This page used to contain instructions on how to build and install software under NetBSD. Since in general, we strongly recommend you make use of the many software packages available in the NetBSD packages collection, you will only find very limited additional information on this page.

There are a number of java packages available in the NetBSD Packages Collection, including the latest JDKs from Sun (lang/sun-jdk13, lang/sun-jdk14, lang/sun-jdk15). The Sun JDKs currently run under binary emulation, while others (such as lang/kaffe and lang/wonka) run natively. You can also build your own native Sun JDK by following the instructions available from . Don't let the name mislead you -- these instructions are entirely applicable to NetBSD as well! At some point in the future it may be possible for The NetBSD Project to provide native Sun JDK builds; however, at the moment the licensing terms of Sun's JDK prohibit us from doing so. We will update this documentation when the situation changes. Precompiled binary packages for the various NetBSD ports are available through the NetBSD Packages Collection. An issue which often is encountered when trying to compile software initially written for other Unices, is the problem with the program not finding its shared libraries. This is due to the philosophy of NetBSD's ELF implementation. This is a known problem, and there exists a resolution procedure. Of course, The Right Thing To Do is to install all software using the NetBSD Packages Collection. If the software is not yet available in pkgsrc, you can either &man.send-pr.1; a report or build the package yourself. You can find more information in the pkgsrc documentation.