Re: How to install geoiplookup?

On 6/7/24 06:53, Rody wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Trying to prepare myself to get command line geoip lookups working. Running
> 13.3-RELEASE-p1 of freebsd. It seems the pkg libmaxminddb is installed by
> default but missing the tools to access the data.

Which tools are missing? My understanding is it is a library for 
accessing the database files once they are downloaded. There are no 
special options to that port (just documentation related) so installing 
from pkg or ports should give identical results for available tools and 
capabilities. Once you have a ports tree, you can check the options of 
that port with `cd /usr/ports/net/libmaxminddb;make showconfig`.

https://www.freshports.org/net/libmaxminddb/ section "This port is 
required by" can help get an idea of other ports using this port; it 
only includes direct dependencies and does not handle dependencies that 
could be changed by changing options in ports.

> The following page tells me to install the libmaxminddb via ports:
> https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/geoiplookup-for-the-new-geolite2-country-db.69866/
> But it does not include info for when you've never used ports before.

net/geoipupdate is a port that handles fetching the geoip2 databases. It 
is written by maxmind though it is in go instead of c and seems to have 
much more going on for inner workings. If the c version from the forums 
works in beneficial ways over the maxmind copy then maybe it could be 
made into a port for more users to benefit. There have been various 
changes to libmaximdb since that post in 2019 that should be reviewed 
for compatibility.

> The following page tell what to do to get started with ports:
> https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/ports/
> And tells me that if ports was not installed during install, I should use a
> series of commands to use git.
> 
> Not sure if ports was indeed installed or not during install. Any way to find
> out?

if `ls /usr/ports` is missing/empty then you didn't install it from the 
installer (or moved it); you can get a ports tree and also later update 
the ports tree with git.

> The following page recommends to use portsnap:
> https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/install-ports-in-freebsd/
> Portsnap seems to be installed by default and easier to use, but:
> https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/portsnap-being-retired-whats-the-alternative.76463/
> suggests that maybe only git should be used?

Portsnap is removed from 14+ though it is still present in 
/usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portsnap. Reading its makefile I see

DEPRECATED=     portsnap infrastructure will be removed after the EOL of 
13.x
EXPIRATION_DATE=2026-04-30

which tells me the present plan is you would be learning a dead end; it 
will remain a viable option to you until upgrading off of 13. The 
cyberciti.biz article covering portsnap form base for FreeBSD14 when 
updated last month is a bug in that article; its title should remove 14 
or it should include git instructions. The article's content explains 
its steps only got to 13. 
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.0R/relnotes/ section about portsnap 
makes that clear for FreeBSD 14+.

> Still, it seems the database was already installed automatically using pkg so
> it should probably be deleted prior to starting with ports?

Ports is the instructions to build and install software. Its install are 
registered as an installed package and the tree is used within a clean 
environment to build the official packages. If you need to change build 
options or need a version that is not in the pkg repo but is in a 
newer/older ports tree then you could build it yourself but otherwise 
the pkg installed version should be the same.

> I imagine the geoiplookup tool is only a tiny binary and requires a lot of
> work to get it installed this way, or am I missing something?

The ports tree is a collection of 'how to make it work' steps, 
changes/fixes, etc. so getting an entry there is usually how it is made 
easier for FreeBSD users. As for documentation, you tried to follow it 
from multiple places to solve the problems as they arise which usually 
complicates things. Unless there is a known bug, I'd defer to what is in 
the handbook and other official FreeBSD documentation over what is in 
internet blogs and forums when available. The handbook and similar 
documents receives updates and tries to represent how things are 
currently working for what they cover; though not perfect, it is usually 
better than words of a random individual and more up to date than places 
where there may not be an 'edit' button later.

> Rody
> 
>