How to setup development env for port?

rickyzhang

I'm a Linux guy. I'm new to FreeBSD and pfSense.

I want to patch one of broken port from pfSense. But I have no idea how to start with development env.

I got FreeBSD 12 virtual box and ARM version SD card image.

Are there any guide how to develop/patch port?

johnpoz

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/development/index.html#general-development-information

What exactly are you looking to fix?

rickyzhang

I already read that. But I want a guide how to setup build tools like GCC, compile port and etc.

johnpoz

You would do it pretty much the same way you would do it on linux..
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/

Fire up freebsd version that version of pfsense is using, install the build tools. Compile what your looking to compile - last time I did this was a fix to the TTL for dhcp client..

wow that was back in 2012 ;)
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/47131/change-ttl-value-of-dhcp-requests

rickyzhang

Thanks for your link. I found the FreeBSD port doc as well.

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/porters-handbook/

My obstacle is the following:

Should I use pfSense or FreeBSD as development env?
Should I use amd64 to cross compile or use FreeBSD ARM image to do native compile in qemu emulation?

johnpoz

you would use freebsd, which is what pfsense runs on..

rickyzhang

Thanks for your advice. I will get FreeBSD VM image version matching with pfSense.

But how do I hook up my FreeBSD VM to pfSense patched port from https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-ports?

The FreeBSD port documentation doesn't explain how to replace their port with others.

johnpoz

What are you trying to fix??

rickyzhang

It is a stupid SQL syntax issue. It is a showstopper to log alert to MariaDB. The bug has been fixed two years ago in Barnyard2 Git repo. But it seems that it may be not in FreeBSD.

johnpoz

Trying to think who maintains the stuff for snort.. This is related to that I take it..

Prob be easier to just post up the "fix" and who maintains the package/port for pfsense could include it if they agree with the fix, etc.

You might notice that my fix was for a like 1 person ;) But did submit it to freebsd, and it got finally pushed down.

edit: Ah I see @bmeeks is already in your other thread - yeah that would be "the guy" to help for sure!!