How to setup development env for port?

rickyzhang · Aug 4, 2019, 1:01 PM

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 · Aug 4, 2019, 1:34 PM

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

What exactly are you looking to fix?

rickyzhang · Aug 4, 2019, 1:38 PM

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

johnpoz · Aug 4, 2019, 3:17 PM

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 · Aug 4, 2019, 6:35 PM

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 · Aug 4, 2019, 6:36 PM

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

rickyzhang · Aug 4, 2019, 6:57 PM

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 · Aug 4, 2019, 8:44 PM

What are you trying to fix??

rickyzhang · Aug 4, 2019, 9:16 PM

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 · Aug 4, 2019, 9:35 PM

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!!