Chapter 2. Making a New Port

Table of Contents

Interested in making a new port, or upgrading existing ports? Great!

What follows are some guidelines for creating a new port for FreeBSD. To upgrade an existing port, read this, then read Upgrading a Port .

When this document is not sufficiently detailed, refer to /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk , which is included by all port Makefiles . Even those not hacking Makefile s daily can gain much knowledge from it. Additionally, specific questions can be sent to the FreeBSD ports mailing list .

Only a fraction of the variables ( VAR ) that can be overridden are mentioned in this document. Most (if not all) are documented at the start of /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk ; the others probably ought to be. Note that this file uses a non-standard tab setting: Emacs and Vim will recognize the setting on loading the file. Both vi(1) and ex(1) can be set to use the correct value by typing :set tabstop=4 once the file has been loaded.

Looking for something easy to start with? Take a look at the list of requested ports and see if you can work on one (or more).

Last modified on : February 18, 2025 by Fernando Apesteguía

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