BePort

A BePort is that which allows a piece of software to be built and run on the BeOS platform. It consists of:

• BeOS-specific patches to the original source code.
• a BepFile. This is a recipe that BePorter uses to fetch, patch, build and install the port. It also serves to track the revision of the BePort and includes information about it's status on the different BeOS platforms.

BePorts are divided into a number of sub-categories. The categories are the same as in Gentoo Portage (what a coincidence!). For example, the Simple Direct Media Layer (SDL) library is part of the media-libs category.

A BePort is characterized by a port name and a port version. The port name is simply a short name for the software package, for example libsdl for the SDL library mentioned above. A port version reflects the version of the software package. The BePort of the SDL version 1.2.11 library is referred to as libsdl-1.2.11. Next to the port name and version, there is also a revision number. This number serves to identify changes in the BePort of a software package.