## title: Porting Plan 9 applications to UNIX
       ## date: "2026-01-09"
       
       ## Introduction
       
       I wanted to play Sudoku, so I looked for a graphical
       application to play it, something light and simple, but I
       couldn't find anything. There is GNOME Sudoku, but I don't
       like GNOME and I don't want to have GTK applications, so I
       didn't install it and stopped my search.
  HTML GNOME Sudoku
       
       Later, while hanging out on the mastodon merveilles.town
       instance, I found a post with a screenshot showing a
       graphical Sudoku running on Plan 9. I really liked its
       aesthetics, colors and simplicity.
       
       The problem is, I use NixOS on a daily basis and the
       application isn't compatible with UNIX, only with Plan 9. So
       I decided to create a project to port Plan 9 applications to
       UNIX.
       
       ## My goal
       
       My main goal is to be able to play Plan 9 Sudoku on my UNIX
       system, but also to be able to run other Plan 9
       applications, such as catclock.
       
       ## Strategy
       
       There is a project Plan 9 from User Space (plan9port) which
       has ported many Plan 9 programs to UNIX systems, including
       the main Plan 9 libraries.
  HTML Plan 9 from User Space
       
       The idea is to make the desired Plan 9 programs compatible
       with plan9port and adapt them if necessary.
       
       ## Getting started
       
       To build the project you need GNU Make, Plan 9 from User
       Space and its dependencies for building programs (compiler,
       linker, etc.). Then you can run the following command line.
  HTML Plan 9 from User Space
       
       export PREFIX=/usr
       make && make install # Build and install every project
       
       ## Lifecycle management
       
       Each ported program is treated as a project in its own
       right, with a dedicated folder at the project root,
       containing the source files, an mkfile with the
       all,clean,install and nuke targets, and a Makefile that
       serves as the interface to the mkfile. The design of the
       ported projects, their folders and files is such that the
       lifecycle of each of them is as independent as possible.
       
       The PREFIX environment variable is at the heart of ported
       program lifecycle management. Its value defines the prefix
       of their installation path, and is used by mkfiles, while
       Makefiles provide a default value.
       
       The PREFIX value SHOULD be the same for all targets.
       
       ### Root mkfile and Makefile
       
       The mkfile and Makefile at the root of the project enable
       all projects to be managed together. So, for example, the
       command line below will build and install projects in the
       /tmp folder.
       
       export PREFIX=/tmp
       make clean && make install
       
       Without make, with mk.
       
       export PREFIX=/tmp
       9 mk clean && 9 mk install
       
       Then you can, for example, launch a catclock with the
       following command line.
       
       9 /tmp/bin/catclock
       
       ## Source code
       
       The code for ported projects was retrieved from
       https://9p.io/sources/plan9 and 9front for projects that do
       not exist in Plan 9.
  HTML https://9p.io/sources/plan9
  HTML 9front
  HTML Plan 9
       
       ### Modifying
       
       To enable projects to be built, installed and run,
       modifications have been made to the source code. Some of
       these fix problems of logic, others are necessary to keep
       the construction through GNU Make coherent.
       
       ## Compatibility
       
       Builds and installation and project execution have so far
       only been tested for the x86_64-linux platform.
       
       Builds and installation are tested using a GitHub Action
       workflow for x86_64-linux, aarch64-linux and aarch64-darwin
       platforms.
  HTML workflow
       
       ## Nix
       
       A Nix Flake is provided, exposing Nix packages representing
       each of the ported projects and the packages named all and
       default enabling them to be managed together.
       
       For example, you can launch a catclock with the following
       command line.
       
       nix run github:theobori/9ports#catclock
       
       ## Results
       
       Below are sudoku and some other graphics applications
       running on my NixOS system.
       
       /9ports-running-applications.png
   IMG /9ports-running-applications.png
       
       ## Contributing
       
       Anyone is free to contribute to the source code, many
       projects have still not been ported. For more details,
       please visit the GitHub repository.
  HTML GitHub repository
       
       ## Conclusion
       
       I can now play Sudoku on my UNIX system. I'm really enjoying
       the 9ports project, and I'm thinking of porting other
       applications, like those on the Plan 9 forks, such as
       9front.