# Package Building Procedures

### The FreeBSD Ports Management Team

Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 The FreeBSD Ports Management Team

$FreeBSD: doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/portbuild/article.sgml,v 1.44 2009/08/05 01:48:18 linimon Exp $

FreeBSD is a registered trademark of the FreeBSD Foundation.

Intel, Celeron, EtherExpress, i386, i486, Itanium, Pentium, and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Sparc, Sparc64, SPARCEngine, and UltraSPARC are trademarks of SPARC International, Inc in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

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.

[ Split HTML / Single HTML ]

## 1 Introduction and Conventions

In order to provide pre-compiled binaries of third-party applications for FreeBSD, the Ports Collection is regularly built on one of the “Package Building Clusters.” Currently, the main cluster in use is at http://pointyhat.FreeBSD.org.

Most of the package building magic occurs under the `/var/portbuild` directory. Unless otherwise specified, all paths will be relative to this location. `${arch}` will be used to specify one of the package architectures (amd64, i386™, and Sparc64®), and `${branch}` will be used to specify the build branch (6, 6-exp, 7, 7-exp, 8, 8-exp).

> Note: Packages are no longer built for Release 4 or 5, nor for the alpha nor ia64 architectures.

The scripts that control all of this live in `/var/portbuild/scripts/`. These are the checked-out copies from `/usr/ports/Tools/portbuild/scripts/`.

Typically, incremental builds are done that use previous packages as dependendencies; this takes less time, and puts less load on the mirrors. Full builds are usually only done:

- right after release time, for the `-STABLE` branches

- periodically to test changes to `-CURRENT`

- for experimental builds

## 2 Build Client Management

The i386 clients co-located with `pointyhat` netboot from it (`connected` nodes); all other clients (`disconnected` nodes) are either self-hosted or netboot from some other `pxe` host. In all cases they set themselves up at boot-time to prepare to build packages.

The cluster master `rsync`s the interesting data (ports and src trees, bindist tarballs, scripts, etc.) to disconnected nodes during the node-setup phase. Then, the disconnected portbuild directory is nullfs-mounted for chroot builds.

The `ports-`${arch}`` user can ssh(1) to the client nodes to monitor them. Use `sudo` and check the `portbuild.`hostname`.conf` for the user and access details.

The `scripts/allgohans` script can be used to run a command on all of the `${arch}` clients.

The `scripts/checkmachines` script is used to monitor the load on all the nodes of the build cluster, and schedule which nodes build which ports. This script is not very robust, and has a tendency to die. It is best to start up this script on the build master (e.g. `pointyhat`) after boot time using a while(1) loop.

## 3 Chroot Build Environment Setup

Package builds are performed in a `chroot` populated by the `portbuild` script using the ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/builds/`${buildid}`/bindist.tar` file.

The following command builds a world from the ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/src` tree and installs it into `${worlddir}`. The tree will be updated first unless `-nocvs` is specified.

    /var/portbuild# scripts/makeworld ${arch} ${branch} ${buildid} [-nocvs]

The `bindist.tar` tarball is created from the previously installed world by the `mkbindist` script. It should be run as `root` with the following command:

    /var/portbuild# scripts/mkbindist ${arch} ${branch} ${buildid}

The per-machine tarballs are located in ``${arch}`/clients`.

The `bindist.tar` file is extracted onto each client at client boot time, and at the start of each pass of the `dopackages` script.

## 4 Starting the Build

Several separate builds for each architecture - branch combination are supported. All data private to a build (ports tree, src tree, packages, distfiles, log files, bindist, Makefile, etc) are located under ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/builds/`${buildid}``. The last created build can be alternatively referenced under buildid `latest`, the one before is called `previous`.

New builds are cloned from the `latest`, which is fast since it uses ZFS.

### 4.1 `dopackages` scripts

The `scripts/dopackages*` scripts are used to perform the builds. Most useful are:

- `dopackages.6` - Perform a 6.X build

- `dopackages.6-exp` - Perform a 6.X build with experimental patches (6-exp branch)

- `dopackages.7` - Perform a 7.X build

- `dopackages.7-exp` - Perform a 7.X build with experimental patches (7-exp branch)

- `dopackages.8` - Perform a 8.X build

- `dopackages.8-exp` - Perform a 8.X build with experimental patches (8-exp branch)

These are wrappers around `dopackages`, and are all symlinked to `dopackages.wrapper`. New branch wrapper scripts can be created by symlinking `dopackages.${branch}` to `dopackages.wrapper`. These scripts take a number of arguments. For example:

    dopackages.6 ${arch} [-options]

`[-options]` may be zero or more of the following:

- `-keep` - Do not delete this build in the future, when it would be normally deleted as part of the `latest` - `previous` cycle. Don't forget to clean it up manually when you no longer need it.

- `-nofinish` - Do not perform post-processing once the build is complete. Useful if you expect that the build will need to be restarted once it finishes. If you use this option, don't forget to cleanup the clients when you don't need the build anymore.

- `-finish` - Perform post-processing only.

- `-nocleanup` - By default, when the `-finish` stage of the build is complete, the build data will be deleted from the clients. This option will prevent that.

- `-restart` - Restart an interrupted (or non-`finish`ed) build from the beginning. Ports that failed on the previous build will be rebuilt.

- `-continue` - Restart an interrupted (or non-`finish`ed) build. Will not rebuild ports that failed on the previous build.

- `-incremental` - Compare the interesting fields of the new `INDEX` with the previous one, remove packages and log files for the old ports that have changed, and rebuild the rest. This cuts down on build times substantially since unchanged ports do not get rebuilt every time.

- `-cdrom` - This package build is intended to end up on a CD-ROM, so `NO_CDROM` packages and distfiles should be deleted in post-processing.

- `-nobuild` - Perform all the preprocessing steps, but do not actually do the package build.

- `-noindex` - Do not rebuild `INDEX` during preprocessing.

- `-noduds` - Do not rebuild the `duds` file (ports that are never built, e.g. those marked `IGNORE`, `NO_PACKAGE`, etc.) during preprocessing.

- `-trybroken` - Try to build `BROKEN` ports (off by default because the amd64/i386 clusters are fast enough now that when doing incremental builds, more time was spent rebuilding things that were going to fail anyway. Conversely, the other clusters are slow enough that it would be a waste of time to try and build `BROKEN` ports).

- `-nosrc` - Do not update the `src` tree from the ZFS snapshot, keep the tree from previous build instead.

- `-srccvs` - Do not update the `src` tree from the ZFS snapshot, update it with `cvs update` instead.

- `-noports` - Do not update the `ports` tree from the ZFS snapshot, keep the tree from previous build instead.

- `-portscvs` - Do not update the `ports` tree from the ZFS snapshot, update it with `cvs update` instead.

- `-norestr` - Do not attempt to build `RESTRICTED` ports.

- `-plistcheck` - Make it fatal for ports to leave behind files after deinstallation.

- `-nodistfiles` - Do not collect distfiles that pass `make checksum` for later uploading to `ftp-master`.

- `-fetch-original` - Fetch the distfile from the original `MASTER_SITES` rather than `ftp-master`.

If the last build finished cleanly you do not need to delete anything. If it was interrupted, or you selected `-nocleanup`, you need to clean up clients by running

`build cleanup `${arch}` `${branch}` `${buildid}` -full`

`errors/`, `logs/`, `packages/`, and so forth, are cleaned by the scripts. If you are short of space, you can also clean out `ports/distfiles/`. Leave the `latest/` directory alone; it is a symlink for the webserver.

> Note: `dosetupnodes` is supposed to be run from the `dopackages` script in the `-restart` case, but it can be a good idea to run it by hand and then verify that the clients all have the expected job load. Sometimes, `dosetupnode` cannot clean up a build and you need to do it by hand. (This is a bug.)

Make sure the `${arch}` build is run as the ports-`${arch}` user or it will complain loudly.

> Note: The actual package build itself occurs in two identical phases. The reason for this is that sometimes transient problems (e.g. NFS failures, FTP sites being unreachable, etc.) may halt a build. Doing things in two phases is a workaround for these types of problems.

Be careful that `ports/Makefile` does not specify any empty subdirectories. This is especially important if you are doing an -exp build. If the build process encounters an empty subdirectory, both package build phases will stop short, and an error similar to the following will be written to ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/make.[0|1]`:

    don't know how to make dns-all(continuing)

To correct this problem, simply comment out or remove the `SUBDIR` entries that point to empty subdirectories. After doing this, you can restart the build by running the proper `dopackages` command with the `-restart` option.

> Note: This problem also appears if you create a new category `Makefile` with no `SUBDIR`s in it. This is probably a bug.

Example 1. Update the i386-6 tree and do a complete build

`dopackages.6 i386 -nosrc -norestr -nofinish`

Example 2. Restart an interrupted amd64-8 build without updating

`dopackages.8 amd64 -nosrc -noports -norestr -continue -noindex -noduds -nofinish`

Example 3. Post-process a completed sparc64-7 tree

`dopackages.7 sparc64 -finish`

Hint: it us usually best to run the `dopackages` command inside of `screen(1)`.

### 4.2 `build` command

You may need to manipulate the build data before starting it, especially for experimental builds. This is done with `build` command.

- `build list `arch` `branch`` - Shows the current set of build ids.

- `build clone `arch` `branch` `oldid` [`newid`]` - Clones `oldid` to `newid` (or a datestamp if not specified).

- `build srcupdate `arch` `branch` `buildid`` - Replaces the src tree with a new ZFS snapshot. Don't forget to use `-nosrc` flag to `dopackages` later!

- `build portsupdate `arch` `branch` `buildid`` - Replaces the ports tree with a new ZFS snapshot. Don't forget to use `-noports` flag to `dopackages` later!

### 4.3 Building a single package

Sometimes there is a need to rebuild a single package from the package set. This can be accomplished with the following invocation:

`/var/portbuild/evil/qmanager/packagebuild `amd64` `7-exp` `20080904212103` `aclock-0.2.3_2``

## 5 Anatomy of a Build

A full build without any `-no` options performs the following operations in the specified order:

1. An update of the current `ports` tree from the ZFS snapshot [*]

2. An update of the running branch's `src` tree from the ZFS snapshot [*]

3. Checks which ports do not have a `SUBDIR` entry in their respective category's `Makefile` [*]

4. Creates the `duds` file, which is a list of ports not to build [*] [+]

5. Generates a fresh `INDEX` file [*] [+]

6. Sets up the nodes that will be used in the build [*] [+]

7. Builds a list of restricted ports [*] [+]

8. Builds packages (phase 1) [++]

9. Performs another node setup [+]

10. Builds packages (phase 2) [++]

[*] Status of these steps can be found in ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/build.log` as well as on stderr of the tty running the `dopackages` command.

[+] If any of these steps fail, the build will stop cold in its tracks.

[++] Status of these steps can be found in ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/make.[0|1]`, where `make.0` is the log file used by phase 1 of the package build and `make.1` is the log file used by phase 2. Individual ports will write their build logs to ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/logs` and their error logs to ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/errors`.

Formerly the docs tree was also checked out, however, it has been found to be unnecessary.

## 6 Interrupting a Build

Interrupting a build is a bit messy. First you need to identify the tty in which it's running (either record the output of tty(1) when you start the build, or use `ps x` to identify it. You need to make sure that nothing else important is running in this tty, e.g. `ps -t p1` or whatever. If there is not, you can just kill off the whole term easily with `pkill -t pts/1`; otherwise issue a `kill -HUP` in there by, for example, `ps -t pts/1 -o pid= | xargs kill -HUP`. Replace `p1` by whatever the tty is, of course.

The package builds dispatched by `make` to the client machines will clean themselves up after a few minutes (check with `ps x` until they all go away).

If you do not kill make(1), then it will spawn more jobs. If you do not kill `dopackages`, then it will restart the entire build. If you do not kill the `pdispatch` processes, they'll keep going (or respawn) until they've built their package.

To free up resources, you will need to clean up client machines by running `build cleanup` command. For example:

    % /var/portbuild/scripts/build cleanup i386 6-exp 20080714120411 -full

If you forget to do this, then the old build `chroot`s will not be cleaned up for 24 hours, and no new jobs will be dispatched in their place since `pointyhat` thinks the job slot is still occupied.

To check, `cat ~/loads/*` to display the status of client machines; the first column is the number of jobs it thinks is running, and this should be roughly concordant with the load average. `loads` is refreshed every 2 minutes. If you do `ps x | grep pdispatch` and it's less than the number of jobs that `loads` thinks are in use, you're in trouble.

You may have problem with the `umount` commands hanging. If so, you are going to have to use the `allgohans` script to run an ssh(1) command across all clients for that buildenv. For example:

    ssh -l root gohan24 df

will get you a df, and

    allgohans "umount -f pointyhat.freebsd.org:/var/portbuild/i386/6-exp/ports"
    allgohans "umount -f pointyhat.freebsd.org:/var/portbuild/i386/6-exp/src"

are supposed to get rid of the hanging mounts. You will have to keep doing them since there can be multiple mounts.

> Note: Ignore the following:

>     umount: pointyhat.freebsd.org:/var/portbuild/i386/6-exp/ports: statfs: No such file or directory
>     umount: pointyhat.freebsd.org:/var/portbuild/i386/6-exp/ports: unknown file system
>     umount: Cleanup of /x/tmp/6-exp/chroot/53837/compat/linux/proc failed!
>     /x/tmp/6-exp/chroot/53837/compat/linux/proc: not a file system root directory

> The former 2 mean that that client did not have those mounted; the latter 2 are a bug.

> You may also see messages about `procfs`.

After you have done all the above, remove the ``${arch}`/lock` file before trying to restart the build. If you do not, `dopackages` will simply exit.

If you have to do a ports tree update before restarting, you may have to rebuild either `duds`, `INDEX`, or both. If you are doing the latter manually, you will also have to rebuild `packages/All/Makefile` via the `makeparallel` script.

## 7 Monitoring the Build

You can use `qclient` command to monitor the status of build nodes, and to list the currently scheduled jobs:

`python /var/portbuild/evil/qmanager/qclient jobs`

`python /var/portbuild/evil/qmanager/qclient status`

The `scripts/stats `${branch}`` command shows the number of packages already built.

Running `cat /var/portbuild/*/loads/*` shows the client loads and number of concurrent builds in progress. The files that have been recently updated are the clients that are online; the others are the offline clients.

> Note: The `pdispatch` command does the dispatching of work onto the client, and post-processing. `ptimeout.host` is a watchdog that kills a build after timeouts. So, having 50 `pdispatch` processes but only 4 ssh(1) processes means 46 `pdispatch`es are idle, waiting to get an idle node.

Running `tail -f `${arch}`/`${branch}`/build.log` shows the overall build progress.

If a port build is failing, and it is not immediately obvious from the log as to why, you can preserve the `WRKDIR` for further analysis. To do this, touch a file called `.keep` in the port's directory. The next time the cluster tries to build this port, it will tar, compress, and copy the `WRKDIR` to ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/wrkdirs`.

If you find that the system is looping trying to build the same package over and over again, you may be able to fix the problem by rebuilding the offending package by hand.

If all the builds start failing with complaints that they cannot load the dependent packages, check to see that httpd is still running, and restart it if not.

Keep an eye on df(1) output. If the `/var/portbuild` file system becomes full then Bad Things™ happen.

The status of all current builds is generated twice an hour and posted to http://pointyhat.FreeBSD.org/errorlogs/packagestats.html. For each `buildenv`, the following is displayed:

- `cvs date` is the contents of `cvsdone`. This is why we recommend that you update `cvsdone` for `-exp` runs (see below).

- date of `latest log`

- number of lines in `INDEX`

- the number of current `build logs`

- the number of completed `packages`

- the number of `errors`

- the number of duds (shown as `skipped`)

- `missing` shows the difference between `INDEX` and the other columns. If you have restarted a run after a `cvs update`, there will likely be duplicates in the packages and error columns, and this column will be meaningless. (The script is naive).

- `running` and `completed` are guesses based on a grep(1) of `build.log`.

## 8 Dealing With Build Errors

The easiest way to track build failures is to receive the emailed logs and sort them to a folder, so you can maintain a running list of current failures and detect new ones easily. To do this, add an email address to ``${branch}`/portbuild.conf`. You can easily bounce the new ones to maintainers.

After a port appears broken on every build combination multiple times, it is time to mark it `BROKEN`. Two weeks' notification for the maintainers seems fair.

> Note: To avoid build errors with ports that need to be manually fetched, put the distfiles into `~ftp/pub/FreeBSD/distfiles`.

## 9 Release Builds

When building packages for a release, it may be necessary to manually update the `ports` and `src` trees to the release tag and use `-nocvs` and `-noportscvs`.

To build package sets intended for use on a CD-ROM, use the `-cdrom` option to `dopackages`.

If the disk space is not available on the cluster, use `-nodistfiles` to avoid collecting distfiles.

After the initial build completes, restart the build with `-restart -fetch-original` to collect updated distfiles as well. Then, once the build is post-processed, take an inventory of the list of files fetched:

    % cd ${arch}/${branch}
    % find distfiles > distfiles-${release}

This inventory file typically lives in `i386/`${branch}`` on the cluster master.

This is useful to aid in periodically cleaning out the distfiles from `ftp-master`. When space gets tight, distfiles from recent releases can be kept while others can be thrown away.

Once the distfiles have been uploaded (see below), the final release package set must be created. Just to be on the safe side, run the ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/cdrom.sh` script by hand to make sure all the CD-ROM restricted packages and distfiles have been pruned. Then, copy the ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/packages` directory to ``${arch}`/`${branch}`/packages-`${release}``. Once the packages are safely moved off, contact the Release Engineering Team `<re@FreeBSD.org>` and inform them of the release package location.

Remember to coordinate with the Release Engineering Team `<re@FreeBSD.org>` about the timing and status of the release builds.

## 10 Uploading Packages

Once a build has completed, packages and/or distfiles can be transferred to `ftp-master` for propagation to the FTP mirror network. If the build was run with `-nofinish`, then make sure to follow up with `dopackages -finish` to post-process the packages (removes `RESTRICTED` and `NO_CDROM` packages where appropriate, prunes packages not listed in `INDEX`, removes from `INDEX` references to packages not built, and generates a `CHECKSUM.MD5` summary); and distfiles (moves them from the temporary `distfiles/.pbtmp` directory into `distfiles/` and removes `RESTRICTED` and `NO_CDROM` distfiles).

It is usually a good idea to run the `restricted.sh` and/or `cdrom.sh` scripts by hand after `dopackages` finishes just to be safe. Run the `restricted.sh` script before uploading to `ftp-master`, then run `cdrom.sh` before preparing the final package set for a release.

The package subdirectories are named by whether they are for `release`, `stable`, or `current`. Examples:

- `packages-6.4-release`

- `packages-6-stable`

- `packages-7.2-release`

- `packages-7-stable`

- `packages-8-current`

> Note: Some of the directories on `ftp-master` are, in fact, symlinks. Examples:

> - `packages-stable`

> - `packages-current`

> Be sure you move the new packages directory over the real destination directory, and not one of the symlinks that points to it.

If you are doing a completely new package set (e.g. for a new release), copy packages to the staging area on `ftp-master` with something like the following:

    # cd /var/portbuild/${arch}/${branch}
    # tar cfv - packages/ | ssh portmgr@ftp-master tar xfC - w/ports/${arch}/tmp/${subdir}

Then log into `ftp-master`, verify that the package set was transferred successfully, remove the package set that the new package set is to replace (in `~/w/ports/`${arch}``), and move the new set into place. (`w/` is merely a shortcut.)

For incremental builds, packages should be uploaded using `rsync` so we do not put too much strain on the mirrors.

ALWAYS use `-n` first with `rsync` and check the output to make sure it is sane. If it looks good, re-run the `rsync` without the `-n` option.

Example `rsync` command for incremental package upload:

    # rsync -n -r -v -l -t -p --delete packages/ portmgr@ftp-master:w/ports/${arch}/${subdir}/ | tee log

Distfiles can be transferred with the `cpdistfiles` script:

    # /var/portbuild/scripts/cpdistfiles ${arch} ${branch}

Or you can do it by hand using `rsync` command:

    # cd /var/portbuild/${arch}/${branch}
    # rsync -n -r -v -l -p -c distfiles/ portmgr@ftp-master:w/ports/distfiles/ | tee log

Again, run the command without the `-n` option after you have checked it.

## 11 Experimental Patches Builds

Experimental patches builds are run from time to time to new features or bugfixes to the ports infrastructure (i.e. `bsd.port.mk`), or to test large sweeping upgrades. The current experimental patches branch is `7-exp` on the amd64 architecture.

In general, an experimental patches build is run the same way as any other build, except that you should first update the ports tree to the latest version and then apply your patches. To do the former, you can use the following:

    % cvs -R update -dP > update.out
    % date > cvsdone

This will most closely simulate what the `dopackages` script does. (While `cvsdone` is merely informative, it can be a help.)

You will need to edit `update.out` to look for lines beginning with `^M`, `^C`, or `^?` and then deal with them.

It is always a good idea to save original copies of all changed files, as well as a list of what you are changing. You can then look back on this list when doing the final commit, to make sure you are committing exactly what you tested.

Since the machine is shared, someone else may delete your changes by mistake, so keep a copy of them in e.g. your home directory on `freefall`. Do not use `tmp/`; since `pointyhat` itself runs some version of `-CURRENT`, you can expect reboots (if nothing else, for updates).

In order to have a good control case with which to compare failures, you should first do a package build of the branch on which the experimental patches branch is based for the i386 architecture (currently this is `7`). Then, when preparing for the experimental patches build, checkout a ports tree and a src tree with the same date as was used for the control build. This will ensure an apples-to-apples comparison later.

Once the build finishes, compare the control build failures to those of the experimental patches build. Use the following commands to facilitate this (this assumes the `7` branch is the control branch, and the `7-exp` branch is the experimental patches branch):

    % cd /var/portbuild/i386/7-exp/errors
    % find . -name \*.log\* | sort > /tmp/7-exp-errs
    % cd /var/portbuild/i386/7/errors
    % find . -name \*.log\* | sort > /tmp/7-errs

> Note: If it has been a long time since one of the builds finished, the logs may have been automatically compressed with bzip2. In that case, you must use `sort | sed 's,\.bz2,,g'` instead.

    % comm -3 /tmp/7-errs /tmp/7-exp-errs | less

This last command will produce a two-column report. The first column is ports that failed on the control build but not in the experimental patches build; the second column is vice versa. Reasons that the port might be in the first column include:

- Port was fixed since the control build was run, or was upgraded to a newer version that is also broken (thus the newer version should appear in the second column)

- Port is fixed by the patches in the experimental patches build

- Port did not build under the experimental patches build due to a dependency failure

Reasons for a port appearing in the second column include:

- Port was broken by the experimental patches [1]

- Port was upgraded since the control build and has become broken [2]

- Port was broken due to a transient error (e.g. FTP site down, package client error, etc.)

Both columns should be investigated and the reason for the errors understood before committing the experimental patches set. To differentiate between [1] and [2] above, you can do a rebuild of the affected packages under the control branch:

    % cd /var/portbuild/i386/7/ports

> Note: Be sure to `cvs update` this tree to the same date as the experimental patches tree.

The following command will set up the control branch for the partial build:

    % /var/portbuild/scripts/dopackages.7 -noportscvs -nobuild -nocvs -nofinish

The builds must be performed from the `packages/All` directory. This directory should initially be empty except for the Makefile symlink. If this symlink does not exist, it must be created:

    % cd /var/portbuild/i386/7/packages/All
    % ln -sf ../../Makefile .
    % make -k -j<#> <list of packages to build>

> Note: <#> is the concurrency of the build to attempt. It is usually the sum of the weights listed in `/var/portbuild/i386/mlist` unless you have a reason to run a heavier or lighter build.

> The list of packages to build should be a list of package names (including versions) as they appear in `INDEX`. The `PKGSUFFIX` (i.e. .tgz or .tbz) is optional.

This will build only those packages listed as well as all of their dependencies.

You can check the progress of this partial build the same way you would a regular build.

Once all the errors have been resolved, you can commit the package set. After committing, it is customary to send a `HEADS UP` email to ports@FreeBSD.org and copy ports-developers@FreeBSD.org informing people of the changes. A summary of all changes should also be committed to `/usr/ports/CHANGES`.

## 12 How to configure a new package building node

Before following these steps, please coordinate with `portmgr`.

### 12.1 Node requirements

`portmgr` is still working on characterizing what a node needs to be generally useful.

- CPU capacity: TBA. However, we have several dual-CPU P-III i386 1.0GHz machines available, so anything with less horsepower than that is not as likely to be useful. (However, many of our Sparc64s are single-CPU, 500MHz machines, so our requirements are lower.)

  > Note: We are able to adjust the number of jobs dispatched to each machine, and we generally tune the number to use 100% of CPU.

- RAM: TBA. Again, we have been tuning to one job per 512M of RAM. (Anything less than 512M is very unlikely to be useful.)

- disk: at least 20G is needed for filesystem; 32G is needed for swap. Best performance will be if multiple disks are used, and configured as `geom` stripes. Performance numbers are also TBA.

  > Note: Package building will test disk drives to destruction. Be aware of what you are signing up for!

- network bandwidth: TBA. However, an 8-job machine has been shown to saturate a cable modem line.

### 12.2 Preparation

1. Pick a unique hostname. It does not have to be a publicly resolvable hostname (it can be a name on your internal network).

2. By default, package building requires the following TCP ports to be accessible: 22 (`ssh`), 414 (`infoseek`), and 8649 (`ganglia`). If these are not accessible, pick others and ensure that an `ssh` tunnel is set up (see below).

   (Note: if you have more than one machine at your site, you will need an individual TCP port for each service on each machine, and thus `ssh` tunnels will be necessary. As such, you will probably need to configure port forwarding on your firewall.)

3. Decide if you will be booting natively or via `pxeboot`. You will find that it is easier to keep up with changes to `-current` with the latter, especially if you have multiple machines at your site.

4. Pick a directory to hold ports configuration and `chroot` subdirectories. It may be best to put it this on its own partition. (Example: `/usr2/`.)

### 12.3 Configuring `src`

1. Create a directory to contain the latest `-current` source tree and check it out. (Since your machine will likely be asked to build packages for `-current`, the kernel it runs should be reasonably up-to-date with the `bindist` that will be exported by our scripts.)

2. If you are using `pxeboot`: create a directory to contain the install bits. You will probably want to use a subdirectory of `/pxeroot`, e.g., `/pxeroot/`${arch}`-`${branch}``. Export that as `DESTDIR`.

3. If you are cross-building, export `TARGET_ARCH`=`${arch}`.

   > Note: The procedure for cross-building ports is not yet defined.

4. Generate a kernel config file. Include `GENERIC` (or, if you are using more than 3.5G on i386, `PAE`). Suggested options:

       options         GEOM_CONCAT
       options         GEOM_STRIPE
       options         NULLFS
       options         TMPFS
       options         SHMMAXPGS=65536
       options         SEMMNI=40
       options         SEMMNS=240
       options         SEMUME=40
       options         SEMMNU=120

       options         ALT_BREAK_TO_DEBUGGER
       options         PRINTF_BUFR_SIZE=128

   For `PAE`, it is not currently possible to load modules. Therefore, you will need to add:

       options         COMPAT_LINUX
       options         LINPROCFS

5. As root, do the usual build steps, e.g.:

       make -j4 buildworld
       make buildkernel KERNCONF=${kernconf}
       make installkernel KERNCONF=${kernconf}
       make installworld

   The install steps use `DESTDIR`.

6. Customize files in `etc/`. Whether you do this on the client itself, or another machine, will depend on whether you are using `pxeboot`.

   If you are using `pxeboot`: create a subdirectory of ``${DESTDIR}`` called `conf/`. Create one subdirectory `default/etc/`, and (if your site will host multiple nodes), subdirectories ``${ip-address}`/etc/` to contain override files for individual hosts. (You may find it handy to symlink each of those directories to a hostname.) Copy the entire contents of ``${DESTDIR}`/etc/` to `default/etc/`; that is where you will edit your files. The by-ip-address `etc/` directories will probably only need customized `rc.conf` files.

   In either case, apply the following steps:

   - Create a `ports-`${arch}`` user and group. Add it to the `wheel` group. It can have the `'*'` password.

     Create `/home/ports-`${arch}/.ssh/`` and populate `authorized_keys`.

   - Also add the following users:

         squid:*:100:100::0:0:User &:/usr/local/squid:/bin/sh
         ganglia:*:102:102::0:0:User &:/usr/local/ganglia:/bin/sh

     Add them to `etc/group` as well.

   - Create the appropriate files in `etc/.ssh/`.

   - In `etc/crontab`: add

         *       *       *       *       *       root    /var/portbuild/scripts/client-metrics

   - Create the appropriate `etc/fstab`. (If you have multiple, different, machines, you will need to put those in the override directories.)

   - In `etc/inetd.conf`: add

         infoseek        stream  tcp     nowait  nobody  /var/portbuild/scripts/reportload       reportload ${arch}

   - We run the cluster on UTC:

         cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/UTC etc/localtime

   - Create the appropriate `etc/rc.conf`. (If you are using `pxeboot`, and have multiple, different, machines, you will need to put those in the override directories.)

     Recommended entries:

         hostname="${hostname}
         inetd_enable="YES"
         linux_enable="YES"
         nfs_client_enable="YES"
         ntpd_enable="YES"
         ntpdate_enable="YES"
         ntpdate_flags="north-america.pool.ntp.org"
         sendmail_enable="NONE"
         sshd_enable="YES"
         sshd_program="/usr/local/sbin/sshd"

         gmond_enable="YES"
         squid_enable="YES"

   - Create `etc/resolv.conf`, if necessary.

   - Modify `etc/sysctl.conf`:

         9a10,30
         > kern.corefile=/tmp/%N.core
         > kern.sugid_coredump=1
         > #debug.witness_ddb=0
         > #debug.witness_watch=0
         >
         > # squid needs a lot of fds (leak?)
         > kern.maxfiles=40000
         > kern.maxfilesperproc=30000
         >
         > # Since the NFS root is static we don't need to check frequently for file changes
         > # This saves >75% of NFS traffic
         > vfs.nfs.access_cache_timeout=300
         > debug.debugger_on_panic=1
         >
         > # For jailing
         > security.jail.sysvipc_allowed=1
         > security.jail.allow_raw_sockets=1
         > security.jail.chflags_allowed=1
         > security.jail.enforce_statfs=1
         >
         > vfs.lookup_shared=1

   - If desired, modify `etc/syslog.conf` to change the logging destinations to `@pointyhat.freebsd.org`.

### 12.4 Configuring `ports`

1. Install the following ports:

       net/rsync
       security/openssh-portable (with HPN on)
       security/sudo
       sysutils/ganglia-monitor-core (with GMETAD off)
       www/squid (with SQUID_AUFS on)

   There is a WIP to create a meta-port, but it is not yet complete.

2. Customize files in `usr/local/etc/`. Whether you do this on the client itself, or another machine, will depend on whether you are using `pxeboot`.

   > Note: The trick of using `conf` override subdirectories is less effective here, because you would need to copy over all subdirectories of `usr/`. This is an implementation detail of how the pxeboot works.

   Apply the following steps:

   - Modify `usr/local/etc/gmond.conf`:

         21,22c21,22
         <   name = "unspecified"
         <   owner = "unspecified"
         ---
         >   name = "${arch} package build cluster"
         >   owner = "portmgr@FreeBSD.org"
         24c24
         <   url = "unspecified"
         ---
         >   url = "http://pointyhat.freebsd.org"

     If there are machines from more than one cluster in the same multicast domain (basically = LAN) then change the multicast groups to different values (.71, .72, etc).

   - Create `usr/local/etc/rc.d/portbuild.sh`:

         #!/bin/sh
         #
         # Configure the system post-boot

         ln -sf /usr2/portbuild /var/portbuild

         # Identify builds ready for use
         cd /var/portbuild/${arch}
         for i in */builds/*; do
             if [ -f ${i}/.ready ]; then
                 mkdir /tmp/.setup-${i##*/}
             fi
         done

         # Flag that we are ready to accept jobs
         touch /tmp/.boot_finished

     If there are machines from more than one cluster in the same multicast domain (basically = LAN) then change the multicast groups to different values (.71, .72, etc).

   - Modify `usr/local/etc/squid/squid.conf`:

         288,290c288,290
         < #auth_param basic children 5
         < #auth_param basic realm Squid proxy-caching web server
         < #auth_param basic credentialsttl 2 hours
         ---
         > auth_param basic children 5
         > auth_param basic realm Squid proxy-caching web server
         > auth_param basic credentialsttl 2 hours
         611a612
         > acl localnet src 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0
         655a657
         > http_access allow localnet
         2007a2011
         > maximum_object_size 400 MB
         2828a2838
         > negative_ttl 0 minutes

     Also, change `usr/local` to `usr2` in the definitions of `cache_dir`, `access_log`, `cache_log`, `cache_store_log`, `pid_filename`, `netdb_filename`, `coredump_dir`.

     Finally, change the `cache_dir` storage scheme from `ufs` to `aufs` (offers better performance).

   - Configure `ssh`: copy `/etc/ssh` to `/usr/local/etc/ssh` and add `NoneEnabled yes` to `sshd_config`.

   - Modify `usr/local/etc/sudoers`:

         38a39,42
         >
         > # local changes for package building
         > %wheel        ALL=(ALL) ALL
         > ports-${arch}    ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

### 12.5 Configuration on the client itself

1. Change into the port/package directory you picked above, e.g., `cd /usr2`.

2. As root:

       mkdir portbuild
       chown ports-${arch}:ports-${arch} portbuild
       mkdir pkgbuild
       chown ports-${arch}:ports-${arch} pkgbuild
       mkdir squid
       mkdir squid/cache
       mkdir squid/logs
       chown -R squid:squid squid

3. If clients preserve `/var/portbuild` between boots then they must either preserve their `/tmp`, or revalidate their available builds at boot time (see the script on the `amd64` machines). They must also clean up stale chroots from previous builds before creating `/tmp/.boot_finished`.

4. Boot the client.

5. As root, initialize the `squid` directories:

       squid -z

### 12.6 Configuration on `pointyhat`

These steps need to be taken by a `portmgr` acting as `root` on `pointyhat`.

1. If any of the default TCP ports is not available (see above), you will need to create an `ssh` tunnel for it and include it in the appropriate `crontab`.

2. Add an entry to `/home/ports-`${arch}`/.ssh/config` to specify the public IP address, TCP port for `ssh`, username, and any other necessary information.

3. Add the public IP address to `/etc/hosts.allow`. (Remember, multiple machines can be on the same IP address.)

4. Create `/var/portbuild/`${arch}`/clients/bindist-`${hostname}`.tar`.

   - Copy one of the existing ones as a template and unpack it in a temporary directory.

   - Customize `etc/resolv.conf` and `etc/make.conf` for the local site.

   - `tar` it up and move it to the right location.

   Hint: you will need one of these for each machine; however, if you have multiple machines at one site, you may be able to create a site-specific one and symlink to it.

5. Create `/var/portbuild/`${arch}`/portbuild-`${hostname}`` using one of the existing ones as a guide. This file contains overrides to `/var/portbuild/`${arch}`/portbuild.conf`.

   Suggested values:

       disconnected=1
       http_proxy="http://localhost:3128/"
       squid_dir=/usr2/squid
       scratchdir=/usr2/pkgbuild
       client_user=ports-${arch}
       sudo_cmd="sudo -H"
       rsync_gzip=-z

       infoseek_host=localhost
       infoseek_port=${tunelled-tcp-port}

   Possible other values:

       use_md_swap=1
       md_size=9g
       use_zfs=1
       scp_cmd="/usr/local/bin/scp"
       ssh_cmd="/usr/local/bin/ssh"

6. Add an appropriate `data_source` entry to `/usr/local/etc/gmetad.conf`:

   `data_source "`arch`/`location` Package Build Cluster" 30 `hostname``

### 12.7 Enabling the node

These steps need to be taken by a `portmgr` acting as `ports-`arch`` on `pointyhat`.

1. Ensure that `ssh` is working by executing `ssh `hostname``.

2. Populate `/var/portbuild/scripts/` by something like `/var/portbuild/dosetupnode `arch` `major` `latest` `hostname``. Verify that you now have files in that directory.

3. Test the other TCP ports by executing `telnet `hostname` `portnumber``. `414` (or its tunnel) should give you a few lines of status information including `arch` and `osversion`; `8649` should give you an `XML` response from `ganglia`.

This step needs to be taken by a `portmgr` acting as `root` on `pointyhat`.

1. Tell `qmanager` about the node. Example:

   `python /var/portbuild/evil/qmanager/qclient add name=`uniquename` arch=`arch` osversion=`osversion` numcpus=`number` haszfs=0 online=1 domain=`domain` primarypool=package pools="package all" maxjobs=1 acl="ports-`arch`,deny_all"`

## 13 Procedures for dealing with disk failures

When a machine has a disk failure (e.g. panics due to read errors, etc), then we should do the following steps:

- Note the time and failure mode (e.g. paste in the relevant console output) in `/var/portbuild/`${arch}`/reboots`

- For i386 gohan clients, scrub the disk by touching `/SCRUB` in the nfsroot (e.g. `/a/nfs/8.dir1/SCRUB`) and rebooting. This will `dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0` and force the drive to remap any bad sectors it finds, if it has enough spares left. This is a temporary measure to extend the lifetime of a drive that is on the way out.

  > Note: For the i386 blade systems another signal of a failing disk seems to be that the blade will completely hang and be unresponsive to either console break, or even NMI.

  For other build systems that don't newfs their disk at boot (e.g. amd64 systems) this step has to be skipped.

- If the problem recurs, then the disk is probably toast. Take the machine out of `mlist` and (for ata disks) run `smartctl` on the drive:

      smartctl -t long /dev/ad0

  It will take about 1/2 hour:

      gohan51# smartctl -t long /dev/ad0
      smartctl version 5.38 [i386-portbld-freebsd8.0] Copyright (C) 2002-8
      Bruce Allen
      Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

      === START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
      Sending command: "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
      Drive command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
      Testing has begun.
      Please wait 31 minutes for test to complete.
      Test will complete after Fri Jul  4 03:59:56 2008

      Use smartctl -X to abort test.

  Then `smartctl -a /dev/ad0` shows the status after it finishes:

      # SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
      # Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining
      LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
      #   1  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       80%     15252    319286

  It will also display other data including a log of previous drive errors. It is possible for the drive to show previous DMA errors without failing the self-test though (because of sector remapping).

When a disk has failed, please inform the cluster administrators so we can try to get it replaced.

This, and other documents, can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/.

For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.