From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 6 16:08:11 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ports@freeBSD.org Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E6F4616A4E6 for ; Thu, 6 Jul 2006 16:08:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from pi.codefab.com (pi.codefab.com [199.103.21.227]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F64643D45 for ; Thu, 6 Jul 2006 16:08:08 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pi.codefab.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63DC75F36; Thu, 6 Jul 2006 12:08:08 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at codefab.com Received: from pi.codefab.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (pi.codefab.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id xcp9dyhHkr7S; Thu, 6 Jul 2006 12:08:07 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [192.168.1.251] (pool-68-161-117-245.ny325.east.verizon.net [68.161.117.245]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pi.codefab.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 43B305F0C; Thu, 6 Jul 2006 12:08:07 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <44AD355B.9030202@mac.com> Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2006 12:07:55 -0400 From: Chuck Swiger User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 (Windows/20060516) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: crs@swcp.com References: <200607061557.k66FvXD7008274@sorsby.org> In-Reply-To: <200607061557.k66FvXD7008274@sorsby.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: ports@freeBSD.org Subject: Re: Question about ports builds X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2006 16:08:12 -0000 Charlie Sorsby wrote: > When one builds (or attempts to build) a port, does the Makefile > know about dependencies and, if necessary, fetch and build any > that are needed but not found? Yes and yes. [ ... ] > PS It would be really helpful if each port/package at freebsd.org > had an indication whether it requires the latest and greatest > version of freeBSD. Put another way, it would be nice to know the > oldest version of freeBSD it will work with. Perhaps that could be > included in the "Requires" list on the page for the port/package. The people maintaining the ports attempt to support them on all of the active versions of FreeBSD, which means 4.10 or 4.11, 5.3 and later, 6.0 and later, and -CURRENT (what will become 7.0). Support for 4.x is going away soon, however, and it will become more common for new ports to not work on 4.x as time passes. For those ports that do not work with an older version like 4.x because of features added to more recent versions of the operating system, ports usually will indicate this in the Makefile. -- -Chuck