Why does Macports reinstall already available software?

Jeremy Lavergne jeremy at lavergne.gotdns.org
Tue Oct 9 07:30:08 PDT 2012


> So, if I may, a little follow-up then. I got into this business since it looked like an easy way to install eric4. And indeed it worked like a charm. But suppose I wanted to give eric5 a try. Using MacPorts I can easily install python 3.3, but eric5 I'll have to build manually. That's oke, but what is the recommended location to put such packages? Like said, usually I'd create a /usr/local/stow tree and use stow to manage it, but it seems that is not recommended with MacPorts anymore?

I would make a local copy of the eric4 Portfile and edit it to install eric5. You can grab the file from here:
$ port file eric4
/opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/devel/eric4/Portfile

You can simply put this file in any directory, and while you're in the same directory you can issue MacPorts commands against it by simply leaving off the portname (e.g. `sudo port install`)

The very basic steps for updating a Portfile typically include changing version and updating checksums. It may or may not be more involved.



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