dnl $OpenBSD: packages,v 1.51 2019/08/01 19:42:51 jmc Exp $ As complete as your OpenBSD system is, you may want to add any of several excellent third party software applications. There are several ways to do this. You can: 1) Use the OpenBSD package collection to grab a pre-compiled and tested version of the application for your hardware. 2) Use the OpenBSD ports collection to automatically get any needed source file, apply any required patches, create the application, and install it for you. 3) Obtain the source code and build the application based upon whatever installation procedures are provided with the application. Instructions for installing applications from the various sources using the different installation methods follow. You should also refer to the packages(7) manual page. Installing applications from the ftp.OpenBSD.org package collection: All available packages for your architecture have been placed on ftp.OpenBSD.org in the directory pub/OpenBSD/OSREV/packages/MACHINE_ARCH/ You may want to peruse this to see what packages are available. The packages are also on the OpenBSD mirror sites. See https://www.OpenBSD.org/ftp.html for a list of current mirror sites. Installation of a package is very easy. 1) become the superuser (root) 2) use the "pkg_add" command to install the software "pkg_add" is smart enough to know how to download the software from the OpenBSD HTTP server. Example: $ su Password: # pkg_add \ http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/{:--:}OSREV/packages/MACHINE_ARCH/emacs-21.4p32.tgz Installing applications from the OpenBSD ports collection: See https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html#Ports for current instructions on obtaining and installing OpenBSD ports. You should also refer to the ports(7) manual page. Installing other applications: If an OpenBSD package or port does not exist for an application you're pretty much on your own. The first thing to do is ask if anyone is working on a port -- there may be one in progress. If no such port exists, you might want to look at the FreeBSD ports or NetBSD pkgsrc for inspiration. If you can't find an existing port, try to make your own and feed it back to OpenBSD. That's how our ports collection grows. Some details can be found in the OpenBSD Porter's Handbook at https://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/ with more help coming from the mailing list, .