Frequently Asked Questions for FreeBSD 6.`X` and 7.`X`
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# Chapter 7 User Applications

7.1. So, where are all the user applications?
7.2. How do I configure INN (Internet News) for my machine?
7.3. Does FreeBSD support Java™?
7.4. Why can I not build this port on my 6.`X` or 7.`X`-STABLE machine?
7.5. I just tried to build `INDEX` using `make `index``, and it failed. Why?
7.6. Why is CVSup not integrated in the main FreeBSD tree?
7.7. I updated the sources, now how do I update my installed ports?
7.8. Do I need to recompile every port each time I perform a major version update?
7.9. Do I need to recompile every port each time I perform a minor version update?
7.10. Why is `/bin/sh` so minimal? Why does FreeBSD not use `bash` or another shell?
7.11. Why do Netscape® and Opera take so long to start?
7.12. I updated parts of the Ports Collection using CVSup, and now many ports fail to build with mysterious error messages! What happened? Is the Ports Collection broken in some major way?
7.13. How do I create audio CDs from my MIDI files?

7.1. So, where are all the user applications?

Please take a look at the ports page for info on software packages ported to FreeBSD. The list currently tops 20,000 and is growing daily, so come back to check often or subscribe to the FreeBSD announcements mailing list for periodic updates on new entries.

Most ports should work on the 6.`X`, 7.`X` and 8.`X` branches. Each time a FreeBSD release is made, a snapshot of the ports tree at the time of release in also included in the `ports/` directory.

We also support the concept of a “package”, essentially no more than a compressed binary distribution with a little extra intelligence embedded in it for doing whatever custom installation work is required. A package can be installed and uninstalled again easily without having to know the gory details of which files it includes.

Use the Packages package installation menu in sysinstall(8) (under the Configure menu item) or invoke the pkg_add(1) command on the specific package files you are interested in installing. Package files can usually be identified by their `.tbz` suffix and CD-ROM distribution people will have a `packages/All` directory on their CD which contains such files. They can also be downloaded over the net for various versions of FreeBSD at the following locations:

for 6.`X`-RELEASE/6-STABLE

  ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-6-stable

for 7.`X`-RELEASE/7-STABLE

  ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-7-stable

for 8-CURRENT

  ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-8-current

or your nearest local mirror site.

Note that all ports may not be available as packages since new ones are constantly being added. It is always a good idea to check back periodically to see which packages are available at the ftp.FreeBSD.org master site.

7.2. How do I configure INN (Internet News) for my machine?

After installing the `news/inn` package or port, an excellent place to start is Dave Barr's INN Page where you will find the INN FAQ.

7.3. Does FreeBSD support Java™?

Yes. Please see http://www.FreeBSD.org/java/.

7.4. Why can I not build this port on my 6.`X` or 7.`X`-STABLE machine?

If you are running a FreeBSD version that lags significantly behind -CURRENT or -STABLE, you may need to update your Ports Collection; see the Keeping Up section of the Porter's Handbook for further information on how to do this. If you are up to date, then someone might have committed a change to the port which works for -CURRENT but which broke the port for -STABLE. Please submit a bug report on this with the send-pr(1) command, since the Ports Collection is supposed to work for both the -CURRENT and -STABLE branches.

7.5. I just tried to build `INDEX` using `make `index``, and it failed. Why?

First, always make sure that you have a completely up-to-date Ports Collection. Errors that affect building `INDEX` from an up-to-date copy of the Ports Collection are high-visibility and are thus almost always fixed immediately.

However, if you are up-to-date, perhaps you are seeing another problem. `make `index`` has a known bug in dealing with incomplete copies of the Ports Collection. It assumes that you have a local copy of every single port that every other port that you have a local copy of depends on. To explain, if you have a copy of `foo/bar` on your disk, and `foo/bar` depends on `baz/quux`, then you must also have a copy of `baz/quux` on your disk, and the ports `baz/quux` depends on, and so on. Otherwise, `make `index`` has insufficient information to create its dependency tree.

This is particularly a problem for FreeBSD users who utilize cvsup(1) (or csup(1)) to track the Ports Collection but choose not to install certain categories by specifying them in `refuse`. In theory, one should be able to refuse categories, but in practice there are too many ports that depend on ports in other categories. Until someone comes up with a solution for this problem, the general rule is is that if you want to build `INDEX`, you must have a complete copy of the Ports Collection.

There are rare cases where `INDEX` will not build due to odd cases involving `WITH_`*`` or `WITHOUT_`*`` variables being set in `make.conf`. If you suspect that this is the case, please try to make `INDEX` with those make variables turned off before reporting it to FreeBSD ports mailing list.

7.6. Why is CVSup not integrated in the main FreeBSD tree?

The FreeBSD base system is designed as self-hosting -- it should be possible to build the whole operating system starting with a very limited set of tools. Thus, the actual build tools needed to compile the FreeBSD sources are bundled with the sources themselves. This includes a C compiler (gcc(1)), make(1), awk(1), and similar tools.

Since CVSup is written in Modula-3, adding it to the FreeBSD base system would also require adding and maintaining a Modula-3 compiler. This would lead to both an increase in the disk space consumed by the FreeBSD sources and additional maintenance work. Thus, it is much easier for both the developers and users to keep CVSup as a separate port, which can be easily installed as a package bundled on the FreeBSD installation CDs.

However, FreeBSD users are not without an integrated CVSup compatible client anymore since FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE. Thanks to Maxime Henrion `<mux@FreeBSD.org>`, CVSup was rewritten in C as csup(1) and it is the part of the base system by now. Although it does not implement all the features of CVSup at the moment, it is good enough (and really fast!) to keep your sources synchronized. For systems earlier than 6.2, it can be installed as a port or package (see `net/csup`).

7.7. I updated the sources, now how do I update my installed ports?

FreeBSD does not include a port upgrading tool, but it does have some tools to make the upgrade process somewhat easier. You can also install additional tools to simplify port handling, see the Upgrading Ports section in the FreeBSD Handbook.

7.8. Do I need to recompile every port each time I perform a major version update?

By all means! While a recent system will run with software compiled under an older release, you will end up with things randomly crashing and failing to work once you start installing other ports or updating a portion of what you already have.

When the system is upgraded, various shared libraries, loadable modules, and other parts of the system will be replaced with newer versions. Applications linked against the older versions may fail to start or, in other cases, fail to function properly.

For more information, see the section on upgrades in the FreeBSD Handbook.

7.9. Do I need to recompile every port each time I perform a minor version update?

In general, no. FreeBSD developers do their utmost to guarantee binary compatibility across all releases with the same major version number. Any exceptions will be documented in the Release Notes, and advice given there should be followed.

7.10. Why is `/bin/sh` so minimal? Why does FreeBSD not use `bash` or another shell?

Because POSIX® says that there shall be such a shell.

The more complicated answer: many people need to write shell scripts which will be portable across many systems. That is why POSIX specifies the shell and utility commands in great detail. Most scripts are written in Bourne shell, and because several important programming interfaces (make(1), system(3), popen(3), and analogues in higher-level scripting languages like Perl and Tcl) are specified to use the Bourne shell to interpret commands. Because the Bourne shell is so often and widely used, it is important for it to be quick to start, be deterministic in its behavior, and have a small memory footprint.

The existing implementation is our best effort at meeting as many of these requirements simultaneously as we can. In order to keep `/bin/sh` small, we have not provided many of the convenience features that other shells have. That is why the Ports Collection includes more featureful shells like `bash`, `scsh`, `tcsh`, and `zsh`. (You can compare for yourself the memory utilization of all these shells by looking at the “VSZ” and “RSS” columns in a `ps `-u`` listing.)

7.11. Why do Netscape® and Opera take so long to start?

The usual answer is that DNS on your system is misconfigured. Both Netscape and Opera perform DNS checks when starting up. The browser will not appear on your desktop until the program either gets a response or determines that the system has no network connection.

7.12. I updated parts of the Ports Collection using CVSup, and now many ports fail to build with mysterious error messages! What happened? Is the Ports Collection broken in some major way?

If you only update parts of the Ports Collection, using one of its CVSup subcollections and not the `ports-all` CVSup collection, you should always update the `ports-base` subcollection too! The reasons are described in the Handbook.

7.13. How do I create audio CDs from my MIDI files?

To create audio CDs from MIDI files, first install `audio/timidity++` from ports then install manually the GUS patches set by Eric A. Welsh, available at http://alleg.sourceforge.net/digmid.html. After TiMidity++ has been installed properly, MIDI files may be converted to WAV files with the following command line:

    % timidity -Ow -s 44100 -o /tmp/juke/01.wav 01.mid

The WAV files can then be converted to other formats or burned onto audio CDs, as described in the FreeBSD Handbook.

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