Introduction to FreeBSD Ports - 25 years and counting

Celebrating 25 years of FreeBSD ports - the “App Store” that existed before the term was claimed as trademark. But have you looked under the hood to see how it works?

This presentation will provide an introduction to the FreeBSD ports tree works, including:

• why the ports tree is required
• the use case for ports, and how this has evolved over time
• ports tree internals - how it works
• ports development - examples of how to change an existing port, and how to create a new port
• the road to becoming a ports committer, and how you can contribute to the ports tree

This presentation is targeted at people who are seeking the answer to the big question “where do packages come from?”, and also to those looking to advance their use or development of the ports tree.