From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 3 14:57:03 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 AADD216A4CF for ; Fri, 3 Sep 2004 14:57:03 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5FEC743D31 for ; Fri, 3 Sep 2004 14:57:02 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (localhost.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1])i83Euu9X020023 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Fri, 3 Sep 2004 15:56:56 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost)i83Euue0020022; Fri, 3 Sep 2004 15:56:56 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 15:56:56 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman To: Cristi Tauber Message-ID: <20040903145656.GE23032@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Seaman , Cristi Tauber , FreeBSD Questions References: <1094221571.3917.1448.camel@deepblue.rtc.ro> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="wTWi5aaYRw9ix9vO" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1094221571.3917.1448.camel@deepblue.rtc.ro> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-1.5.6 (smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1]); Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:56:56 +0100 (BST) X-Virus-Scanned: clamd / ClamAV version devel-20040705, clamav-milter version 0.74a on smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-4.8 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=2.64 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.64 (2004-01-11) on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: ports vs source 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: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:57:03 -0000 --wTWi5aaYRw9ix9vO Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Fri, Sep 03, 2004 at 05:26:11PM +0300, Cristi Tauber wrote: > Can anyone tell me which are the avantages of installing from ports > rather than installing from tar balls ? I am kind of new to BSD, and I'm > familiar with linux install from tar & stuff. I know to give the > switches to configure to tune the source for installation ... but how i > can find the parameters for port install ? I mean ... let's say i want > to install php and i have to give the path to mysql, apache and others > graphical libraries ... how can I do that with ports ?=20 > Any link or explications about this subject is appreciated. FreeBSD ports /is/ installing from source. Except that all of the boring stuff like working out what dependencies you need, what flags are required to find the appropriate shlibs, even where to download the software from: all that stuff is handled automatically for you. If you want to setup a webserver running PHP code against a MySQL back-end database, on a virgin FreeBSD system you can just: # cd /usr/ports/www/mod_php4 # make install # cd /usr/ports/databases/php4-mysql # make install=20 And all of the PHP stuff, plus apache plus mysql will be installed for you. Well, in practice you'ld want to set a few variables on the make command lines so that you got the right variant of apache (2.0.50 vs 1.3.31 vs 1.3.31+mod_ssl-2.8.19 amongst others) and the right version of MySQL (choose from 3.23.58, 4.0.20, 4.1.4 or 5.0.0). The other massive advantage of installing via ports is the packaging system. It keeps track of all of the files and directories etc. installed by each port so that you can do things like create a pkg tarball of the installed port as a backup or to install quickly onto another machine. You can also de-install ports cleanly, and in conjunction with tools like portupgrade(1) the ports system makes tasks like managing software updates a breeze. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK --wTWi5aaYRw9ix9vO Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFBOIY4iD657aJF7eIRApmRAJ9ZOxZU1CU9qgdMtJNYPrMZhSm6sACfZ1CL bT3mZeZWMmsV9rB6vS9z5yc= =Ik7C -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --wTWi5aaYRw9ix9vO--