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From: kargl@apl.washington.edu (Steven G. Kargl)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Ports confuse me...
Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 12:19:50 -0700
Organization: Applied Physics Lab/University of Washington
Lines: 57
Message-ID: <kargl-1705951219500001@spleen.apl.washington.edu>
References: <3pd31k$ebd@hq.hq.af.mil>
NNTP-Posting-Host: nntp3.u.washington.edu
In article <3pd31k$ebd@hq.hq.af.mil>, lpeters@scratchy.hq.af.mil wrote:
> I am a two-year veteran of Net- and now FreeBSD (currently at 2.0-950210),
> yet I am baffled by ports. How does it work? I have looked at
> the info that is in any particular program port and I can't make heads
> or tails of it. Taking a source tarball and make'ing it, no problemo.
> Even when it isn't completely clean, I can usually get it to work.
> However, ports are beyond my ken at this moment.
>
> Low-temp assistance is appreciated :)
I'm not sure I understand. (I) Do you want to use the already ported software,
or (II) do you want to contribute a port?
Answer I
%ftp ftp.cdrom.com
ftp> cd pub/FreeBSD/ports
ftp> cd mail
ftp> bin
ftp> get elm.tar.gz
ftp> bye
% tar xzvf elm.tar.gz
%cd elm
%make
The make will:
(1) retrieve the elm distribution from its master site or a secondary
site if the master site is unavaiable.
(2) extract the retrieved distribution
(3) Apply FreeBSD specific patches (if any)
(4) run a configuration script (if any)
Note: interactive ports require a dialog such as elm
(5) Checks that needed pre-requisite port(s) is (are) installed
(5) completes the build
%make install
(1) This installs the built binaries and any needed support files and any
man pages or info file. By default, the root directory for the install
is /usr/local, so /usr/local/[bin, lib, man[man1...8]] etc are assumed.
There is an override mechanism, but I do recall variable that needs to be
set.
(2) Installation also registers the newly installed software in a database for
future reference.
Answer II
Read the GUIDELINES file in ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/FreeBSD/ports
--
Steven G. Kargl
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98105