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FreeBSD GNOME Project: How To Make a Port
This document assumes that you already know how the port system works, and therefore only provides GNOME-specific hints and tips. General instructions can be found in the FreeBSD Porter's Handbook.
Example Makefile
There is an example Makefile for a GNOME port, which uses many of the tricks outlined in this document. Please feel free to use it as a guide for creating your own ports.
GNOME Makefile Macros
GNOME applications under FreeBSD use the USE_GNOME infrastructure. To specify which components of the GNOME system your port needs in order to build, simply list them all as a space-separated list. For example:
USE_X_PREFIX= yes
USE_GNOME= gnomeprefix gnomehack libgnomeui
The USE_GNOME components are divided into the following two lists:
If your port needs only GTK2 libraries, the following is the shortest way to define this:
USE_X_PREFIX= yes
USE_GNOME= gtk20
If your port needs only GTK1 libraries, the following is the shortest way to define this:
USE_X_PREFIX= yes
USE_GNOME= gtk12
Even if your application needs only the GTK libraries, other USE_GNOME components may be useful. Please scan the entire list to make sure your port uses all relevant components.
Once you have finished with your port, it is a good idea to verify that your port depends on the correct list of components. To see a list of what packages your port will actually require, use the command make package-depends from within your port's directory.
To aid in creating the list of necessary components, it can be helpful to examine the output of make configure. At the end of the checking for... list, there will be a line similar to this:
checking for libgnomeui-2.0 >= 2.0.0 cspi-1.0 >= 1.1.7 libspi-1.0 >= 1.1.7 libbonobo-2.0 >= 2.0.0 atk >= 1.0.0 gtk+-2.0 >= 2.0.0 gail libwnck-1.0 esound... yes
This is a list of the components upon which this application relies to build. Pay close attention to the hierarchical layout of the USE_GNOME system; many components are implied from other USE_GNOME directives. In the above example, USE_GNOME= libgnomeui implies use of libbonoboui, which implies libgnomecanvas, which implies libglade2, which implies gtk20. Thus, even though gtk+-2.0 appears in the list of requisite components, gtk20 can be eliminated from the USE_GNOME list. There are a number of other such redundancies that can be eliminated from this list.
For the above list (taken from sysutils/gok), the following is defined in the Makefile:
USE_GNOME= gnomehack gnomeprefix libgnomeui atspi libwnck
GNOME 1 Desktop vs. GNOME 2 Desktop
In the beginning, there was only GNOME 1. When the GNOME 2 desktop came around, maximum backwards compatability was ensured, within reason. GNOME 1 applications can run fine under the GNOME 2 desktop, provided that the applications do not utilize functionality specific to the GNOME 1 desktop environment.
The GNOME 1 desktop, and all applications that will not run under the GNOME 2 desktop, have been removed from the ports tree.
What this means for you, as an application porter, is simply that you should not add GNOME 1-specific applications to the ports tree.
If you wish to determine which version of the GNOME desktop environment is present on a user's machine, you can check the value of GNOME_DESKTOP_VERSION. This variable is set to either "1" or "2" depending upon whether the GNOME 1 or GNOME 2 desktop is installed.
Optional GNOME Dependencies
If your port can optionally use GNOME, you must set WANT_GNOME= yes in your Makefile, then check to see if HAVE_GNOME is set for each component from the list above that your port can use. Since this is a conditional evaluation, you need to stick it between bsd.port.pre.mk and bsd.port.post.mk. For example:
WANT_GNOME= yes
.include <bsd.port.pre.mk>
.if ${HAVE_GNOME:Mgnomepanel}!=""
USE_GNOME+= gnomeprefix gnomepanel
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --with-gnome
PKGNAMESUFFIX= -gnome
PLIST_SUB= DATADIR="share/gnome"
.else
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --without-gnome
PLIST_SUB= DATADIR="share"
.endif
.include <bsd.port.post.mk>
Here, WANT_GNOME tells the ports system to check for the existence of the various GNOME components listed above. For each component found, its name is appended to HAVE_GNOME. Since this port can use gnomepanel, we check HAVE_GNOME to see if it contains gnomepanel (for more on the :Mpattern make syntax, please refer to the make(1) manpage). If gnomepanel is found, then it is added the list of USE_GNOME dependencies, and the port-specific --with-gnome CONFIGURE_ARG is passed. In an old GNOME infrastructure, PKGNAMESUFFIX was automatically adjusted by the proper USE_* macro. Now it is up to the individual porter to do this. Our example port appends -gnome to the port name to indicate it has been built with GNOME support. The same is true for the DATADIR PLIST_SUB. The individual porter must decide when do the DATADIR substitution. A good rule of thumb is to add the DATADIR PLIST_SUB when using the gnomeprefix component.
Note: You cannot add extra default USE_GNOME components after the .include <bsd.port.pre.mk>. That is, the following is wrong :
.include <bsd.port.pre.mk>
.if ${HAVE_GNOME:Mgnomelibs}!=""
USE_GNOME+= libgnome
.else
USE_GNOME+= gtk12 # WRONG!
.endif
This will make the build system think that GNOME is desired, and mark the pkg-plist accordingly, thus breaking package builds. If you need to add default USE_GNOME components, do so above the .include <bsd.port.pre.mk> line.
To enforce use of optional GNOME dependencies unconditionally, you can add WITH_GNOME= yes to /etc/make.conf or on the make command line. This will always return true when checking for optional GNOME dependencies. If you want the system to always return false when checking for optional GNOME dependencies, you can add WITHOUT_GNOME= yes to /etc/make.conf or to the make command line.
More information on the USE_GNOME infrastructure can be found by looking at the source and comments of ${PORTSDIR}/Mk/bsd.gnome.mk.
OMF Installation
A large number of GNOME applications (especially GNOME 2 applications) install Open Source Metadata Framework (OMF) files which contain the help file information for those applications. These OMF files require special processing by ScrollKeeper in order for applications like Yelp to find help documentation. In order to accomplish proper registry of these OMF files when installing GNOME applications from packages, you should make sure that omf files are listed in pkg-plist and that your Makefile has this defined:
INSTALLS_OMF=yes
GConf Schema Installation
GConf is the XML-based database that virtually all GNOME applications use for storing their settings. This database is defined by installed schema files that are used to generate %gconf.xml key files. Previously, these schema files and %gconf.xml key files were listed in the port's pkg-plist. Since this proved to be problematic, handling of GConf schemas was changed to something similar to that of MANn files. That is, for each schema file installed by your port, you must have the following listed in the Makefile:
GCONF_SCHEMAS= my_app.schemas my_app2.schemas my_app3.schemas
For example in audio/gnome-media:
GCONF_SCHEMAS= CDDB-Slave2.schemas gnome-audio-profiles.schemas \
gnome-cd.schemas gnome-sound-recorder.schemas
The schema files and %gconf.xml key files should not be in the pkg-plist. If you notice that the port doesn't has any %gconf.xml key files, but has schema files then you should not be use GCONF_SCHEMAS. It means, this port has broke either schema files or installation of GConf.
Shared MIME database
If your port install files like application/x-portname.xml in share/mime, you have to add these two lines at the end of the pkg-plist:
@exec %%LOCALBASE%%/bin/update-mime-database %D/share/mime
@unexec %%LOCALBASE%%/bin/update-mime-database %D/share/mime
Also make sure shared-mime-info is among the dependencies of your port. If your port use gtk20, you will have shared-mime-info indirectly. You can check indirect dependencies with make describe.
Example port to look at: deskutils/drivel
Desktop database
Some ports provide MIME definitions in their .desktop files. If your port install .desktop file into share/gnome/applications and there is a line starting with MimeType in it, you need to update desktop database after install and deinstall. This database is represented by share/gnome/applications/mimeinfo.cache file. Add dependency on GNOME component desktopfileutils and these lines to the end of pkg-plist:
@exec %%LOCALBASE%%/bin/update-desktop-database > /dev/null || /usr/bin/true
@unexec %%LOCALBASE%%/bin/update-desktop-database > /dev/null || /usr/bin/true
Also add following to the post-install target in port's Makefile:
-@update-desktop-database
Example port to look at: editors/leafpad
Libtool Issues
Most, if not all, GNOME applications depend on GNU's libtool. They also use the GNU configure system. If your port installs shared libraries, and includes an ltmain.sh script in its ${WRKSRC} directory, you should add USE_LIBTOOL_VER=15 to your port's Makefile. However, if your port uses custom LIBTOOLFLAGS, you must use USE_INC_LIBTOOL_VER=13 instead. If you have to use USE_INC_LIBTOOL_VER, you must also add lthack to USE_GNOME. In general, though, lthack is deprecated, and should only be used if absolutely necessary.
Distfiles
To separate GNOME 2 distfiles from the GNOME 1 distfiles, and to keep the distfiles directory clean, GNOME 1 ports that download their distfiles from ${MASTER_SITE_GNOME} must add the following to their Makefile:
DIST_SUBDIR= gnome
GNOME 2 ports that download their distfiles from ${MASTER_SITE_GNOME} must include the following in their Makefile:
DIST_SUBDIR= gnome2
Some GNOME distfiles come in both tar gzip as well as tar bzip2 format. To save time when downloading distfiles over slow links, you should use the bzip2 distfiles whenever possible. To do this, add the following to your port's Makefile:
USE_BZIP2= yes
If you still need help with your port, have a look at some of the existing ports for examples. The freebsd-gnome mailing list is also there for you.
Last modified: 2006/05/29 18:12:05