Appendix A. Obtaining FreeBSD

As of December 2020, FreeBSD uses git as the primary version control system for storing all of FreeBSD’s base source code and documentation. As of April 2021, FreeBSD uses git as the only version control system for storing all of FreeBSD’s Ports Collection.

This section demonstrates how to install Git on a FreeBSD system and use it to create a local copy of a FreeBSD source code repository.

Git can be installed from the Ports Collection, or as a package:

To fetch a clean copy of the sources into a local directory, use git clone. This directory of files is called the working tree.

Git uses URLs to designate a repository. There are three different repositories, src for the FreeBSD system source code, doc for documentation, and ports for the FreeBSD Ports Collection. All three are reachable over two different protocols: HTTPS and SSH. For example, the URL https://git.FreeBSD.org/src.git specifies the main branch of the src repository, using the https protocol.

External mirrors maintained by project members are also available; please refer to the External mirrors section.

To clone a copy of the FreeBSD system source code repository:

The -o freebsd option specifies the origin; by convention in the FreeBSD documentation, the origin is assumed to be freebsd. Because the initial checkout must download the full branch of the remote repository, it can take a while. Please be patient.

Initially, the working tree contains source code for the main branch, which corresponds to CURRENT. To switch to 13-STABLE instead:

The working tree can be updated with git pull. To update /usr/src created in the example above, use:

The update is much quicker than a checkout, only transferring files that have changed.

The FreeBSD project uses cgit as the web-based repository browser: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/.

For information about write access to repositories see the Committer’s Guide.

Those mirrors are not hosted in FreeBSD.org but still maintained by the project members. Users and developers are welcome to pull or browse repositories on those mirrors. Pull requests for the doc and src GitHub repositories are being accepted; otherwise, the project workflow with those mirrors is still under discussion.

The main mailing list for general usage and questions about git in the FreeBSD project is freebsd-git. For more details, including commit messages lists, see the Mailing Lists chapter.

These are also published as SSHFP records in DNS.

As of December 2020, FreeBSD uses git as the primary version control system for storing all of FreeBSD’s source code and documentation. Changes from the git repo on the stable/11, stable/12 and related releng branches are exported to the Subversion repository. This export will continue through the life of these branches. From July 2012 to March 2021, FreeBSD used Subversion as the only version control system for storing all of FreeBSD’s Ports Collection. As of April 2021, FreeBSD uses git as the only version control system for storing all of FreeBSD’s Ports Collection.

This section demonstrates how to install Subversion on a FreeBSD system and use it to create a local copy of a FreeBSD repository. Additional information on the use of Subversion is included.

A lightweight version of Subversion is already installed on FreeBSD as svnlite. The port or package version of Subversion is only needed if the Python or Perl API is needed, or if a later version of Subversion is desired.

The only difference from normal Subversion use is that the command name is svnlite.

If svnlite is unavailable or the full version of Subversion is needed, then it must be installed.

Subversion can be installed from the Ports Collection:

Subversion can also be installed as a package:

To fetch a clean copy of the sources into a local directory, use svn. The files in this directory are called a local working copy.

Subversion uses URLs to designate a repository, taking the form of protocol://hostname/path. The first component of the path is the FreeBSD repository to access. There are three different repositories, base for the FreeBSD base system source code, ports for the Ports Collection, and doc for documentation. For example, the URL https://svn.FreeBSD.org/base/head/ specifies the main branch of the src repository, using the https protocol.

A checkout from a given repository is performed with a command like this:

where:

This example checks out the Source Tree from the FreeBSD repository using the HTTPS protocol, placing the local working copy in /usr/src. If /usr/src is already present but was not created by svn, remember to rename or delete it before the checkout.

Because the initial checkout must download the full branch of the remote repository, it can take a while. Please be patient.

After the initial checkout, the local working copy can be updated by running:

To update /usr/src created in the example above, use:

The update is much quicker than a checkout, only transferring files that have changed.

An alternate way of updating the local working copy after checkout is provided by the Makefile in the /usr/ports, /usr/src, and /usr/doc directories. Set SVN_UPDATE and use the update target. For example, to update /usr/src:

The FreeBSD Subversion repository is:

This is a publicly accessible mirror network that uses GeoDNS to select an appropriate back end server. To view the FreeBSD Subversion repositories through a browser, use https://svnweb.FreeBSD.org/.

HTTPS is the preferred protocol, but the security/ca_root_nss package will need to be installed in order to automatically validate certificates.

For other information about using Subversion, please see the "Subversion Book", titled Version Control with Subversion, or the Subversion Documentation.