Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 14:39:29 -0700 (PDT) From: "Eric J. Schwertfeger" <ejs@bfd.com> To: Vernon Buck Jr <vbuck@usa.net> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Newbie question about Packages, & Ports Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10005311422030.73617-100000@harlie.bfd.com> In-Reply-To: <20000531211951.29891.qmail@nwcst278.netaddress.usa.net>
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On 31 May 2000, Vernon Buck Jr wrote: > What's the difference between a package, and a port which is better? port first: A port is a Makefile and set of supporting files that tells the machine where to fetch the source code from and how to install the source. As such, a port is usually very small, but requires that the source to be downloaded seperately. A package is the end results of the port (a "make package" command in the port directory will generate the package). No compiling is necessary, you usually just install the package and use it. Packages seldom come with source. Packages have the advantage that there is only one download, and don't need to be compiled, which is an advantage on slower machines. Ports have the advantage that they are smaller, so you can easily download all the ports quickly, whereas downloading the packages might take much more work. There is also software that can't be precompiled for you due to licensing restrictions, so a package would be impossible. They also have the advantage that if you are just a little bit of a programmer, you can modify the options of the software, update the port to a more recent version, even if the port maintainer hasn't updated yet, etc. Personally, I use ports almost every time, because I like seeing what knobs the software has. For example, the OpenSSL port/package comes in two varieties, one for US residents that uses RSAREF, one for non-US residents that gets RSA from OpenSSL itself. Well, in a commercial environment within the US, there are times that neither of these is acceptable, so I make a minor (1 line in the make file, removed a line from the PLIST file) change to the port that created a version of OpenSSL that didn't have RSA at all, and then made a package of that. While OpenSSL quite easily allows for that, the distributed port/package didn't have that as an option. Similarly, many ports of utilities are set up to use all the features of the software, pulling in tcl or python, when those enable features I'm not interested in. You can't modify the package to not pull that stuff in, since it's pre-compiled, but you can modify the port to do so. On the other hand, I can definitely see where someone that isn't familiar with makefiles and tracking down compile problems might prefer packages over ports. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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