How to install geoiplookup?

[Rody]

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.

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.

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?

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?

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

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?

Rody

[Per olof Ljungmark]

Hi,

On 2024-06-07 15:53, 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.

[...]

Try,

% cd /usr
% fetch http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/ports/ports.tar.gz
% tar -xvzf ports.tar.gz [lots of output]
% whereis libmaxminddb
/usr/ports/net/libmaxminddb
% cd /usr/ports/net/libmaxminddb
su
# make install clean

Per


> Rody
>
>

[Edward Sanford Sutton, III]

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
>
>

[Rody]

Op vrijdag 7 juni 2024, schreef Edward Sanford Sutton, III:

> 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-count
> >ry-db.69866/ But it does not include info for when you've never used ports
> > before.

Ah! I was looking for the old geoiplookup tool as it is currently still named
on linux. It doesn't exist anymore on bsd though. It is now the new GeoIP2
software, but I got confused by info from multiple sources as you say further
down yourself. I compared the files that the port would provide and the files
I already had installed on my system, and they were the same. Both provided
the same binary that I did not look for as it was named different from what I
expected and was looking for. (geoiplookup vs. mmdblookup) The mmdblookuptool
has different syntax and output but I can use it. After long searching I
finally came to the conclusion that installing ports was not needed for what
I wanted with GeoIP. The previous link gave me the wrong impression that a
ports install of the program would be different from the default program from
pkg. My bad...

Thanks for making that clear to me as I have need for using ports soonish, but
not for this.

>
> > 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.

Thanks for making it all much clearer. It's not that hard but got bitten by
older info that I couldn't place exactly. But it happened before with
fail2ban. That program has had changes that affected how pf should be
configured. Many sources available but all explained the old way. Still, I
found my way in the end...


>
> > Rody