macports vs. freebsd ports syntax and functionality differences (only to satisfy my curiosity)

[Rainer Müller]

On 2012-09-27 16:58, Kuba Ober wrote:
> Is the port system very similar between freebsd and macports, or are
> those things similar only in name and are really completely separate
> implementations? For example, would a "benign" portfile from MacPorts
> work with freebsd? Do they use tcl as well?

FreeBSD ports and MacPorts are similar in the way that both systems
allow to get additional software by downloading the required sources,
compiling and installing dependencies and the software itself. They do
not share any code or file format, only the idea of managing software
installation is the same.

The FreeBSD ports collection consists of Makefiles for each port using
the syntax defined by BSD make; MacPorts uses Tcl as scripting language
to implement a custom Portfile syntax that allows writing installation
instructions for a port in a mix of declarative and
procedural/imperative programming statements.

Some more non-technical background on the origin of MacPorts can be
found on this wiki page:
https://trac.macports.org/wiki/MacPortsHistory

Rainer