Override default Application install location?

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Apr 18, 2012, at 21:50, imgeorgelin wrote:

> 
> I had been a regular, happy user until I tried to install Virtualbox on my
> iMac running 10.7.3 Lion. 
> 
> The installation of VB itself via Macports went smoothly.  But when I tried
> to install an extension pack downloaded from VB site, I failed because
> apparently the extension tried to reference a library stored in
> /Applications/VirtualBox.app/... but by default, Macports installed it in
> /Applications/Macports/VirtualBox.app/....  So my question is: 
> 
> Can I override the default, say, append something lime
> "--with-application-dir=..." after the usual "port install virtualbox", so
> that the final app would be installed in /Applications/? 
> 
> I don't want to change the global settings in macports.conf.  And the
> extension pack is not a port in macports otherwise it would have worked. 

When you say "an extension pack" to you mean "the extension pack"? I thought there was only one.

I suggest you wait until we add the virtualbox extension pack to MacPorts:

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/31180

To answer your question, yes, you can change the applications_dir, but you should make that decision when installing MacPorts for the first time, before having installed any ports. You would have to install MacPorts from source, instead of from the disk image, and you'd have to uninstall and reinstall all ports so they get installed to the right locations. Also note that if you change applications_dir (or prefix) this way, you will no longer be able to benefit from our pre-compiled binary service.