Install program in FreeBSD; ports, package or source?

Published in Unix - on May 18, 2007 - Comment Off

FreeBSD supports three methods for installing program :

  1. Ports
  2. Package
  3. Source

Every method has its advantage and disadvantage :

  • Ports, till time of writing, already reach 16984, wow. Supports many option, my favorite since beginning :-). Simply type make install .
  • Package, for time consuming ports like cvsup I prefer use package for its small size. Package not provide option.
  • Source, everything begin with source. If no ports or package available I use source.

Like debian or ubuntu ports make life easier, every dependency handling automatically as long you got internet connection 🙂

Pretty impressive list of ports number 16984, I don’t know all of them. Only related ports to sytem administration like apache, php, mysql etc.

Maybe I should explore the ports more for better understanding on how FreeBSD work.

Full list of FreeBSD ports to date :

  • Accessibility (60) — Ports to help disabled users.
  • Afterstep (34) — Ports to support the AfterStep window manager.
  • Arabic (11) — Ported software for the Arabic market.
  • Archivers (159) — Utilities for archiving and unarchiving data.
  • Astro (89) — Applications related to astronomy.
  • Audio (810) — Audio utilities – most require a supported sound card.
  • Benchmarks (67) — Utilities for measuring system performance.
  • Biology (83) — Software related to biology.
  • Cad (90) — Computer Aided Design utilities.
  • Chinese (138) — Ported software for the Chinese market.
  • Comms (150) — Communications utilities.
  • Converters (135) — Format conversion utilities.
  • Databases (564) — Database software.
  • Deskutils (233) — Various Desktop utilities.
  • Devel (2593) — Software development utilities and libraries.
  • Dns (123) — DNS client and server utilities.
  • Editors (285) — Common text editors.
  • Elisp (167) — Things related to Emacs Lisp.
  • Emulators (184) — Utilities for emulating other OS types.
  • Finance (71) — Monetary, financial and related applications.
  • French (24) — Ported software for French countries.
  • Ftp (122) — FTP client and server utilities.
  • Games (990) — Various and sundry amusements.
  • German (37) — Ported software for Germanic countries.
  • Gnome (523) — Components of the Gnome Desktop environment.
  • Gnustep (167) — Software for GNUstep desktop environment.
  • Graphics (859) — Graphics libraries and utilities.
  • Hamradio (40) — Software for amateur radio.
  • Haskell (29) — Software related to the Haskell language.
  • Hebrew (7) — Ported software for Hebrew language.
  • Hungarian (12) — Ported software for the Hungarian market.
  • Ipv6 (711) — IPv6 related software.
  • Irc (132) — Internet Relay Chat utilities.
  • Japanese (436) — Ported software for the Japanese market.
  • Java (409) — Java language support.
  • Kde (395) — Software for the K Desktop Environment.
  • Korean (61) — Ported software for the Korean market.
  • Lang (422) — Computer languages.
  • Linux (222) — Linux programs that can be run under binary compatibility.
  • Lisp (30) — Things related to pure lisp.
  • Mail (728) — Electronic mail packages and utilities.
  • Math (421) — Mathematical computation software.
  • Mbone (18) — Applications and utilities for the MBONE.
  • Misc (501) — Miscellaneous utilities.
  • Multimedia (285) — Multimedia software.
  • Net (1153) — Networking utilities.
  • Net-im (140) — Instant messaging software.
  • Net-mgmt (228) — Network management utilities.
  • Net-p2p (130) — Peer to peer networking software.
  • News (117) — USENET News support software.
  • Palm (43) — Software support for the Palm(tm) series.
  • Parallel (36) — Applications dealing with parallelism in computing.
  • Pear (211) — Utilities/modules that fall into the PEAR system.
  • Perl5 (2897) — Utilities/modules for the PERL5 language.
  • Plan9 (10) — Software from the Plan9 operating system.
  • Polish (19) — Ported software for the Polish market.
  • Ports-mgmt (49) — Utilities for managing ports and packages.
  • Portuguese (14) — Ported software for the Portuguese market.
  • Print (409) — Utilities for dealing with printing.
  • Python (655) — Software related to the Python language.
  • Ruby (298) — Software related to the Ruby language.
  • Rubygems (64) — Packages for the RubyGems system.
  • Russian (47) — Ported software for the Russian market.
  • Scheme (45) — Software related to the Scheme language.
  • Science (123) — Scientific software.
  • Security (878) — System security software.
  • Shells (39) — Various shells (tcsh, bash, etc).
  • Spanish (7)
  • Sysutils (778) — Various system utilities.
  • Tcl80 (6) — TCL v8.0 and packages which depend on it.
  • Tcl82 (3) — TCL v8.2 and packages which depend on it.
  • Tcl83 (12) — TCL v8.3 and packages which depend on it.
  • Tcl84 (69) — TCL v8.4 and packages which depend on it.
  • Textproc (1159) — Text processing/search utilities.
  • Tk80 (11) — Tk8.0 and packages which depend on it.
  • Tk82 (10) — Tk8.2 and packages which depend on it.
  • Tk83 (10) — Tk8.3 and packages which depend on it.
  • Tk84 (98) — Tk8.4 and packages which depend on it.
  • Tkstep80 (6) — tkstep wm and packages which depend on it.
  • Ukrainian (12) — Ported software for the Ukrainian market.
  • Vietnamese (21) — Ported software for the Vietnamese market.
  • Windowmaker (124) — Ports to support the WindowMaker window manager.
  • Www (1758) — WEB utilities (browsers, HTTP servers, etc).
  • X11 (388) — X Window System based utilities.
  • X11-clocks (56) — X Window System based clocks.
  • X11-fm (40) — X Window System based file managers.
  • X11-fonts (137) — X Window System fonts and font utilities.
  • X11-servers (18) — X Window System servers.
  • X11-themes (191) — X Window System themes.
  • X11-toolkits (298) — X Window System based development toolkits.
  • X11-wm (123) — X Window System window managers.
  • Xfce (57) — Ports to support the Xfce desktop environment.
  • Zope (52) — Software related to the Zope platform.

you might also like