This directory contains ports of popular 3rd-party software to Genode.


Usage
-----

The tool './tool/ports/prepare_port' in the toplevel directory automates the
task of downloading and preparing the library source codes. You can select
individual packages that have to be prepared by specifying their base names
(without the version number) as command-line argument. For example, the
following command prepares both the C library and the Freetype library:
! ./tool/ports/prepare_port PKG="libc freetype"

To compile and link against 3rd-party libraries of the 'libports' repository,
you have to include the repository into the build process by appending it to the
'REPOSITORIES' declaration of your '<build-dir>/etc/build.conf' file.


Under the hood
--------------

For each library, there is a file contained in the 'libports/ports/'
subdirectory. The file is named after the library and contains the
library-specific rules for downloading the source code and installing header
files.


How does 'libports' relate to the other repositories?
-----------------------------------------------------

Most libraries hosted in the 'libports' repository expect a complete C library,
which is provided with the 'libc' package. Please do not forget to prepare the
libc package when using any of the other libports packages. The libc, in turn,
depends on the 'os' repository for its back end. Because the 'os' repository is
the home of the dynamic linker, libraries contained in 'libports' are safe to
assume the presence of the dynamic linker and, thus, should be built as shared
libraries.

