Ports for SerenityOS#

What's this?#

Serenity has software patched to run on it. These shell scripts will allow you to build that sort of software, easily. Note that you must have already built Serenity, and be in a Serenity build environment.

Available ports#

A list of all available ports can be found here.

External ports#

Third party ports might need additional dependencies from another location. In this case, you can point the SERENITY_PORT_DIRS variable to a local ports directory.

For example:

export SERENITY_PORT_DIRS="/path/to/port/dir/:/other/path/"

Using ports scripts#

Each port has a script called package.sh which defines a name and version, its dependencies, the required files that will be downloaded as well as configuration/compilation options, and some other things (see Writing ports scripts for details).

• To install a certain port, cd into its directory and run ./package.sh
• To install all available ports, run the build_all.sh script in this directory. Pass clean as first argument to remove old build files beforehand.
• To reinstall all currently installed ports, run the build_installed.sh script in this directory. This is sometimes required when LibC changes, for example. Pass clean as first argument to remove old build files beforehand.

Installed ports are being tracked in Build/x86_64/Root/usr/Ports/packages.db (a simple text file). You can delete this file at any time, in fact it must be edited or removed when clearing the build directory as port dependencies may not be installed again otherwise.

Not giving an option is equivalent to installdepends, fetch, patch, configure, build and install, in that order. This is recommended for a regular install.

Options#

The following options are available:

fetch#

By default, download, verify, and extract the port's files.

patch#

Apply the port's patches (patches/*.patch). A file .foo_applied is created in workdir upon success to ensure a certain patch is only applied once.

configure#

By default, run the port's configscript (usually configure) with configopts.

build#

By default, run make with the port's makeopts.

install#

By default, run make install with the port's installopts.

shell#

Open a shell in the $workdir with the build environment set.

installdepends#

Install all ports from the port's depends list.

clean#

By default, remove all .out files from the port's workdir.

clean_dist#

By default, remove everything that's been downloaded from the port's files list.

clean_all#

By default, clean and clean_dist combined.

uninstall#

Remove the port's files from the Serenity build directory, if it has a plist file.

dev#

Start a development session with guided patch importing. This mode has a bunch of nice features:

• Drops the user in a git repository backed by another (local) git repository that acts as the "clean", patched version of the port that is ready to be built
• The "remote" repository can be pushed to, pulled from and generally anything that you'd want to do with a remote repo.
• After leaving the dev shell, all patches are updated and the user will be prompted whether they wish to generate a new patch readme file.

This mode takes an extra --no-depends option, that if given, will cause the dependency fetch and build steps to be skipped.

This mode can also assist in migrating old patches to new versions through a guided semi-automated process.

--auto#

Same as no option, but mark the port as having been installed automatically. This is used for dependencies.

Writing ports scripts#

The package.sh file is a simple Bash script that's required for each port. Patches and other files are optional. The most basic version of such a port script simply defines some well-known variables and looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/env -S bash ../.port_include.sh

port="foo"
version="1.2.3"
useconfigure="true"
files="https://example.com/foo-${version}.tar.gz foo-${version}.tar.gz"
depends=("bar" "baz")

The script in the shebang, .port_include.sh, is where all the magic happens.

Variables#

The following variables have special functionality:

auth_import_key#

PGP key to import (from keyserver.ubuntu.com) when auth_type is sig.

auth_opts#

Options passed to gpg --verify when auth_type is sig.

Usually used like this:

auth_opts="foo-${version}.tar.xz.asc foo-${version}.tar.xz"

auth_type#

The type of file validation to use, can be one of:

• sha256: Use SHA256 hashes defined in files
• sig: Use PGP signatures (see auth_opts)

Most ports use sig as .asc files are widely available.

This has to be specified in order for lint-ports to pass.

If no signature or hash is provided by the author of the files, just create the hash yourself by calling sha256sum on the downloaded file and specifying the hash along with the files.

configopts#

Options passed to the port's configscript in the default configure function.

--host=x86_64-pc-serenity is always passed, override the configure function if that's undesirable.

use_fresh_config_sub#

Boolean option (false by default), will replace the config.sub pointed to by config_sub_path as part of the patching process if set to true.

config_sub_paths#

Paths to the config.sub files used by autoconf, starting at $workdir. This is set to (config.sub) by default.

configscript#

Name of the script that will be run in the default configure function when useconfigure is true.

Defaults to configure.

depends#

An array of other SerenityOS ports the port depends on and which will be installed during the installdepends step.

For example:

depends=("ncurses" "gettext")

files#

A list of external files required by the port, one per line. The format of each line is as follows:

URL NAME HASH

Where URL is the URL from where the file will be downloaded (using curl), NAME is the output name of the downloaded file, and HASH is an optional MD5, SHA1, or SHA256 hash that will be used for verification when auth_type is set to either of those hash functions.

For example:

With PGP signatures

files="https://example.com/foo-${version}.tar.xz foo-${version}.tar.xz
https://example.com/foo-${version}.tar.xz.asc foo-${version}.tar.xz.asc"

With a SHA256 hash

files="https://example.com/foo-${version}.tar.xz foo-${version}.tar.xz 9acd50f9a2af37e471f761c3fe7b8dea5617e51dac802fe6c177b74abf0abb5a"

If a file is a compressed tar archive, a gzip compressed file or a zip compressed file, it will be extracted.

If a file is an .asc file (PGP signature) it will be imported into gpg's keyring and can later be used for verification using auth_opts.

icon_file#

The file to use for the port launcher icon. The icon file is assumed to have a 16x16 as well as a 32x32 layer.

installopts#

Options passed to make install in the default install function.

DESTDIR="${SERENITY_INSTALL_ROOT}" ("${SERENITY_SOURCE_DIR}/Build/${SERENITY_ARCH}/Root") is always passed, override the install function if that's undesirable.

makeopts#

Options passed to make in the default build function.

Defaults to -j$(nproc).

patchlevel#

The value for patch's -p / --strip option, see man patch for details.

Defaults to 1.

port#

The "package name" of the port, usually the same as the directory this script is placed in.

prefix#

The location of the ports directory, only used for the package.db file for now. Don't override this in ports contributed to Serenity.

Defaults to $SERENITY_SOURCE_DIR/Ports.

useconfigure#

The configure step will run pre_configure and configure when this is set to true, and simply skip them otherwise.

Defaults to false.

version#

The version of the port. Written to package.db, and usually used with variable interpolation in files where the version is part of the filename.

workdir#

The working directory used for executing other commands via run as well as cleanup. Usually the directory name of the upacked source archive.

Defaults to $port-$version.

Functions#

The various steps of the port installation process are split into individual Bash functions, some of which can be overridden to provide custom behaviour, like this:

build() {
    run mybuildtool --foo --bar
}

The following can be overridden, the names should be self-explanatory as they mostly match the available options:

• pre_fetch
• post_fetch
• pre_configure
• configure.
• build
• install
• post_install
• clean
• clean_dist
• clean_all

A few (non-overridable) util functions are available as well:

run#

Log the command and run it in the port's workdir.

run_nocd#

Log the command and run it in the current working directory (i.e. Ports/$port).

run_replace_in_file#

Replace something in a file (using a Perl regular expression), like this:

run_replace_in_file "s/define FOO 1/undef FOO/" config.h

How do I contribute?#

You can either:

• Add new ports - just get the software to build and add the necessary patches and package.sh script
• Update an existing port: bumping its version, getting functionality to work that wasn't available so far etc. Make sure to update the patches accordingly.

Some videos of Andreas adding new ports can be found on YouTube, they might help you understand how this usually works:

• OS hacking: Porting the Bash shell (2019-05-20)
• OS hacking: Porting DOOM to Serenity (2019-09-09)
• OS hacking: Let's port git to SerenityOS! (2020-02-19)
• OS hacking: Fixing a resize bug with the vim port (2020-06-03)