From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 22 16:06:09 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 72F6B16A4CE for ; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 16:06:09 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp.nildram.co.uk (smtp.nildram.co.uk [195.112.4.54]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CDA4243D4C for ; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 16:06:08 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from arden@nildram.co.uk) Received: from 10.0.0.6 (81-6-230-146.dyn.gotadsl.co.uk [81.6.230.146]) by smtp.nildram.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3D55C24FD89; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 17:05:36 +0100 (BST) From: arden To: Jerry McAllister In-Reply-To: <200406221431.i5MEVSh13169@clunix.cl.msu.edu> References: <200406221431.i5MEVSh13169@clunix.cl.msu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1087920246.2382.2.camel@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.4-8mdk Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 17:04:06 +0100 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: ports cd X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 16:06:09 -0000 On Tue, 2004-06-22 at 15:31, Jerry McAllister wrote: > Howdy, > > > hi all > > > > is it possible to download a cd of the ports so i can use it on a > > standaloan machine > > The entire ports collection would not fit on a CD or even a boxful of CDs. > Someone counted a little while ago and found there were more than 10,000 > ports available in the system. > > I think you may be misunderstanding the ports system and the way it works. > It is a bit confusing because the word 'ports' is gets used to refer to > two different things; the ports system that handles downloading and > installing extra utilities and those extra utilities themselves. > So, you use the ports system to install ports... > > When you install the 'ports' system you really only install the skeleton > for the installation of 'ports'. It is a bunch of makefiles and lists of > files and the addresses of where to get them for download, etc. > > When system (and ports system) installation is complete, you can cd in to > the /usr/ports/ tree and find whatever you want and type "make" and when > it finishes, "make install" and the ports system will go out to whatever > maintainer is distributing that particular port, download it, configure it, > compile it, download and install any dependancies and then finally install > the port you want - all magically before your very eyes. > Do this for each port you want installed. > > Notice by this, that the actual ports are kept in source form > by the various maintainers. Some of them also build packages of > their ports, but not all of them do that (I would guess, most don't) > A few, such as OpenOffice are so big and take so long to build and > depend on so many things that it is convenient to just install > their premade package rather than building it all from ports. But > most are not that big and take only a couple of minutes or so, depending > on your network and machine speed. So, there is not benefit in > creating binary install packages for them - and some significant > disadvantages. > > So, more than you wanted to know, but what you need to know, > > ////jerry thanks for the explanation jerry its clearer now (stuffs up my idea lol) but clearer on how it works > > > > > arden > > >