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What is DEFAULT_VERSIONS?
The FreeBSD Ports Framework supports multiple versions of the same software for those packages where such choice is desirable.
DEFAULT_VERSIONS is the mechanism that allows the user to set or override which version of software they want to be used as the dependency for other ports.
DEFAULT_VERSIONS support is most often added for those major software packages, where:
- multiple versions are available, and
- regularly required by users with different needs, and
where no single version may reasonably be set by a maintainer.
It is particularly useful for ports that depend on the software, and multiple versions are available, but they either:
Don't require a specific version, OR
Support a range of versions, OR
Only support a specific version
In summary, it provides users with extra choice and flexibility.
What software or ports supports it?
All software that currently support this mechanism are listed in Mk/bsd.default-versions.mk. Among them are:
- BDB (deprecates WITH_BDB_VER make.conf option)
- GCC
- LUA
- MySQL
- PHP
- SSL library selection (deprecates WITH_OPENSSL_PORT and OPENSSL_PORT make.conf options)
- TCL
How do I use it?
DEFAULT_VERSIONS is a make variable that takes one or more space-delimited name=version (key=value) pairs.
Supported software names are defined in Mk/bsd.default-versions.mk. They are the string before the underscore in variables matching *_DEFAULT. For example, PYTHON_DEFAULT, PYTHON2_DEFAULT and PYTHON3_DEFAULT create the supported names python, python2 and python3 respectively.
Users can override the "default versions", by specifying new values in:
/etc/make.conf
- Poudriere make.conf files (see poudriere(8))
- In command-line make arguments or environment variables
Examples
Users might wish to specify 3.5 as default for the Python3 branch, by defining DEFAULT_VERSIONS=python3=3.5.
To set both PostgreSQL 9.4 and Python 3.5 (of the 3.x) branch, one would write:
DEFAULT_VERSIONS+= pgsql=9.4 python3=3.5
Note: The above specification sets 3.5 for the Python 3 branch, but does not override the overall Python default version. This can be done with:
DEFAULT_VERSIONS+= python=3.5
Note the difference between the use of python= versus python3=.
Special Considerations
MySQL Fork Selection through Version
When it comes to MySQL forks like Percona and MariaDB, they can be chosen by using specific version of MySQL. In other words, MySQL fork selection is encoded in "mysql" version for DEFAULT_VERSIONS. If we take a look at Mk/Uses/mysql.mk, we can see that "m" in MySQL versions are for MariaDB and "p" are for Percona. As of July 2016 these versions are supported, visible in the bsd.default-versions.mk comment kept in sync with the code backing it in Uses/mysql.mk:
# Possible values: 5.1, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.5m, 10.0m, 10.1m, 5.5p, 5.6p
So, for example, to install and use MariaDB 10.1 for ports that need MySQL, we can use:
DEFAULT_VERSIONS= mysql=10.1m
SSL Library Selection
As of revision 416965 selection of the SSL library to build against has moved to DEFAULT_VERSIONS instead of using dedicated WITH_ options. This enables the ssl= entry and a choice between base OpenSSL or ports' OpenSSL, LibreSSL or their -devel versions.
More Information
Consult Mk/bsd.default-versions.mk for more info on the defaults, as well as the UPDATING file for information of instructions on changes to those default versions over time.
Please also note that arbitrarily overriding defaults might lead to additional steps being required, backwards incompatibility or dependency issues (eg. switching default Python version from 2.x to 3.x).