3.6. Submitting the New Port

Before submitting the new port, read the DOs and DON'Ts section.

Once happy with the port, the only thing remaining is to put it in the main FreeBSD ports tree and make everybody else happy about it too.

Important:

We do not need the work directory or the pkgname.txz package, so delete them now.

Next, create a patch(1), file. Assuming the port is called oneko and is in the games category.

Example 3.1. Creating a .diff for a New Port

Add all the files with svn add. cd to the base of the ports tree so full paths to the changed files are included in the diff, then generate the diff with svn diff. For example:

% svn add .
% cd ../..
% svn diff games/oneko > oneko.diff

Important:

To make it easier for committers to apply the patch on their working copy of the ports tree, please generate the .diff from the base of your ports tree.


Submit oneko.diff with the bug submission form. Use product Ports & Packages, component Individual Port(s), and follow the guidelines shown there. Add a short description of the program to the Description field of the PR (perhaps a short version of COMMENT), and remember to add oneko.diff as an attachment.

Note:

Giving a good description in the summary of the problem report makes the work of port committers a lot easier. We prefer something like New port: category/portname short description of the port for new ports. Using this scheme makes it easier and faster to begin the work of committing the new port.

After submitting the port, please be patient. The time needed to include a new port in FreeBSD can vary from a few days to a few months. A simple search form of the Problem Report database can be searched at https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/query.cgi.

To get a listing of open port PRs, select Open and Ports & Packages in the search form, then click [ Search ].

After looking at the new port, we will reply if necessary, and commit it to the tree. The submitter's name will also be added to the list of Additional FreeBSD Contributors and other files.

It is also possible to submit ports using a shar(1) file. Using the previous example with the oneko port above.

Example 3.2. Creating a .shar for a New Port

go to the directory above where the port directory is located, and use tar to create the shar archive:

% cd ..
% tar cf oneko.shar --format shar oneko

oneko.shar can then be submitted in the same way as oneko.diff above.

All FreeBSD documents are available for download at https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/doc/

Questions that are not answered by the documentation may be sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.