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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