multiple mac-ports installations and cleaning the hard drive...

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Feb 10, 2008, at 21:16, Esteban Barahona wrote:

> finally the port command funtioned, I tried installing GIMP but  
> there was a lot of dependancies missing (I have to learn to use  
> autotools for this to work... but that's for another day). But I'm  
> not asking for help with this... it will eventually work... somehow...
>
> What I'm asking is to standarize a bit the use of directories that  
> are used by macports,

What's nonstandard? I'm not even sure what directories you're talking  
about. There is of course the standard that ports should install  
binary files into ${prefix}/bin, libraries into ${prefix}/lib,  
applications into /Applications/MacPorts, and so forth.

> so that it can be deleted easily.

Instructions for deleting MacPorts are in the wiki:

http://trac.macports.org/projects/macports/wiki/ 
FAQ#HowdoIremoveoruninstallMacPorts

> Also, is there a way to install macports and its ports as a non- 
> root user?

Yes! Some ports may not work this way because few people test it this  
way. But many ports will work this way.

When you ./configure --prefix=... --with-install-user=... --with- 
install-group=...

> does this apps use some form of sandboxing or jails?

Jails no, sandboxing yes. During the destroot phase, port contents  
are installed to a sandbox. Once that succeeds, it's copied to the  
right place. Ports might install things outside of ${prefix} but if  
they do, port will print a warning so that you will know.

> Also, is there a frontend of macports that allows easy installing  
> and unistalling of apps?

Yes, there are several. Some cost money, some don't.

http://trac.macports.org/projects/macports/wiki/ 
FAQ#WherecanIfindaGUIfrontendforMacPorts

> This is to clean the hard drive, because some versions of ports (a  
> form of directory based versioning may also help) may be installed  
> multiple times because they don't work. Also, the redundancy of  
> directories may create issues if a port used them (how to know  
> which version to use). I'm aware that there is a way to delete all  
> ports and macports, but what if there's the need of only tracking  
> versions so that they can be deleted one by one?

I'm not sure what you're talking about exactly... are you asking  
about simultaneous installation of different versions of a port?  
like, say, installing apach 2.2.6 and 2.2.8 at the same time? If so,  
that's not possible. Well, you can have them "installed", in MacPorts  
terms, but only one of them can be "active".