Hitchhiker's Guide to Openbsd

15.4.7 - How do I tweak these ports to have maximum performance?
OpenBSD is about stability and security. Just like the GENERIC kernel is the default and the only 
supported kernel, the ports team makes sure the ports work and are stable. If you want to switch on all 
kinds of compiler options, you are on your own. Please do not ask questions on the mailing lists such as 
why it does not work, when you tried to switch on a few hidden knobs to make it work faster. In general, 
all this tweaking is not necessary for more than 99% of users, and it is very likely to be a complete waste 
of time, for you, the user, as well as for the developers who read about your "problems" when in reality 
there are none. 
15.4.8 - I submitted a new port/an update weeks ago. Why isn't it committed?
The ports team has very limited resources and no committer was able to look at your port/update in time. 
As frustrating as it may be, just ignore this fact. Take care of your port, send updates and eventually 
someone might take care of it. It has happened before that people suddenly have some free time to spend 
on committing ports or their interests shift to new areas and suddenly your old submission becomes 
interesting, if it is remembered. 
15.5 - Reporting problems
If you have trouble with an existing port, please send e-mail to the port maintainer. To see who is the 
maintainer of the port, type, for example: 
$ cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
$ make show=MAINTAINER
Alternatively, if there is no maintainer, or you can't reach him/her, send e-mail to the OpenBSD ports 
mailing list, 
[e-mail]
. Please do NOT use the [e-mail] mailing list for questions 
about ports. 
In any case please provide: 
●
Your OpenBSD version including any patches you may have applied. The kernel version is given 
by: 
sysctl -n kern.version
●
The version of your ports tree: if the file 
/usr/ports/CVS/Tag
exists, provide its contents. 
If this file is absent, you are using the -current ports tree. 
●
A complete description of the problem. Don't be afraid to provide details. Mention all the steps 
you followed before the problem occurred. Is the problem reproducible? The more information 
you provide, the more likely you will get help. 
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html (25 of 27)9/4/2011 10:02:29 AM

---

15 - The OpenBSD packages and ports system
For ports which do not build correctly, a complete build transcript is almost always required. You can 
use the portslogger script, found in 
/usr/ports/infrastructure/bin
, for this. A sample run of 
portslogger might be: 
$ mkdir ~/portslogs
$ cd /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
$ make clean install 2>&1 | /usr/ports/infrastructure/bin/
portslogger \
~/portslogs
After this, you should have a logfile of the build in your ~/portslogs directory that you can send to the 
port maintainer. Also, make sure you are not using any special options in your build, for example in 
/
etc/mk.conf
. 
Alternatively, you can 
●
Use 
script(1)
to create a complete build transcript. Do not remove the configure information. 
●
Attach the output of 
pkg_info(1)
if it seems even remotely relevant. 
●
gcc(1)
 internal compiler errors ask you to report the bug to the gcc mailinglist. It does save time 
if you follow their direction, and provide at least the various files produced by 
gcc -save-
temps
.