port mysteries

[James Berry]

On Feb 25, 2007, at 5:29 AM, Kevin Horton wrote:

> I'm a new MacPorts user, trying to make some sense of it all.  A  
> couple of things have me baffled:
>
> 1. Why does the output of "port list installed" show some duplication:
>
> % port list installed
> db44                           @4.4.20         databases/db44
> db44                           @4.4.20         databases/db44

Kevin,

I can attempt to explain what is happening here.

The "list" action to port simply "lists" the latest available version  
of the specified port or ports. The "installed" pseudo-port returns a  
set of the ports that are installed. So in this case the installed  
pseudo-port is returning two distinct versions of db44, each of which  
is being passed to "list" which shows you the latest version of that  
port.

For what you're doing, you'll get greater joy from the following  
command:

	port echo installed

This will show you more directly the results from the installed  
pseudo-port, including, I believe, the versions of what is installed.  
This output should be roughly equivalent to the action "port  
installed" (though port echo installed doesn't tell you which version  
is active).

James
(department of port mysteries)