how to start with macports ?

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jul 23, 2007, at 15:22, Thomas De Contes wrote:

>> The latest development version of the MacPorts code,
>> which may not work or may not work with the current portfiles,
>> is:
>>
>> http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/base/
>
> thank you :-)
>
>
> 2 questions :
>
> i remember that the cvs command caused to download
> base/
> doc/
> dports/
> www/
> and some readme files

You mean the svn command.

> 1 : does't it need to download at least dports, to know the list of  
> available ports ??

No, it doesn't. You only need base, which is the source code of the  
project. "./configure", "make" and "sudo make install". Then run  
"sudo /opt/local/bin/port selfupdate" which will check if there is a  
new version of MacPorts available (and, if so, will download it and  
"./configure", "make" and "sudo make install" it), and will also  
download the dports tree via rsync. (You can optionally use svn  
instead of rsync to get the dports tree; see another message of mine  
on this list from a couple minutes ago.)

> 2 : why is there no longer in macports the readme files that there  
> were in darwinports ?

I don't know what files you're referring to. What was in them? What  
information are you missing?


>> You don't really need to get the code from out repository though.  
>> Just download and install the disk image as above. Though you can  
>> certainly build it from source if you prefer that, for some reason.
>
> i want to personalize the install directory to not need to be root,  
> i don't know if the binaries would support it (svn doesn't support it)

Oh, ok. You're right, the binaries only work in /opt/local. If you  
want your own prefix, you need to download the source and "./ 
configure --prefix=/whatever/you/want"


> (btw, currently port upgrade outdated gives a big error msg if  
> there is no port outdated)

Yes, that problem has already been reported:

http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/macports/ticket/12288

Patches to correct it are of course welcome!


On Jul 23, 2007, at 16:36, Thomas De Contes wrote:

> oh, it's possible to use rsync ! :-)) i didn't know
>
> it's very nice, because it allows me to install macports on a new  
> computer, needing neither macports binaries, nor svn binaries :-)
> i hope it will be maintained as is at least since svn will be  
> integrated in mac os x, will it ? (who decides this sort of thing ?)
>
> well, no matter if there is no svn URL which always points to the  
> latest stable released version, since there is an rsync one :-)

MacPorts has used rsync for a long time (since the beginning?) and I  
don't know of any plans to remove that functionality.

FYI: I believe Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will include Subversion (in the  
Developer Tools a.k.a. Xcode).


> the command to do to use rsync is
> rsync -azv --delete-after rsync://rsync.macports.org/release/base/  
> macports/
> isn't it ?

I don't know; I don't regularly use rsync and generally have to  
consult the manpage myself.