Maint: gnome@FreeBSD.org Index: misc
B−deps: gettext−0.10.35 glib−1.2.10_3 gmake−3.79.1 R−deps: gettext−0.10.35 glib−1.2.10_3
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Aha! Midnight Commander can be found under ? /usr/ports/misc/mc.
Other Ways to Browse the Ports Collection
If you prefer working with a Web browser, you can build an HTML index. Just go to /usr/ports and, as root, type make readmes to generate a file (README.html) with the contents of your ports tree. (You can click through various categories, and even view detailed descriptions of each port.)
I f n o n e o f t h e s e o p t i o n s w o r k , t r y t h e F r e e B S D P o r t s T r e e s e a r c h s e r v i c e a t http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/ports.cgi.
Between the Web browser and the search engine, you should be able to find a piece of software to meet your needs.
Legal Restrictions
While most of the software in the ports collection is free for noncommercial use, some of it includes unusual legal restrictions. The /usr/ports/LEGAL file lists legal restrictions on various pieces of software. The most common restriction is a prohibition on redistribution; the FreeBSD Project does not include such software in its CD−ROM distributions, just instructions on how to build it. For example, for a long time FreeBSD did not have a Java license. The Project was not allowed to distribute the Java source code or compiled binaries. They could distribute instructions on how to build the source code, however. You could go to a Sun Microsystems Web page, download the Java source, and build your own version of Java on FreeBSD.
Similarly, some pieces of software prohibit commercial use or embedding in commercial products. A few cannot be exported from the United States, thanks to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)—they contain cryptography and are classified as "munitions."[2] If you're building FreeBSD systems for redistribution, export, or commercial use, you'll definitely want to chck this file.
Fortunately, the software required for providing network services is free for either commercial or noncommercial use. These restricted packages are the exception, not the rule.
[2]Most of this software is available from non−US sourecs, and can be downloaded anywhere in the word. The official FreeBSD CD−ROM' images are generated in the United States, however.
Using Packages
Packages are precompiled software for a particular version of FreeBSD. We're going to discuss using packages first, as they're generally easier and faster to use than ports. Once you have a grip on packages, we'll go on to ports.
Unless a piece of software has legal restrictions against being distributed in compiled form, it's available as a package. Other software (such as Microsoft Word[3]) is only available in precompiled form. Packages are available on CD−ROM and via FTP.
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Installing software as a package can save you a great deal of time because you don't have to spend your time compiling from source. To install a package, find its name by searching the ports tree, as described earlier.
Installing from CD−ROM
If you have a FreeBSD CD−ROM set, you already have a fairly extensive collection of compiled packages. To use them, all you need to do is mount the CD and read the package file.
We'll discuss mounting and unmounting media in detail in Chapter 16, but here are the basics.
Put your CD in its drive, become root, and type this command:
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# mount −t cd9660 /dev/acd0c /cdrom
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The contents of your CD−ROM are now available under /cdrom.
Note You won't be able to eject the CD−ROM while you're using it, or while it's mounted. If you have an idle command prompt sitting on /cdrom, you won't be able to unmount it. To unmount the CD−ROM, enter this command.
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# umount /cdrom
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Once you have the CD mounted, look at the packages directory:
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#cd /cdrom/packages/
#ls
All |
deskutils |
japanese |
tk82 |
|
INDEX |
devel |
java |
python |
tk83 |
Latest |
editors |
kde |
ruby |
tkstep80 |
archivers |
elisp |
korean |
russian |
windowmaker |
astro |
emulators |
lang |
security |
www |
audio |
french |
shells |
x11 |
|
biology |
ftp |
math |
sysutils |
x11−fm |
cad |
games |
mbone |
tcl80 |
x11−fonts |
chinese |
german |
misc |
tcl82 |
x11−toolkits |
comms |
gnome |
net |
tcl83 |
x11−wm |
converters |
graphics |
palm |
textproc |
zope |
databases |
ipv6 |
perl5 |
tk80 |
|
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This should look familiar. Yep, it's the same as the ports tree listing we saw earlier in the chapter. If you go into a directory, however, you'll see something a little different. A single CD−ROM doesn't have nearly enough room to store all the FreeBSD packages, which can be quite large (up to hundreds of megs). You'll find some packages, but not all of them. Many other packages are
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available on other FreeBSD CD−ROMs. Second, these are files, not directories; they're tarballs containing complete software packages.
For example, in /cdrom/packages/astro we'll see two packages. Both of these are based on ports you'll find in the astro directory of the ports tree.
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#cd astro/
#ls
openuniverse−1.0.b3.tgz xglobe−0.5.tgz
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To see what a package does, check its description in /usr/ports/INDEX. Search for the package name in the index file, just as we searched for a port name in the index (in the "Finding Software" section, earlier in the chapter). In the fourth field, you'll find a description of the port:
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# grep −i ^openuniv /usr/ports/INDEX openuniverse−1.0.b3|/usr/ports/astro/openuniverse|/usr/X11R6|OpenGL Solar System simulator for X Window System|/usr/ports/astro/openuniverse/pkg− descr|trevor@FreeBSD.org|astro|Mesa−3.4.2_1 XFree86−libraries−4.1.0 freetype2−2.0.4 gettext−0.10.35 gmake−3.79.1 imake−4.1.0 jpeg−6b|Mesa−3.4.2_1 XFree86−libraries− 4.1.0 freetype2−2.0.4 imake−4.1.0 jpeg−6b|http://openuniverse.sourceforge.net/
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The fourth field of this description says that openuniverse is an "OpenGL Solar System simulator for X Window System." A solar system simulator does sound kind of cool, doesn't it? Let's install it! Use pkg_add(1) to install packages:
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# pkg_add openuniverse−1.0.b3.tgz
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That's it! The software is installed and ready to use. (The installation usually runs silently, though you'll occasionally see messages during a package install. Pay attention to them, and take whatever action they recommend.)
If a package requires other packages, pkg_add(1) should automatically find those packages and install them. The CD sets are designed such that the dependencies are all on one disk whenever possible. However, if a required package is not available, pkg_add will complain about the missing package by name and fail. In that case, find the required package on another disk and install it first, or just install over FTP.
Installing via FTP
Frequently, a package doesn't exist on the CD because the FreeBSD Project has limited space on
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its CD−ROM sets and can't possibly fit all 6,000−plus packages onto 4 disks! Also, software on CD is built for a particular release of FreeBSD. Having a CD−ROM of packages for version 4.4 won't help you if you're running FreeBSD 4.6.
Too, if you're tracking −stable, the packages on the CD are slightly out of date, and you should grab the latest package from ftp.FreeBSD.org. (You must have a live Internet connection to do this!)
If you know the full package name and version number, you can get the latest package from the FreeBSD FTP site automatically, like so:
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# pkg_add −r xearth
Fetching ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages−4.4−
release/Latest/xearth.tgz... |
Done. |
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The advantage of this is that the system will automatically find the proper FTP location, download the proper version of the package and all dependencies, and install them all. The downside is, you have to have a live Internet connection.
This method is also less secure than installing from CD. While the packages on the CD set have all been inspected and verified to be what they claim to be, the packages on the FTP server could have been tampered with by a malicious hacker. You could be installing Trojan horses, or worse. (This has never happened, mind you, but it is theoretically possible.)
You can also manually download packages from an FTP site of your choice. (We discussed finding a convenient FTP server in Chapter 1.) To do so, find a convenient FTP site and log in to that server. Then, if you're running a −release, go to pub/FreeBSD/release and into the directory for your version of −release. If you're tracking −stable or −current, go to pub/FreeBSD/ports and choose the directory for your −stable or −release.
Once in the appropriate directory, you'll see a directory tree much like that under /usr/ports. Now, just find your package and download it, then install it via the command line:
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# pkg_add openuniverse−1.0.b3.tgz
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Note This method will not automatically install dependencies. It's most useful for times when you're behind a firewall and must jump through some hoops to download files from the Internet.
What Does a Package Install?
Now that your software is installed, how do you find it on your system? There's no Start menu, after all! Not to worry.
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For a complete list of what a piece of software has installed, see /var/db/pkg. This directory contains a complete list of every port or package you have installed on the system, and what each set of software contains.
For example, our /var/db/pkg now contains a directory called openuniverse−1.0.b3. If you look in that directory, you'll see the following:
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# ls /var/db/pkg/openuniverse−1.0.b3/
+COMMENT |
+CONTENTS |
+DESC |
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The +COMMENT file is a brief description of the package; +DESC contains a longer description of the package. The interesting file is +CONTENTS, which lists every file installed by the package. This file is quite long, but we'll look at the start of it.
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# more /var/db/pkg/openuniverse−1.0.3b/+CONTENTS v @name openuniverse−1.0.b3
@cwd w /usr/X11R6 x @pkgdep jpeg−6b @pkgdep Mesa−3.4.1
@comment y ORIGIN:astro/openuniverse z bin/openuniverse
@comment MD5:2a4775c079a589e78cf54be5444316cb share/openuniverse/data/stars.dat
@comment MD5:eee6bb0caf1ae32bc2ff043e7baee17a share/openuniverse/data/messier.dat
@comment MD5:acd357ee82d95121fbf42ba9982f1dd8
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The first line (v) is, of course, the name. Following that is the directory tree where the package was installed (w) after the cwd keyword. You can see that openuniverse is installed under /usr/X11R6. The pkgdep keywords (x) are other packages that this package depends on. The ORIGIN comment (y) is the category in the ports tree where this package was created.
Finally you have the list of files (z). Each file installed by this program is listed here, along with its MD5 checksum. (The various package−handling tools use the MD5 checksum to verify that a file is still good and that it hasn't been damaged during transit or by operator error.)
Each file is listed relative to the directory tree given in the packing list. For example, the file bin/openuniverse was actually installed under /usr/X11R6, giving us /usr/X11R6/bin/openuniverse. Similarly, various files are listed as being in share/openuniverse, which is under /usr/X11R6, giving us the real directory of /usr/X11R6/share/openuniverse. Most files installed in a share directory are either documentation or program data. You can read the documentation, or just run openuniverse and see what happens.
(Much of this information on files and directories is also available through pkg_info(1), but it's frequently easier to just look for yourself.)
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