FreeBSD ports is a vast make system for all of the third party software that has been ported to FreeBSD. This is one of the major source code repositories on the net.
Here are the steps to get it working with OSX. GNU-Darwin users should adapt these instructions accordingly.
cd ~
setenv CVSROOT :pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/gnu-darwin
cvs login When prompted for a password, simply press the Enter key.
cvs -z3 co src/etc/mtree
cvs -z3 co src/share/mk
cd src/share/mk
make install BINDIR=/usr/share
cd ../../etc/mtree
mkdir /etc/mtree
make install
cd ~
cvs -z3 co ports/Mk
cd ports/Mk
cp -rf * /usr/ports/Mk
"cd /usr/ports" and find the directory with the application you wish to install (you can use make search name=packagename).
Change to that directory and type "make install". If all goes well, then the ports system will automatically download the necessary
files from the internet, compile the sources, and install the application. If not, the CVS repository always contains a number of updated ports
as well as updated Mk Makefiles
so it is always a good place to look around. You may also want to take a look once in a while at the
developers resources page for new developements and CVS updates.
This GNU-Darwin porting engine has been used to automatically compile over 15000 programs for our users. All of the ported applications are
fully OSX compatible, so that MacOS users can learn about the benefits of free software. Here is a comprehensive list of the software that is found in the ports collection. Most of these can now be fairly easily ported to GNU-Darwin and Mac OSX. Take your pick! To check our progress with a particular port, try the
package directory.
