Using MacProrts inhouse as multiplatform package manager

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Aug 10, 2007, at 14:54, Anders F Björklund wrote:

> Ognen Ivanovski wrote:
>
>> I was just wondering if it's possible to use MacPorts as an  
>> inhouse package distribution manager for several platforms (linux,  
>> solaris, mac os x).
>
> MacPorts only supports Mac OS X, so that's not going to work cross- 
> platform.
> (you can use it on FreeBSD with GNUstep, but it is not officially  
> supported)

Well, to express that in a bit more friendly way: MacPorts is  
designed for Mac OS X 10.3 and later. The target audience is Mac OS X  
users. But since Mac OS X is based on BSD UNIX, many ports will also  
work on BSD-style operating systems.

MacPorts should also be capable of supporting builds on most UNIX- 
like platforms, including Linux and Solaris. Many ports will probably  
already work on those operating systems without modification. I doubt  
anybody is testing most of the ports on those systems, however, so  
you may run into problems. But those problems should be surmountable  
(Mac OS X GUI applications excepted for obvious reasons). You can  
insert directives into the portfiles for commands to be run only on  
certain platforms. And if you find such changes necessary, you can  
submit patches to us via Trac for inclusion in the normal ports  
collection, so that you don't have to keep maintaining your own deltas.

Looking through the existing portfiles, I see gettext which declares  
it will work on linux, libpng says it will work on linux, freebsd and  
sunos, and monit claims to work on linux, freebsd, netbsd, openbsd  
and solaris. In addition to Mac OS X, of course. And, as I say, many  
ports will probably work on your other OSes, even if they don't  
declare it. (And if you find that they do work, you can tell us so  
that we can indicate that the port does work on that platform.)