From owner-freebsd-doc Thu May 23 19:18:23 1996 Return-Path: owner-doc Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id TAA23513 for doc-outgoing; Thu, 23 May 1996 19:18:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from main.statsci.com (main.statsci.com [198.145.127.110]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id TAA23504 for ; Thu, 23 May 1996 19:18:20 -0700 (PDT) Received: from statsci.com by main.statsci.com with smtp (Smail3.1.29.1 #3) id m0uMmSF-0005ztC; Thu, 23 May 96 19:18 PDT Message-Id: X-Mailer: exmh version 1.6.7 5/3/96 To: John Clark cc: doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FAQ Contribution References: <2.2.32.19960523130853.006972e4@felix.iupui.edu> In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 23 May 1996 09:08:53 -0400." <2.2.32.19960523130853.006972e4@felix.iupui.edu> Reply-to: scott@statsci.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 19:18:14 -0700 From: Scott Blachowicz Sender: owner-doc@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk John Clark wrote: > Recently I switched from Linux to FreeBSD. Doing this allowed me to see > some serious holes in your documentation. Probably among the worst is the > total lack of coherent directions for using the "ports" collection. You > have a great deal of the documentation in place for this topic in the > handbook, however, key details are missing. Most prominently, there is NO > mention, anywhere, that one has to type "get portname.tar.gz" to fetch the > port subdirectory from cdrom.com. I think an FAQ on this topic should describe how one might use the ports directory provided on the Walnut Creek CDROM...setup a shadow symlink tree to mounted CD or just copy the pieces you want into your /usr/ports directory. > Where is it installed? > ---------------------- > The patches (ports) are designed to run anywhere on the system, I think. > However, in my experience, they work best in their default location: under > the "/usr/ports" subdirectory. > > For example: > > How the "Apache" WWW server "port" may be installed: > > /usr/ports/distfiles/apache_1.0.5.tar.gz : The original distribution > : (from: ftp.apache.org) > ... > Now that you have the subdirectory of the "port" tarred and gziped, you can > unpack it in a subdirectory (preferably /usr/ports) and begin the "port" > process. If you do not have the original distribution sources that the port > is based upon, the "port" itself will attempt to anonymous ftp them from > their primary site (uses "ncftp"). And so it should be noted that if you are connected directly to the Internet, you don't need to pre-fetch the distribution into your distfiles directory (as seems to be implied by listing it earlier). I don't remember how I learned how to do the ports (probably just scanning the mailing lists & newsgroups), but it is REAL slick. Scott Blachowicz Ph: 206/283-8802x240 Mathsoft (Data Analysis Products Div) 1700 Westlake Ave N #500 scott@statsci.com Seattle, WA USA 98109 Scott.Blachowicz@seaslug.org