Documentation And Packages

There are two areas where MINIX has some catching up to do: documentation and packages. They provide many small projects, for which not much prior knowledge of MINIX is required, which provide a good way to get started with MINIX, and the results of which would be highly valuable to the MINIX project.

If you want to contribute, please pick a package or man-page below, put your name behind it, and see whether you can fix it. Please take on only one project at a time, so as not to block others who want to work on these projects.

Thanks for your help.

Broken packages

The packages below no longer compile, even though they did at some point in the past. When trying to fix them, you can follow these instructions:

Replace packagename with one of the names as listed below. The binpackage tool attempts to compile the package, and provides error messages. If you manage to fix the package, please use svn diff to obtain a patch, and post that on the MINIX newsgroup.

Please also add dependencies for packages. That information is not used yet, but will be used when a new package management system is introduced. Create a .bdeps file with a list of build dependencies and .rdeps with run-time dependencies. Those files should be plain-text files with a package name on each line.

Proper packages do not install any files outside the /usr/bsd, /usr/gnu and /usr/local directories. The first is used for ported BSD components, the second GNU programs, and the third one for everything else. For libraries, one also should take into consideration the compiler that was used to compile it, because ACK and GCC have incompatible library formats. Use either /usr/local/lib/ack or /usr/local/lib/gnu to express that difference. In many cases, the install location can be passed to the configure script or makefile as a parameter.

The following values are possible for the Status field:

If you made a patch to improve a package, please add a link in the Comments field. Once all issues are resolved, and the fix for a package has been committed to SVN, the package is removed from the list.

Package

Person working on

Status

Comments

aim7

broken

aim9

broken

antiword-0.35

nodeps

apache-1.3.37

broken

apr-0.9.12

nodeps

apr-util-0.9.12

nodeps

ascii-3.8

nodeps

atk-1.9.0

broken

avra-0.7

nodeps

bash-3.0

nodeps

bc-1.06

nodeps

bchunk-1.2.0

nodeps

bcrypt-1.1

nodeps

binutils-2.16.1

nodeps

bison-2.1

nodeps

bitlbee-1.0.3

broken

bsd-utils

nodeps

btyacc-3.0

badpaths

catdoc-0.94.2

nodeps

cpio-2.5

broken

ctags-5.5.4

Gert Scholten

proposed

CSSC-1.0.1

broken

ctags-5.5.4

broken

cvs-1.11.21

nodeps

dact-0.8.39

broken

db-4.4.20

broken

diffstat-1.39

nodeps

diffutils-2.8.1

AntoineLeca

proposed

dungeon-2.7.1

nodeps

ede-1.1

nodeps

efltk-2.0.6

broken

emacs-21.4

broken

exim-4.66

broken

fb

nodeps

flawfinder-1.26

nodeps

flex-2.5.4

badpaths

flip-1.19

badpaths

gawk-3.1.4

broken

gcc-4.1.1-libs

nodeps

gcc-4.1.1

Kees van Reeuwijk

broken

gdbm-1.8.3

nodeps

gettext-0.14

broken

ghostscript-8.54-gpl

broken

ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11

nodeps

glib-1.2.10

nodeps

glib-2.10.0

broken

gnu-coreutils-5.2.1

broken

gnugo-3.8

Colin Fowler

broken

gnupg-1.4.8

broken

grep-2.5.1a

nodeps

groff-1.19.2

broken

gv-3.5.8

broken

gzip-1.2.4

nodeps

gzip-beta-1.3.3

nodeps

hexcat-0.0.3

badpaths

ImageMagick-6.3.1

broken

irssi-0.8.10

broken

jikes-1.22

broken

john-1.7.2

broken

jpeg-6b

nodeps

jwm-1.8

nodeps

kermit-2.1.1

nodeps

lcrack-20040914

nodeps

less-3.8.5

nodeps

lesstif-0.93.96

nodeps

libiconv-1.9.1

broken

Replaced by port of libiconv 1.12; but, that one, too, needs fixing.

libmcrypt-2.5.7

nodeps

libpcap-55685bd

broken

libungif-4.1.3

broken

libxml2-2.6.28

broken

links-2.1pre26

nodeps

lmbench3alpha4

nodeps

lpr

badpaths

lynx2-8-5

nodeps

lzo-1.08

broken

lzop-1.01

broken

make-3.80

nodeps

mdf2iso

nodeps

MPlayer-1.0rc1

broken

mtools-3.9.7

nodeps

mysql-5.0.41

broken

nano-1.3.12

nodeps

nasm-0.98.38

AntoineLeca

nodeps

nawk

nodeps

ncftp-3.1.9

broken

ncurses-5.5

nodeps

nedit-5.5

nodeps

neon-0.25.5

nodeps

nethack-3.4.3-2

nodeps

netpbm-10.26.30

nodeps

nomarch-1.3

nodeps

nrg2iso-0.2

nodeps

nvi-1.79

nodeps

openssh-5.3p1

nodeps

openssl-0.9.8a

nodeps

oss-v4.1-build1051-src-bsd

badpaths

pce-0.1.7

broken

pcre-4.5

broken

pdksh-5.2.14

broken

perl-5.8.7

broken

php-5.2.1

broken

picasm112c

nodeps

pine-4.64

broken

pkg-config-0.20

nodeps

PopTart-0.9.7

nodeps

postgresql-8.4.0

broken

prng-3.0.2

nodeps

pscan-1.1

broken

pstotext-1.9

broken

psutils

nodeps

python-2.4.3

broken

rcs-5.7

AntoineLeca

proposed

readline-5.1

nodeps

rman-3.2

broken

robodoc-4.0.18

broken

screen-4.0.2

nodeps

SDL-1.2.13

nodeps

shhmsg-1.4.1

nodeps

simhv35-2

broken

sip-0.4

nodeps

slang-1.4.9

nodeps

slrn-0.9.8.1

broken

sqlite-3.3.17

nodeps

src2tex-2.12

nodeps

ssmtp-2.61

nodeps

subversion-1.4.0

broken

tcl8.4.14

nodeps

tcpdump-4.0.0

nodeps

tetex-3.0

broken

texinfo-4.7

nodeps

tiff-3.8.2

broken

tk8.4.14

broken

unrtf-0.19.3

broken

unzip-5.52

nodeps

vice-1.20

broken

vile-9.4

broken

vim-6.3

nodeps

wdiff-0.5

broken

webcpp-0.8.4

broken

wget-1.5.3

nodeps

whichman-2.4

nodeps

X11R6.8.2

broken

Xaw3d-1.5

broken

xv-3.10a

broken

zip-2.31

Sernin van de Krol

fixed

Solved in trunk, see svn log for revision 6190

zlib-1.2.3

nodeps

zsh-4.2.6

Sernin van de Krol

broken

Missing man-pages

Below is a list of man-pages that are missing. Only utility programs are listed currently, but functions of the MINIX API will be listed later. Please consult the source code when writing a man-page. Some utilities may have more, less, or different features than they do on other operating systems or in the POSIX specification. Some utilities have been ported from the BSD operating systems; in which case, you may be able to port the associated man-page, as well. Make sure, however, that what is written in the man-page corresponds to the functionality in the version that was ported to MINIX.

Man-page for

Person working on

Status

: built-in in /bin/ash

alias built-in in /bin/ash

/usr/bin/atnormalize

AntoineLeca

/usr/bin/autopart

/usr/bin/bigmake

Useless with VM, to be dropped

/usr/bin/binpackage

/usr/bin/binpackages

/usr/bin/binsizes

Useless with VM, to be dropped

builtin built-in in /bin/ash

/usr/bin/bzcmp

Stanislav Palatnik

bad path-name in file; change to absolute path

/usr/bin/bzdiff

Stanislav Palatnik

blocked by bad "bzcmp.1"

chdir built-in in /bin/ash

/bin/chroot

/usr/bin/cprofalyze.pl

/usr/bin/datasizes

/usr/bin/decomp16

/usr/bin/devsize

AntoineLeca

/usr/bin/egrep

/usr/bin/ellec

exp built-in in /bin/ash

/usr/bin/flex++

/usr/bin/ftpdsh

/usr/bin/gomoku

/usr/bin/in.rshd

/usr/bin/in.telnetd

/usr/bin/indent

/usr/bin/ipcrm

/usr/bin/ipcs

jobid built-in in /bin/ash

let built-in in /bin/ash

/usr/bin/life

/usr/bin/msh

/usr/bin/pax

/usr/bin/progressbar

/usr/bin/ramdisk

AntoineLeca

/usr/bin/rawspeed

/usr/bin/rotate

/usr/bin/sprofalyze.pl

/usr/bin/swapfs

/usr/bin/syslog_test

/usr/bin/talk

/usr/bin/talkd

/usr/bin/tcpstat

type built-in in /bin/ash

/usr/bin/udpstat

ulimit built-in in /bin/ash

unalias built-in in /bin/ash

/usr/bin/unstack

wordexp built-in in /bin/ash

/usr/bin/writeisofs

shared memory functions in sys/shm.h

Out of Date Wiki Pages

As minix grows and changes, the wiki pages that describe it also need to grow and change. This section lists wiki pages that have fallen out of sync with the code.

Page

Person working on

Status

Comments

Programming Device Drivers in Minix

mapdriver() is no longer used except by RS, driver_announce() isn't mentioned, examples need to be synced with svn HEAD and re-tested, etc.

MinixWiki: DocumentationAndPackages (last edited 2010-07-23 09:21:43 by AntoineLeca)