MacPorts – Compile and install open-source software on Mac OS X

01 Feb 2009 5 Comments

macportsThe MacPorts Project provides software installation, updating, and removal functionality to OS X similar to Linux’ apt-get or yum. The Project is currently tracking more than 5000 packages including software such as subversion, wget, apache2, php5, etc.

To install the software, first install Apple’s Xcode Developer Tools (available on your Mac OS X installation disc) and the X11 windowing environment (included by default in 10.5.* “Leopard”, but available on your Mac OS X installation discs for 10.4.* “Tiger” and 10.3.* “Panther”), then download the MacPorts DMG (disk image), mount the disk image and run the installation package.

After the installation has completed, reopen any Terminal windows to reload PATH settings updated by the installation, then run the following command to update the MacPorts software:

sudo port -v selfupdate

Detailed usage instructions can be found in the MacPorts Guide, but the basic commands are:

Install a package:

sudo port install {PACKAGENAME}

Uninstall a package:

sudo port uninstall {PACKAGENAME}

Delete intermediate files created while a port was built:

sudo port clean

List all installed packages:

sudo port installed

List all packages available:

sudo port list

Search all packages available:

sudo port search {SEARCHTERM}

 

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5 Responses to “MacPorts – Compile and install open-source software on Mac OS X”

  1. Jeremy Whitlock Reply 02 Feb 2009 at 08:24

    Great post but if you aren’t into using a package manager, feel free to download a fully-complete installer package for Subversion here: http://www.open.collab.net/downloads/community/. (Hopefully this isn’t seen as post hijacking. Just wanting to help as many as possible.)

  2. willem Reply 02 Feb 2009 at 08:46

    Thanks, Jeremy! Package managers can be daunting to non-technical users, in which case automated installers on an app-by-app basis are a good way to go. :)

  3. Paul Maunders Reply 03 Feb 2009 at 14:12

    If you get “Command not found” when trying to run port, make sure that /opt/local/bin is in your PATH.

    E.g. you could add the following line to your .bash_profile
    export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/bin

  4. willem Reply 03 Feb 2009 at 19:51

    Thanks, Paul!

    sudo nano ~/.profile

    …will let you edit the setting, make sure that “/opt/local/bin” is included in the export line for PATH. In my case:

    export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
    export SVN_EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano
    export EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano

    (Only the “export PATH” line is relevant to the article, the others are just included for context.)

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