Table of Contents
The USE_TOOLS definition is
used both internally by pkgsrc and also for individual packages
to define what commands are needed for building a package (like
BUILD_DEPENDS) or for later
run-time of an installed packaged (such as DEPENDS). If the native system provides an
adequate tool, then in many cases, a pkgsrc package will not be
used.
When building a package, the replacement tools are made available in a directory (as symlinks or wrapper scripts) that is early in the executable search path. Just like the buildlink system, this helps with consistent builds.
A tool may be needed to help build a specific package. For example, perl, GNU make (gmake) or yacc may be needed.
Also a tool may be needed, for example, because the native system's supplied tool may be inefficient for building a package with pkgsrc. For example, a package may need GNU awk, bison (instead of yacc) or a better sed.
The tools used by a package can be listed by running make show-tools.
The default set of tools used by pkgsrc is defined in
bsd.pkg.mk. This includes standard Unix
tools, such as: cat, awk, chmod, test, and so on. These can be seen
by running: make show-var
VARNAME=USE_TOOLS.
If a package needs a specific program to build then the
USE_TOOLS variable can be used
to define the tools needed.
In the following examples, the :pkgsrc means to use the pkgsrc version and not the native version for a build dependency. And the :run means that it is used for a run-time dependencies also (and becomes a DEPENDS). The default is a build dependency which can be set with :build. (So in this example, it is the same as gmake:build and pkg-config:build.)
USE_TOOLS+= mktemp:pkgsrc USE_TOOLS+= gmake perl:run pkg-config
When using the tools framework, a TOOLS_PATH.foo variable is defined which
contains the full path to the appropriate tool. For example,
TOOLS_PATH.bash could be
“/bin/bash” on Linux
systems.
If you always need a pkgsrc version of the tool at
run-time, then just use DEPENDS
instead.
When improving or porting pkgsrc to a new platform, have a
look at (or create) the corresponding platform specific make
file fragment under pkgsrc/mk/tools/tools.${OPSYS}.mk which
defines the name of the common tools. For example:
.if exists(/usr/bin/bzcat) TOOLS_PLATFORM.bzcat?= /usr/bin/bzcat .elif exists(/usr/bin/bzip2) TOOLS_PLATFORM.bzcat?= /usr/bin/bzip2 -cd .endif TOOLS_PLATFORM.true?= true # shell builtin