/opt/local/macports/software

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jan 19, 2015, at 1:59 AM, Akim Demaille wrote:

> My SSD is short, and this directory currently holds 4.7GB
> of compressed tarballs on my machine.  When I run short of
> space, I remove it.  But why do I have to do that in the
> first place?  There's autoclean in my config file, couldn't
> there be something equivalent to state "I don't want to
> keep these files"?  I really mean something that would be
> obeyed by post install and port upgrade.  Something we
> don't have to think about.
> 
> This is a pretty common wish.  Just ask any search engine
> about "/opt/local/macports/software".

If you mean /opt/local/var/macports/software, that's where the compressed archives of all your installed ports are stored. You are not meant to interact with this directory manually. To remove an archive from this directory, uninstall the corresponding port. If you're still using the port and don't wish to uninstall it, then you should not delete the corresponding archive in this directory, or you won't be able to re-activate the port if you deactivate it. There may be other aspects of MacPorts that also assume you have not tampered with the contents of this directory.