Chapter 9. Testing Your Port
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## Chapter 9. Testing Your Port

## 9.1. Running `make describe`

Several of the FreeBSD port maintenance tools, such as portupgrade(1), rely on a database called `/usr/ports/INDEX` which keeps track of such items as port dependencies. `INDEX` is created by the top-level `ports/Makefile` via `make index`, which descends into each port subdirectory and executes `make describe` there. Thus, if `make describe` fails in any port, no one can generate `INDEX`, and many people will quickly become unhappy.

### Note:

It is important to be able to generate this file no matter what options are present in `make.conf`, so please avoid doing things such as using `.error` statements when (for instance) a dependency is not satisfied. (See Section 12.16, “Avoid Use of the `.error` Construct”.)

If `make describe` produces a string rather than an error message, you are probably safe. See `bsd.port.mk` for the meaning of the string produced.

Also note that running a recent version of `portlint` (as specified in the next section) will cause `make describe` to be run automatically.

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8.6. Making Use of `SUB_FILES` and `SUB_LIST` | Home | 9.2. Portlint

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