitter's responsibility to nd all such related packages when writing a
VuXML entry. Keep in mind that make search name=foo is helpful. The primary points
to look for are:
the foo-devel variant for a foo port;
other variants with a suffix like -a4 (for print-related packages), -without-gui (for
packages with X support disabled), or similar;
jp- , ru- , zh- , and other possible localized variants in the corresponding national
categories of the ports collection.
Affected versions of the package(s) are specified there as one or more ranges using a combination of <lt> ,
<le> , <eq> , <ge> , and <gt> elements. Check that the version ranges given do not overlap.
In a range specification, * (asterisk) denotes the smallest version number. In particular, 2.* is less than 2.a .
Therefore an asterisk may be used for a range to match all possible alpha, beta, and RC versions. For instance,
<ge>2.*</ge><lt>3.*</lt> will selectively match every 2.x version while <ge>2.0</ge><lt>3.0</lt>
will not since the latter misses 2.r3 and matches 3.b .
The above example specifies that affected are versions from 1.6 to 1.9 inclusive, versions 2.x before 2.4_1 ,
and version 3.0b1 .
157
Testing Changes to the VuXML Database
Several related package groups (essentially, ports) can be listed in the <affected> section. This can be used if
several software products (say FooBar, FreeBar and OpenBar) grow from the same code base and still share its
bugs and vulnerabilities. Note the difference from listing multiple names within a single <package> section.
The version ranges have to allow for PORTEPOCH and PORTREVISION if applicable. Please remember that ac-
cording to the collation rules, a version with a non-zero PORTEPOCH is greater than any version without
PORTEPOCH , for example, 3.0,1 is greater than 3.1 or even than 8.9 .
This is a summary of the issue. XHTML is used in this eld. At least enclosing and has to appear.
More complex mark-up may be used, but only for the sake of accuracy and clarity: No eye candy please.
This section contains references to relevant documents. As many references as apply are encouraged.
This is a FreeBSD security advisory.
This is a FreeBSD problem report.
This is a MITRE CVE identifier.
This is a SecurityFocus Bug ID.
This is a US-CERT security advisory.
This is a US-CERT vulnerability note.
This is a US-CERT Cyber Security Alert.
This is a US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert.
This is a URL to an archived posting in a mailing list. The attribute msgid is optional and may specify the
message ID of the posting.
This is a generic URL. Only it if none of the other reference categories apply.
This is the date when the issue was disclosed (YYYY-MM-DD ).
This is the date when the entry was added (YYYY-MM-DD ).
This is the date when any information in the entry was last modified (YYYY-MM-DD ). New entries must not
include this eld. Add it when editing an existing entry.
11.3.3.Testing Changes to the VuXML Database

This example describes a new entry for a vulnerability in the package dropbear that has been xed in version
dropbear-2013.59.
As a prerequisite, install a fresh version of security/vuxml port.
First, check whether there already is an entry for this vulnerability. If there were such an entry, it would match
the previous version of the package, 2013.58 :
% pkgauditdropbear-2013.58
If there is none found, add a new entry for this vulnerability.
% cd${PORTSDIR}/security/vuxml
% makenewentry
Verify its syntax and formatting:
% makevalidate
Note
At least one of these packages needs to be installed: textproc/libxml2, textproc/jade.
Verify that the <affected> section of the entry will match the correct packages:
% pkgaudit -f${PORTSDIR}/security/vuxml/vuln.xmldropbear-2013.58
Make sure that the entry produces no spurious matches in the output.
158
Chapter11.Security
Now check whether the right package versions are matched by the entry:
% pkgaudit -f${PORTSDIR}/security/vuxml/vuln.xmldropbear-2013.58dropbear-2013.59
dropbear-2012.58isvulnerable:
dropbear --exposureofsensitiveinformation,DoS
CVE:CVE-2013-4434
CVE:CVE-2013-4421
WWW:http://portaudit.FreeBSD.org/8c9b48d1-3715-11e3-a624-00262d8b701d.html
1problem(s)intheinstalledpackagesfound.
The former version matches while the latter one does not.
159
Chapter12.Dos and Don'ts
12.1.Introduction
Here is a list of common dos and don'ts that are encountered during the porting process. Check the port against
this list, but also check ports in the PR database that others have submitted. Submit any comments on ports as
described in Bug Reports and General Commentary. Checking ports in the PR database will both make it faster for
us to commit them, and prove that you know what you are doing.
12.2.WRKDIR
Do not write anything to les outside WRKDIR . WRKDIR is the only place that is guaranteed to be writable during the
port build (see installing ports from a CDROM for an example of building ports from a read-only tree). The pkg-*
les can be modified by redefining a variable rather than overwriting the le.
12.3.WRKDIRPREFIX
Make sure the port honors WRKDIRPREFIX. Most ports do not have to worry about this. In particular, when refer-
ring to a WRKDIR of another port, note that the correct location is WRKDIRPREFIXPORTSDIR/subdir/name/work not
PORTSDIR/ subdir/name/work or .CURDIR/../../subdir/name/work or some such.
Also, if defining WRKDIR , make sure to prepend ${WRKDIRPREFIX}${.CURDIR} in the front.
12.4.Differentiating Operating Systems and OS Versions

Some code needs modifications or conditional compilation based upon what version of FreeBSD Unix it is running
under. The preferred way to tell FreeBSD versions apart are the __FreeBSD_version and __FreeBSD__ macros de-
fined in sys/param.h. If this le is not included add the code,
#include<sys/param.h>
to the proper place in the .c le.
__FreeBSD__ is defined in all versions of FreeBSD as their major version number. For example, in FreeBSD 9.x,
__FreeBSD__ is defined to be 9.
#if__FreeBSD__>=9
# if__FreeBSD_version>=901000
/*9.1+releasespecificcodehere*/
# endif
#endif
A complete list of __FreeBSD_version values is available in Chapter17, __FreeBSD_version Values.
12.5.Writing Something After bsd.port.mk

Do not write anything after the .include <bsd.port.mk> line. It usually can be avoided by including bs-
d.port.pre.mk somewhere in the middle of the Makefile and bsd.port.post.mk at the end.
Use the exec Statement in Wrapper Scripts
Important
Include either the bsd.port.pre.mk/bsd.port.post.mk pair or bsd.port.mk only; do not
mix these two usages.
bsd.port.pre.mk only defines a few variables, which can be used in tests in the Makefile, bsd.port.post.mk de-
fines the rest.
Here are some important variables defined in bsd.port.pre.mk (this is not the complete list, please read bs-
d.port.mk for the complete list).
ARCH The architecture as returned by uname -m (for example,
i386 )
OPSYS The operating system type, as returned by uname -s (for

example, FreeBSD)
OSREL The release version of the operating system (for exam-
ple, 2.1.5 or 2.2.7 )
OSVERSION The numeric version of the operating system; the same
as __FreeBSD_version.
LOCALBASE The base of the local tree (for example, /usr/local )
PREFIX Where the port installs itself (see more on PREFIX).
Note
When MASTERDIR is needed, always define it before including bsd.port.pre.mk.
Here are some examples of things that can be added after bsd.port.pre.mk:
#noneedtocompilelang/perl5ifperl5isalreadyinsystem
.if${OSVERSION}>300003
BROKEN= perlisinsystem
.endif
Always use tab instead of spaces after BROKEN=.
12.6.Use the exec Statement in Wrapper Scripts

If the port installs a shell script whose purpose is to launch another program, and if launching that program is the
last action performed by the script, make sure to launch the program using the exec statement, for instance:
#!/bin/sh
exec%%LOCALBASE%%/bin/java -jar%%DATADIR%%/foo.jar "$@"
The exec statement replaces the shell process with the specified program. If exec is omitted, the shell process
remains in memory while the program is executing, and needlessly consumes system resources.
162
12.7.Do Things Rationally

The Makefile should do things in a simple and reasonable manner. Making it a couple of lines shorter or more
readable is always better. Examples include using a make .if construct instead of a shell if construct, not redefin-
ing do-extract if redefining EXTRACT* is enough, and using GNU_CONFIGURE instead of CONFIGURE_ARGS += --
prefix=${PREFIX} .
If a lot of new code is needed to do something, there may already be an implementation of it in bsd.port.mk.
While hard to read, there are a great many seemingly-hard problems for which bsd.port.mk already provides a
shorthand solution.
12.8.Respect Both CC and CXX

The port must respect both CC and CXX . What we mean by this is that the port must not set the values of these
variables absolutely, overriding existing values; instead, it may append whatever values it needs to the existing
values. This is so that build options that affect all ports can be set globally.
If the port does not respect these variables, please add NO_PACKAGE=ignores either cc or cxx to the Makefile.
Here is an example of a Makefile respecting both CC and CXX . Note the ?=:
CC?=gcc
CXX?=g++
Here is an example which respects neither CC nor CXX :
CC=gcc
CXX=g++
Both CC and CXX can be defined on FreeBSD systems in /etc/make.conf . The rst example defines a value if it
was not previously set in /etc/make.conf , preserving any system-wide definitions. The second example clobbers
anything previously defined.
12.9.Respect CFLAGS
The port must respect CFLAGS . What we mean by this is that the port must not set the value of this variable ab-
solutely, overriding the existing value. Instead, it may append whatever values it needs to the existing value. This
is so that build options that affect all ports can be set globally.
If it does not, please add NO_PACKAGE=ignores cflags to the Makefile.
Here is an example of a Makefile respecting CFLAGS . Note the +=:
CFLAGS+= -Wall -Werror
Here is an example which does not respect CFLAGS :
CFLAGS= -Wall -Werror
CFLAGS is defined on FreeBSD systems in /etc/make.conf . The rst example appends additional ags to CFLAGS ,
preserving any system-wide definitions. The second example clobbers anything previously defined.
Remove optimization ags from the third party Makefiles. The system CFLAGS contains system-wide optimization
ags. An example from an unmodified Makefile:
163
Verbose Build Logs
CFLAGS= -O3 -funroll-loops -DHAVE_SOUND
Using system optimization ags, the Makefile would look similar to this example:
CFLAGS+= -DHAVE_SOUND
12.10.Verbose Build Logs

Make the port build system display all commands executed during the build stage. Complete build logs are crucial
to debugging port problems.
Non-informative build log example (bad):
CC source1.o
CC source2.o
CCLD someprogram
Verbose build log example (good):
cc -O2 -pipe -I/usr/local/include -c -osource1.osource1.c

cc -O2 -pipe -I/usr/local/include -c -osource2.osource2.c
cc -osomeprogramsource1.osource2.o -L/usr/local/lib -lsomelib
Some build systems such as CMake, ninja, and GNU configure are set up for verbose logging by the ports framework.
In other cases, ports might need individual tweaks.
12.11.Feedback
Do send applicable changes and patches to the upstream maintainer for inclusion in the next release of the code.
This makes updating to the next release that much easier.
12.12.README.html
README.html is not part of the port, but generated by make readme . Do not include this le in patches or commits.
Note
If make readme fails, make sure that the default value of ECHO_MSG has not been modified
by the port.
12.13.Marking a Port as Architecture Neutral

Ports that do not have any architecture-dependent les or requirements are identified by setting NO_ARCH=yes .
12.14.Marking a Port Not Installable with BROKEN, FORBIDDEN, or IGNORE

In certain cases, users must be prevented from installing a port. There are several variables that can be used in
a port's Makefile to tell the user that the port cannot be installed. The value of these make variables will be the
reason that is shown to users for why the port refuses to install itself. Please use the correct make variable. Each
variable conveys radically different meanings, both to users and to automated systems that depend on Makefiles,
such as the ports build cluster, FreshPorts, and portsmon.
164
12.14.1.Variables
BROKEN is reserved for ports that currently do not compile, install, deinstall, or run correctly. Use it for ports
where the problem is believed to be temporary.
If instructed, the build cluster will still attempt to try to build them to see if the underlying problem has been
resolved. (However, in general, the cluster is run without this.)
For instance, use BROKEN when a port:
does not compile
fails its configuration or installation process
installs les outside of ${PREFIX}
does not remove all its les cleanly upon deinstall (however, it may be acceptable, and desirable, for the port
to leave user-modified les behind)
has runtime issues on systems where it is supposed to run ne.
FORBIDDEN is used for ports that contain a security vulnerability or induce grave concern regarding the security
of a FreeBSD system with a given port installed (for example, a reputably insecure program or a program that
provides easily exploitable services). Mark ports as FORBIDDEN as soon as a particular piece of software has a
vulnerability and there is no released upgrade. Ideally upgrade ports as soon as possible when a security vul-
nerability is discovered so as to reduce the number of vulnerable FreeBSD hosts (we like being known for being
secure), however sometimes there is a noticeable time gap between disclosure of a vulnerability and an updated
release of the vulnerable software. Do not mark a port FORBIDDEN for any reason other than security.
IGNORE is reserved for ports that must not be built for some other reason. Use it for ports where the problem
is believed to be structural. The build cluster will not, under any circumstances, build ports marked as IGNORE.
For instance, use IGNORE when a port:
does not work on the installed version of FreeBSD
has a distfile which may not be automatically fetched due to licensing restrictions
does not work with some other currently installed port (for instance, the port depends on www/apache20
but www/apache22 is installed)
Note
If a port would conflict with a currently installed port (for example, if they install a le
in the same place that performs a different function), use CONFLICTS instead. CONFLICTS
will set IGNORE by itself.
To mark a port as IGNOREd only on certain architectures, there are two other convenience variables that will
automatically set IGNORE: ONLY_FOR_ARCHS and NOT_FOR_ARCHS . Examples:
ONLY_FOR_ARCHS= i386amd64
NOT_FOR_ARCHS= ia64sparc64
A custom IGNORE message can be set using ONLY_FOR_ARCHS_REASON and NOT_FOR_ARCHS_REASON . Per architec-
ture entries are possible with ONLY_FOR_ARCHS_REASON_ARCH and NOT_FOR_ARCHS_REASON_ ARCH .
165
Implementation Notes
If a port fetches i386 binaries and installs them, set IA32_BINARY_PORT. If this variable is set, /usr/lib32 must
be present for IA32 versions of libraries and the kernel must support IA32 compatibility. If one of these two
dependencies is not satisfied, IGNORE will be set automatically.
12.14.2.Implementation Notes
Do not quote the values of BROKEN, IGNORE, and related variables. Due to the way the information is shown to the
user, the wording of messages for each variable differ:
BROKEN= failstolinkwithbase -lcrypto
IGNORE= unsupportedonrecentversions
resulting in this output from make describe :
===> foobar-0.1ismarkedasbroken:failstolinkwithbase -lcrypto.
===> foobar-0.1isunsupportedonrecentversions.
12.15.Marking a Port for Removal with DEPRECATED or EXPIRATION_DATE

Do remember that BROKEN and FORBIDDEN are to be used as a temporary resort if a port is not working. Permanently
broken ports will be removed from the tree entirely.
When it makes sense to do so, users can be warned about a pending port removal with DEPRECATED and EX-
PIRATION_DATE. The former is a string stating why the port is scheduled for removal; the latter is a string in ISO
8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD). Both will be shown to the user.
It is possible to set DEPRECATED without an EXPIRATION_DATE (for instance, recommending a newer version of the
port), but the converse does not make any sense.
There is no set policy on how much notice to give. Current practice seems to be one month for security-related
issues and two months for build issues. This also gives any interested committers a little time to x the problems.
12.16.Avoid Use of the .error Construct

The correct way for a Makefile to signal that the port cannot be installed due to some external factor (for instance,
the user has specified an illegal combination of build options) is to set a non-blank value to IGNORE. This value will
be formatted and shown to the user by make install .
It is a common mistake to use .error for this purpose. The problem with this is that many automated tools that
work with the ports tree will fail in this situation. The most common occurrence of this is seen when trying to build
/usr/ports/INDEX (see Section9.1, Running make describe ). However, even more trivial commands such as
make maintainer also fail in this scenario. This is not acceptable.
Example12.1.How to Avoid Using .error

The rst of the next two Makefile snippets will cause make index to fail, while the second one will not:
.error "optionisnotsupported"
IGNORE=optionisnotsupported
166
12.17.Usage of sysctl
The usage of sysctl is discouraged except in targets. This is because the evaluation of any makevars, such as used
during make index , then has to run the command, further slowing down that process.
Only use sysctl(8) through SYSCTL , as it contains the fully qualified path and can be overridden, if one has such
a special need.
12.18.Rerolling Distfiles
Sometimes the authors of software change the content of released distfiles without changing the le's name. Verify
that the changes are official and have been performed by the author. It has happened in the past that the distfile
was silently altered on the download servers with the intent to cause harm or compromise end user security.
Put the old distfile aside, download the new one, unpack them and compare the content with di(1). If there is
nothing suspicious, update distinfo.
Important
Be sure to summarize the differences in the PR and commit log, so that other people know
that nothing bad has happened.
Contact the authors of the software and confirm the changes with them.
12.19.Use POSIX Standards

FreeBSD ports generally expect POSIX compliance. Some software and build systems make assumptions based on
a particular operating system or environment that can cause problems when used in a port.
Do not use /proc if there are any other ways of getting the information. For example, setprogname(argv[0]) in
main() and then getprogname(3) to know the executable name.
Do not rely on behavior that is undocumented by POSIX.
Do not record timestamps in the critical path of the application if it also works without. Getting timestamps may be
slow, depending on the accuracy of timestamps in the OS. If timestamps are really needed, determine how precise
they have to be and use an API which is documented to just deliver the needed precision.
A number of simple syscalls (for example gettimeofday(2), getpid(2)) are much faster on Linux than on any other
operating system due to caching and the vsyscall performance optimizations. Do not rely on them being cheap in
performance-critical applications. In general, try hard to avoid syscalls if possible.
Do not rely on Linux-specific socket behavior. In particular, default socket buer sizes are different (call setsock-
opt(2) with SO_SNDBUF and SO_RCVBUF, and while Linux's send(2) blocks when the socket buer is full, FreeBSD's
will fail and set ENOBUFS in errno.
If relying on non-standard behavior is required, encapsulate it properly into a generic API, do a check for the
behavior in the configure stage, and stop if it is missing.
Check the man pages to see if the function used is a POSIX interface (in the STANDARDS section of the man page).
Do not assume that /bin/sh is bash. Ensure that a command line passed to system(3) will work with a POSIX
compliant shell.
167
Miscellanea
A list of common bashisms is available here.
Check that headers are included in the POSIX or man page recommended way. For example, sys/types.h is often
forgotten, which is not as much of a problem for Linux as it is for FreeBSD.
12.20.Miscellanea
Always double-check pkg-descr and pkg-plist . If reviewing a port and a better wording can be achieved, do so.
Do not copy more copies of the GNU General Public License into our system, please.
Please be careful to note any legal issues! Do not let us illegally distribute software!
168
Chapter13.A Sample Makefile
Here is a sample Makefile that can be used to create a new port. Make sure to remove all the extra comments
(ones between brackets).
The format shown is the recommended one for ordering variables, empty lines between sections, and so on. This
format is designed so that the most important information is easy to locate. We recommend using portlint to check
the Makefile.
[theheader...justtomakeiteasierforustoidentifytheports.]
#$FreeBSD$
[^^^^^^^^^ThiswillbeautomaticallyreplacedwithRCSIDstringbySVN
whenitiscommittedtoourrepository. Ifupgradingaport,donotalter
thislinebackto "$FreeBSD$". SVNdealswithitautomatically.]
[sectiontodescribetheportitselfandthemastersite -PORTNAME
andPORTVERSIONortheDISTVERSION*variablesarealwaysfirst,
followedbyCATEGORIES,andthenMASTER_SITES,whichcanbefollowed
byMASTER_SITE_SUBDIR. PKGNAMEPREFIXandPKGNAMESUFFIX,ifneeded,
willbeafterthat. ThencomesDISTNAME,EXTRACT_SUFXand/or
DISTFILES,andthenEXTRACT_ONLY,asnecessary.]
PORTNAME= xdvi
DISTVERSION= 18.2
CATEGORIES= print
[donotforgetthetrailingslash("/")!
ifnotusingMASTER_SITE_*macros]
MASTER_SITES= ${MASTER_SITE_XCONTRIB}
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= applications
PKGNAMEPREFIX= ja-
DISTNAME= xdvi-pl18
[setthisifthesourceisnotinthestandard ".tar.gz"form]
EXTRACT_SUFX= .tar.Z
[sectionfordistributedpatches --canbeempty]
PATCH_SITES= ftp://ftp.sra.co.jp/pub/X11/japanese/
PATCHFILES= xdvi-18.patch1.gzxdvi-18.patch2.gz
[Ifthedistributedpatcheswerenotmaderelativeto${WRKSRC},
thismayneedtobetweaked]
PATCH_DIST_STRIP= -p1
[maintainer;*mandatory*! Thisisthepersonwhoisvolunteeringto
handleportupdates,buildbreakages,andtowhomauserscandirect
questionsandbugreports. TokeepthequalityofthePortsCollection
ashighaspossible,wedonotacceptnewportsthatareassignedto
"ports@FreeBSD.org".]
MAINTAINER= asami@FreeBSD.org
COMMENT= DVIPreviewerfortheXWindowSystem
[license --shouldnotbeempty]
LICENSE= BSD2CLAUSE
LICENSE_FILE= ${WRKSRC}/LICENSE
[dependencies --canbeempty]
RUN_DEPENDS= gs:print/ghostscript
[IfitrequiresGNUmake,not /usr/bin/make,tobuild...]
USES=gmake
[IfitisanXapplicationandrequires "xmkmf -a"toberun...]
USES=imake
[Ifthesourceisobtainedfromgithub,removeMASTER_SITE*and...]
USE_GITHUB= yes
GH_ACCOUNT= example
[thissectionisforotherstandardbsd.port.mkvariablesthatdonot]
belongtoanyoftheabove]
[Ifitasksquestionsduringconfigure,build,install...]
IS_INTERACTIVE= yes
[Ifitextractstoadirectoryotherthan${DISTNAME}...]
WRKSRC= ${WRKDIR}/xdvi-new
[Ifitrequiresa "configure"scriptgeneratedbyGNUautoconftoberun]
GNU_CONFIGURE= yes
[etcetera.]
[Ifitrequiresoptions,thissectionisforoptions]
OPTIONS_DEFINE= DOCSEXAMPLESFOO
OPTIONS_DEFAULT= FOO
[Ifoptionswillchangethefilesinplist]
OPTIONS_SUB=yes
FOO_DESC= Enablefoosupport
[non-standardvariablestobeusedintherulesbelow]
MY_FAVORITE_RESPONSE= "yeah,right"
[thenthespecialrules,intheordertheyarecalled]
pre-fetch:
igofetchsomething,yeah
post-patch:
ineedtodosomethingafterpatch,great
pre-install:
andthensomemorestuffbeforeinstalling,wow
[andthentheepilogue]
170
Chapter14.Order of Variables in
Port Makefiles
The rst sections of the Makefile must always come in the same order. This standard makes it so everyone can
easily read any port without having to search for variables in a random order.
The rst line of a Makefile is always a comment containing the Subversion version control ID, followed by an
empty line. In new ports, it looks like this:
#$FreeBSD$
In existing ports, Subversion has expanded it to look like this:

#$FreeBSD:head/ports-mgmt/pkg/Makefile4370072017-03-2621:25:47Zbapt$
Note
The sections and variables described here are mandatory in a ordinary port. In a slave port,
many sections variables and can be skipped.
Important
Each following block must be separated from the previous block by a single blank line.
In the following blocks, only set the variables that are required by the port. Define these
variables in the order they are shown here.
14.1.PORTNAME Block
This block is the most important. It defines the port name, version, distribution le location, and category. The
variables must be in this order:
PORTNAME
PORTVERSION
DISTVERSIONPREFIX
DISTVERSION
DISTVERSIONSUFFIX
PORTREVISION
PORTEPOCH
CATEGORIES
MASTER_SITES
PATCHFILES Block
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR (deprecated)
PKGNAMEPREFIX
PKGNAMESUFFIX
DISTNAME
EXTRACT_SUFX
DISTFILES
DIST_SUBDIR
EXTRACT_ONLY
Important
Only one of PORTVERSION and DISTVERSION can be used.
14.2.PATCHFILES Block
This block is optional. The variables are:
PATCH_SITES
PATCHFILES
PATCH_DIST_STRIP
14.3.MAINTAINER Block
This block is mandatory. The variables are:
MAINTAINER
COMMENT
14.4.LICENSE Block
This block is optional, although it is highly recommended. The variables are:
LICENSE
LICENSE_COMB
LICENSE_GROUPS or LICENSE_GROUPS_NAME
LICENSE_NAME or LICENSE_NAME_NAME
LICENSE_TEXT or LICENSE_TEXT_NAME
LICENSE_FILE or LICENSE_FILE_NAME
LICENSE_PERMS or LICENSE_PERMS_NAME
172
Chapter14.Order of Variables in Port Makefiles
LICENSE_DISTFILES or LICENSE_DISTFILES_NAME
If there are multiple licenses, sort the different LICENSE_VAR _NAME variables by license name.
14.5.Generic BROKEN/IGNORE/DEPRECATED Messages

DEPRECATED
EXPIRATION_DATE
FORBIDDEN
BROKEN
BROKEN_*
IGNORE
IGNORE_*
ONLY_FOR_ARCHS
ONLY_FOR_ARCHS_REASON*
NOT_FOR_ARCHS
NOT_FOR_ARCHS_REASON*
Note
BROKEN* and IGNORE* can be any generic variables, for example, IGNORE_amd64, BRO-
KEN_FreeBSD_10, BROKEN_SSL, etc.
If the port is marked BROKEN when some conditions are met, and such conditions can only
be tested after including bsd.port.options.mk or bsd.port.pre.mk, then those variables
should be set later, in Section14.10, The Rest of the Variables.
14.6.The Dependencies Block

FETCH_DEPENDS
EXTRACT_DEPENDS
PATCH_DEPENDS
BUILD_DEPENDS
LIB_DEPENDS
RUN_DEPENDS
TEST_DEPENDS
173
USES and USE_x
14.7.USES and USE_x

Start this section with defining USES , and then possible USE_x.
Keep related variables close together. For example, if using USE_GITHUB , always put the GH_* variables right after it.
14.8.Standard bsd.port.mk Variables

This section block is for variables that can be defined in bsd.port.mk that do not belong in any of the previous
section blocks.
Order is not important, however try to keep similar variables together. For example uid and gid variables USERS
and GROUPS . Configuration variables CONFIGURE_* and *_CONFIGURE. List of les, and directories PORTDOCS and
PORTEXAMPLES.
14.9.Options and Helpers

If the port uses the options framework, define OPTIONS_DEFINE and OPTIONS_DEFAULT rst, then the other OP-
TIONS_* variables rst, then the *_DESC descriptions, then the options helpers. Try and sort all of those alphabet-
ically.
Example14.1.Options Variables Order Example

The FOO and BAR options do not have a standard description, so one need to be written. The other options
already have one in Mk/bsd.options.desc.mk so writing one is not needed. The DOCS and EXAMPLES use tar-
get helpers to install their les, they are shown here for completeness, though they belong in Section14.11,
The Targets, so other variables and targets could be inserted before them.
OPTIONS_DEFINE= DOCSEXAMPLESFOOBAR
OPTIONS_DEFAULT= FOO
OPTIONS_RADIO= SSL
OPTIONS_RADIO_SSL= OPENSSLGNUTLS
OPTIONS_SUB= yes
BAR_DESC= Enablebarsupport
FOO_DESC= Enablefoosupport
BAR_CONFIGURE_WITH= bar=${LOCALBASE}
GNUTLS_CONFIGURE_ON= --with-ssl=gnutls
OPENSSL_CONFIGURE_ON= --with-ssl=openssl
post-install-DOCS-on:
${MKDIR}${STAGEDIR}${DOCSDIR}
cd${WRKSRC}/doc&&${COPYTREE_SHARE} .${STAGEDIR}${DOCSDIR}
post-install-EXAMPLES-on:
cd${WRKSRC}/ex&&${COPYTREE_SHARE} .${STAGEDIR}${DOCSDIR}
14.10.The Rest of the Variables

And then, the rest of the variables that are not mentioned in the previous blocks.
174
Chapter14.Order of Variables in Port Makefiles
14.11.The Targets
After all the variables are defined, the optional make(1) targets can be defined. Keep pre-* before post- * and in
the same order as the different stages run:
fetch
extract
patch
configure
build
install
test
175
Chapter15.Keeping Up
The FreeBSD Ports Collection is constantly changing. Here is some information on how to keep up.
15.1.FreshPorts
One of the easiest ways to learn about updates that have already been committed is by subscribing to FreshPorts.
Multiple ports can be monitored. Maintainers are strongly encouraged to subscribe, because they will receive
notification of not only their own changes, but also any changes that any other FreeBSD committer has made.
(These are often necessary to keep up with changes in the underlying ports frameworkalthough it would be
most polite to receive an advance heads-up from those committing such changes, sometimes this is overlooked
or impractical. Also, in some cases, the changes are very minor in nature. We expect everyone to use their best
judgement in these cases.)
To use FreshPorts, an account is required. Those with registered email addresses at @FreeBSD.org will see the opt-
in link on the right-hand side of the web pages. Those who already have a FreshPorts account but are not using a
@FreeBSD.org email address can change the email to @FreeBSD.org, subscribe, then change it back again.
FreshPorts also has a sanity test feature which automatically tests each commit to the FreeBSD ports tree. If sub-
scribed to this service, a committer will receive notifications of any errors which FreshPorts detects during sanity
testing of their commits.
15.2.The Web Interface to the Source Repository

It is possible to browse the les in the source repository by using a web interface. Changes that affect the entire
port system are now documented in the CHANGES le. Changes that affect individual ports are now documented
in the UPDATING le. However, the definitive answer to any question is undoubtedly to read the source code of
bsd.port.mk, and associated les.
15.3.The FreeBSD Ports Mailing List

As a ports maintainer, consider subscribing to FreeBSD ports mailing list. Important changes to the way ports work
will be announced there, and then committed to CHANGES .
If the volume of messages on this mailing list is too high, consider following FreeBSD ports announce mailing list
which contains only announcements.
15.4.The FreeBSD Port Building Cluster

One of the least-publicized strengths of FreeBSD is that an entire cluster of machines is dedicated to continually
building the Ports Collection, for each of the major OS releases and for each Tier-1 architecture.
Individual ports are built unless they are specifically marked with IGNORE. Ports that are marked with BROKEN will
still be attempted, to see if the underlying problem has been resolved. (This is done by passing TRYBROKEN to the
port's Makefile.)
15.5.Portscout: the FreeBSD Ports Distfile Scanner

The build cluster is dedicated to building the latest release of each port with distfiles that have already been fetched.
However, as the Internet continually changes, distfiles can quickly go missing. Portscout, the FreeBSD Ports distfile
The FreeBSD Ports Monitoring System
scanner, attempts to query every download site for every port to nd out if each distfile is still available. Portscout
can generate HTML reports and send emails about newly available ports to those who request them. Unless not
otherwise subscribed, maintainers are asked to check periodically for changes, either by hand or using the RSS feed.
Portscout's rst page gives the email address of the port maintainer, the number of ports the maintainer is re-
sponsible for, the number of those ports with new distfiles, and the percentage of those ports that are out-of-date.
The search function allows for searching by email address for a specific maintainer, and for selecting whether only
out-of-date ports are shown.
Upon clicking on a maintainer's email address, a list of all of their ports is displayed, along with port category,
current version number, whether or not there is a new version, when the port was last updated, and finally when
it was last checked. A search function on this page allows the user to search for a specific port.
Clicking on a port name in the list displays the FreshPorts port information.
15.6.The FreeBSD Ports Monitoring System

Another handy resource is the FreeBSD Ports Monitoring System (also known as portsmon ). This system comprises
a database that processes information from several sources and allows it to be browsed via a web interface. Cur-
rently, the ports Problem Reports (PRs), the error logs from the build cluster, and individual les from the ports
collection are used. In the future, this will be expanded to include the distfile survey, as well as other sources.
To get started, use the Overview of One Port search page to nd all the information about a port.
This is the only resource available that maps PR entries to portnames. PR submitters do not always include the
portname in their Synopsis, although we would prefer that they did. So, portsmon is a good place to nd out
whether an existing port has any PRs led against it, any build errors, or if a new port the porter is considering
creating has already been submitted.
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Chapter16.Using USES Macros
16.1.An Introduction to USES
USES macros make it easy to declare requirements and settings for a port. They can add dependencies, change
building behavior, add metadata to packages, and so on, all by selecting simple, preset values..
Each section in this chapter describes a possible value for USES , along with its possible arguments. Arguments are
appeneded to the value after a colon (:). Multiple arguments are separated by commas (,).
Example16.1.Using Multiple Values

USES= bisonperl
Example16.2.Adding an Argument
USES= gmake:lite
Example16.3.Adding Multiple Arguments

USES= drupal:7,theme
Example16.4.Mixing it All Together

USES= pgsql:9.3+cpepython:2.7,build
16.2.7z
Possible arguments: (none), p7zip , partial
Extract using 7z(1) instead of bsdtar(1) and sets EXTRACT_SUFX=.7z. The p7zip option forces a dependency on the
7z from archivers/p7zip if the one from the base system is not able to extract the les. EXTRACT_SUFX is not changed
if the partial option is used, this can be used if the main distribution le does not have a .7z extension.
16.3.ada
Possible arguments: (none), 5, 6
autoreconf
Depends on an Ada-capable compiler, and sets CC accordingly. Defaults to use gcc 5 from ports. Use the :X version
option to force building with a different version.
16.4.autoreconf
Possible arguments: (none), build
Runs autoreconf. It encapsulates the aclocal, autoconf, autoheader, automake, autopoint, and libtoolize com-
mands. Each command applies to ${AUTORECONF_WRKSRC}/configure.ac or its old name, ${AUTORECONF_WRKSR-
C}/configure.in . If configure.ac defines subdirectories with their own configure.ac using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
autoreconf will recursively update those as well. The :build argument only adds build time dependencies on
those tools but does not run autoreconf. A port can set AUTORECONF_WRKSRC if WRKSRC does not contain the path
to configure.ac.
16.5.blaslapack
Possible arguments: (none), atlas, netlib (default), gotoblas, openblas
Adds dependencies on Blas / Lapack libraries.
16.6.bdb
Possible arguments: (none), 48, 5 (default), 6
Add dependency on the Berkeley DB library. Default to databases/db5. It can also depend on databases/db48 when
using the :48 argument or databases/db6 with :6. It is possible to declare a range of acceptable values, :48+ nds
the highest installed version, and falls back to 4.8 if nothing else is installed. INVALID_BDB_VER can be used to
specify versions which do not work with this port. The framework exposes the following variables to the port:
BDB_LIB_NAME
The name of the Berkeley DB library. For example, when using databases/db5, it contains db-5.3 .
BDB_LIB_CXX_NAME
The name of the Berkeley DB C++ library. For example, when using databases/db5, it contains db_cxx-5.3 .
BDB_INCLUDE_DIR
The location of the Berkeley DB include directory. For example, when using databases/db5, it will contain
${LOCALBASE}/include/db5 .
BDB_LIB_DIR
The location of the Berkeley DB library directory. For example, when using databases/db5, it contains ${LO-
CALBASE}/lib .
BDB_VER
The detected Berkeley DB version. For example, if using USES=bdb:48+ and Berkeley DB 5 is installed, it con-
tains 5.
Important
databases/db48 is deprecated and unsupported. It must not be used by any port.
180
16.7.bison
Possible arguments: (none), build , run , both
Uses devel/bison By default, with no arguments or with the build argument, it implies bison is a build-time de-
pendency, run implies a run-time dependency, and both implies both run-time and build-time dependencies.
16.8.charsetfix
Possible arguments: (none)
Prevents the port from installing charset.alias . This must be installed only by converters/libiconv. CHARSET-
FIX_MAKEFILEIN can be set to a path relative to WRKSRC if charset.alias is not installed by ${WRKSRC}/Make-
file.in.
16.9.cmake
Possible arguments: (none), outsource, run
Uses CMake for configuring and building. With the outsource argument, an out-of-source build will be performed.
With the run argument, a run-time dependency is registered. For more information see Section 6.5.4, Using
cmake .
16.10.compiler
Possible arguments: (none), c++14-lang , c++11-lang , gcc-c++11-lib , c++11-lib , c++0x , c11 , openmp, nested-
fct, features
Determines which compiler to use based on any given wishes. Use c++14-lang if the port needs a C++14-capable
compiler, gcc-c++11-lib if the port needs the g++ compiler with a C++11 library, or c++11-lib if the port needs
a C++11-ready standard library. If the port needs a compiler understanding C++11, C++0X, C11, OpenMP, or nested
functions, the corresponding parameters can be used. Use features to request a list of features supported by the
default compiler. After including bsd.port.pre.mk the port can inspect the results using these variables:
COMPILER_TYPE: the default compiler on the system, either gcc or clang
ALT_COMPILER_TYPE: the alternative compiler on the system, either gcc or clang. Only set if two compilers are
present in the base system.
COMPILER_VERSION: the rst two digits of the version of the default compiler.
ALT_COMPILER_VERSION: the rst two digits of the version of the alternative compiler, if present.
CHOSEN_COMPILER_TYPE: the chosen compiler, either gcc or clang
COMPILER_FEATURES: the features supported by the default compiler. It currently lists the C++ library.
16.11.cpe
Include Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) information in package manifest as a CPE 2.3 formatted string. See
the CPE specification for details. To add CPE information to a port, follow these steps:
1. Search for the official CPE para for the software product either by using the NVD's CPE search engine or in
the official CPE dictionary (warning, very large XML le). Do not ever make up CPE data.
181
cran
2. Add cpe to USES and compare the result of make -V CPE_STR to the CPE dictionary para. Continue one step
at a time until make -V CPE_STR is correct.
3. If the product name (second eld, defaults to PORTNAME) is incorrect, define CPE_PRODUCT.
4. If the vendor name (rst eld, defaults to CPE_PRODUCT) is incorrect, define CPE_VENDOR.
5. If the version eld (third eld, defaults to PORTVERSION ) is incorrect, define CPE_VERSION .
6. If the update eld (fourth eld, defaults to empty) is incorrect, define CPE_UPDATE.
7. If it is still not correct, check Mk/Uses/cpe.mk for additional details, or contact the Ports Security Team <port-
s-secteam@FreeBSD.org>.
8. Derive as much as possible of the CPE name from existing variables such as PORTNAME and PORTVERSION . Use
variable modifiers to extract the relevant portions from these variables rather than hardcoding the name.
9. Always run make -V CPE_STR and check the output before committing anything that changes PORTNAME or
PORTVERSION or any other variable which is used to derive CPE_STR .
16.12.cran
Possible arguments: (none), auto-plist , compiles
Uses the Comprehensive R Archive Network. Specify auto-plist to automatically generate pkg-plist . Specify
compiles if the port has code that need to be compiled.
16.13.desktop-file-utils
Uses update-desktop-database from devel/desktop-le-utils. An extra post-install step will be run without inter-
fering with any post-install steps already in the port Makefile. A line with @desktop-file-utils will be added
to the plist.
16.14.desthack
Changes the behavior of GNU configure to properly support DESTDIR in case the original software does not.
16.15.display
Possible arguments: (none), ARGS
Set up a virtual display environment. If the environment variable DISPLAY is not set, then Xvfb is added as a build
dependency, and CONFIGURE_ENV is extended with the port number of the currently running instance of Xvfb. The
ARGS parameter defaults to install and controls the phase around which to start and stop the virtual display.
16.16.dos2unix
182
The port has les with line endings in DOS format which need to be converted. Several variables can be set to
control which les will be converted. The default is to convert all les, including binaries. See Section4.4.3, Simple
Automatic Replacements for examples.
DOS2UNIX_REGEX : match le names based on a regular expression.
DOS2UNIX_FILES : match literal le names.
DOS2UNIX_GLOB : match le names based on a glob pattern.
DOS2UNIX_WRKSRC : the directory from which to start the conversions. Defaults to ${WRKSRC} .
16.17.drupal
Possible arguments: 7, module, theme
Automate installation of a port that is a Drupal theme or module. Use with the version of Drupal that the port is
expecting. For example, USES=drupal:7,module says that this port creates a Drupal 6 module. A Drupal 7 theme
can be specified with USES=drupal:7,theme.
16.18.execinfo
Add a library dependency on devel/libexecinfo if libexecinfo.so is not present in the base system.
16.19.fakeroot
Changes some default behavior of build systems to allow installing as a user. See http://fakeroot.alioth.de-
bian.org/for more information on fakeroot.
16.20.fam
Possible arguments: (none), fam , gamin
Uses a File Alteration Monitor as a library dependency, either devel/fam or devel/gamin. End users can set
WITH_FAM_SYSTEM to specify their preference.
16.21.firebird
Possible arguments: (none), 25
Add a dependency to the client library of the Firebird database.
16.22.fmake
Uses devel/fmake as a build-time dependency.
183
fonts
16.23.fonts
Possible arguments: (none), fc, fcfontsdir (default), fontsdir, none
Adds a runtime dependency on tools needed to register fonts. Depending on the argument, add a @fc ${FONTSDIR}
line, @fcfontsdir ${FONTSDIR} line, @fontsdir ${FONTSDIR} line, or no line if the argument is none , to the
plist. FONTSDIR defaults to ${PREFIX}/share/fonts/${FONTNAME} and FONTNAME to ${PORTNAME}. Add FONTSDIR
to PLIST_SUB and SUB_LIST
16.24.fortran
Possible arguments: gcc (default)
Uses the GNU Fortran compiler.
16.25.fuse
The port will depend on the FUSE library and handle the dependency on the kernel module depending on the
version of FreeBSD.
16.26.gecko
Possible arguments: libxul (default), firefox, seamonkey, thunderbird, build , XY, XY+
Add a dependency on different gecko based applications. If libxul is used, it is the only argument allowed. When
the argument is not libxul, the firefox, seamonkey, or thunderbird arguments can be used, along with optional
build and XY/XY+ version arguments.
16.27.gem
Possible arguments: (none), noautoplist
Handle building with RubyGems. If noautoplist is used, the packing list is not generated automatically.
16.28.gettext
Deprecated. Will include both gettext-runtime and gettext-tools .
16.29.gettext-runtime
Possible arguments: (none), lib (default), build , run
Uses devel/gettext-runtime. By default, with no arguments or with the lib argument, implies a library dependency
on libintl.so. build and run implies, respectively a build-time and a run-time dependency on gettext.
184
16.30.gettext-tools
Possible arguments: (none), build (default), run
Uses devel/gettext-tools. By default, with no argument, or with the build argument, a build time dependency on
msgfmt is registered. With the run argument, a run-time dependency is registered.
16.31.ghostscript
Possible arguments: X, build , run , nox11
A specific version X can be used. Possible versions are 7, 8, 9, and agpl (default). nox11 indicates that the -nox11
version of the port is required. build and run add build- and run-time dependencies on Ghostscript. The default
is both build- and run-time dependencies.
16.32.gmake
Uses devel/gmake as a build-time dependency and sets up the environment to use gmake as the default make for
the build.
16.33.gnome
Provides an easy way to depend on GNOME components. The components should be listed in USE_GNOME. The avail-
able components are:
atk
atkmm
cairo
cairomm
dconf
esound
evolutiondataserver3
gconf2
gconfmm26
gdkpixbuf
gdkpixbuf2
glib12
glib20
glibmm
gnomecontrolcenter3
185
gnome
gnomedesktop3
gnomedocutils
gnomemenus3
gnomemimedata
gnomeprefix
gnomesharp20
gnomevfs2
gsound
gtk-update-icon-cache
gtk12
gtk20
gtk30
gtkhtml3
gtkhtml4
gtkmm20
gtkmm24
gtkmm30
gtksharp20
gtksourceview
gtksourceview2
gtksourceview3
gtksourceviewmm3
gvfs
intlhack
intltool
introspection
libartlgpl2
libbonobo
libbonoboui
libgda5
libgda5-ui
libgdamm5
186
libglade2
libgnome
libgnomecanvas
libgnomekbd
libgnomeprint
libgnomeprintui
libgnomeui
libgsf
libgtkhtml
libgtksourceviewmm
libidl
librsvg2
libsigc++12
libsigc++20
libwnck
libwnck3
libxml++26
libxml2
libxslt
metacity
nautilus3
orbit2
pango
pangomm
pangox-compat
py3gobject3
pygnome2
pygobject
pygobject3
pygtk2
pygtksourceview
referencehack
187
go
vte
vte3
The default dependency is build- and run-time, it can be changed with :build or :run . For example:
USES= gnome
USE_GNOME= gnomemenus3:buildintlhack
See Section6.10, Using GNOME for more information.
16.34.go
Sets default values and targets used to build Go software. A build-time dependency on lang/go is added. The build
process is controlled by several variables:
GO_PKGNAME
The name of the Go package. This is the directory that will be created in GOPATH/src . The default value is
${PORTNAME}.
GO_TARGET
The name of the packages to build. The default value is ${GO_PKGNAME}.
CGO_CFLAGS
Additional CFLAGS values to be passed to the C compiler by go.
CGO_LDFLAGS
Additional LDFLAGS values to be passed to the C compiler by go.
16.35.gperf
Add a buildtime dependency on devel/gperf if gperf is not present in the base system.
16.36.grantlee
Possible arguments: 4, 5, selfbuild
Handle dependency on Grantlee. Specify 4 to depend on the Qt4 based version, devel/grantlee. Specify 5 to depend
on the Qt5 based version, devel/grantlee5. selfbuild is used internally by devel/grantlee and devel/grantlee5 to
get their versions numbers.
16.37.groff
Possible arguments: build , run , both
Registers a dependency on textproc/gro if not present in the base system.
16.38.gssapi
Possible arguments: (none), base (default), heimdal, mit , flags , bootstrap
188
Handle dependencies needed by consumers of the GSS-API. Only libraries that provide the Kerberos mechanism
are available. By default, or set to base , the GSS-API library from the base system is used. Can also be set to heimdal
to use security/heimdal, or mit to use security/krb5.
When the local Kerberos installation is not in LOCALBASE, set HEIMDAL_HOME (for heimdal) or KRB5_HOME (for krb5 )
to the location of the Kerberos installation.
These variables are exported for the ports to use:
GSSAPIBASEDIR
GSSAPICPPFLAGS
GSSAPIINCDIR
GSSAPILDFLAGS
GSSAPILIBDIR
GSSAPILIBS
GSSAPI_CONFIGURE_ARGS
The flags option can be given alongside base , heimdal, or mit to automatically add GSSAPICPPFLAGS , GSSAPILD-
FLAGS, and GSSAPILIBS to CFLAGS , LDFLAGS, and LDADD , respectively. For example, use base,flags .
The bootstrap option is a special prefix only for use by security/krb5 and security/heimdal. For example, use
bootstrap,mit.
Example16.5.Typical Use
OPTIONS_SINGLE= GSSAPI
OPTIONS_SINGLE_GSSAPI= GSSAPI_BASEGSSAPI_HEIMDALGSSAPI_MITGSSAPI_NONE
GSSAPI_BASE_USES= gssapi
GSSAPI_BASE_CONFIGURE_ON= --with-gssapi=${GSSAPIBASEDIR}${GSSAPI_CONFIGURE_ARGS}
GSSAPI_HEIMDAL_USES= gssapi:heimdal
GSSAPI_HEIMDAL_CONFIGURE_ON= --with-gssapi=${GSSAPIBASEDIR}
${GSSAPI_CONFIGURE_ARGS}
GSSAPI_MIT_USES= gssapi:mit
GSSAPI_MIT_CONFIGURE_ON= --with-gssapi=${GSSAPIBASEDIR}${GSSAPI_CONFIGURE_ARGS}
GSSAPI_NONE_CONFIGURE_ON= --without-gssapi
16.39.horde
Add buildtime and runtime dependencies on devel/pear-channel-horde. Other Horde dependencies can be added
with USE_HORDE_BUILD and USE_HORDE_RUN . See Section6.16.4.1, Horde Modules for more information.
16.40.iconv
Possible arguments: (none), lib , build , patch , translit , wchar_t
189
imake
Uses iconv functions, either from the port converters/libiconv as a build-time and run-time dependency, or from
the base system on 10-CURRENT after a native iconv was committed in 254273. By default, with no arguments
or with the lib argument, implies iconv with build-time and run-time dependencies. build implies a build-time
dependency, and patch implies a patch-time dependency. If the port uses the WCHAR_T or //TRANSLIT iconv ex-
tensions, add the relevant arguments so that the correct iconv is used. For more information see Section6.24,
Using iconv .
16.41.imake
Possible arguments: (none), env , notall, noman
Add devel/imake as a build-time dependency and run xmkmf -a during the configure stage. If the env argument
is given, the configure target is not set. If the -a ag is a problem for the port, add the notall argument. If xmkmf
does not generate a install.man target, add the noman argument.
16.42.kde
Possible arguments: 4
Add dependency on KDE components. See Section6.13, Using KDE for more information.
16.43.kmod
Possible arguments: (none), debug
Fills in the boilerplate for kernel module ports, currently:
Add kld to CATEGORIES.
Set SSP_UNSAFE .
Set IGNORE if the kernel sources are not found in SRC_BASE.
Define KMODDIR to /boot/modules by default, add it to PLIST_SUB and MAKE_ENV , and create it upon installation.
If KMODDIR is set to /boot/kernel , it will be rewritten to /boot/modules . This prevents breaking packages when
upgrading the kernel due to /boot/kernel being renamed to /boot/kernel.old in the process.
Handle cross-referencing kernel modules upon installation and deinstallation, using @kld .
If the debug argument is given, the port can install a debug version of the module into KERN_DEBUGDIR/KMODDIR.
By default, KERN_DEBUGDIR is copied from DEBUGDIR and set to /usr/lib/debug . The framework will take care
of creating and removing any required directories.
16.44.lha
Set EXTRACT_SUFX to .lzh
16.45.libarchive
190
Registers a dependency on archivers/libarchive. Any ports depending on libarchive must include

USES=libarchive .
16.46.libedit
Registers a dependency on devel/libedit. Any ports depending on libedit must include USES=libedit.
16.47.libtool
Possible arguments: (none), keepla , build
Patches libtool scripts. This must be added to all ports that use libtool . The keepla argument can be used
to keep .la les. Some ports do not ship with their own copy of libtool and need a build time dependency on
devel/libtool, use the :build argument to add such dependency.
16.48.linux
Possible arguments: c6, c7
Ports Linux compatibility framework. Specify c6 to depend on CentOS 6 packags. Specify c7 to depend on CentOS
7 packages. The available packages are:
allegro
alsa-plugins-oss
alsa-plugins-pulseaudio
alsalib
atk
avahi-libs
base
cairo
cups-libs
curl
cyrus-sasl2
dbusglib
dbuslibs
devtools
dri
expat
flac
191
linux
fontconfig
gdkpixbuf2
gnutls
graphite2
gtk2
harfbuzz
jasper
jbigkit
jpeg
libasyncns
libaudiofile
libelf
libgcrypt
libgfortran
libgpg-error
libmng
libogg
libpciaccess
libsndfile
libsoup
libssh2
libtasn1
libthai
libtheora
libv4l
libvorbis
libxml2
mikmod
naslibs
ncurses-base
nspr
nss
192
openal
openal-soft
openldap
openmotif
openssl
pango
pixman
png
pulseaudio-libs
qt
qt-x11
qtwebkit
scimlibs
sdl12
sdlimage
sdlmixer
sqlite3
tcl85
tcp_wrappers-libs
tiff
tk85
ucl
xorglibs
16.49.localbase
Possible arguments: (none), ldflags
Ensures that libraries from dependencies in LOCALBASE are used instead of the ones from the base system. Speci-
fy ldflags to add -L${LOCALBASE}/lib to LDFLAGS instead of LIBS . Ports that depend on libraries that are also
present in the base system should use this. It is also used internally by a few other USES .
16.50.lua
Possible arguments: (none), XY+, XY, build , run
Adds a dependency on Lua. By default this is a library dependency, unless overridden by the build or run option.
The default version is 5.2, unless set by the XY parameter (for example, 51 or 52+ ).
193
lxqt
16.51.lxqt
Handle dependencies for the LXQt Desktop Environment. Use USE_LXQT to select the components needed for the
port. See Section6.14, Using LXQt for more information.
16.52.makeinfo
Add a build-time dependency on makeinfo if it is not present in the base system.
16.53.makeself
Indicates that the distribution les are makeself archives and sets the appropriate dependencies.
16.54.mate
Provides an easy way to depend on MATE components. The components should be listed in USE_MATE . The available
components are:
autogen
caja
common
controlcenter
desktop
dialogs
docutils
icontheme
intlhack
intltool
libmatekbd
libmateweather
marco
menus
notificationdaemon
panel
194
pluma
polkit
session
settingsdaemon
The default dependency is build- and run-time, it can be changed with :build or :run . For example:
USES= mate
USE_MATE= menus:buildintlhack
16.55.meson
Provide support for Meson based projects.
16.56.metaport
Sets the following variables to make it easier to create a metaport: MASTER_SITES , DISTFILES, EXTRACT_ONLY,
NO_BUILD , NO_INSTALL, NO_MTREE , NO_ARCH .
16.57.mysql
Possible arguments: (none), version, client (default), server, embedded
Provide support for MySQL. If no version is given, try to nd the current installed version. Fall back to the default
version, MySQL-5.6. The possible versions are 55, 55m , 55p , 56, 56p , 56w , 57, 57p , 80, 100m , 101m , and 102m . The
m and p suffixes are for the MariaDB and Percona variants of MySQL. server and embedded add a build- and run-
time dependency on the MySQL server. When using server or embedded, add client to also add a dependency on
libmysqlclient.so. A port can set IGNORE_WITH_MYSQL if some versions are not supported.
The framework sets MYSQL_VER to the detected MySQL version.
16.58.mono
Possible arguments: (none), nuget
Adds a dependency on the Mono (currently only C#) framework by setting the appropriate dependencies.
Specify nuget when the port uses nuget packages. NUGET_DEPENDS needs to be set with the names and versions of
the nuget packages in the format name=version. An optional package origin can be added using name=version:o-
rigin.
The helper target, buildnuget, will output the content of the NUGET_DEPENDS based on the provided packages.con-
fig.
16.59.motif
195
ncurses
Uses x11-toolkits/open-motif as a library dependency. End users can set WANT_LESSTIF for the dependency to be
on x11-toolkits/lesstif instead of x11-toolkits/open-motif.
16.60.ncurses
Possible arguments: (none), base , port
Uses ncurses, and causes some useful variables to be set.
16.61.ninja
Uses ninja to build the port.
16.62.objc
Add objective C dependencies (compiler, runtime library) if the base system does not support it.
16.63.openal
Possible arguments: al, soft (default), si, alut
Uses OpenAL. The backend can be specified, with the software implementation as the default. The user can specify
a preferred backend with WANT_OPENAL. Valid values for this knob are soft (default) and si.
16.64.pathfix
Look for Makefile.in and configure in PATHFIX_WRKSRC (defaults to WRKSRC ) and x common paths to make sure
they respect the FreeBSD hierarchy. For example, it fixes the installation directory of pkgconfig's .pc les to
${PREFIX}/libdata/pkgconfig . If the port uses USES=autoreconf, Makefile.am will be added to PATHFIX_MAKE-
FILEIN automatically.
If the port USES=cmake it will look for CMakeLists.txt in PATHFIX_WRKSRC. If needed, that default filename can be
changed with PATHFIX_CMAKELISTSTXT.
16.65.pear
Adds a dependency on devel/pear. It will setup default behavior for software using the PHP Extension and Appli-
cation Repository. See Section6.16.4, PEAR Modules for more information.
16.66.perl5
196
Depends on Perl. These variables can be set:
PERL_VERSION: Full version of Perl to use, or the default if not set
PERL_ARCH: Directory name of architecture dependent libraries, defaults to mach
PERL_PORT: Name of the Perl port to be installed, the default is derived from PERL_VERSION
SITE_PERL : Directory name for site specific Perl packages
USE_PERL5: Phases in which to use Perl, can be extract, patch , build , run , or test . It can also be configure,
modbuild, or modbuildtiny when Makefile.PL, Build.PL , or the Module::Build::Tiny flavor of Build.PL is re-
quired. It defaults to build run .
16.67.pgsql
Possible arguments: (none), X.Y , X.Y+, X.Y-
Provide support for PostgreSQL. Maintainer can set version required. Minimum and maximum versions can be
specified; for example, 9.0-, 8.4+.
Add PostgreSQL component dependency, using WANT_PGSQL=component[:target]. for example, WANT_PGSQL=serv-

er:configure pltcl plperl For the full list use make -V _USE_PGSQL_DEP .
16.68.php
Possible arguments: (none), phpize, ext , zend , build , cli , cgi , mod , web , embed, pecl
Provide support for PHP. Add a runtime dependency on the default PHP version, lang/php56.
phpize
Use to build a PHP extension.
ext
Use to build, install and register a PHP extension.
zend
Use to build, install and register a Zend extension.
build
Set PHP also as a build-time dependency.
cli
Needs the CLI version of PHP.
cgi
Needs the CGI version of PHP.
mod
Needs the Apache module for PHP.
web
Needs the Apache module or the CGI version of PHP.
embed
Needs the embedded library version of PHP.
pecl
Provide defaults for fetching PHP extensions from the PECL repository.
197
pkgconfig
Variables are used to specify which PHP modules are required, as well as which version of PHP are supported.
USE_PHP
The list of required PHP extensions at run-time. Add :build to the extension name to add a build-time de-
pendency. Example: pcre xml:build gettext
DEFAULT_PHP_VER
Selects which major version of PHP will be installed as a dependency when no PHP is installed yet. Default is
56. Possible values: 55, 56, and 70.
IGNORE_WITH_PHP
The port does not work with PHP of the given version. Possible values: 55, 56, and 7.
When building a PHP or Zend extension with :ext or :zend , these variables can be set:
PHP_MODNAME
The name of the PHP or Zend extension. Default value is ${PORTNAME}.
PHP_HEADER_DIRS
A list of subdirectories from which to install header les. The framework will always install the header les
that are present in the same directory as the extension.
PHP_MOD_PRIO
The priority at which to load the extension. It is a number between 00 and 99.
For extensions that do not depend on any extension, the priority is automatically set to 20, for extensions
that depend on another extension, the priority is automatically set to 30. Some extensions may need to be
loaded before every other extension, for example www/php56-opcache. Some may need to be loaded after an
extension with a priority of 30. In that case, add PHP_MOD_PRIO=XX in the port's Makefile. For example:
USES= php:ext
USE_PHP= wddx
PHP_MOD_PRIO= 40
16.69.pkgconfig
Possible arguments: (none), build (default), run , both
Uses devel/pkgconf. With no arguments or with the build argument, it implies pkg-config as a build-time de-
pendency. run implies a run-time dependency and both implies both run-time and build-time dependencies.
16.70.pure
Possible arguments: (none), ffi
Uses lang/pure. Largely used for building related pure ports. With the ffi argument, it implies devel/pure- as
a run-time dependency.
16.71.pyqt
Uses PyQt. If the port is part of PyQT itself, set PYQT_DIST . Use USE_PYQT to select the components the port needs.
The available components are:
core
198
dbus
dbussupport
demo
designer
designerplugin
doc
gui
multimedia
network
opengl
qscintilla2
sip
sql
svg
test
webkit
xml
xmlpatterns
These components are only available with PyQT4:
assistant
declarative
help
phonon
script
scripttools
These components are only available with PyQT5:
multimediawidgets
printsupport
qml
serialport
webkitwidgets
199
python
widgets
The default dependency for each component is build- and run-time, to select only build or run, add _build or _run
to the component name. For example:
USES= pyqt
USE_PYQT= coredoc_builddesigner_run
16.72.python
Possible arguments: (none), X.Y , X.Y+ , -X.Y , X.Y-Z.A , build , run , test
Uses Python. A supported version or version range can be specified. If Python is only needed at build time, run
time or for the tests, it can be set as a build, run or test dependency with build , run , or test . See Section6.17,
Using Python for more information.
16.73.qmail
Possible arguments: (none), build , run , both , vars
Uses mail/qmail. With the build argument, it implies qmail as a build-time dependency. run implies a run-time
dependency. Using no argument or the both argument implies both run-time and build-time dependencies. vars
will only set QMAIL variables for the port to use.
16.74.qmake
Possible arguments: (none), norecursive, outsource
Uses QMake for configuring. For more information see Section6.12.3, Using qmake .
16.75.readline
Possible arguments: (none), port
Uses readline as a library dependency, and sets CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS as necessary. If the port argument is used
or if readline is not present in the base system, add a dependency on devel/readline
16.76.samba
Possible arguments: build , env , lib , run
Handle dependency on Samba. env will not add any dependency and only set up the variables. build and run will
add build-time and run-time dependency on smbd . lib will add a dependency on libsmbclient.so. The variables
that are exported are:
SAMBAPORT
The origin of the default Samba port.
SAMBAINCLUDES
The location of the Samba header les.
SAMBALIBS
The directory where the Samba shared libraries are available.
200
16.77.scons
Provide support for the use of devel/scons
16.78.shared-mime-info
Uses update-mime-database from misc/shared-mime-info. This uses will automatically add a post-install step in
such a way that the port itself still can specify there own post-install step if needed. It also add an @shared-mime-
info para to the plist.
16.79.shebangfix
A lot of software uses incorrect locations for script interpreters, most notably /usr/bin/perl and /bin/bash .
The shebangfix macro fixes shebang lines in scripts listed in SHEBANG_REGEX, SHEBANG_GLOB, or SHEBANG_FILES.
SHEBANG_REGEX
Contains one extended regular expressions, and is used with the -iregex argument of nd(1). See Exam-
ple16.9, USES=shebangfix with SHEBANG_REGEX.
SHEBANG_GLOB
Contains a list of patterns used with the -name argument of nd(1). See Example16.10, USES=shebangfix
with SHEBANG_GLOB.
SHEBANG_FILES
Contains a list of les or sh(1) globs. The shebangfix macro is run from ${WRKSRC} , so SHEBANG_FILES can
contain paths that are relative to ${WRKSRC} . It can also deal with absolute paths if les outside of ${WRKSRC}
require patching. See Example16.11, USES=shebangfix with SHEBANG_FILES.
Currently Bash, Java, Ksh, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, and Tk are supported by default.
There are three configuration variables:
SHEBANG_LANG
The list of supported interpreters.
interp_CMD
The path to the command interpreter on FreeBSD. The default value is ${LOCALBASE}/bin/ interp.
interp_OLD_CMD
The list of wrong invocations of interpreters. These are typically obsolete paths, or paths used on other oper-
ating systems that are incorrect on FreeBSD. They will be replaced by the correct path in interp_CMD .
Note
These will always be part of interp_OLD_CMD : "/usr/bin/env interp" /bin/ interp
/usr/bin/ interp /usr/local/bin/ interp.
201
shebangfix
Tip
interp_OLD_CMD contain multiple values. Any entry with spaces must be quoted. See
Example16.7, Specifying all the Paths When Adding an Interpreter to USES=shebang-
fix.
Important
The fixing of shebangs is done during the patch phase. If scripts are created with incorrect
shebangs during the build phase, the build process (for example, the configure script, or
the Makefiles) must be patched or given the right path (for example, with CONFIGURE_ENV,
CONFIGURE_ARGS, MAKE_ENV , or MAKE_ARGS ) to generate the right shebangs.
Correct paths for supported interpreters are available in interp_CMD .
Example16.6.Adding Another Interpreter to USES=shebangfix

To add another interpreter, set SHEBANG_LANG. For example:
SHEBANG_LANG= lua
Example16.7.Specifying all the Paths When Adding an Interpreter to

USES=shebangfix
If it was not already defined, and there were no default values for interp_OLD_CMD and interp_CMD the
Ksh entry could be defined as:
SHEBANG_LANG= ksh
ksh_OLD_CMD= "/usr/bin/envksh" /bin/ksh /usr/bin/ksh
ksh_CMD= ${LOCALBASE}/bin/ksh
Example16.8.Adding a Strange Location for an Interpreter

Some software uses strange locations for an interpreter. For example, an application might expect Python
to be located in /opt/bin/python2.7 . The strange path to be replaced can be declared in the port Make-
file:
python_OLD_CMD= /opt/bin/python2.7
202
Example16.9.USES=shebangfix with SHEBANG_REGEX

To x all the les in ${WRKSRC}/scripts ending in .pl , .sh , or .cgi do:
USES= shebangfix
SHEBANG_REGEX= ./scripts/.*\.(sh|pl|cgi)
Note
SHEBANG_REGEX is used by running find -E , which uses modern regular expressions
also known as extended regular expressions. See re_format(7) for more information.
Example16.10.USES=shebangfix with SHEBANG_GLOB

To x all the les in ${WRKSRC} ending in .pl or .sh , do:
USES= shebangfix
SHEBANG_GLOB= *.sh*.pl
Example16.11.USES=shebangfix with SHEBANG_FILES

To x the les script/foobar.pl and script/*.sh in ${WRKSRC} , do:
USES= shebangfix
SHEBANG_FILES= scripts/foobar.plscripts/*.sh
16.80.sqlite
Add a dependency on SQLite. The default version used is 3, but version 2 is also possible using the :2 modifier.
16.81.ssl
Possible arguments: (none), build , run
Provide support for OpenSSL. A build- or run-time only dependency can be specified using build or run . These
variables are available for the port's use, they are also added to MAKE_ENV :
OPENSSLBASE
Path to the OpenSSL installation base.
203
tar
OPENSSLDIR
Path to OpenSSL's configuration les.
OPENSSLLIB
Path to the OpenSSL libraries.
OPENSSLINC
Path to the OpenSSL includes.
OPENSSLRPATH
If defined, the path the linker needs to use to nd the OpenSSL libraries.
16.82.tar
Possible arguments: (none), Z, bz2 , bzip2 , lzma, tbz , tbz2 , tgz , txz , xz
Set EXTRACT_SUFX to .tar , .tar.Z , .tar.bz2 , .tar.bz2 , .tar.lzma, .tbz , .tbz2 , .tgz , .txz or .tar.xz respec-
tively.
16.83.tcl
Possible arguments: version, wrapper, build , run , tea
Add a dependency on Tcl. A specific version can be requested using version. The version can be empty, one or more
exact version numbers (currently 84, 85, or 86), or a minimal version number (currently 84+ , 85+ or 86+ ). To only
request a non version specific wrapper, use wrapper. A build- or run-time only dependency can be specified using
build or run . To build the port using the Tcl Extension Architecture, use tea . After including bsd.port.pre.mk
the port can inspect the results using these variables:
TCL_VER : chosen major.minor version of Tcl
TCLSH : full path of the Tcl interpreter
TCL_LIBDIR: path of the Tcl libraries
TCL_INCLUDEDIR: path of the Tcl C header les
TK_VER : chosen major.minor version of Tk
WISH : full path of the Tk interpreter
TK_LIBDIR: path of the Tk libraries
TK_INCLUDEDIR: path of the Tk C header les
16.84.terminfo
Adds @terminfo to the plist . Use when the port installs *.terminfo les in ${PREFIX}/share/misc .
16.85.tk
Same as arguments for tcl
204
Small wrapper when using both Tcl and Tk. The same variables are returned as when using Tcl.
16.86.twisted
Add a dependency on twistedCore. The list of required components can be specified as a value of this variable.
ARGS can be one of:
build : add twistedCore or any specified component as build dependency.
run : add twistedCore or any specified component as run dependency.
Besides build and run , one or more other supported twisted components can be specified. Supported values are
listed in Uses/twisted.mk .
16.87.uidfix
Changes some default behavior (mostly variables) of the build system to allow installing this port as a normal user.
Try this in the port before using USES=fakeroot or patching.
16.88.uniquefiles
Possible arguments: (none), dirs
Make les or directories 'unique', by adding a prefix or suffix. If the dirs argument is used, the port needs a
prefix (a only a prefix) based on UNIQUE_PREFIX for standard directories DOCSDIR , EXAMPLESDIR, DATADIR , WWWDIR ,
ETCDIR . These variables are available for ports:
UNIQUE_PREFIX: The prefix to be used for directories and les. Default: ${PKGNAMEPREFIX}.
UNIQUE_PREFIX_FILES: A list of les that need to be prefixed. Default: empty.
UNIQUE_SUFFIX: The suffix to be used for les. Default: ${PKGNAMESUFFIX}.
UNIQUE_SUFFIX_FILES: A list of les that need to be suffixed. Default: empty.
16.89.varnish
Possible arguments: 4, 5
Handle dependencies on Varnish Cache. 4 will add a dependency on www/varnish4. 5 will add a dependency on
www/varnish5.
16.90.webplugin
Automatically create and remove symbolic links for each application that supports the webplugin framework. ARGS
can be one of:
gecko : support plug-ins based on Gecko
205
xfce
native: support plug-ins for Gecko, Opera, and WebKit-GTK
linux: support Linux plug-ins
all (default, implicit): support all plug-in types
(individual entries): support only the browsers listed
These variables can be adjusted:
WEBPLUGIN_FILES: No default, must be set manually. The plug-in les to install.
WEBPLUGIN_DIR: The directory to install the plug-in les to, default PREFIX/lib/browser_plugins/ WEB-
PLUGIN_NAME. Set this if the port installs plug-in les outside of the default directory to prevent broken symbolic
links.
WEBPLUGIN_NAME: The final directory to install the plug-in les into, default PKGBASE.
16.91.xfce
Possible arguments: (none), gtk3
Provide support for Xfce related ports. See Section6.25, Using Xfce for details.
The gtk3 argument specifies that the port requires GTK3 support. It adds additional features provided by some
core components, for example, x11/libxfce4menu and x11-wm/xfce4-panel.
16.92.zip
Possible arguments: (none), infozip
Indicates that the distribution les use the ZIP compression algorithm. For les using the InfoZip algorithm the
infozip argument must be passed to set the appropriate dependencies.
16.93.zope
Uses www/zope XY. Mostly used for building zope related ports. ZOPE_VERSION can be used by a port to indicate
that a specific version of zope shall be used.
206
Chapter17. __FreeBSD_version Values
Here is a convenient list of __FreeBSD_version values as defined in sys/param.h:
17.1.FreeBSD 12 Versions
Table17.1.FreeBSD 12 __FreeBSD_version Values
Value Revision Date Release
1200000 302409 July 7, 2016 12.0-CURRENT.
1200001 302628 July 12, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after re-
moving collation from [a-
z]-type ranges.
1200002 304395 August 18, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after re-

moving unused and obso-
lete openbsd_poll system
call.
1200003 304608 August 22, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after adding
C++11 thread_local support
in rev 303795.
1200004 304752 August 24, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after fix-
ing LC_*_MASK for newlo-
cale(3) and querylocale(3)
(rev 304703).
1200005 304789 August 25, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing some ioctl interfaces
in rev 304787 between the
iSCSI userspace programs
and the kernel.
1200006 305256 September 1, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after
crunchgen(1) META_MODE
x in 305254.
1200007 305421 September 5, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after resolv-
ing a deadlock between
device_detach() and usb-
d_do_request_flags(9).
1200008 305833 September 15, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after re-
moving the 4.3BSD com-
patible macro m_copy() in
305824.
moving bio_taskqueue()
in 305988.
mounting msdosfs(5) with
longnames support by de-
fault.
FreeBSD 12 Versions

1200011 306556 October 1, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after adding
fb_memattr eld to fb_in-
fo in 306555.
1200012 306592 October 2, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after

net80211(4) changes (rev
306590, 306591).
1200013 307140 October 12, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after in-
stalling header les re-
quired development with
libzfs_core.
1200014 307529 October 17, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after merg-
ing common code in
rtwn(4) and urtwn(4),
and adding support for
802.11ac devices.
1200015 308874 November 20, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after some
ABI change for unbreaking
powerpc.
1200016 309017 November 22, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after re-
moving PG_CACHED -related
elds from vmmeter.
1200017 309124 November 25, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after up-
grading our copies of clang,
llvm, lldb, compiler-rt and
libc++ to 3.9.0 release, and
adding lld 3.9.0.
1200018 309676 December 7, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after adding
the ki_moretdname mem-
ber to struct kinfo_proc
and struct kinfo_proc32
to export the whole thread
name to user-space utili-
ties.
1200019 310149 December 16, 2016 12.0-CURRENT after start-
ing to lay down the founda-
tion for 11ac support.
1200020 312087 January 13, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after re-
moving fgetsock and
fputsock.
1200021 313858 February 16, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after re-

moving MCA and EISA sup-
port.
1200022 314040 February 21, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after mak-
ing the LinuxKPI task struct
persistent across system
calls.
(not changed) 314373 March 2, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after re-
moving System V Release
208
Chapter17.__FreeBSD_version Values

4 binary compatibility sup-
port.
1200023 314564 March 2, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after up-
llvm, lld, lldb, compiler-rt
and libc++ to 4.0.0.
1200024 314865 March 7, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after re-
moval of pcap-int.h
1200025 315430 March 16, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of the <dev/mmc/mm-
c_ioctl.h> header.
1200026 315662 March 16, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after hiding

struct inpcb and struct
tcpcb from userland.
1200027 315673 March 21, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after mak-

ing CAM SIM lock optional.
1200028 316683 April 10, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after re-
naming smp_no_rende-
vous_barrier() to sm-
p_no_rendezvous_barri-
er() in 316648.
1200029 317176 April 19, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after the re-

moval of struct vmme-
ter from struct pcpu from
317061.
moving NATM support
including en(4), fatm(4),
hatm(4), and patm(4).
1200031 318736 May 23, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after types
ino_t, dev_t, nlink_t
were extended to 64bit and
struct dirent changed
layout (also known as
ino64).
1200032 319664 June 8, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after re-
moval of groff .
1200033 320043 June 17, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after the
type of the struct event
member data was in-
creased to 64bit, and ext
structure members added.
NFS client and server were
changed so that they actu-
ally use the 64bit ino_t.
MAP_GUARD mmap(2) ag
was added.
209
FreeBSD 11 Versions

1200036 320347 June 26, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing time_t to 64 bits on
powerpc (32-bit version).
1200037 320545 July 1, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after the
cleanup and inlining
of bus_dmamap* functions
(320528).
1200038 320879 July 10, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after MMC
CAM committed. (320844).
1200039 r321369 July 22, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after up-
grade of copies of clang,
llvm, lld, lldb, compiler-rt
and libc++ to 5.0.0 (trunk
r308421). (r321369).
1200040 r321688 July 29, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after adding
NFS client forced dis-
mount support umount -N .
(r321688).
1200041 r322762 August 21, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after WR-
FSBASE instruction become
operational on amd64.
(r322762).
1200042 r322900 August 25, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after PLPM-
TUD counters were
changed to use
counter(9) . (r322900).
1200043 r322989 August 28, 2017 12.0-CURRENT after drop-

ping x86 CACHE_LINE_SIZE
down to 64 bytes.
(r322989).
1100000 256284 October 10, 2013 11.0-CURRENT.
1100001 256776 October 19, 2013 11.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of support for "rst
boot" rc.d scripts, so ports
can make use of this.
1100002 257696 November 5, 2013 11.0-CURRENT after drop-
ping support for historic
ioctls.
1100003 258284 November 17, 2013 11.0-CURRENT after iconv
changes.
1100004 259424 December 15, 2013 11.0-CURRENT after the
behavior change of
210

gss_pseudo_random intro-
duced in 259286.
1100005 260010 December 28, 2013 11.0-CURRENT after 259951
- Do not coalesce entries in
vm_map_stack(9).
1100006 261246 January 28, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after up-
grades of libelf and libd-
warf.
1100007 261283 January 30, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after up-
grade of libc++ to 3.4 re-
lease.
1100008 261881 February 14, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after libc++
3.4 ABI compatibility x.
1100009 261991 February 16, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after up-
grade of llvm/clang to 3.4
release.
1100010 262630 February 28, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after up-
grade of ncurses to 5.9 re-
lease (rev 262629).
1100011 263102 March 13, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after ABI
change in struct if_data.
moval of Novell IPX proto-
col support.
moval of AppleTalk proto-
col support.
naming <sys/capabili-
ty.h> to <sys/cap-
sicum.h> to avoid a clash
with similarly named head-
ers in other operating sys-
tems. A compatibility head-
er is left in place to limit
build breakage, but will be
deprecated in due course.
1100015 263620 March 22, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after cnt re-
name to vm_cnt.
1100016 263660 March 23, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after ad-
dition of armv6hf TAR-
GET_ARCH.
1100017 264121 April 4, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after GCC

support for __block defin-
ition.
1100018 264212 April 6, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after sup-
port for UDP-Lite protocol
(RFC 3828).
211
FreeBSD 11 Versions

1100019 264289 April 8, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after Free-
BSD-SA-14:06.openssl (rev
264265).
1100020 265215 May 1, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after re-
moving lindev in favor of
having /dev/full by default
(rev 265212).
1100021 266151 May 6, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after sr-
c.opts.mk changes, decou-
pling make.conf(5) from
buildworld (rev 265419).
1100022 266904 May 30, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after

changes to strcasecmp(3),
moving strcasecmp_l(3)
and strncasecmp_l(3) from
<string.h> to
<strings.h> for POSIX
2008 compliance (rev
266865).
CUSE library and kernel
module have been attached
to the build by default.
1100024 267992 June 27, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after
sysctl(3) API change.
regex(3) library update to
add > and < delimiters.
1100026 268118 July 1, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after the in-
ternal interface between
the NFS modules, including
the krpc, was changed by
(rev 268115).
1100027 268441 July 8, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after Free-
BSD-SA-14:17.kmem (rev
268431).
1100028 268945 July 21, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after hde-
stroy(3) compliance x
changed ABI.
1100029 270173 August 3, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after
SOCK_DGRAM bug x (rev
269489).
SOCK_RAW sockets were
changed to not modify
packets at all.
1100031 271341 September 9, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after Free-
BSD-SA-14:18.openssl (rev
269686).
212

1100032 271438 September 11, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after API
changes to ifa_ifwith-
broadaddr, ifa_ifwith-
dstaddr, ifa_ifwithnet,
and ifa_ifwithroute.
1100033 271657 September 9, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing access, eaccess, and
faccessat to validate the
mode argument.
1100034 271686 September 16, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after Free-
BSD-SA-14:19.tcp (rev
271666).
1100035 271705 September 17, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after i915
HW context support.
1100036 271724 September 17, 2014 Version bump to have ABI
note distinguish binaries
ready for strict mmap(2)
ags checking (rev 271724).
tion of explicit_bzero(3)
(rev 272673).
cleanup of TCP wrapper
headers.
1100039 273250 October 18, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after re-
moval of MAP_RENAME and
MAP_NORESERVE .
1100040 273432 October 21, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after Free-

BSD-SA-14:23 (rev 273146).
1100041 273875 October 30, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after API
changes to syscall_reg-
ister, syscall32_reg-
ister, syscall_regis-
ter_helper and syscal-
l32_register_helper (rev
273707).
1100042 274046 November 3, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after a
change to struct tcpcb .
1100043 274085 November 4, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after en-
abling vt(4) by default.
1100044 274116 November 4, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after adding
new libraries/utilities (dpv
and figpar) for data
throughput visualization.
1100045 274162 November 4, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after Free-
BSD-SA-14:23, Free-
BSD-SA-14:24, and Free-
BSD-SA-14:25.
213
FreeBSD 11 Versions

1100046 274470 November 13, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after
kern_poll signature
change (rev 274462).
1100047 274476 November 13, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after re-
moval of no-at version of
VFS syscalls helpers, like
kern_open .
1100048 275358 December 1, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after start-

ing the process of removing
the use of the deprecated
"M_FLOWID" ag from the
network code.
1100049 275633 December 9, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after im-
porting an important x to
the LLVM vectorizer, which
could lead to buer over-
runs in some cases.
AES-ICM and AES-GCM to
OpenCrypto.
1100051 276096 December 23, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after re-
moving old NFS client and
server code from the ker-
nel.
1100052 276479 December 31, 2014 11.0-CURRENT after up-
grade of clang, llvm and
lldb to 3.5.0 release.
1100053 276781 January 7, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after
MCLGET(9) gained a return
value (rev 276750).
1100054 277213 January 15, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after
rewrite of callout subsys-
tem.
verting callout changes in
277213.
1100056 277610 January 23, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of futimens and uti-
mensat system calls.

moval of d_thread_t.
1100058 278228 February 5, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of support for probing
the SCSI VPD Extended In-
quiry page (0x86).
1100059 278442 February 9, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after import
of xz 5.2.0, which added
multi-threaded compres-
214

sion and lzma gained libthr
dependency (rev 278433).
1100060 278846 February 16, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after for-
warding FBIO_BLANK to
framebuffer clients.
1100061 278964 February 18, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after
CDAI_FLAG_NONE addition.

mtio(4) and sa(4) API and
ioctl(2) additions.
1100063 279728 March 7, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after adding
mutex support to the pp-
s_ioctl() API in the ker-
nel.
PPS support to USB serial
drivers.
grading clang, llvm and lldb
to 3.6.0.
moval of SSLv2 support
from OpenSSL.
moval of SSLv2 support
from fetch(1) and fetch(3).
1100068 281172 April 6, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after
change to net.in-
et6.ip6.mif6table sysctl.
moval of const qualifier
from iconv(3).
1100070 281613 April 16, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after mov-
ing ALTQ from contrib to
net/altq .
1100071 282256 April 29, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after API/

ABI change to smb(4) (rev
281985).
1100072 282319 May 1, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after adding
reallocarray(3) in libc (rev
282314).
1100073 282650 May 8, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after ex-
tending the maximum
number of allowed PCM
channels in a PCM stream
to 127 and decreasing the
maximum number of sub-
channels to 1.
215
FreeBSD 11 Versions

preliminary support for
x86-64 Linux binaries (rev
283424), and upgrading
clang and llvm to 3.6.1.
1100075 283623 May 27, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after doun-
mount()requiring a refer-
ence on the passed struct
mount (rev 283602).
1100076 283983 June 4, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after dis-
abled generation of legacy
formatted password data-
bases entries by default.
1100077 284233 June 10, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after API
changes to lim_cur ,
lim_max , and lim_rlimit
(rev 284215).
1100078 286672 August 12, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after
crunchgen(1) changes from
284356 to 285986.
1100079 286874 August 18, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after im-
port of jemalloc 4.0.0 (rev
286866).
1100080 288943 October 5, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after up-
grading clang, llvm, lldb,
compiler-rt and libc++ to
3.7.0.
1100081 289415 October 16, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after undat-
ing ZFS to support re-
sumable send/receive (rev
289362).
1100082 289594 October 19, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after Linux
KPI updates.
1100083 289749 October 22, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after re-
naming linuxapi.ko to
linuxkpi.ko.
1100084 290135 October 29, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after mov-

ing the LinuxKPI mod-
ule into the default kernel
build.
1100085 290207 October 30, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after import
of OpenSSL 1.0.2d.
1100086 290275 November 2, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after mak-
ing figpar(3) macros more
unique.
1100087 290479 November 7, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing sysctl_add_oid(9)'s ABI.
216

1100088 290495 November 7, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after string
collation and locales re-
work.
1100089 290505 November 7, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after API
change to sysctl_add_oid(9)
(rev 290475).
1100090 290715 November 10, 2015 11.0-CURRENT after API
change to callout_stop
macro; (rev 290664).
ing the interface between
the nfsd.ko and nfscom-
mon.ko modules in 291527.

moval of vm_pa-
geout_grow_cache (rev
292469).
moval of sys/cryp-
to/sha2.h (rev 292782).
1100094 294086 January 15, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after Lin-
uxKPI PCI changes (rev
294086).
1100095 294327 January 19, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after LRO
optimizations.
1100096 294505 January 21, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after Lin-
uxKPI idr_* additions.
1100097 294860 January 26, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after API
change to dpv(3).
1100098 295682 February 16, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after API
change to rman (rev
294883).
1100099 295739 February 18, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after allow-
ing drivers to set the TCP
ACK/data segment aggre-
gation limit.
bus_alloc_resource_any(9)
API addition.
llvm, lldb and compiler-rt
to 3.8.0 release.
1100102 296749 March 12, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after libelf
cross-endian x in rev
296685.
1100103 297000 March 18, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after using
uintmax_t for rman ranges.
217
FreeBSD 11 Versions

1100104 297156 March 21, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after track-
ing filemon usage via
a proc.p_filemon pointer
rather than its own lists.
1100105 297602 April 6, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after fixing
sed functions i and a from
discarding leading white
space.
1100106 298486 April 22, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after fixes
for using IPv6 addresses
with RDMA.
1100107 299090 May 4, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after im-
proving performance and
functionality of the bit-
string(3) api.
1100108 299530 May 12, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after fixing
handling of IOCTLs in the
LinuxKPI.
1100109 299933 May 16, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after imple-
menting more Linux de-
vice related functions in
the LinuxKPI.
support for managing Shin-
gled Magnetic Recording
(SMR) drives.
moving brk and sbrk from
arm64.
bit_count to the bit-
string(3) API.
1100113 300701 May 26, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after dis-
abling alignment faults on
armv6.
1100114 300806 May 26, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after fixing
crunchgen(1) usage with
MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX.

an mbuf ag for
M_HASHTYPE_ .

SHA-512t256 (rev 300903)
and Skein (rev 300966)
where added to libmd,
libcrypt, the kernel, and
ZFS (rev 301010).
1100117 301892 June 6, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after lib-
pam was synced with stock
218

301602, bumping library
version.
1100118 302071 June 21, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after break-
ing binary compatibility of
struct disk 302069.
switching geom_disk to us-
ing a pool mutex.
1100120 302153 June 23, 2016 11.0-CURRENT after adding
spares to struct ifnet.
1100121 303979 August 12, 2015 11-STABLE after re-
leng/11.0 branched from
11-STABLE (rev 303975).
1100500 303979 August 12, 2016 11.0-STABLE adding
branched 303976.
1100501 304609 August 22, 2016 11.0-STABLE after adding C
++11 thread_local support.
1100502 304865 August 26, 2016 11.0-STABLE after
LC_*_MASK x.
1100503 305733 September 12, 2016 11.0-STABLE after resolv-

ing a deadlock between
device_detach() and usb-
1100504 307330 October 14, 2016 11.0-STABLE after ZFS
merges.
1100505 307590 October 19, 2016 11.0-STABLE after struct
fb_info change.
1100506 308048 October 28, 2016 11.0-STABLE after in-

stalling header les re-
quired development with
libzfs_core.
1100507 310120 December 15, 2016 11.0-STABLE after adding
the ki_moretdname mem-
ber to struct kinfo_proc
and struct kinfo_proc32
to export the whole thread
name to user-space utili-
ties.
1100508 310618 December 26, 2016 11.0-STABLE after upgrad-
ing our copies of clang,
llvm, lldb, compiler-rt and
libc++ to 3.9.1 release, and
adding lld 3.9.1.
1100509 311186 January 3, 2017 11.0-STABLE after crunch-
gen(1) META_MODE x (rev
r311185).
219
FreeBSD 10 Versions

1100510 315312 March 15, 2017 11.0-STABLE after MFC
of fget_cap , getsock_cap,
and related changes.
1100511 316423 April 2, 2017 11.0-STABLE after multiple
MFCs updating clang, llvm,
lld, lldb, compiler-rt and
libc++ to 4.0.0 release.
1100512 316498 April 4, 2017 11.0-STABLE after making
CAM SIM lock optional
(revs 315673, 315674).
1100513 318197 May 11, 2017 11.0-STABLE after multiple
MFC of mmc , mmcsd, and sd-
hci changes.
1100514 319279 May 31, 2017 11.0-STABLE after multi-

ple MFCs of libpcap,
WITHOUT_INET6 , and a few
other minor changes.
1101000 320486 June 30, 2017 releng/11.1 branched
from stable/11.
1101500 320487 June 30, 2017 11-STABLE after re-
leng/11.1 branched.
1101501 320666 July 5, 2017 11-STABLE after the

MAP_GUARD mmap(2) ag
was added.
1000000 225757 September 26, 2011 10.0-CURRENT.
1000001 227070 November 4, 2011 10-CURRENT after addition
of the posix_fadvise(2) sys-
tem call.
1000002 228444 December 12, 2011 10-CURRENT after defining
boolean true/false in sys/
types.h, sizeof(bool) may
have changed (rev 228444).
10-CURRENT after xlo-
cale.h was introduced (rev
227753).
1000003 228571 December 16, 2011 10-CURRENT after major
changes to carp(4), chang-
ing size of struct in_alias-
req, structin6_aliasreq (rev
228571) and straitening ar-
guments check of SIOCAI-
FADDR (rev 228574).
220

1000004 229204 January 1, 2012 10-CURRENT after the re-
moval of skpc() and the
addition of memcchr(9)
(rev 229200).
1000005 230207 January 16, 2012 10-CURRENT after the re-
moval of support for
SIOCSIFADDR, SIOCSIFNET-
MASK, SIOCSIFBRDADDR,
SIOCSIFDSTADDR ioctls.
1000006 230590 January 26, 2012 10-CURRENT after intro-
duction of read capacity da-
ta asynchronous notifica-
tion in the cam(4) layer.
1000007 231025 February 5, 2012 10-CURRENT after intro-
duction of new tcp(4) sock-
et options: TCP_KEEPINIT,
TCP_KEEPIDLE, TCP_KEEP-
INTVL, and TCP_KEEPCNT.
1000008 231505 February 11, 2012 10-CURRENT after intro-
duction of the new ex-
tensible sysctl(3) interface
NET_RT_IFLISTL to query
address lists.
1000009 232154 February 25, 2012 10-CURRENT after import
of libarchive 3.0.3 (rev
232153).
1000010 233757 March 31, 2012 10-CURRENT after xlocale
cleanup.
1000011 234355 April 16, 2012 10-CURRENT import of
LLVM/Clang 3.1 trunk
154661 (rev 234353).
1000012 234924 May 2, 2012 10-CURRENT jemalloc im-
port.
1000013 235788 May 22, 2012 10-CURRENT after byacc
import.
1000014 237631 June 27, 2012 10-CURRENT after BSD sort
becoming the default sort
(rev 237629).
1000015 238405 July 12, 2012 10-CURRENT after import
of OpenSSL 1.0.1c.
(not changed) 238429 July 13, 2012 10-CURRENT after the x
for LLVM/Clang 3.1 regres-
sion.
1000016 239179 August 8, 2012 10-CURRENT after KBI
change in ucom(4).
1000017 239214 August 8, 2012 10-CURRENT after adding
streams feature to the USB
stack.
221
FreeBSD 10 Versions

1000018 240233 September 8, 2012 10-CURRENT after major
rewrite of pf(4).
1000019 241245 October 6, 2012 10-CURRENT after pl(9)
KBI/KPI changed to supply
packets in net byte order to
AF_INET filter hooks.
1000020 241610 October 16, 2012 10-CURRENT after the net-
work interface cloning KPI
changed and struct if_clone
becoming opaque.
1000021 241897 October 22, 2012 10-CURRENT after removal
of support for non-MPSAFE
filesystems and addition of
support for FUSEFS (rev
241519).
1000022 241913 October 22, 2012 10-CURRENT after the en-
tire IPv4 stack switched to
network byte order for IP
packet header storage.
1000023 242619 November 5, 2012 10-CURRENT after jitter
buer in the common USB
serial driver code, to tem-
porarily store characters if
the TTY buer is full. Add
ow stop and start signals
when this happens.
1000024 242624 November 5, 2012 10-CURRENT after clang
was made the default com-
piler on i386 and amd64.
1000025 243443 November 17, 2012 10-CURRENT after the
sin6_scope_id member
variable in struct sockad-
dr_in6 was changed to be-
ing lled by the kernel
before passing the struc-
ture to the userland via
sysctl or routing socket.
This means the KAME-spe-
cific embedded scope id in
sin6_addr.s6_addr[2] is al-
ways cleared in userland
application.
1000026 245313 January 11, 2013 10-CURRENT after install
gained the -N ag. May al-
so be used to indicate the
presence of nmtree.
1000027 246084 January 29, 2013 10-CURRENT after cat
gained the -l ag (rev
246083).
222

1000028 246759 February 13, 2013 10-CURRENT after USB
moved to the driver struc-
ture requiring a rebuild of
all USB modules.
1000029 247821 March 4, 2013 10-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of tickless call-
out facility which also
changed the layout of
struct callout (rev 247777).
1000030 248210 March 12, 2013 10-CURRENT after KPI
breakage introduced in the
VM subsystem to support
read/write locking (rev
248084).
1000031 249943 April 26, 2013 10-CURRENT after the dst
parameter of the ifnet
if_output method was
changed to take const qual-
ifier (rev 249925).
1000032 250163 May 1, 2013 10-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of the ac-
cept4(2) (rev 250154) and
pipe2(2) (rev 250159) sys-
tem calls.
1000033 250881 May 21, 2013 10-CURRENT after ex
2.5.37 import.
1000034 251294 June 3, 2013 10-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of these func-
tions to libm: cacos(3),
cacosf(3), cacosh(3), ca-
coshf(3), casin(3), cas-
inf(3), casinh(3), casin-
hf(3), catan(3), catanf(3),
catanh(3), catanhf(3),
logl(3), log2l(3), log10l(3),
log1pl(3), expm1l(3).
1000035 251527 June 8, 2013 10-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of the aio_m-
lock(2) system call (rev
251526).
1000036 253049 July 9, 2013 10-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of a new function to
the kernel GSSAPI module's
function call interface.
1000037 253089 July 9, 2013 10-CURRENT after the mi-
gration of statistics struc-
tures to PCPU counters.
Changed structures in-
clude: ahstat, arpstat, es-
pstat, icmp6_ifstat, icm-
223
FreeBSD 10 Versions

p6stat, in6_ifstat, ip6s-
tat, ipcompstat, ipipstat,
ipsecstat, mrt6stat, mrt-
stat, pfkeystat, pim6stat,
pimstat, rip6stat, udp-
stat (rev 253081).
1000038 253396 July 16, 2013 10-CURRENT after making

ARM EABI the default ABI
on arm, armeb, armv6, and
armv6eb architectures.
1000039 253549 July 22, 2013 10-CURRENT after CAM and
mps(4) driver scanning
changes.
1000040 253638 July 24, 2013 10-CURRENT after addition
of libusb pkgconf les.
1000041 253970 August 5, 2013 10-CURRENT after change
from time_second to
time_uptime in PF_INET6 .
1000042 254138 August 9, 2013 10-CURRENT after VM sub-

system change to unify
soft and hard busy mecha-
nisms.
1000043 254273 August 13, 2013 10-CURRENT after WITH_I-
CONV is enabled by de-
fault. A new src.conf(5) op-
tion, WITH_LIBICONV_COM-
PAT (disabled by default)
adds libiconv_open to
provide compatibility with
the libiconv port.
1000044 254358 August 15, 2013 10-CURRENT after libc.so
conversion to an ld(1)
script (rev 251668).
1000045 254389 August 15, 2013 10-CURRENT after de-
vfs programming interface
change by replacing the
cdevsw ag D_UNMAPPED_IO
with the struct cdev ag
SI_UNMAPPED.
1000046 254537 August 19, 2013 10-CURRENT after addition

of M_PROTO[9-12] and re-
moval of M_FRAG|M_FIRST-
FRAG|M_LASTFRAG mbuf
ags (rev 254524, 254526).
1000047 254627 August 21, 2013 10-CURRENT after stat(2)
update to allow storing
some Windows/DOS and
CIFS le attributes as
stat(2) ags.
224

1000048 254672 August 22, 2013 10-CURRENT after modifi-
cation of structure xsct-
p_inpcb.
1000049 254760 August 24, 2013 10-CURRENT after

physio(9) support for de-
vices that do not func-
tion properly with split I/O,
such as sa(4).
1000050 254844 August 24, 2013 10-CURRENT after mod-
ifications of structure
mbuf (rev 254780, 254799,
254804, 254807 254842).
1000051 254887 August 25, 2013 10-CURRENT after Radeon
KMS driver import (rev
254885).
1000052 255180 September 3, 2013 10-CURRENT after import
of NetBSD libexecinfo is
connected to the build.
1000053 255305 September 6, 2013 10-CURRENT after API and
ABI changes to the Cap-
sicum framework.
1000054 255321 September 6, 2013 10-CURRENT after gcc and
libstdc++ are no longer
built by default.
1000055 255449 September 6, 2013 10-CURRENT after addition
of MMAP_32BIT mmap(2)
ag (rev 255426).
1000100 259065 December 7, 2013 releng/10.0 branched
from stable/10.
1000500 256283 October 10, 2013 10-STABLE after branch
from head/ .
1000501 256916 October 22, 2013 10-STABLE after addition of
rst-boot rc(8) support.
1000502 258398 November 20, 2013 10-STABLE after removal
of iconv symbols from
libc.so.7 .
1000510 259067 December 7, 2013 releng/10.0 __Free-

BSD_version update to pre-
vent the value from going
backwards.
1000700 259069 December 7, 2013 10-STABLE after re-
leng/10.0 branch.
1000701 259447 December 15, 2013 10.0-STABLE after Heimdal

encoding x.
1000702 260135 December 31, 2013 10-STABLE after MAP_S-
TACK fixes.
225
FreeBSD 10 Versions

1000703 262801 March 5, 2014 10-STABLE after upgrade of
libc++ to 3.4 release.
1000704 262889 March 7, 2014 10-STABLE after MFC of the
vt(4) driver (rev 262861).
llvm/clang to 3.4 release.
1000706 264214 April 6, 2014 10-STABLE after GCC sup-
port for __block defini-
tion.
1000707 264289 April 8, 2014 10-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:06.openssl.
BSD-SA-14:07.devfs, Free-
BSD-SA-14:08.tcp, and
FreeBSD-SA-14:09.openssl.
1000709 265946 May 13, 2014 10-STABLE after support
for UDP-Lite protocol (RFC
3828).
1000710 267465 June 13, 2014 10-STABLE after changes
to strcasecmp(3), mov-
ing strcasecmp_l(3) and
strncasecmp_l(3) from
<string.h> to
<strings.h> for POSIX
2008 compliance.
1000711 268442 July 8, 2014 10-STABLE after Free-
268432).
1000712 269400 August 1, 2014 10-STABLE after nfsd(8)4.1
merge (rev 269398).
1000713 269484 August 3, 2014 10-STABLE after regex(3) li-
brary update to add > and
< delimiters.
1000714 270174 August 3, 2014 10-STABLE after SOCK_D-
GRAM bug x (rev 269490).
1000715 271341 September 9, 2014 10-STABLE after Free-

BSD-SA-14:18 (rev 269686).
BSD-SA-14:19 (rev 271667).
1000717 271816 September 18, 2014 10-STABLE after i915 HW
context support.
1001000 272463 October 2, 2014 10.1-RC1 after releng/10.1
branch.
1001500 272464 October 2, 2014 10-STABLE after re-
leng/10.1 branch.
1001501 273432 October 21, 2014 10-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:20, Free-
226

BSD-SA-14:23 (rev 273411).
1001502 274162 November 4, 2014 10-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:23, Free-
BSD-SA-14:25.
1001503 275040 November 25, 2014 10-STABLE after merg-
ing new libraries/utilities
(dpv(1), dpv(3), and fig-
par(3)) for data throughput
visualization.
1001504 275742 December 13, 2014 10-STABLE after merging
an important x to the
LLVM vectorizer, which
could lead to buer over-
runs in some cases.
1001505 276633 January 3, 2015 10-STABLE after merging
some arm constants in
276312.
1001506 277087 January 12, 2015 10-STABLE after merging
max table size update for
yacc.
1001507 277790 January 27, 2015 10-STABLE after changes to
the UDP tunneling callback
to provide a context point-
er and the source sockaddr.
1001508 278974 February 18, 2015 10-STABLE after addition of
the CDAI_TYPE_EXT_INQ re-
quest type.
1001509 279287 February 25, 2015 10-STABLE after Free-
BSD-EN-15:01.vt, Free-
BSD-EN-15:02.openssl,
FreeBSD-EN-15:03.freeb-
sd-update, Free-
BSD-SA-15:04.igmp, and
FreeBSD-SA-15:05.bind.
1001510 279329 February 26, 2015 10-STABLE after MFC of rev
278964.
1001511 280246 19 March, 2015 10-STABLE after sys/ca-
pability.h is renamed
to sys/capsicum.h (rev
280224/).
1001512 280438 24 March, 2015 10-STABLE after addition of
new mtio(4), sa(4) ioctls.
1001513 281955 24 April, 2015 10-STABLE after starting
the process of removing
the use of the deprecated
"M_FLOWID" ag from the
network code.
227
FreeBSD 10 Versions

1001514 282275 April 30, 2015 10-STABLE after MFC of
iconv(3) fixes.
1001515 282781 May 11, 2015 10-STABLE after adding
back M_FLOWID .
1001516 283341 May 24, 2015 10-STABLE after MFC of
many USB things.
1001517 283950 June 3, 2015 10-STABLE after MFC of
sound related things.
1001518 284204 June 10, 2015 10-STABLE after MFC of zfs
vfs fixes (rev 284203).
1001519 284720 June 23, 2015 10-STABLE after reverting
bumping MAXCPU on amd64.
1002000 285830 24 July, 2015 releng/10.2 branched
from 10-STABLE.
1002500 285831 24 July, 2015 10-STABLE after re-
10-STABLE.
1002501 289005 8 October, 2015 10-STABLE after merge of
ZFS changes that affect-
ed the internal interface
of zfeature_info structure
(rev 288572).
1002502 291243 24 November, 2015 10-STABLE after merge
of dump device changes
that affected the ar-
guments of g_dev_set-
dumpdev()(rev 291215).
1002503 292224 14 December, 2015 10-STABLE after merge of

changes to the internal in-
terface between the nfs-
d.ko and nfscommon.ko
modules, requiring them to
be upgraded together (rev
292223).
xz 5.2.2 merge (multithread
support) (rev 292588).
changes to pci(4) (rev
292907).
1002506 293476 9 January, 2016 10-STABLE after merge of
utimensat(2) (rev 293473).
changes to linux(4) (rev
293477 through 293609 ).
changes to figpar(3) types/
macros (rev 290275).
228

1002509 295107 1 February, 2016 10-STABLE after merge of
API change to dpv(3).
1003000 296373 4 March, 2016 releng/10.3 branched
from 10-STABLE.
1003500 296374 4 March, 2016 10-STABLE after re-
10-STABLE.
1003501 298299 19 June, 2016 10-STABLE after adding kd-
bcontrol's -P option (rev
298297).
1003502 299966 19 June, 2016 10-STABLE after libcryp-
to.so was made position in-
dependent.
1003503 300235 19 June, 2016 10-STABLE after allowing
MK_ overrides (rev 300233).
1003504 302066 21 June, 2016 10-STABLE after MFC of
filemon changes from 11-
CURRENT.
1003505 302228 27 June, 2016 10-STABLE after converting
sed to use REG_STARTEND,
fixing a Mesa issue.
1003506 304611 August 22, 2016 10-STABLE after adding C+
+11 thread_local support.
1003507 304864 August 26, 2016 10-STABLE after
LC_*_MASK x.
1003508 305734 September 12, 2016 10-STABLE after resolving

a deadlock between de-
vice_detach() and usb-
1003509 307331 October 14, 2016 10-STABLE after ZFS
merges.
1003510 308047 October 28, 2016 10-STABLE after installing
header les required devel-
opment with libzfs_core.
1003511 310121 December 15, 2016 10-STABLE after exporting
whole thread name in kin-
fo_proc (rev 309676).
1003512 315730 March 22, 2017 10-STABLE after libmd

changes (rev 314143).
1003513 316499 April 4, 2017 10-STABLE after making
CAM SIM lock optional
(revs 315673, 315674).
1003514 318198 May 11, 2017 10-STABLE after multiple
mmc and ACPI changes.
1003515 321222 July 19, 2017 10-STABLE after adding C+

+14 sized deallocation func-
tions to libc++.
229
FreeBSD 9 Versions
900000 196432 August 22, 2009 9.0-CURRENT.
900001 197019 September 8, 2009 9.0-CURRENT after import-
ing x86emu, a software em-
ulator for real mode x86
CPU from OpenBSD.
900002 197430 September 23, 2009 9.0-CURRENT after imple-
menting the EVFILT_USER
kevent filter functionality.
900003 200039 December 2, 2009 9.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of sigpause(2) and PIE
support in csu.
tion of libulog and its
libutempter compatibility
interface.
tion of sleepq_sleepcnt(9),
which can be used to query
the number of waiters on a
specific waiting queue.
900006 201513 January 4, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after change
of the scandir(3) and alpha-
sort(3) prototypes to con-
form to SUSv4.
900007 202219 January 13, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after the re-
moval of utmp(5) and the
addition of utmpx (see
getutxent(3)) for improved
logging of user logins and
system events.
900008 202722 January 20, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after the im-
port of BSDL bc/dc and the
deprecation of GNU bc/dc.
900009 203052 January 26, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of SIOCGIFDESCR
and SIOCSIFDESCR ioctls to
network interfaces. These
ioctl can be used to manip-
ulate interface description,
as inspired by OpenBSD.
900010 205471 March 22, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after the im-
port of zlib 1.2.4.
900011 207410 April 24, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after adding
soft-updates journalling.
230

liblzma, xz, xzdec, and lz-
mainfo.
900013 208486 May 24, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after bring-
ing in USB fixes for lin-
ux(4).
Clang.
900015 210390 July 22, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after the im-
port of BSD grep.
900016 210565 July 28, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after adding
mti_zone to struct mal-
loc_type_internal.
ing back default grep to
GNU grep and adding
WITH_BSD_GREP knob.
900018 211735 August 24, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after the
pthread_kill(3) -generated
signal is identified as SI_L-
WP in si_code. Previously,
si_code was SI_USER.
900019 211937 August 28, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of the MAP_PRE-
FAULT_READ ag to
mmap(2).
900020 212381 September 9, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after adding
drain functionality to
sbufs, which also changed
the layout of struct sbuf.
900021 212568 September 13, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after DTrace
has grown support for
userland tracing.
tion of the BSDL man
utilities and retirement of
GNU/GPL man utilities.
900023 213700 October 11, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after updat-
ing xz to git 20101010 snap-
shot.
900024 215127 November 11, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after libgcc.a
was replaced by libcompil-
er_rt.a.
900025 215166 November 12, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of the modu-
larised congestion control.
troduction of Serial Man-
231
FreeBSD 9 Versions

agement Protocol (SMP)
passthrough and the XP-
T_SMP_IO and XPT_GDE-
V_ADVINFO CAM CCBs.
900027 216212 December 5, 2010 9.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of log2 to libm.
addition of the Hhook
(Helper Hook), Khelp (Ker-
nel Helpers) and Object
Specific Data (OSD) KPIs.
modification of the TCP
stack to allow Khelp mod-
ules to interact with it
via helper hook points and
store per-connection data
in the TCP control block.
900030 217309 January 12, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after the up-
date of libdialog to version
20100428.
900031 218414 February 7, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of pthread_getthrea-
did_np(3).
900032 218425 February 8, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after the re-
moval of the uio_yield pro-
totype and symbol.
900033 218822 February 18, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after the up-
date of binutils to version
2.17.50.
900034 219406 March 8, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after the
struct sysvec (sv_schedtail)
changes.
900035 220150 March 29, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after the up-
date of base gcc and libst-
dc++ to the last GPLv2 li-
censed revision.
moval of libobjc and Ob-
jective-C support from the
base system.
900037 221862 May 13, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after import-
ing the libprocstat(3) li-
brary and fuser(1) utility to
the base system.
a lock ag argument to
VFS_FHTOVP(9).
232

900039 223637 June 28, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after import-
ing pf from OpenBSD 4.5.
900040 224217 July 19, 2011 Increase default MAXCPU
for FreeBSD to 64 on amd64
and ia64 and to 128 for XLP
(mips).
900041 224834 August 13, 2011 9.0-CURRENT after the im-
plementation of Capsicum
capabilities; fget(9) gains a
rights argument.
900042 225350 August 28, 2011 Bump shared libraries' ver-
sion numbers for libraries
whose ABI has changed in
preparation for 9.0.
900043 225350 September 2, 2011 Add automatic detection of
USB mass storage devices
which do not support the
no synchronize cache SCSI
command.
900044 225469 September 10, 2011 Re-factor auto-quirk. 9.0-
RELEASE.
900045 229285 January 2, 2012 9-STABLE after MFC of
true/false from 1000002.
900500 229318 January 2, 2012 9.0-STABLE.
900501 229723 January 6, 2012 9.0-STABLE after merg-
ing of addition of
the posix_fadvise(2) system
call.
900502 230237 January 16, 2012 9.0-STABLE after merging
gperf 3.0.3
900503 231768 February 15, 2012 9.0-STABLE after introduc-
tion of the new exten-
sible sysctl(3) interface
address lists.
900504 232728 March 3, 2012 9.0-STABLE after changes
related to mounting of
filesystem inside a jail.
900505 232945 March 13, 2012 9.0-STABLE after introduc-
tion of new tcp(4) sock-
et options: TCP_KEEPINIT,
TCP_KEEPIDLE, TCP_KEEP-
INTVL, and TCP_KEEPCNT.
900506 235786 May 22, 2012 9.0-STABLE after introduc-
tion of the quick_ex-
it function and related
changes required for C++11.
901000 239082 August 5, 2012 9.1-RELEASE.
233
FreeBSD 9 Versions

901500 239081 August 6, 2012 9.1-STABLE after branching
releng/9.1 (RELENG_9_1).
901501 240659 November 11, 2012 9.1-STABLE after LIST_PRE-
V(3) added to queue.h (rev
242893) and KBI change in
USB serial devices.
901502 243656 November 28, 2012 9.1-STABLE after USB seri-
al jitter buer requires re-
build of USB serial device
modules.
901503 247090 February 21, 2013 9.1-STABLE after USB
moved to the driver struc-
ture requiring a rebuild
of all USB modules. Also
indicates the presence of
nmtree.
901504 248338 March 15, 2013 9.1-STABLE after install
gained -l, -M, -N and relat-
ed ags and cat gained the
-l option.
901505 251687 June 13, 2013 9.1-STABLE after fixes
in ctfmerge bootstrapping
(rev 249243).
902001 253912 August 3, 2013 releng/9.2 branched from
stable/9.
902501 253913 August 2, 2013 9.2-STABLE after creation

of releng/9.2 branch.
902502 254938 August 26, 2013 9.2-STABLE after inclusion
of the PIM_RESCAN CAM
path inquiry ag.
902503 254979 August 27, 2013 9.2-STABLE after inclusion
of the SI_UNMAPPED cdev
ag.
902504 256917 October 22, 2013 9.2-STABLE after inclusion
of support for rst boot
rc(8) scripts.
902505 259448 December 12, 2013 9.2-STABLE after Heimdal
encoding x.
902506 260136 December 31, 2013 9-STABLE after MAP_S-
TACK fixes (rev 260082).
libc++ to 3.4 release.
902508 263171 March 14, 2014 9-STABLE after merge of
the Radeon KMS driver (rev
263170).
llvm/clang to 3.4 release.
234

902510 263818 March 27, 2014 9-STABLE after merge of
the vt(4) driver.
902511 264289 March 27, 2014 9-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:06.openssl.
BSD-SA-14:08.tcp.
903000 267656 June 20, 2014 9-RC1 releng/9.3 branch.
903500 267657 June 20, 2014 9.3-STABLE releng/9.3
branch.
903501 268443 July 8, 2014 9-STABLE after Free-
268433).
903502 270175 August 19, 2014 9-STABLE after SOCK_DGRAM
bug x (rev 269789).
BSD-SA-14:18 (rev 269687).
BSD-SA-14:19 (rev 271668).
903505 273432 October 21, 2014 9-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:20, Free-
BSD-SA-14:22 (rev 273412).
903506 274162 November 4, 2014 9-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:23, Free-
BSD-SA-14:25.
903507 275742 December 13, 2014 9-STABLE after merging an
important x to the LLVM
vectorizer, which could
lead to buer overruns in
some cases.
sd-update, Free-
903509 296219 February 29, 2016 9-STABLE after bumping
the default value of com-
pat.linux.osrelease to
2.6.18 to support the lin-
ux-c6-* ports out of the
box.
903510 300236 May 19, 2016 9-STABLE after System Bi-
nary Interface (SBI) page
was moved in latest version
of Berkeley Boot Loader
235
FreeBSD 8 Versions

(BBL) due to code size in-
crease in 300234.
800000 172531 October 11, 2007 8.0-CURRENT. Separating
wide and single byte ctype.
800001 172688 October 16, 2007 8.0-CURRENT after libpcap
0.9.8 and tcpdump 3.9.8 im-
port.
800002 172841 October 21, 2007 8.0-CURRENT after renam-
ing kthread_create(9) and
friends to kproc_create(9)
etc.
800003 172932 October 24, 2007 8.0-CURRENT after ABI
backwards compatibility to
the FreeBSD 4/5/6 ver-
sions of the PCIOCGET-
CONF, PCIOCREAD and
PCIOCWRITE IOCTLs was
added, which required the
ABI of the PCIOCGETCONF
IOCTL to be broken again
800004 173573 November 12, 2007 8.0-CURRENT after agp(4)
driver moved from src/sys/
pci to src/sys/dev/agp
800005 174261 December 4, 2007 8.0-CURRENT after changes
to the jumbo frame alloca-
tor (rev 174247).
dition of callgraph capture
functionality to hwpmc(4).
800007 174901 December 25, 2007 8.0-CURRENT after kd-
b_enter() gains a "why"
argument.
800008 174951 December 28, 2007 8.0-CURRENT after LK_EX-
CLUPGRADE option re-
moval.
800009 175168 January 9, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after intro-
duction of lockmgr_dis-
own(9)
236

800010 175204 January 10, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the
vn_lock(9) prototype
change.
VOP_LOCK(9) and VOP_UN-
LOCK(9) prototype
changes.
800012 175487 January 19, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after in-
troduction of lockm-
gr_recursed(9), BUF_RE-
CURSED(9) and
BUF_ISLOCKED(9) and the
removal of BUF_REFCNT().
800013 175581 January 23, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after intro-
duction of the ASCII en-
coding.
800014 175636 January 24, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing the prototype of lock-
mgr(9) and removal of
lockcount() and LOCKM-
GR_ASSERT().
800015 175688 January 26, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after extend-

ing the types of the fts(3)
structures.
800016 175872 February 1, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after adding
an argument to MEX-
TADD(9)
800017 176015 February 6, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of LK_NODUP
and LK_NOWITNESS op-
tions in the lockmgr(9)
space.
dition of m_collapse.
dition of current working
directory, root directory,
and jail directory support
to the kern.proc.ledesc
sysctl.
800020 176251 February 13, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after intro-
duction of lockmgr_as-
sert(9) and BUF_ASSERT
functions.
800021 176321 February 15, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after intro-
duction of lockmgr_args(9)
and LK_INTERNAL ag re-
moval.
237
FreeBSD 8 Versions

800022 176556 (backed out) 8.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing the default system ar to
BSD ar(1).
800023 176560 February 25, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing the prototypes
of lockstatus(9) and
VOP_ISLOCKED(9), more
specifically retiring the
struct thread argument.
800024 176709 March 1, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after ax-

ing out the lockwait-
ers and BUF_LOCKWAITERS
functions, changing the re-
turn value of brelvp from
void to int and introducing
new ags for lockinit(9).
F_DUP2FD command to fc-
ntl(2).
800026 177086 March 12, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing the priority parame-
ter to cv_broadcastpri such
that 0 means no priority.
800027 177551 March 24, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing the bpf monitoring ABI
when zerocopy bpf buers
were added.
l_sysid to struct ock.
800029 177688 March 28, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after reinte-
gration of the BUF_LOCK-
WAITERS function and the
addition of lockmgr_wait-
ers(9).
800030 177844 April 1, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of the rw_try_r-
lock(9) and
rw_try_wlock(9) functions.
800031 177958 April 6, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the
introduction of the
lockmgr_rw and lockm-
gr_args_rw functions.
800032 178006 April 8, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the im-

plementation of the openat
and related syscalls, intro-
duction of the O_EXEC ag
for the open(2), and provid-
ing the corresponding lin-
ux compatibility syscalls.
238

800033 178017 April 8, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after added
write(2) support for psm(4)
in native operation level.
Now arbitrary commands
can be written to /dev/psm
%d and status can be read
back from it.
800034 178051 April 10, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after intro-
duction of the memrchr
function.
800035 178256 April 16, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after intro-
duction of the fdopendir
function.
switchover of 802.11 wire-
less to multi-bss support
(aka vaps).
800037 178892 May 9, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of multi routing table
support (aka setfib(1), set-
fib(2)).
moval of netatm and ISD-
N4BSD. Also, the addition
of the Compact C Type
(CTF) tools.
800039 179784 June 14, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after re-
moval of sgtty.
800040 180025 June 26, 2008 8.0-CURRENT with kernel
NFS lockd client.
800041 180691 July 22, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of arc4random_buf(3)
and arc4random_unifor-
m(3).
800042 181439 August 8, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of cpuctl(4).
ing bpf(4) to use a single de-
vice node, instead of device
cloning.
commit of the rst step of
the vimage project renam-
ing global variables to be
virtualized with a V_ prefix
with macros to map them
back to their global names.
800045 181905 August 20, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the in-
tegration of the MPSAFE
239
FreeBSD 8 Versions

TTY layer, including
changes to various drivers
and utilities that interact
with it.
800046 182869 September 8, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the sep-
aration of the GDT per CPU
on amd64 architecture.
moval of VSVTX, VSGID
and VSUID.
800048 183091 September 16, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after con-
verting the kernel NFS
mount code to accept in-
dividual mount options in
the nmount(2) iovec, not
just one big struct nfs_args.
800049 183114 September 17, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the re-
moval of suser(9) and
suser_cred(9).
800050 184099 October 20, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after buer
cache API change.
800051 184205 October 23, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the re-
moval of the MALLOC(9)
and FREE(9) macros.
800052 184419 October 28, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of accmode_t
and renaming of VOP_AC-
CESS 'a_mode' argument to
'a_accmode'.
800053 184555 November 2, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the
prototype change of vf-
s_busy(9) and the introduc-
tion of its MBF_NOWAIT
and MBF_MNTLSTLOCK
ags.
800054 185162 November 22, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of buf_ring, memory
barriers and ifnet functions
to facilitate multiple hard-
ware transmit queues for
cards that support them,
and a lockless ring-buer
implementation to enable
drivers to more efficient-
ly manage queuing of pack-
ets.
dition of Intel Core, Core2,
and Atom support to hw-
pmc(4).
240

troduction of multi-/no-
IPv4/v6 jails.
switch to the ath hal source
code.
800058 185968 December 12, 2008 8.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of the VOP_VP-
TOCNP operation.
800059 186119 December 15, 2008 8.0-CURRENT incorporates
the new arp-v2 rewrite.
dition of makefs.
800061 187289 January 15, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after TCP Ap-
propriate Byte Counting.
moval of minor(), minor2u-
nit(), unit2minor(), etc.
800063 188745 February 18, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after GEN-
ERIC config change to use
the USB2 stack, but also the
addition of fdevname(3).
800064 188946 February 23, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the
USB2 stack is moved to and
replaces dev/usb.
naming of all functions in
libmp(3).
ing USB devfs handling and
layout.
800067 189136 February 28, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after adding
getdelim(), getline(), stp-
ncpy(), strnlen(), wc-
snlen(), wcscasecmp(), and
wcsncasecmp().
800068 189276 March 2, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after renam-
ing the ushub devclass to
uhub.
800069 189585 March 9, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after libus-
b20.so.1 was renamed to
libusb.so.1.
800070 189592 March 9, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after merg-
ing IGMPv3 and Source-
Specific Multicast (SSM) to
the IPv4 stack.
800071 189825 March 14, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after gcc was
patched to use C99 inline
241
FreeBSD 8 Versions

semantics in c99 and gnu99
mode.
800072 189853 March 15, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the IF-
F_NEEDSGIANT ag has
been removed; non-
MPSAFE network device
drivers are no longer sup-
ported.
800073 190265 March 18, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the dy-
namic string token sub-
stitution has been imple-
mented for rpath and need-
ed paths.
800074 190373 March 24, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after tcp-
dump 4.0.0 and libpcap
1.0.0 import.
800075 190787 April 6, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after lay-
out of structs vnet_net,
vnet_inet and vnet_ipfw
has been changed.
delay profiles in dum-
mynet.
moving VOP_LEASE() and
vop_vector.vop_lease.
800078 191080 April 15, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after struct
rt_weight elds have been
added to struct rt_met-
rics and struct rt_metric-
s_lite, changing the layout
of struct rt_metrics_lite.
A bump to RTM_VERSION
was made, but backed out.
800079 191117 April 15, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after struct
llentry pointers are added
to struct route and struct
route_in6.
800080 191126 April 15, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after layout
of struct inpcb has been
changed.
800081 191267 April 19, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the lay-
out of struct malloc_type
has been changed.
800082 191368 April 21, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the lay-
out of struct ifnet has
changed, and with if_ref()
and if_rele() ifnet refcount-
ing.
242

800083 191389 April 22, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the im-
plementation of a low-level
Bluetooth HCI API.
800084 191672 April 29, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after IPv6
SSM and MLDv2 changes.
800085 191688 April 30, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after en-
abling support for VIMAGE
kernel builds with one ac-
tive image.
support for input lines
of arbitrarily length in
patch(1).
800087 191990 May 11, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after some
VFS KPI changes. The
thread argument has been
removed from the FSD
parts of the VFS. VFS_*
functions do not need
the context any more be-
cause it always refers to
curthread . In some special
cases, the old behavior is
retained.
net80211 monitor mode
changes.
UDP control block support.
800090 192669 May 23, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after virtual-
izing interface cloning.
hierarchical jails and re-
moving global securelevel.
800092 193011 May 29, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing sx_init_flags() KPI.
The SX_ADAPTIVESPIN is re-
tired and a new SX_NOAD-
APTIVE ag is introduced to
handle the reversed logic.
mnt_xflag to struct mount.
VOP_ACCESSX(9).
800095 193096 May 30, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing the polling KPI. The
polling handlers now re-
turn the number of pack-
ets processed. A new IF-
243
FreeBSD 8 Versions

CAP_POLLING_NOCOUNT is al-
so introduced to specify
that the return value is not
significant and the count-
ing should be skipped.
800096 193219 June 1, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after updat-
ing to the new netisr imple-
mentation and after chang-
ing the way we store and
access FIBs.
800097 193731 June 8, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of vnet destruc-
tor hooks and infrastruc-
ture.
(not changed) 194012 June 11, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of netgraph
outbound to inbound path
call detection and queuing,
which also changed the lay-
out of struct thread.
OpenSSL 0.9.8k import.
NGROUPS update and mov-
ing route virtualization in-
to its own VImage module.
SYSVIPC ABI change.
800101 195175 June 29, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the re-
moval of the /dev/net/*
per-interface character de-
vices.
800102 195634 July 12, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after padding
was added to struct sack-
hint, struct tcpcb, and
struct tcpstat.
800103 195654 July 13, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after replac-
ing struct tcpopt with
struct toeopt in the TOE
driver interface to the TCP
syncache.
800104 195699 July 14, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of the linker-set
based per-vnet allocator.
800105 195767 July 19, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after version
bump for all shared li-
braries that do not have
symbol versioning turned
on.
244

800106 195852 July 24, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after intro-
duction of OBJT_SG VM ob-
ject type.
800107 196037 August 2, 2009 8.0-CURRENT after making
the newbus subsystem Gi-
ant free by adding the
newbus sxlock and 8.0-RE-
LEASE.
800108 199627 November 21, 2009 8.0-STABLE after im-
plementing EVFILT_USER
kevent filter.
800500 201749 January 7, 2010 8.0-STABLE after __Free-
BSD_version bump to make
pkg_add -r use pack-
ages-8-stable.
800501 202922 January 24, 2010 8.0-STABLE after change of
the scandir(3) and alpha-
sort(3) prototypes to con-
form to SUSv4.
800502 203299 January 31, 2010 8.0-STABLE after addition
of sigpause(2).
800503 204344 February 25, 2010 8.0-STABLE after addi-
tion of SIOCGIFDESCR and
SIOCSIFDESCR ioctls to net-
work interfaces. These ioctl
can be used to manipulate
interface description, as in-
spired by OpenBSD.
800504 204546 March 1, 2010 8.0-STABLE after MFC of
importing x86emu, a soft-
ware emulator for real
mode x86 CPU from Open-
BSD.
800505 208259 May 18, 2010 8.0-STABLE after MFC of
adding liblzma, xz, xzdec,
and lzmainfo.
801000 209150 June 14, 2010 8.1-RELEASE
801500 209146 June 14, 2010 8.1-STABLE after 8.1-RE-
LEASE.
801501 214762 November 3, 2010 8.1-STABLE after KBI
change in struct sy-
sentvec, and implementa-
tion of PL_FLAG_SCE/SCX/
EXEC/SI and pl_siginfo for
ptrace(PT_LWPINFO) .
802000 216639 December 22, 2010 8.2-RELEASE
802500 216654 December 22, 2010 8.2-STABLE after 8.2-RE-
LEASE.
245
FreeBSD 8 Versions

802501 219107 February 28, 2011 8.2-STABLE after merging
DTrace changes, including
support for userland trac-
ing.
802502 219324 March 6, 2011 8.2-STABLE after merging
log2 and log2f into libm.
802503 221275 May 1, 2011 8.2-STABLE after upgrade
of the gcc to the last
GPLv2 version from the FSF
gcc-4_2-branch.
tion of the KPI and support-
ing infrastructure for mod-
ular congestion control.
tion of Hhook and Khelp
KPIs.
802506 222408 May 28, 2011 8.2-STABLE after addition
of OSD to struct tcpcb.
802507 222741 June 6, 2011 8.2-STABLE after ZFS v28
import.
802508 222846 June 8, 2011 8.2-STABLE after removal
of the schedtail event
handler and addition of
the sv_schedtail method to
struct sysvec.
802509 224017 July 14, 2011 8.2-STABLE after merging
the SSSE3 support into
binutils.
802510 224214 July 19, 2011 8.2-STABLE after addition
of RFTSIGZMB ag for
rfork(2).
802511 225458 September 9, 2011 8.2-STABLE after addition
of automatic detection of
USB mass storage devices
which do not support the
no synchronize cache SCSI
command.
802512 225470 September 10, 2011 8.2-STABLE after merg-
ing of re-factoring of au-
to-quirk.
802513 226763 October 25, 2011 8.2-STABLE after merg-
ing of the MAP_PRE-
FAULT_READ ag to
mmap(2).
802514 227573 November 16, 2011 8.2-STABLE after merging
of addition of posix_fallo-
cate(2) syscall.
246

802515 229725 January 6, 2012 8.2-STABLE after merg-
ing of addition of
the posix_fadvise(2) system
call.
802516 230239 January 16, 2012 8.2-STABLE after merging
gperf 3.0.3
802517 231769 February 15, 2012 8.2-STABLE after introduc-
tion of the new exten-
sible sysctl(3) interface
address lists.
803000 232446 March 3, 2012 8.3-RELEASE.
803500 232439 March 3, 2012 8.3-STABLE after branching
releng/8.3 (RELENG_8_3).
803501 247091 February 21, 2013 8.3-STABLE after MFC of
two USB fixes (rev 246616
and 246759).
804000 248850 March 28, 2013 8.4-RELEASE.
804500 248819 March 28, 2013 8.4-STABLE after 8.4-RE-
LEASE.
804501 259449 December 16, 2013 8.4-STABLE after MFC of
upstream Heimdal encod-
ing x.
804502 265123 April 30, 2014 8.4-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:08.tcp.
804503 268444 July 9, 2014 8.4-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:17.kmem.
804504 271341 September 9, 2014 8.4-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:18 (rev 271305).
804505 271686 September 16, 2014 8.4-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:19 (rev 271668).
804506 273432 October 21, 2014 8.4-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:21 (rev 273413).
804507 274162 November 4, 2014 8.4-STABLE after Free-
BSD-SA-14:23, Free-
BSD-SA-14:25.
sd-update, Free-
247
FreeBSD 7 Versions

700000 147925 July 11, 2005 7.0-CURRENT.
700001 148341 July 23, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after bump of
all shared library versions
that had not been changed
since RELENG_5.
700002 149039 August 13, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after creden-
tial argument is added to
dev_clone event handler.
700003 149470 August 25, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after mem-
mem(3) is added to libc.
700004 151888 October 30, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after solis-
ten(9) kernel arguments
are modified to accept a
backlog parameter.
700005 152296 November 11, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after IFP2E-
NADDR() was changed to
return a pointer to IF_L-
LADDR().
700006 152315 November 11, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of if_addr member to
struct ifnet and IFP2E-
NADDR() removal.
700007 153027 December 2, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after incor-
porating scripts from the
local_startup directories
into the base rcorder(8).
moval of MNT_NODEV
mount option.
700009 153519 December 19, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after ELF-64
type changes and symbol
versioning.
700010 153579 December 20, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after ad-
dition of hostb and
vgapci drivers, addition
of pci_nd_extcap(), and
changing the AGP drivers
to no longer map the aper-
ture.
248

700011 153936 December 31, 2005 7.0-CURRENT after tv_sec
was made time_t on all plat-
forms but Alpha.
700012 154114 January 8, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after ldcon-
fig_local_dirs change.
700013 154269 January 12, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after changes
to /etc/rc.d/abi to sup-
port /compat/linux/etc/
ld.so.cache being a sym-
link in a readonly filesys-
tem.
700014 154863 January 26, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after pts im-
port.
700015 157144 March 26, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of version 2 of
hwpmc(4)'s ABI.
700016 157962 April 22, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of fcloseall(3) to libc.
moval of ip6fw.
700018 160386 July 15, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after import
of snd_emu10kx.
700019 160821 July 29, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after import
of OpenSSL 0.9.8b.
700020 161931 September 3, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of bus_dma_get_tag
function
700021 162023 September 4, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after libpcap
0.9.4 and tcpdump 3.9.4 im-
port.
700022 162170 September 9, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after dlsym
change to look for a re-
quested symbol both in
specified dso and its implic-
it dependencies.
new sound IOCTLs for the
OSSv4 mixer API.
700024 162919 September 28, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after import
of OpenSSL 0.9.8d.
dition of libelf.
700026 164614 November 26, 2006 7.0-CURRENT after major
changes on sound sysctls.
dition of Wi-Spy quirk.
249
FreeBSD 7 Versions

dition of sctp calls to libc
GNU gzip(1) implementa-
tion was replaced with a
BSD licensed version port-
ed from NetBSD.
moval of IPIP tunnel
encapsulation (VIFF_TUN-
NEL) from the IPv4 multi-
cast forwarding code.
modification of bus_set-
up_intr() (newbus).
clusion of ipw(4) and iwi(4)
rmware.
clusion of ncurses wide
character support.
700034 167684 March 19, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after changes
to how insmntque(),
getnewvnode(), and vf-
s_hash_insert() work.
700035 167906 March 26, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of a notify mechanism
for CPU frequency changes.
700036 168413 April 6, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after import
of the ZFS filesystem.
700037 168504 April 8, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of CAM 'SG' peripheral
device, which implements
a subset of Linux SCSI SG
passthrough device API.
700038 169151 April 30, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing getenv(3), putenv(3),
setenv(3) and unsetenv(3)
to be POSIX conformant.
700039 169190 May 1, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after the
changes in 700038 were
backed out.
700040 169453 May 10, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of open(3) to libu-
til.
700041 169526 May 13, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after en-
abling symbol versioning,
and changing the default
thread library to libthr.
250

700042 169758 May 19, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after the im-
port of gcc 4.2.0.
700043 169830 May 21, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after bump of
since RELENG_6.
ing the argument
for vn_open()/VOP_OPEN()
from le descriptor index
to the struct le *.
ing pam_nologin(8) to pro-
vide an account manage-
ment function instead of an
authentication function to
the PAM framework.
700046 170530 June 11, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after updat-
ed 802.11 wireless support.
TCP LRO interface capabili-
ties.
700048 170613 June 12, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after RFC
3678 API support added
to the IPv4 stack. Lega-
cy RFC 1724 behavior of
the IP_MULTICAST_IF ioctl
has now been removed;
0.0.0.0/8 may no longer be
used to specify an interface
index. Use struct ipmreqn
instead.
700049 171175 July 3, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after import-
ing pf from OpenBSD 4.1
(not changed) 171167 7.0-CURRENT after adding
IPv6 support for
FAST_IPSEC, deleting KAME
IPSEC, and renaming
FAST_IPSEC to IPSEC.
700050 171195 July 4, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after con-
verting setenv/putenv/
etc. calls from traditional
BSD to POSIX.
new mmap/lseek/etc
syscalls.
700052 171275 July 6, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after moving
I4B headers to include/i4b.
251
FreeBSD 7 Versions

700053 172394 September 30, 2007 7.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of support for PCI
domains
700054 172988 October 25, 2007 7.0-STABLE after MFC of
wide and single byte ctype
separation.
700055 173104 October 28, 2007 7.0-RELEASE, and 7.0-CUR-
RENT after ABI back-
wards compatibility to
the FreeBSD 4/5/6 ver-
sions of the PCIOCGET-
CONF, PCIOCREAD and
PCIOCWRITE IOCTLs was
MFCed, which required the
ABI of the PCIOCGETCONF
IOCTL to be broken again
LEASE
700101 176111 February 8, 2008 7.0-STABLE after the MFC
of m_collapse().
700102 177735 March 30, 2008 7.0-STABLE after the MFC
of kdb_enter_why().
700103 178061 April 10, 2008 7.0-STABLE after adding
700104 178108 April 11, 2008 7.0-STABLE after the MFC
of procstat(1).
of umtx features.
of write(2) support to
psm(4).
of F_DUP2FD command to
fcntl(2).
700108 178783 May 5, 2008 7.0-STABLE after some
lockmgr(9) changes, which
makes it necessary to in-
clude sys/lock.h to use
lockmgr(9).
the memrchr(3) function.
700110 181328 August 5, 2008 7.0-STABLE after MFC of
kernel NFS lockd client.
700111 181940 August 20, 2008 7.0-STABLE after addition
of physically contiguous
jumbo frame support.
kernel DTrace support.
252

701000 185315 November 25, 2008 7.1-RELEASE
701100 185302 November 25, 2008 7.1-STABLE after 7.1-RE-
LEASE.
701101 187023 January 10, 2009 7.1-STABLE after
strndup(3) merge.
701102 187370 January 17, 2009 7.1-STABLE after cpuctl(4)
support added.
701103 188281 February 7, 2009 7.1-STABLE after the merge
of multi-/no-IPv4/v6 jails.
701104 188625 February 14, 2009 7.1-STABLE after the store
of the suspension own-
er in the struct mount,
and introduction of vf-
s_susp_clean method into
the struct vfsops.
701105 189740 March 12, 2009 7.1-STABLE after the in-
compatible change to the
kern.ipc.shmsegs sysctl to
allow allocating larger
SysV shared memory seg-
ments on 64bit architec-
tures.
701106 189786 March 14, 2009 7.1-STABLE after the merge
of a x for POSIX sema-
phore wait operations.
702000 191099 April 15, 2009 7.2-RELEASE
702100 191091 April 15, 2009 7.2-STABLE after 7.2-RE-
LEASE.
702101 192149 May 15, 2009 7.2-STABLE after ichsmb(4)
was changed to use left-ad-
justed slave addressing to
match other SMBus con-
troller drivers.
the fdopendir(3) function.
702103 193638 June 06, 2009 7.2-STABLE after MFC of
PmcTools.
702104 195694 July 14, 2009 7.2-STABLE after MFC of
the closefrom(2) system
call.
702105 196006 July 31, 2009 7.2-STABLE after MFC of
the SYSVIPC ABI change.
702106 197198 September 14, 2009 7.2-STABLE after MFC of
the x86 PAT enhance-
ments and addition of
d_mmap_single() and the
scatter/gather list VM ob-
ject type.
253
FreeBSD 6 Versions

703000 203740 February 9, 2010 7.3-RELEASE
703100 203742 February 9, 2010 7.3-STABLE after 7.3-RE-
LEASE.
LEASE.
704101 221318 May 2, 2011 7.4-STABLE after the gcc
MFC in rev 221317.
600000 133921 August 18, 2004 6.0-CURRENT
600001 134396 August 27, 2004 6.0-CURRENT after perma-
nently enabling
PFIL_HOOKS in the kernel.
600002 134514 August 30, 2004 6.0-CURRENT after initial
addition of ifi_epoch to
struct if_data. Backed out
after a few days. Do not use
this value.
600003 134933 September 8, 2004 6.0-CURRENT after the re-
addition of the ifi_epoch
member of struct if_data.
600004 135920 September 29, 2004 6.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of the struct inpcb ar-
gument to the pl API.
tion of the "-d DESTDIR" ar-
gument to newsyslog.
600006 137192 November 4, 2004 6.0-CURRENT after addi-
tion of glibc style strf-
time(3) padding options.
tion of 802.11 framework
updates.
600008 140809 January 25, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after changes
to VOP_*VOBJECT() func-
tions and introduction of
MNTK_MPSAFE ag for Gi-
antfree filesystems.
tion of the cpufreq frame-
work and drivers.
254

600010 141394 February 6, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after import-
ing OpenBSD's nc(1).
600011 141727 February 12, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after remov-
ing semblance of SVID2
matherr() support.
600012 141940 February 15, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after in-

crease of default thread
stacks' size.
600013 142089 February 19, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after fix-
es in <src/include/std-
bool.h> and <src/sys/
i386/include/_types.h>
for using the GCC-compat-
ibility of the Intel C/C++
compiler.
600014 142184 February 21, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after EOVER-
FLOW checks in vsw-
printf(3) xed.
ing the struct if_data mem-
ber, ifi_epoch, from wall
clock time to uptime.
600016 142582 February 26, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after LC_C-
TYPE disk format changed.
600017 142683 February 27, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after NLS cat-
alogs disk format changed.
LC_COLLATE disk format
changed.
600019 142752 February 28, 2005 Installation of acpica in-
cludes into /usr/include.
600020 143308 March 9, 2005 Addition of MSG_NOSIG-
NAL ag to send(2) API.
600021 143746 March 17, 2005 Addition of elds to cdevsw
600022 143901 March 21, 2005 Removed gtar from base
system.
600023 144980 April 13, 2005 LOCAL_CREDS, LO-
CAL_CONNWAIT socket op-
tions added to unix(4).
600024 145565 April 19, 2005 hwpmc(4) and related tools
added to 6.0-CURRENT.
600025 145565 April 26, 2005 struct icmphdr added to
6.0-CURRENT.
600026 145843 May 3, 2005 pf updated to 3.7.
600027 145966 May 6, 2005 Kernel libalias and ng_nat
introduced.
255
FreeBSD 6 Versions

600028 146191 May 13, 2005 POSIX ttyname_r(3) made
available through unistd.h
and libc.
600029 146780 May 29, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after libpcap
updated to v0.9.1 alpha 096.
600030 146988 June 5, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after import-
ing NetBSD's if_bridge(4).
600031 147256 June 10, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after struct
ifnet was broken out of the
driver softcs.
600032 147898 July 11, 2005 6.0-CURRENT after the im-
port of libpcap v0.9.1.
600033 148388 July 25, 2005 6.0-STABLE after bump of
since RELENG_5.
600034 149040 August 13, 2005 6.0-STABLE after credential
argument is added to de-
v_clone event handler. 6.0-
RELEASE.
LEASE
600101 153601 December 21, 2005 6.0-STABLE after incorpo-
rating scripts from the lo-
cal_startup directories into
the base rcorder(8).
600102 153912 December 30, 2005 6.0-STABLE after updating
the ELF types and con-
stants.
600103 154396 January 15, 2006 6.0-STABLE after MFC of
pidfile(3) API.
600104 154453 January 17, 2006 6.0-STABLE after MFC of ld-
config_local_dirs change.
600105 156019 February 26, 2006 6.0-STABLE after NLS cata-
log support of csh(1).
601000 158330 May 6, 2006 6.1-RELEASE
601100 158331 May 6, 2006 6.1-STABLE after 6.1-RE-
LEASE.
601101 159861 June 22, 2006 6.1-STABLE after the im-
port of csup.
601102 160253 July 11, 2006 6.1-STABLE after the iwi(4)
update.
601103 160429 July 17, 2006 6.1-STABLE after the re-
solver update to BIND9, and
exposure of reentrant ver-
sion of netdb functions.
256

601104 161098 August 8, 2006 6.1-STABLE after DSO (dy-
namic shared objects) sup-
port has been enabled in
OpenSSL.
601105 161900 September 2, 2006 6.1-STABLE after 802.11
fixups changed the api
for the IEEE80211_IOC_S-
TA_INFO ioctl.
602100 162329 September 15, 2006 6.2-STABLE after 6.2-RE-
LEASE.
602101 165122 December 12, 2006 6.2-STABLE after the addi-
tion of Wi-Spy quirk.
602102 165596 December 28, 2006 6.2-STABLE after
pci_nd_extcap() addition.
602103 166039 January 16, 2007 6.2-STABLE after MFC of dl-
sym change to look for a
requested symbol both in
specified dso and its implic-
it dependencies.
602104 166314 January 28, 2007 6.2-STABLE after MFC
of ng_deflate(4) and
ng_pred1(4) netgraph
nodes and new compres-
sion and encryption modes
for ng_ppp(4) node.
BSD licensed version of
gzip(1) ported from Net-
BSD.
602106 168133 March 31, 2007 6.2-STABLE after MFC of
PCI MSI and MSI-X support.
602107 168438 April 6, 2007 6.2-STABLE after MFC of
ncurses 5.6 and wide char-
acter support.
CAM 'SG' peripheral de-
vice, which implements a
subset of Linux SCSI SG
passthrough device API.
readline 5.2 patchset 002.
pmap_invalidate_cache(),
pmap_change_attr(),
pmap_mapbios(),
pmap_mapdev_attr(), and
pmap_unmapbios() for
amd64 and i386.
257
FreeBSD 5 Versions

BOP_BDFLUSH and caused
breakage of the filesystem
modules KBI.
602112 172284 September 21, 2007 6.2-STABLE after libutil(3)
MFC's.
602113 172986 October 25, 2007 6.2-STABLE after MFC of
wide and single byte ctype
separation. Newly com-
piled binary that refer-
ences to ctype.h may
require a new symbol,
__mb_sb_limit, which is not
available on older systems.
602114 173170 October 30, 2007 6.2-STABLE after ctype ABI
forward compatibility re-
stored.
602115 173794 November 21, 2007 6.2-STABLE after back out
of wide and single byte
ctype separation.
LEASE.
(not changed) 174434 December 7, 2007 6.3-STABLE after fixing
multibyte type support in
bit macro.
the memrchr(3) function.
support for :u variable
modifier in make(1).
604000 183583 October 4, 2008 6.4-RELEASE
604100 183584 October 4, 2008 6.4-STABLE after 6.4-RE-
LEASE.
500000 58009 March 13, 2000 5.0-CURRENT
addition ELF header elds,
and changing our ELF bina-
ry branding method.
258

500002 59906 May 2, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after kld
metadata changes.
500003 60688 May 18, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after buf/bio
changes.
500004 60936 May 26, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after binutils
upgrade.
500005 61221 June 3, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after merg-
ing libxpg4 code into libc
and after TASKQ interface
introduction.
500006 61500 June 10, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of AGP interfaces.
500007 62235 June 29, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after Perl up-
grade to 5.6.0
500008 62764 July 7, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after the up-
date of KAME code to
2000/07 sources.
500009 63154 July 14, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after ether_i-
fattach() and ether_ifde-
tach() changes.
500010 63265 July 16, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after chang-
ing mtree defaults back to
original variant, adding -L
to follow symlinks.
500011 63459 July 18, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after kqueue
API changed.
500012 65353 September 2, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after set-
proctitle(3) moved from
libutil to libc.
500013 65671 September 10, 2000 5.0-CURRENT after the rst
SMPng commit.
500014 70650 January 4, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after <sys/
select.h> moved to <sys/
selinfo.h>.
500015 70894 January 10, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after com-
bining libgcc.a and libgc-
c_r.a, and associated GCC
linkage changes.
allowing libc and libc_r to
be linked together, depre-
cating -pthread option.
500017 72650 February 18, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after switch
from struct ucred to
struct xucred to stabilize
kernel-exported API for
mountd et al.
259
FreeBSD 5 Versions

tion of CPUTYPE make vari-
able for controlling CPU-
specific optimizations.
500019 77937 June 9, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after moving
machine/ioctl_fd.h to sys/
fdcio.h
500020 78304 June 15, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after locale
names renaming.
500021 78632 June 22, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after Bzip2
import. Also signifies re-
moval of S/Key.
500022 83435 July 12, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after SSE
support.
500023 83435 September 14, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after KSE
Milestone 2.
d_thread_t, and moving
UUCP to ports.
500025 84481 October 4, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after ABI
change for descriptor and
creds passing on 64 bit plat-
forms.
500026 84710 October 9, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after moving
to XFree86 4 by default for
package builds, and after
the new libc strnstr() func-
tion was added.
500027 84743 October 10, 2001 5.0-CURRENT after the new
libc strcasestr() function
was added.
userland components of
smbfs were imported.
(not changed) 5.0-CURRENT after the new
C99 specific-width integer
types were added.
500029 89938 January 29, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after a
change was made in the re-
turn value of sendfile(2).
500030 90711 February 15, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of the type
fflags_t , which is the ap-
propriate size for le ags.
500031 91203 February 24, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after the usb
structure element rename.
troduction of Perl 5.6.1.
260

500033 93722 April 3, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after the
sendmail_enable rc.con-
f(5) variable was made to
take the value NONE .
mtx_init() grew a third ar-
gument.
500035 96498 May 13, 2002 5.0-CURRENT with Gcc 3.1.
500036 96781 May 17, 2002 5.0-CURRENT without Perl
in /usr/src
500037 97516 May 29, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of dlfunc(3)
types of some struct sock-
buf members were changed
and the structure was re-
ordered.
500039 102757 September 1, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after GCC
3.2.1 import. Also af-
ter headers stopped using
_BSD_FOO_T_ and started
using _FOO_T_DECLARED.
This value can also be used
as a conservative estimate
of the start of bzip2(1)
package support.
500040 103675 September 20, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after various
changes to disk functions
were made in the name of
removing dependency on
disklabel structure inter-
nals.
500041 104250 October 1, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of getopt_long(3) to
libc.
500042 105178 October 15, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after Binutils
2.13 upgrade, which includ-
ed new FreeBSD emulation,
vec, and output format.
500043 106289 November 1, 2002 5.0-CURRENT after adding
weak pthread_XXX stubs to
libc, obsoleting libXThrS-
tub.so. 5.0-RELEASE.
500100 109405 January 17, 2003 5.0-CURRENT after branch-
ing for RELENG_5_0
500101 111120 February 19, 2003 <sys/dkstat.h> is empty. Do
not include it.
261
FreeBSD 5 Versions

d_mmap_t interface
change.
taskqueue_swi changed to
run without Giant, and
taskqueue_swi_giant added
to run with Giant.
500104 111600 February 27, 2003 cdevsw_add() and cde-
vsw_remove() no longer
exists. Appearance of MA-
JOR_AUTO allocation facili-
ty.
500105 111864 March 4, 2003 5.0-CURRENT after new
cdevsw initialization
method.
500106 112007 March 8, 2003 devstat_add_entry() has
been replaced by devs-
tat_new_entry()
500107 112288 March 15, 2003 Devstat interface change;
see sys/sys/param.h 1.149
500108 112300 March 15, 2003 Token-Ring interface
changes.
500109 112571 March 25, 2003 Addition of vm_paddr_t.
500110 112741 March 28, 2003 5.0-CURRENT after real-
path(3) has been made
thread-safe
500111 113273 April 9, 2003 5.0-CURRENT after usb-
hid(3) has been synced
with NetBSD
500112 113597 April 17, 2003 5.0-CURRENT after new
NSS implementation and
addition of POSIX.1 getp-
w*_r, getgr*_r functions
moval of the old rc system.
501000 115816 June 4, 2003 5.1-RELEASE.
501100 115710 June 2, 2003 5.1-CURRENT after branch-
ing for RELENG_5_1.
501101 117025 June 29, 2003 5.1-CURRENT after correct-
ing the semantics of sig-
timedwait(2) and sigwait-
info(2).
the lockfunc and lock-
funcarg elds to bus_d-
ma_tag_create(9).
262

501103 118241 July 31, 2003 5.1-CURRENT after GCC
3.3.1-pre 20030711 snap-
shot integration.
501104 118511 August 5, 2003 5.1-CURRENT 3ware API
changes to twe.
501105 119021 August 17, 2003 5.1-CURRENT dynamical-
ly-linked /bin and /sbin
support and movement of
libraries to /lib.
kernel support for Coda 6.x.
501107 120180 September 17, 2003 5.1-CURRENT after 16550
UART constants moved
from <dev/sio/
sioreg.h> to <dev/ic/
ns16550.h> . Also when
libmap functionality was
unconditionally supported
by rtld.
PFIL_HOOKS API update
kiconv(3)
501110 120556 September 28, 2003 5.1-CURRENT after chang-
ing default operations for
open and close in cdevsw
changed layout of cdevsw
501112 121129 October 16, 2003 5.1-CURRENT after adding
kobj multiple inheritance
501113 121816 October 31, 2003 5.1-CURRENT after the if_x-
name change in struct ifnet
ing /bin and /sbin to be dy-
namically linked
502010 126150 February 23, 2004 5.2.1-RELEASE
502100 123196 December 7, 2003 5.2-CURRENT after branch-
ing for RELENG_5_2
502101 123677 December 19, 2003 5.2-CURRENT after __cx-
a_atexit/__cxa_finalize
functions were added to
libc.
of default thread library
from libc_r to libpthread.
263
FreeBSD 5 Versions

502103 126083 February 21, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after device
driver API megapatch.
502104 126208 February 25, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after getop-
t_long_only() addition.
502105 126644 March 5, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after NULL is
made into ((void *)0) for C,
creating more warnings.
502106 126757 March 8, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after pf is
linked to the build and in-
stall.
502107 126819 March 10, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after time_t
is changed to a 64-bit value
on sparc64.
502108 126891 March 12, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after Intel C/
C++ compiler support in
some headers and ex-
ecve(2) changes to be
more strictly conforming
to POSIX.
troduction of the bus_al-
loc_resource_any API
502110 127475 March 27, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of UTF-8 locales
moval of the getvfsent(3)
API
502112 128182 April 13, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after the ad-
dition of the .warning di-
rective for make.
ttyioctl() was made manda-
tory for serial drivers.
502114 130418 June 13, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after import
of the ALTQ framework.
ing sema_timedwait(9) to
return 0 on success and a
non-zero error code on fail-
ure.
ing kernel dev_t to be
pointer to struct cdev *.
ing kernel udev_t to dev_t.
support for CLOCK_VIR-
TUAL and CLOCK_PROF
264

to clock_gettime(2) and
clock_getres(2).
ing network interface
cloning overhaul.
502120 131429 July 2, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after the up-
date of the package tools to
revision 20040629.
502121 131883 July 9, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after mark-
ing Bluetooth code as non-
i386 specific.
502122 131971 July 11, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after the in-
troduction of the KDB
debugger framework, the
conversion of DDB into a
backend and the introduc-
tion of the GDB backend.
502123 132025 July 12, 2004 5.2-CURRENT after change
to make VFS_ROOT take
a struct thread argument
as does vush. Struct kin-
fo_proc now has a user da-
ta pointer. The switch of
the default X implementa-
tion to xorg was also made
at this time.
change to separate the
way ports rc.d and legacy
scripts are started.
backout of the previous
change.
removal of kmem_al-
loc_pageable() and the im-
port of gcc 3.4.2.
ing the UMA kernel API to
allow ctors/inits to fail.
change of the vf-
s_mount signature as well
as global replacement
of PRISON_ROOT with
SUSER_ALLOWJAIL for the
suser(9) API.
503000 134189 August 23, 2004 5.3-BETA/RC before the pl
API change
265
FreeBSD 5 Versions

503001 135580 September 22, 2004 5.3-RELEASE
503100 136595 October 16, 2004 5.3-STABLE after branching
for RELENG_5_3
503101 138459 December 3, 2004 5.3-STABLE after addition
of glibc style strftime(3)
padding options.
503102 141788 February 13, 2005 5.3-STABLE after Open-
BSD's nc(1) import MFC.
503103 142639 February 27, 2005 5.4-PRERELEASE after the
MFC of the fix-
es in <src/include/std-
bool.h> and <src/sys/
i386/include/_types.h>
for using the GCC-compat-
ibility of the Intel C/C++
compiler.
503104 142835 February 28, 2005 5.4-PRERELEASE after the
MFC of the change of ifi_e-
poch from wall clock time
to uptime.
503105 143029 March 2, 2005 5.4-PRERELEASE after the
MFC of the x of EOVER-
FLOW check in vsw-
printf(3).
504000 144575 April 3, 2005 5.4-RELEASE.
504100 144581 April 3, 2005 5.4-STABLE after branching
for RELENG_5_4
504101 146105 May 11, 2005 5.4-STABLE after increasing
the default thread stack-
sizes
504102 504101 June 24, 2005 5.4-STABLE after the addi-
tion of sha256
504103 150892 October 3, 2005 5.4-STABLE after the MFC
of if_bridge
504104 152370 November 13, 2005 5.4-STABLE after the MFC
of bsdiff and portsnap
504105 154464 January 17, 2006 5.4-STABLE after MFC of ld-
config_local_dirs change.
505000 158481 May 12, 2006 5.5-RELEASE.
505100 158482 May 12, 2006 5.5-STABLE after branching
for RELENG_5_5
266
400000 43041 January 22, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after 3.4
branch
400001 44177 February 20, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after change
in dynamic linker handling
400002 44699 March 13, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after C++ con-
structor/destructor order
change
400003 45059 March 27, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after func-
tioning dladdr(3)
__deregister_frame_info
dynamic linker bug x (al-
so 4.0-CURRENT after EGCS
1.1.2 integration)
400005 46113 April 27, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after suser(9)
API change (also 4.0-CUR-
RENT after newbus)
400006 47640 May 31, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after cdevsw
registration change
dition of so_cred for socket
level credentials
dition of a poll syscall
wrapper to libc_r
change of the kernel's
dev_t type to struct
specinfo pointer
400010 51649 September 25, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after fixing a

hole in jail(2)
400011 51791 September 29, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after the
sigset_t datatype change
400012 53164 November 15, 1999 4.0-CURRENT after the cu-

tover to the GCC 2.95.2
compiler
pluggable linux-mode ioctl
handlers
400014 56216 January 18, 2000 4.0-CURRENT after import-
ing OpenSSL
400015 56700 January 27, 2000 4.0-CURRENT after the C+
+ ABI change in GCC 2.95.2
from -fvtable-thunks to -
267
FreeBSD 4 Versions

fno-vtable-thunks by de-
fault
400016 57529 February 27, 2000 4.0-CURRENT after import-
ing OpenSSH
400017 58005 March 13, 2000 4.0-RELEASE
LEASE
400019 60047 May 5, 2000 4.0-STABLE after the intro-
duction of delayed check-
sums.
400020 61262 June 4, 2000 4.0-STABLE after merging
libxpg4 code into libc.
400021 62820 July 8, 2000 4.0-STABLE after upgrad-
ing Binutils to 2.10.0, ELF
branding changes, and tcsh
in the base system.
410000 63095 July 14, 2000 4.1-RELEASE
410001 64012 July 29, 2000 4.1-STABLE after 4.1-RE-
LEASE
410002 65962 September 16, 2000 4.1-STABLE after setprocti-
tle(3) moved from libutil to
libc.
411000 66336 September 25, 2000 4.1.1-RELEASE
411001 4.1.1-STABLE after 4.1.1-
RELEASE
420000 68066 October 31, 2000 4.2-RELEASE
420001 70895 January 10, 2001 4.2-STABLE after combin-
ing libgcc.a and libgcc_r.a,
and associated GCC linkage
changes.
430000 73800 March 6, 2001 4.3-RELEASE
430001 76779 May 18, 2001 4.3-STABLE after wint_t in-
troduction.
430002 80157 July 22, 2001 4.3-STABLE after PCI pow-
erstate API merge.
440000 80923 August 1, 2001 4.4-RELEASE
440001 85341 October 23, 2001 4.4-STABLE after
d_thread_t introduction.
440002 86038 November 4, 2001 4.4-STABLE after mount
structure changes (affects
filesystem klds).
440003 88130 December 18, 2001 4.4-STABLE after the user-
land components of smbfs
were imported.
268

450001 91203 February 24, 2002 4.5-STABLE after the usb
structure element rename.
450002 92151 March 12, 2002 4.5-STABLE after locale
changes.
450003 (Never created)
450004 94840 April 16, 2002 4.5-STABLE after the
sendmail_enable rc.con-
f(5) variable was made to
take the value NONE .
450005 95555 April 27, 2002 4.5-STABLE after moving to
XFree86 4 by default for
package builds.
450006 95846 May 1, 2002 4.5-STABLE after accept fil-
tering was xed so that is
no longer susceptible to an
easy DoS.
460000 97923 June 21, 2002 4.6-RELEASE
460001 98730 June 21, 2002 4.6-STABLE sendfile(2)
xed to comply with doc-
umentation, not to count
any headers sent against
the amount of data to be
sent from the le.
460002 100366 July 19, 2002 4.6.2-RELEASE
460100 98857 June 26, 2002 4.6-STABLE
`sed -i'.
460102 102759 September 1, 2002 4.6-STABLE after MFC of
many new pkg_install fea-
tures from the HEAD.
470000 104655 October 8, 2002 4.7-RELEASE
470100 104717 October 9, 2002 4.7-STABLE
470101 106732 November 10, 2002 Start generated
__std{in,out,err}p refer-
ences rather than __sF. This
changes std{in,out,err}
from a compile time ex-
pression to a runtime one.
470102 109753 January 23, 2003 4.7-STABLE after MFC of
mbuf changes to replace
m_aux mbufs by m_tag's
470103 110887 February 14, 2003 4.7-STABLE gets OpenSSL
0.9.7
480000 112852 March 30, 2003 4.8-RELEASE
480100 113107 April 5, 2003 4.8-STABLE
269
FreeBSD 3 Versions

480101 115232 May 22, 2003 4.8-STABLE after real-
path(3) has been made
thread-safe
480102 118737 August 10, 2003 4.8-STABLE 3ware API
changes to twe.
490000 121592 October 27, 2003 4.9-RELEASE
490100 121593 October 27, 2003 4.9-STABLE
490101 124264 January 8, 2004 4.9-STABLE after e_sid was
added to struct kinfo_e-
proc.
libmap functionality for
rtld.
491000 129700 May 25, 2004 4.10-RELEASE
491100 129918 June 1, 2004 4.10-STABLE
revision 20040629 of the
package tools
491102 137786 November 16, 2004 4.10-STABLE after VM x
dealing with unwiring of
fictitious pages
492100 138959 December 17, 2004 4.11-STABLE
libdata/ldconfig directo-
ries to mtree les.
300000 22917 February 19, 1996 3.0-CURRENT before
mount(2) change
mount(2) change
300002 36592 June 2, 1998 3.0-CURRENT after sem-
ctl(2) change
300003 36735 June 7, 1998 3.0-CURRENT after ioctl arg
changes
300004 38768 September 3, 1998 3.0-CURRENT after ELF
conversion
300005 40438 October 16, 1998 3.0-RELEASE
300006 40445 October 16, 1998 3.0-CURRENT after 3.0-RE-
LEASE
270

300007 43042 January 22, 1999 3.0-STABLE after 3/4
branch
LEASE
310002 45689 April 14, 1999 3.1-STABLE after C++ con-
structor/destructor order
change
320000 3.2-RELEASE
320001 46742 May 8, 1999 3.2-STABLE
320002 50563 August 29, 1999 3.2-STABLE after binary-in-
compatible IPFW and sock-
et changes
330000 50813 September 2, 1999 3.3-RELEASE
330001 51328 September 16, 1999 3.3-STABLE
330002 53671 November 24, 1999 3.3-STABLE after adding
mkstemp(3) to libc
340001 54730 December 17, 1999 3.4-STABLE
350000 61876 June 20, 2000 3.5-RELEASE
350001 63043 July 12, 2000 3.5-STABLE
17.11.FreeBSD 2.2 Versions

Table17.11.FreeBSD 2.2 __FreeBSD_version Values
(not changed) 2.2.1-RELEASE
(not changed) 2.2-STABLE after 2.2.1-RE-
LEASE
221001 24941 April 15, 1997 2.2-STABLE after texin-
fo-3.9
221002 25325 April 30, 1997 2.2-STABLE after top
222000 25851 May 16, 1997 2.2.2-RELEASE
222001 25921 May 19, 1997 2.2-STABLE after 2.2.2-RE-
LEASE
225000 30053 October 2, 1997 2.2.5-RELEASE
225001 31300 November 20, 1997 2.2-STABLE after 2.2.5-RE-
LEASE
225002 32019 December 27, 1997 2.2-STABLE after ldconfig -
R merge
226000 34445 March 24, 1998 2.2.6-RELEASE
227000 37803 July 21, 1998 2.2.7-RELEASE
271
FreeBSD 2 Before 2.2-RELEASE Versions

227001 37809 July 21, 1998 2.2-STABLE after 2.2.7-RE-
LEASE
227002 39489 September 19, 1998 2.2-STABLE after semctl(2)
change
228000 41403 November 29, 1998 2.2.8-RELEASE
228001 41418 November 29, 1998 2.2-STABLE after 2.2.8-RE-
LEASE
Note
Note that 2.2-STABLE sometimes identifies itself as 2.2.5-STABLE after the 2.2.5-RELEASE.
The pattern used to be year followed by the month, but we decided to change it to a more
straightforward major/minor system starting from 2.2. This is because the parallel develop-
ment on several branches made it infeasible to classify the releases merely by their real re-
lease dates. Do not worry about old -CURRENTs; they are listed here just for reference.
17.12.FreeBSD 2 Before 2.2-RELEASE Versions

Table17.12.FreeBSD 2 Before 2.2-RELEASE __FreeBSD_version Values
119411 2.0-RELEASE
199501 7153 March 19, 1995 2.1-CURRENT
199503 7310 March 24, 1995 2.1-CURRENT
199504 7704 April 9, 1995 2.0.5-RELEASE
199508 10297 August 26, 1995 2.2-CURRENT before 2.1
199512 12196 November 10, 1995 2.2-CURRENT before 2.1.5
199607 17067 July 10, 1996 2.1.5-RELEASE
199608 17127 July 12, 1996 2.2-CURRENT before 2.1.6
199612 2.1.7-RELEASE
272

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FreeBSD Porter's Handbook

The FreeBSD Documentation Project

FreeBSD is a registered trademark of the FreeBSD Foundation.

6.23. Using Lua ................................................................................................................ 121

14.1. PORTNAME Block ......................................................................................................... 171

17.4. FreeBSD 9 Versions .................................................................................................... 230

17.10. FreeBSD 3 __FreeBSD_version Values .................................................................................. 270

3.1.Writing the Makefile

3.2.Writing the Description Files

This example shows how pkg-descr looks:

Here is a small example:

3.3.Creating the Checksum File

3.4.Testing the Port

pkg-plist does not contain anything not installed by the port.

pkg-plist contains everything that is installed by the port.

Procedure3.1.Recommended Test Ordering

6. make package (as user)

Make certain no warnings are shown in any of the stages.

3.5.Checking the Port with portlint

3.6.Submitting the New Port

Example3.1.Creating a .diff for a New Port

Example3.2.Creating a .shar for a New Port

4.1.How Things Work

1. If it exists, scripts/configure is run.

2. If HAS_CONFIGURE or GNU_CONFIGURE is set, WRKSRC/configure is run.

4.2.Getting the Original Sources

4.3.Modifying the Port

4.4.1.General Rules for Patching

4.4.2.Manual Patch Generation

% diff -u file.orig file >patch- pathname-file

% diff -u -N newfile .orig newfile >patch- pathname-newfile

4.4.3.Simple Automatic Replacements

A list of specific les to convert can be given:

Example4.1.Applying a Patch for a Specic FreeBSD Version

Example4.2.Optionaly Applying a Patch

4.6.Handling User Input

5.1.The Original Source

5.2.2.Versions, DISTVERSION or PORTVERSION

Set DISTVERSION to the version number of the software.

Example5.1.Using pkg-version(8) to Compare Versions.

1.2 is before 1.3 .

Table5.1.Examples of DISTVERSION and the Derived PORTVERSION

It will generate a PORTVERSION of 1.2.4 .

Example5.3.Using DISTVERSION When the Version Starts with a Letter or

If the version is v1.2-4 :

Or they do both, for example, nekoto-1.2-4_RELEASE:

All will generate a PORTVERSION of 1.2.4 .

Example 5.4. Using DISTVERSION When the Version Contains Letters

Both will generate a PORTVERSION of 1.2.p4 .

5.2.3.PORTREVISION and PORTEPOCH

Examples of when PORTREVISION must be bumped:

Examples of changes which do not require a PORTREVISION bump:

5.2.3.3.Example of PORTREVISION and PORTEPOCH Usage

The gtkmumble port, version 0.10 , is committed to the ports collection:

PKGNAME becomes gtkmumble-0.10.

PKGNAME becomes gtkmumble-0.10_1

PKGNAME becomes gtkmumble-0.2,1

PKGNAME becomes gtkmumble-0.3,1

5.2.4.PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIX

5.2.5.Package Naming Conventions