4.7 Troubleshooting

Ah, you must be thinking of the serial ports on the back of your computer. We are using ``port'' here to mean the result of ``porting'' a program from one operating system to another.

A patch is a small file that specifies how to go from one version of a file to another. It contains plain text, and basically says things like ``delete line 23'', ``add these two lines after line 468'', and ``change line 197 to this''. They are also known as diffs because they are generated by the diff(1) program.

It is a file ending in .tar, or with variations such as .tar.gz, .tar.Z, .tar.bz2, and even .tgz.

Basically, it is a directory tree that has been archived into a single file (.tar) and optionally compressed (.gz). This technique was originally used for Tape ARchives (hence the name tar), but it is a widely used way of distributing program source code around the Internet.

You can see what files are in them, or even extract them yourself by using the standard Unix tar(1) program, which comes with the base FreeBSD system, like this:

    % tar tvzf foobar.tar.gz
    % tar xzvf foobar.tar.gz
    % tar tvf foobar.tar
    % tar xvf foobar.tar

It is a number generated by adding up all the data in the file you want to check. If any of the characters change, the checksum will no longer be equal to the total, so a simple comparison will allow you to spot the difference.

As explained in the installing ports from CDROM section, some ports cannot be put on the CDROM set due to licensing restrictions. Kermit is an example of that. The licensing terms for Kermit do not allow us to put the tarball for it on the CDROM, so you will have to fetch it by hand--sorry!

The reason why you got all those error messages was because you were not connected to the Internet at the time. Once you have downloaded it from any of the MASTER_SITES (listed in the Makefile), you can restart the install process.

The ports mechanism will download distribution tarballs into /usr/ports/distfiles, but many system administrators will symlink this directory to a remote file server or local read-only CD-ROM media. If this is the case, then you should specify a different directory to be used for storing distfiles with the following command:

    # make DISTDIR=/local/dir/with/write/permission install

You can use the PORTSDIR and PREFIX variables to tell the ports mechanism to use different directories. For instance,

    # make PORTSDIR=/u/people/guests/wurzburger/ports install

will compile the port in /u/people/guests/wurzburger/ports and install everything under /usr/local.

    # make PREFIX=/u/people/guests/wurzburger/local install

will compile it in /usr/ports and install it in /u/people/guests/wurzburger/local.

And of course,

    # make PORTSDIR=../ports PREFIX=../local install

will combine the two (it is too long to write fully on the page, but it should give you the general idea).

Some ports that use imake(1) (a part of the X Windows System) do not work well with PREFIX, and will insist on installing under /usr/X11R6. Similarly, some Perl ports ignore PREFIX and install in the Perl tree. Making these ports respect PREFIX is a difficult or impossible job.

If you do not fancy typing all that in every time you install a port, you can put these variables into your environment. Read the manual page for your shell for instructions on doing so.

To get every single tarball for the ports collection, do:

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make fetch

For all the tarballs for a single ports directory, do:

    # cd /usr/ports/directory
    # make fetch

and for just one port--well, you have probably guessed already.

Yes. If you know, for example, that ftp.FreeBSD.org is much closer to you than the sites listed in MASTER_SITES, do as follows:

    # cd /usr/ports/directory
    # make MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE= \
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/ fetch

make fetch-list will display a list of the files needed for a port.

Doing make extract will stop it after it has fetched and extracted the source code.

Yes, make patch is what you want. You will probably find the PATCH_DEBUG option useful as well. And by the way, thank you for your efforts!

Yes, with version 2.6.3 of gcc (the version shipped with FreeBSD 2.1.0 and 2.1.5), the -O2 option could result in buggy code unless you used the -fno-strength-reduce option as well. (Most of the ports do not use -O2). You should be able to specify compiler options with something like:

    # make CFLAGS='-O2 -fno-strength-reduce' install

or by editing /etc/make.conf, but unfortunately not all ports respect this. The surest way is to do make configure, then go into the source directory and inspect the Makefiles by hand, but this can get tedious if the source has lots of sub-directories, each with their own Makefiles.

The default FreeBSD compiler options are quite conservative, so if you have not changed them you should not have any problems.

Look in the INDEX file in /usr/ports. If you would like to search the ports collection for a keyword, you can do that too. For example, you can find ports relevant to the LISP programming language using:

    % cd /usr/ports
    % make search key=lisp

The foo port needs something that is supplied with bar -- for instance, if foo uses graphics, bar might have a library with useful graphics processing routines. Or bar might be a tool that is needed to compile the foo port. Once bar is finished, your system should automatically resume building foo.

No problem, just type:

    # pkg_delete grizzle-6.5

Alternatively, you can type:

    # cd /usr/ports/somewhere/grizzle
    # make deinstall

Not at all, you can find it out by doing:

    # pkg_info -I 'grizzle*'
    Information for grizzle-6.5:
    grizzle-6.5 - the combined piano tutorial, LOGO interpreter and shoot 'em up
    arcade game.

The version number can be found either by using the pkg_info or by typing: ls /var/db/pkg

Yes, if you have installed a program and are fairly certain you will not need the source again, there is no point in keeping it hanging around. The surest way to do this is:

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make clean

which will go through all the ports subdirectories and delete everything except the skeletons for each port.

Yes, if you are sure you have finished with them, those can go as well. They can be removed manually, or by using make distclean.

Just do:

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make install

Be careful, as some ports may install files with the same name. If you install two graphics ports and they both install /usr/local/bin/plot then you will obviously have problems.

No, the problem is that some of the ports need to ask you questions that we cannot answer for you (e.g., ``Do you want to print on A4 or US letter sized paper?'') and they need to have someone on hand to answer them.

OK, do this before you go to bed/work/the local park:

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make -DBATCH install

This will install every port that does not require user input. Then, when you come back, do:

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make -DINTERACTIVE install

to finish the job.

No problem, assuming you know how to make patches for your changes:

    # cd /usr/ports/somewhere/frobble
    # make extract
    # cd work/frobble-2.8
    [Apply your patches]
    # cd ../..
    # make package

Nothing secret about it at all, just look at the bsd.port.mk and bsd.port.subdir.mk files in /usr/ports/Mk/.

(Readers with an aversion to intricate shell-scripts are advised not to look at the files in this directory.)