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https://github.com/shlomif/what-i-learned-from-porting-to-freebsd

What I Learned from porting my projects to FreeBSD
https://github.com/shlomif/what-i-learned-from-porting-to-freebsd

bsd docbook docbook5 foss freebsd gnu hacktoberfest linux opensource operating-systems perl

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What I Learned from porting my projects to FreeBSD

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README 

        
What I learned from porting my projects to FreeBSD

==================================================

Shlomi Fish 

:Date: 2018-10-07

:Revision: $Id$



[id="intro"]

Introduction

------------



I set up a local https://www.freebsd.org/[FreeBSD] VirtualBox VM to test

something, and it seems to work very well. Due to the novelty factor, I decided

to get my software projects to build and pass the tests there.



[id="the_projects"]

The Projects

------------



* https://github.com/shlomif/shlomif-computer-settings/ (my dotfiles).



* https://web-cpan.shlomifish.org/latemp/



* https://fc-solve.shlomifish.org/



* https://www.shlomifish.org/open-source/projects/black-hole-solitaire-solver/



* https://better-scm.shlomifish.org/source/



* http://perl-begin.org/source/



* https://www.shlomifish.org/meta/site-source/



* Written using a mix of C, Perl 5, Python, Ruby, GNU Bash, XML, CMake, XSLT,

XHTML5, XHTML1.1, https://github.com/thewml/website-meta-language[Website META Language], JavaScript and more.



* Work fine on several Linux distributions and have

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_CI using Ubuntu 14.04 hosts



* Some pass builds and tests on AppVeyor/Win64



[id="lessons"]

What I Learned:

---------------



[id="reliable"]

FreeBSD on VBox has become very reliable

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



* Survived a host power interruption - https://twitter.com/shlomif/status/1048852791987527680 .



* I recall that some years back, rebooting with X running (because input was

not enabled) has https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_slang_terms#FUBAR[FUBARed] the +/etc+ directory prompting a reinstall, so FreeBSD on VirtualBox has come a long way.



[id="usr_local"]

Some executables on FreeBSD are in /usr/local/bin instead of /usr/bin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



On Linux they are almost always in +/usr/bin/+ only:



* https://github.com/shlomif/shlomif-computer-settings/blob/master/shlomif-settings/home-bin-executables/bin/fix-perl-shebang.pl[script to fix the perl shebang line]



* +/usr/bin/env+ is your friend.



* https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?hier%287%29[man hier(7)] explains the

difference.



[id="gmake"]

make on FreeBSD is not GNU make

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



* One can call +gmake+



* No +gmake+ on some older versions of Debian/Ubuntu/etc.

+

* Solution for Debian:

+

--------------

mkdir -p "$HOME/bin"

ln -sf /usr/bin/make "$HOME/bin/gmake"

export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"

--------------

+

* +gmake+ alias under +/usr/bin/+ is present again in recent versions of Debian.



[id="m4"]

m4 on FreeBSD is not compatible with GNU m4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



* Fixed in https://github.com/thewml/website-meta-language/commit/97c4ce264b66c880ea0016c096fda9d3188c0f4e[this commit] by first checking for +gm4+ and

then falling back on plain +m4+.



[id="cpan_dists"]

Some CPAN Modules fail to install using local-lib there

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



* No idea why.



* Sometimes +cpanm -n+ (“no test”) helps.



* +pkg install -y p5-Foo-Bar+ as root for other times.



[id="docbook_xsl"]

DocBook/XSL Does Not Live Under /usr/share/sgml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



* Fixed using a symlink on the FreeBSD system.



* Unhappy with this solution.



* On the “Hacker News” discussion, it was recommended to use +xsltproc --nonet http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/manpages/docbook.xsl foobar.xml+ ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18318771[Reference] )



[id="grep_dash_P"]

FreeBSD's grep does not have a “-P” flag by default

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



* The “-P” flag is not in http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/grep.html[the POSIX’s grep specification]



* Solution:

+

-----------------

-        ) | grep -vP '^<\?xml ver' \

+        ) | perl -p -0777 -e 's%\A<\?xml ver[^>]*>%%' \

-----------------



* Does not exactly do the same operation, but even more correct.



* {blank}

+

[quote, Guy Keren]

Perl is portable shell



[id="nproc"]

FreeBSD has no "nproc" command

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



* https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/108821/number-of-cores-on-freebsd



* nproc(1) is available in FreeBSD as of 13.2-RELEASE. ( https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=nproc&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+14.0-CURRENT[Reference.] )



* Added a small shell executable under +~/bin/nproc+ .



[id="to_do"]

What still does not work:

-------------------------



* Valgrind tests fail - possibly due to https://github.com/shlomif/perl-Test-RunValgrind/issues/5[this bug]



* Spellchecking tests fail, like on Ubuntu, as it seems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunspell[hunspell] has system-dependent dictionaries. (Workaround: +export SKIP_SPELL_CHECK=",en,"+.)



[id="conclusion"]

Conclusion:

-----------



[quote, Larry Wall]

https://www.quotes.net/quote/34583[It is easier to port a shell than a shell script.]



* I ran into some cases where my scriptology was lacking and suboptimal, even

for my own personal use, and fixed them.



[id="coverage"]

Coverage:

---------



* https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/9ncmrs/what_i_learned_from_porting_my_projects_to_freebsd/[On the /r/freebsd subreddit] - with some discussion.



* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18318771[Hacker News comments] - with a lot of discussion, including some with technical insights.



[id="continuations"]

Continuations / sequels / updates:

----------------------------------



* https://github.com/shlomif/what-i-learned-from-porting-to-freebsd[“What I learned from porting my projects to FreeBSD”]



* https://github.com/shlomif/why-my-projects-cannot-support-netbsd-yet[“Why my projects cannot support NetBSD (yet)”]



* https://github.com/shlomif/why-the-BSDs-should-not-blame-USL-vs-BSDi-for-linux-dominance[“Why the BSDs should not blame the USL vs BSDi lawsuits for Linux’s dominance”]