Re: Resources for getting started.

[Rob Whitlock <rwhitlock22%gmail.com@localhost>]

> On Jun 12, 2024, at 1:05 PM, Ken McGlothlen <mcglk%artlogix.net@localhost> wrote:
> 
> I'm starting to use pkgsrc on a Linux system for the first time, and I've run into a couple of issues.
> 
> I used to be an avid FreeBSD sysadmin, so I was very comfortable and happy with its ports system. Since being fairly inundated with Linux systems for the last decade or so, I've really missed the benefits of such a system, and so when I stumbled upon pkgsrc, I can't tell you how eager I was to get back to that world a bit.
> 
> However, one of the issues I have with it is that there's no concise list of the various targets you can use on every port. The blank (normal build) target, 'install' and 'clean', of course, and got 'print-summary-data' shortly after that, but today I stumbled upon 'fetch-list' (which will come in very handy for me), and I'm wondering whether there's a list somewhere, because I can't seem to find it in the pkgsrc documentation (https://www.netbsd.org/docs/pkgsrc/).

The targets you can use are mostly the same from package to package, and the ones you'll want to use most of the time are documented on this page:

https://www.netbsd.org/docs/pkgsrc/build.html

My flow for installing software usually goes something like this:

cd to the directory the package is in
View the DESCR file to read what the file is about
make show-var VARNAME=LICENSE # Check the license for this package
make show-options # Check available build options
If I want any build options set, I put them in my mk.conf.
make install # Build and install
make clean # Optional

> The other problem I've run into is that databases/db4 won't install. It's required by Python and Postfix, and seems to build fine, but upon 'bmake install', things go well very briefly, and then I get this:
> 
> libtool: install: /bin/install -c -o root -g root -m 755 .libs/libdb4_cxx-4.8.so /var/src/pkgsrc/databases/db4/work/.destdir/opt/pkg/lib/libdb4_cxx-4.8.so
> /bin/install: cannot stat '.libs/libdb4_cxx-4.8.so': No such file or directory
> 
> As far as I can tell, 'libdb4_css-4.8.so' is never built; trying to do so directly (using 'ar' to extract the '.o' files and then 'gcc' to create the shared object) doesn't work, either. But I need to find a viable workaround very soon. Any advice?
> 
> —Ken
> 
>