2.6 Packages and Ports
OpenBSD supports the concept of packages and ports. As with other operating systems, packages are programs that can be installed without the need to compile them (in binary form). A vast number of packages are shipped with the OpenBSD CDs, and more are available on the OpenBSD FTP mirrors, to fill the needs for most users. Along with the collection of packages, OpenBSD comes with a ports tree (discussed in later chapters), which contains the recipes used for building the packages. The ports tree is designed to identify dependencies needed to build and install packages automatically as necessary. The resulting packages can be installed and distributed across systems. Packages and ports are discussed more in Chapters 12 and 13, respectively.