Installation with FreeBSD Ports (Unix Power Tools, 3rd Edition)

40.9. Installation with FreeBSD Ports

The FreeBSD operating system has a terrific software installation system known as the FreePSD Ports. You can download the entire distribution collection as root giving a specific command within the /usr/ports directory:

# /stand/sysinstall

Once the Ports collection is installed, you can then easily install software by changing directory to the specific application and typing make install:

# cd /usr/ports
# cd lang
# cd ruby
# make install
# make clean
# make distclean

Not only will the Ports application install the application -- in this case support for the Ruby programming language -- it also pulls in any dependent files that might not exist on the system.

You may have problems downloading the distribution file because your system setup may not allow you to write to the /usr/ports/distfiles subdirectory for some reason. To install the distribution to a different location, set the DISTDIR environment variable to a different location:

# make DISTDIR=/local/dir/with/write/permission install

To removed an installed application, again change to the ports subdirectory of the application and type:

# make deinstall

-- SP