Hi,

Are there any developers using Lazarus under FreeBSD? Does Lazarus support FreeBSD? Somebody asking me this question today, but I couldn't actually answer them. Looking at the release downloads page, it seems FreeBSD is not supported (there is no binary downloads for that platform, unless you count the src only download).

It is not officially maintained I think, but Toolbox magazine provides builds on their DVDs.

Michael.

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

Hi, Are there any developers using Lazarus under FreeBSD?

I do.

Does Lazarus support FreeBSD?

I simply works when used with the matching compiler.

Somebody asking me this question today, but I couldn't actually answer them. Looking at the release downloads page, it seems FreeBSD is not supported (there is no binary downloads for that platform, unless you count the src only download).

For practical reason it has always been the better way to install fpc and lazarus per user, not globally in the systems /usr/local tree. It is easier to swap compilers or mess with the sources of something that otherwise would be r/o. Concluding there is no need for a binary package if you ask me, I wouldn't use it - although I do use a precompiled fpc.

what would it take for the various *nix flavor maintainers to fix their install scripts so that FPC and/or Lazarus were installed in this manner? it would definitely fix a lot of headaches when it comes to installing the prepared release packages...

I always do install them to some prefix (e.g. ~/fpc240) and then symlink the necessary files to ~/bin and ~/etc

I'm slowly but surely work on that. We (our company) have been working on a cross-platform (and distro independent) installer system. It allows system wide or user specific installs. FPC (and maybe even Lazarus) was going to be our public demo of our installer in action.

As a side note:
On my own *nix systems I always create a 'developer' user group and then give that group read/write access to /opt. So in a way it's similar to installing to $HOME. I hardly ever install custom software to /usr/ or /usr/local/. /home and /opt are also in separate partitions so after re-installing (I hate OS upgrades) a new version of the OS, all my programs and files are still available (and untouched).

Define 'in this manner' ?

The FPC installs for *unix allow you to install wherever you want, provided you have permissions for it.

Michael.

i don't know that i've ever been able to choose where to install when using package tools like apt-get, yum, and the like when i've attempted such on one of my *nix boxen... on my win98 box, when it was operational, i seem to recall maybe being asked for an install directory but win98 is basically a free-for-all when it comes to security and home directories... w2kpro, on the other hand is what xp, vista and win7 (i guess) are based on and it has dedicated "home" directories for users... i've never tried to install to my home directory on w2kpro so i'm not sure if that install would be dedicated solely to one user or if it would show up for all users and they not be able to access it due to security restraints... on most any windows, though, i've gotten to where i install to the root of the disk because of the problems FPC and/or Lazarus have with spaces in the directory (and file) names...

yes, going the svn route or downloading the sources and doing the build and install do allow one to specify the installation directory prefix but one has to install svn software and learn how to dance that particular line dance which is what i was commenting about, above... that method does appear to be easier for adding the cross-platform compilation tools necessary...

I was talking about the FreePascal/FreeBSD (and also /Linux) reference .tar.gz distribution.

Moreover, the FreeBSD port DOES support local ports dirs,

From a notes file, the line I used was:

make install PREFIX=/home/marcov/testport PKG_DBDIR=/home/marcov/registerdb \ INSTALL_AS_USER=1 DISTDIR=~/distfiles/ WRKDIR=~/work

pkg_add has -p and -C parameters together with some PKG_ environment vars (see the manual) for this.

On NT+ systems this is not recommended, because many of the binutils that FPC uses still might have problems with spaces in the filename, and the homedir on e.g. WinXP default has spaces in them. (and their layout is different)

if it would show up for all users and they not be able to access it due to security restraints... on most any windows, though, i've gotten to where i install to the root of the disk because of the problems FPC and/or Lazarus have with spaces in the directory (and file) names...

It's more the utils than FPC/Lazarus itself. And it is getting less and less. FPC 2.4.1 + Lazarus/trunk might be safe.

Afaik deb and rpm also have options for local usage. It is just more trouble to setup, and requires reading man pages.

ooohhhh! that'd be quite kool! don't stop working on it ;)

yeah, too bad mickey mou^H^H^H^H^H^Hrosoft hasn't yet learned that trick... if they had, there'd be C: for the OS and everything else would reside on D: at least ;)

basically "per user"...

The FPC installs for *unix allow you to install wherever you want, provided you have permissions for it.

i've not seen that when i've installed the Laz packages that i've toyed with on my *buntu systems... yes, they are the integrated stable release packages...

basically what i was looking at is that the SVN method offers greater capability but it also requires a greater understanding and comprehension of the underlying installation operation...

in other words, there's no "install this FPC/Lazarus stable binary package" and then "install XYZ cross-compile add-on" repeating the last for each prospective platform that you want to provide for... the only current method is to install a release package and then do SVN updates to bring them up and add in the additional cross-compile tools necessary as Dimitrios Chr. Ioannidis wrote in his quite nice write up with .BAT examples and notes...

this also ties directly in with my recent thread about why is there no simple and easy "install the base" and then "unzip this archive to 'there' with paths" to add cross-compile capabilities...

as one who is still learning their way around the whole new environment, my point is that "newbies" (and "oldies" who are new to the Laz RAD environment) should be able to write a "hello world" app and easily cross-compile that for the other platforms they choose/need to support... "easily" mainly pointing at easily be able to add the other platforms' compilation capabilities since once they are in place, it is really nothing more than ticking a box and hitting the [DO IT] button ;)

it is the adding of the other platforms cross-compilation items that's the real buggar and stop sign that currently gets in the way... or at least it has been a deep mystery of majikal incantations until the recent talks with the examples given...

Talking about FreeBSD it should be mentioned that /usr/local is similar to /opt on lunix systems. Nothing else but third party software, mostly ports, get installed there and many people do use at least a seperate partition (FreeBSD terms) or slice (partition in DOS speak) or another hardrive to store it.

I don't think Lazarus offers such a script. The FPC compiler itself can be installed from a simple .tar file, wherever you want.

None of the OS packaging mechanisms (rpm, .deb) allow you to do a user install (well, not without very complicated tricks)

Creating a cross-compile setup isn't easy and so not for the faint of heart. This is also true if you want to do it for GCC.

It takes time, something we all lack; I think that is the main reason no ready-made packages exist.

Michael.

right... ok...

None of the OS packaging mechanisms (rpm, .deb) allow you to do a user install (well, not without very complicated tricks)

ahhh... ok... so the available package installs are not really the "best" way to go for several cases... they are fine for single OS projects but to go past that, one needs to expand one's horizons and look at the tar files and/or svn updates...

[trim]

i hear that... i've watched that dance from my seat for a while...

It takes time, something we all lack; I think that is the main reason no ready-made packages exist.

that, too, is fully understandable...

i want to thank you and the others who have participated in the "cross-compile" threads... the info given has been very beneficial... much moreso than that which has been available... at least it has been understandable and realtively easy enough for a layman entering this "world" (of FPC/Lazarus) to understand...

Michael Van Canneyt wrote

None of the OS packaging mechanisms (rpm, .deb) allow you to do a user install (well, not without very complicated tricks)

FreeBSD does, but maybe that is not really an user install. In fact one creates a second package administration.

Well, that's the 'very complicated tricks' I was referring to. RPM and .DEB also support that :)

Michael.