somewhere, glance through the instructions, make any changes that seem 
necessary, run the configure script to set things up and use the standard 
`make' program to compile and install the program from the source.</p>
<p>FreeBSD ports still use the tarball mechanism, but use a 
<A HREF="handbook29.html#ports:skeleton">skeleton</A> to hold the &quot;knowledge&quot; 
of how to get the program working on FreeBSD, rather than expecting the
user to be able to work it out. They also supply their own customised
<A HREF="handbook30.html#ports:makefile">Makefile</A>, so that almost every port
can be built in the same way.</p>
<p>If you look at a port skeleton (either on <A href="file://localhost/usr/ports/devel/ElectricFence">your FreeBSD system</A> or <A href="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/ports/devel/ElectricFence">the FTP site</A>) and expect to find all sorts of pointy-headed rocket
science lurking there, you may be disappointed by the one or two
rather unexciting-looking files and directories you find there.
(We will discuss in a minute how to go about 
<A HREF="handbook26.html#ports:getting">Getting a port</A>).</p>

<p>``How on earth can this do anything?'' I hear you cry. ``There
is no source code there!''</p>

<p> Fear not, gentle reader, all will become clear (hopefully). Let's
see what happens if we try and install a port. I have chosen `ElectricFence',
a useful tool for developers, as the skeleton is more straightforward than
most.</p>
<p><em>Note</em> if you are trying this at home, you will need to be root.</p>
<p>
<pre>
 # cd /usr/ports/devel/ElectricFence
# make install
&gt;&gt; Checksum OK for ElectricFence-2.0.5.tar.gz.
===&gt;  Extracting for ElectricFence-2.0.5
===&gt;  Patching for ElectricFence-2.0.5
===&gt;  Applying FreeBSD patches for ElectricFence-2.0.5
===&gt;  Configuring for ElectricFence-2.0.5
===&gt;  Building for ElectricFence-2.0.5
[lots of compiler output...]
===&gt;  Installing for ElectricFence-2.0.5
===&gt;  Warning: your umask is "0002".
      If this is not desired, set it to an appropriate value
      and install this port again by ``make reinstall''.
install -c -o bin -g bin -m 444 /usr/ports/devel/ElectricFence/work/ElectricFence-2.0.5/libefence.a /usr/local/lib
install -c -o bin -g bin -m 444 /usr/ports/devel/ElectricFence/work/ElectricFence-2.0.5/libefence.3 /usr/local/man/man3
===&gt;   Compressing manual pages for ElectricFence-2.0.5
===&gt;  Registering installation for ElectricFence-2.0.5
</pre>
</p>

<p> To avoid confusing the issue, I have completely removed the build output.</p>
<p>If you tried this yourself, you may well have got something like this at
the start:-</p>
<p>
<A NAME="ports:fetch"></A>
<pre>
# make install
&gt;&gt; ElectricFence-2.0.5.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist on this system.
&gt;&gt; Attempting to fetch from ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/Mirrors/sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/lang/c/.
</pre>
</p>

<p> The `make' program has noticed that you did not have a local copy
of the source code and tried to FTP it down so it could get the job
done. I already had the
source handy in my example, so it did not need to fetch it.</p>

<p> Let's go through this and see what the `make' program was doing.</p>
<p>
<ol>
<li> Locate the source code 
<A HREF="handbook35.html#ports:tarball">tarball.</A> If it is not available locally, try to grab it from an
FTP site.
</li>
<li> Run a 
<A HREF="handbook35.html#ports:checksum">checksum</A> test on the
tarball to make sure it has not been tampered with, accidentally
truncated, downloaded in ASCII mode, struck by neutrinos while in transit, etc.
</li>
<li> Extract the tarball into a temporary work directory.
</li>
<li> Apply any 
<A HREF="handbook35.html#ports:patch">patches</A> needed to get
the source to compile and run under FreeBSD.
</li>
<li> Run any configuration script required by the build process and
correctly answer any questions it asks.
</li>
<li> (Finally!) Compile the code.
</li>
<li> Install the program executable and other supporting files, man
pages, etc. under the /usr/local hierarchy, where they will not get mixed
up with system programs. This also makes sure that all the ports you
install will go in the same place, instead of being flung all over
your system.
</li>
<li> Register the installation in a database. This means
that, if you do not like the program, you can cleanly 
<A HREF="handbook35.html#ports:remove">remove</A> all traces of it from your system.
</li>
</ol>
</p>

<p> Scroll up to the make output and see if you can match these steps to it.
And if you were not impressed before, you should be by now!</p>

 <HR NOSHADE>
<A HREF="handbook.html"><EM>FreeBSD Handbook</EM></A>
 <b>:</b> <A HREF="handbook23.html"><EM>Installing Applications: The Ports collection</EM></A>
 <b>:</b> <EM>How Does the Ports Collection Work?</EM><BR>
<b>Previous:</b> <A HREF="handbook24.html"><EM>Why Have a Ports Collection?</EM></A><BR>
<b>Next:</b> <A HREF="handbook26.html"><EM>Getting a FreeBSD Port</EM></A>


<hr>
<address>
  <a href="../mailto.html">freebsd-questions@freebsd.org</a><br>
  Updated March 2, 1999
</address>


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