cimnine's Tech-Blog

Fancy stuff about my technical life

MacPorts

posted by cimnine @ 8:56pm, Friday 17 October 2008.

Today I want you to present the MacPorts-Project.
It's aim is to port OpenSource Unix-Programs to OS X.

Installation
First you need the Apple's xcode, which is kind the 'SDK' of Apple. You can get it under http://developer.apple.com/technology/xcode.html. You have to register to download it.
After downloading and installation, grab MacPort at http://www.macports.org/install.php. Donwload the 'dmg', open it and run the installer. (I think its installer.pkg; the file-ending is definitly .dmg).

Usage
Usage is simple if you ever used a console/terminal -based package manager (like apt, packman, etc.). If not, it will take a short time to get used to it. The most important commands are:

port search <> : Replace <> by the tool you intend to search. For example 'irssi'.
port install <> : Replace <> again by the tool you intend to install.
port uninstall <> : Replace <> again by the tool you like to uninstall.
port selfupdate : Updates MacPort and the tool-repository
port upgrade outdated : Upgrade every outdated package

If you want to see what happens, add just after 'port' -v (means verbouse, a few more infos) or -d (means debug, and a lot of info). And don't forget to run port install and port uninstall as root. (Yes, also Mac OS X has a 'root'-User!) So, run instead of 'port install' 'sudo port install', and as password your Account-Password. (And, of course, instead of 'port uninstall' 'sudo port uninstall' ;] )

If something isn't clear for you, visit the MacPorts homepage.

~cimnine