Note: The ports system makes it easy for you to compile applications
      for your OpenBSD system.  For pre-compiled versions of several popular
      applications see README.packages.

The ports/ subdirectory is a checkout of the OpenBSD ports tree. Read
http://www.openbsd.org/ports.html if you know nothing about ports at this
point.  This text is not a manual of how to use ports. Rather, it is a set
of notes meant to kickstart the user on the OpenBSD ports system.

[ The wise user had better stay away from the ports system entirely and use
pre-compiled packages from the CD-Rom or the ftp site. ]

Certainly, the OpenBSD ports system is not complete.  There are always
interesting new applications being developed that have not yet been
ported.  We believe the ports that are provided here are stable, 
but realize that ports will continue to grow a great deal in the future.

There are two components to the ports system.   The first component is the
Makefile, patches, and informational files used to automate the generation
of third-party software.  This is found under the ports/ directory.  The
second component are the third-party distribution files.  These files,
typically compressed tar files, are found in the distfiles/ directory.

The ports/ hierarchy must be copied from the CD-ROM to your hard disk.  
This is necessary as the build processs uses the ports directory for working
files. Caution: while the ports directory is rather small, some ports 
require a lot of disk space to build the application.

To copy out the contents of the ports tree to /usr/ports (where it is normally
located) you would mount the CD-ROM with ports on it on /cdrom and issue
a command like:
	# cp -pR /cdrom/ports/* /usr/ports/

The ports/ directory represents a CVS (see the manpage for cvs(1) 
if you aren't familiar with CVS) checkout of our ports.  
If you choose to follow current on src, you must also track current on
ports: make the ports/ tree available on a read-write medium and update
the tree with a command like:

	# cd [portsdir]/; cvs -d anoncvsserver.openbsd.org:/cvs update -PAd

[Of course, you must replace the local directory and server name here with
the location of your ports collection and a nerby anoncvs server.]

Again, it's important to see the webpage for specific instructions.

Finally, help is never far.  If you're interested in seeing a port added, 
would like to help out, or just would like to know more, the mailing list 
ports@openbsd.org is a good place to know.