OpenBSD ports maintainer

[connortechnology]

Anyone want to take on getting ZM into open bsd ports? I made it compile and work on openbsd, but am stuck on the actual port.

[connortechnology]

@abishai any interest?

[abishai]

Probably not, I'm not familiar with OpenBSD. It's better if a real OpenBSD user gets involved.

What about other BSDs ? :) DragonflyBSD and NetBSD

[connortechnology]

If we can find someone willing to support them. I'm happy to handle making it compile, but can't handle the entire ports ecosystem.

[ovi-vansid]

@connortechnology Are you still looking for someone to be an OpenBSD port maintainer? I was looking to transition my current installation to OpenBSD, only to find that there isn't a current port or package.

I'll be blunt, I'm not an OpenBSD expert (or Linux, for that matter), but I'm sure I could learn how to build and maintain a port.

[connortechnology]

Yes! Duties are basically try to build from time to time and let me know of issues. We can work together, on it.

[gdt]

Feel free to look at the pkgsrc (NetBSD) port for inspiration. It's currently two micros behind. I suspect there is a lot that needs to be expressed the openbsd ports way vs the pkgsrc way, but the list of things needing accomodation is likely similar.

[ovi-vansid]

Thank you, I will definitely take a look. I've not worked on this port for several weeks, but actually had some time this weekend. I've got ZoneMinder up and running on a new OpenBSD 7.8 instance, I'm just trying to finalize documentation and configuration. I don't really know much about the OpenBSD porting process, so this will be a learning experience for me. Happy to report that it actually does work, just needs to be packaged and tested.

…

-vansid.

On Fri, Jan 2, 2026 at 10:40 AM Greg Troxel ***@***.***> wrote: Feel free to look at the pkgsrc (NetBSD) port for inspiration. It's currently two micros behind. I suspect there is a lot that needs to be expressed the openbsd ports way vs the pkgsrc way, but the list of things needing accomodation is likely similar. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3948 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AIRRH4OY6UF3ACNSKRE3NYL4E2GNLAVCNFSM6AAAAACKGOUIOKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKMZZGE4TCNA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ovi-vansid]

I had some time to work on the OpenBSD version of ZoneMinder, and I have been able to get pretty much everything working, including the API support (which was quite a pain due to missing PHP packages in the standard OpenBSD repository) and standard rcctl service startup. There are several issues which need to be addressed that I need some help with before it can be packaged and submitted to OpenBSD Ports, so any assistance is appreciated. If I need to file some reports/issues or diffs let me know.

• When running ZoneMinder's make install, over 3,000 Perl modules get installed to the root of my OpenBSD instance. An example is ZoneMinder::Tag.3p. I'm sure they belongs elsewhere, but they get dumped in the root '/' (something to do with the ONVIF module installation?). On my system, I had to manually copy these modules to /usr/local/libdata/perl5/site_perl/amd64-openbsd/. There's probably an issue somewhere in the make script, but I haven't looked into it yet.
• There are a couple of missing dependencies with PHP. I had to manually download, configure, compile and install the mysqlnd and apcu PHP extensions, and there were some odd errors and problems that I encountered, such as needing to symlink files in order for the compiling to succeed. Speaking of symlinking files...
• I don't understand what OpenBSD's equivalent to /dev/shm is, so I had to create it as a symlink from /tmp. Ugly, but it worked.
• Also had to link a basic header file in /usr/include/net from ethernet.h to ethertypes.h in order for ZoneMinder to compile. This is probably some remnant of divergence between Linux code and *BSD code (doesn't seem to be an issue in FreeBSD, either). Not sure how to address this - hopefully I can get away with making this symlink (and the /dev/shm one) as part of the packing porting process.
• When ZoneMinder installs, there is no mechanism to automatically add it as a recognized service, so rcctl does not work. I wrote a new script that follows the OpenBSD model, it seems to work. I can submit this for inclusion in the OpenBSD branch, not sure of the process.
• A minor problem with one of the Perl modules that prevents zmpkg.pl from starting properly, just a syntax issue with General.pm. I can submit a diff file for this - would I do that as an Issue in GitHub?

I've been documenting all of my necessary changes an configurations to a fully-patched OpenBSD 7.8 installation, so I can successfully reproduce this and get ZoneMinder installed in a repeatable fashion. But the missing PHP modules and ugly symlinks are preventing me from being able to create a proper OpenBSD port. I have asked on the OpenBSD Ports mailing list if someone can make mysqlnd and apcu ports for PHP, as these will be critical dependencies, not heard anything back yet. In summary, it does work using the openbsd branch (which is currently at 1.37.73) and my minor modifications.

[gdt]

Commenting based on experience maintaining zoneminder in pkgsrc. Some of this is a little redundant with the previous comment (made after I typed some of it but I noticed it :-).

• When running ZoneMinder's make install, over 3,000 Perl modules get installed to the root of my OpenBSD instance. An example is ZoneMinder::Tag.3p. I'm sure they belongs elsewhere, but they get dumped in the root '/' (something to do with the ONVIF module installation?). On my system, I had to manually copy these modules to /usr/local/libdata/perl5/site_perl/amd64-openbsd/. There's probably an issue somewhere in the make script, but I haven't looked into it yet.

zm is complicated to package because it's got c++, perl, and php. Surely openbsd has a normal way to build perl modules, and probably there's some standard idiom to include a make fragment to declare that it builds a perl module. On NetBSD/pkgsrc, that's enough to put perl stuff in the right place. It does sound like there is some variable that controls where they go that is ending up empty instead.

Also, try gmake if you are using BSD make. Usually that's not necessary with cmake, but lots of makefiles use GNU extensions and fail non-obviously with BSD make.

• There are a couple of missing dependencies with PHP. I had to manually download, configure, compile and install the mysqlnd and apcu PHP extensions, and there were some odd errors and problems that I encountered, such as needing to symlink files in order for the compiling to succeed. Speaking of symlinking files...

Sure, but that's not really about zoneminder packaging as needing to package those first. However I do not recognize mysqlnd, it's not in pkgsrc, and I didn't notice that I needed it.

• I don't understand what OpenBSD's equivalent to /dev/shm is, so I had to create it as a symlink from /tmp. Ugly, but it worked.

On NetBSD,

# Choose directory where zoneminder can create shm files (for zmc).                                                                                                                                                                                 
# \todo Define this per-OS.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
ZM_SHM=                 /var/shm        # NetBSD                                                                                                                                                                                                    
CMAKE_CONFIGURE_ARGS+=  -DZM_PATH_MAP=${ZM_SHM}

and really it's just a directory where zm can create files for shm segments. It already exists and is 1777, and is a tmpfs.

• Also had to link a basic header file in /usr/include/net from ethernet.h to ethertypes.h in order for ZoneMinder to compile. This is probably some remnant of divergence between Linux code and *BSD code (doesn't seem to be an issue in FreeBSD, either). Not sure how to address this - hopefully I can get away with making this symlink (and the /dev/shm one) as part of the packing porting process.

I didn't have to do this, and NetBSD also lacks ethernet.h and has ethertypes.h. (Most of this arose in 4.2BSD to 4.4BSD or earlier, and Linux reinvented a bunch of it differently.)

• When ZoneMinder installs, there is no mechanism to automatically add it as a recognized service, so rcctl does not work. I wrote a new script that follows the OpenBSD model, it seems to work. I can submit this for inclusion in the OpenBSD branch, not sure of the process.

Sometimes things like that go in upstream, and sometimes they are just files in the package.

• A minor problem with one of the Perl modules that prevents zmpkg.pl from starting properly, just a syntax issue with General.pm. I can submit a diff file for this - would I do that as an Issue in GitHub?

Sounds like a PR makes sense. (With any luck the openbsd branch can be merged to master soon.)

[ovi-vansid]

Really good info, I appreciate it. I've noticed a couple of people have mentioned (such as @abishai in a note below) that mysqlnd is not needed...but I definitely got errors connecting PHP to the backend database until I compiled and installed this module. Is there some alternate configuration elsewhere in ZM that I could change so I don't need this and can use pdo_mysql instead?

[abishai]

over 3,000 Perl modules get installed to the root of my OpenBSD instance

Probably the solution is to tweak ZM_PERL_MM_PARMS variable in CMake

what OpenBSD's equivalent to /dev/shm

Any tmpfs directory. Can be set in CMake ZM_PATH_MAP or configured later. Setting this directory not in tmpfs backed filesystem would be a disaster.

mysqlnd and apcu ports for PHP, as these will be critical dependencies

They are not. You can throw away apcu entirely and use pdo_mysql instead of mysqlnd

[ovi-vansid]

You can throw away apcu entirely

I think you're right for the general usage of ZoneMinder, but in my testing I could not get the API to work without it. Is this a correct interpretation on my part? I'd have to rebuild my test environment to capture the error logs again, I just won't have time for a week or so.

use pdo_mysql instead of mysqlnd

I also asked about this in a reply above - how do I use that module instead? Sorry for such a rookie question, but it isn't clear where I can swap-out modules and my testing seemed to indicate that ZM would not connect to the database without it.

[abishai]

I could not get the API to work

I believe you are right. apc(u) is really required. sysvsem is recommended as well (workaround tries to write in script directory, which is very bad idea).

how do I use that module instead

pdo is middleware, it can link against mysqlnd or mysql-client with make flags. The application should be unaware of that, because it works using pdo abstraction. Probably, your issues is not coming from pdo. Do you have logs?

[gdt]

I have php-pdo and php-pdo_mysql. I also have php-apchu.

My impression is that zm used to use sysv shm, but now uses mmap. But you said sysvsem. I am not doing anything intentional about sysv semaphores.

[connortechnology]

ZM still has the code to use sysv shm, but no one uses it anymore, but there's not reason it shouldn't still work.
sysvsem is a php package thing for preventing concurrent access to sockets when talking to zms. Everything should continue to work without it, but you get warnings in the logs without it.

[gdt]

Are you saying about shm:

there is code to use sysv shm if configured (instead of mmap). Even though it's ~never used by anyone, a package that lacks it is defective? or "it's never used, and if you install php-sysvshm it should work, but that's borderline historical and it's fine for a package to omit it.

And about sysvsem:

It is always used, to serialize socket access for zms. If it's missing, then 1) there will be warnings logged and 2) there will be no seralization control, so you are left just hoping that there aren't concurrent accesses

[abishai]

I believe. there is script, that queries zms periodically for monitor data, like fps. It will fail without sysvsem php package. Or if fallback fails to create semaphore file (because it trites to create in script location directory - it should be read only).

[connortechnology]

sysvshm vs mmap is a compile time flag. You need one of them. Either/or. It is not a run time flag.

php-sysvsem is not REQUIRED, it is used to serialize socket communication to zms. No one ever saw a problem, but there was potential. It will log a warning, and then continue.