Dependency on developer tools

[Anders F Björklund]

Lee Azzarello wrote:

> Macports does have the option of using the FreeBSD package format  
> to install binaries, though I don't think macports offers that  
> option. Correct me if I'm wrong as I'm new to macports. I'm a  
> Debian GNU/Linux user who supports OS X at work for a development  
> platform.

MacPorts offers similar archive formats to what FreeBSD has, and also  
with better compression (LZMA) and better metadata (XML). However, it  
does *not* offer any command to install those - without having to use  
the regular port(1) command (with the -b option) and having the  
entire ports tree information available.

You can also build PKG or RPM for each port, but if you go that route  
you need to build such packages for *everything* you want to install  
- you can't mix source ports and binary packages with MacPorts, they  
wouldn't be aware of each-others existence and complain on missing  
deps and file conflicts and such.

See http://guide.macports.org/#using.binaries

--anders