Doing Stuff with FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and MacOSX
Using the ports tree to install applications is one of the most common ways to install softare. However, what if you updated a port to the latest version and it turns out to break things? How do you downgrade to a previous version if your ports tree is up-to-date? This is where the portdowngrade utility comes in handy.
The FreeBSD ports tree is the most common method of installing software. With the latest 6.x releases of FreeBSD, the old method of keeping your ports tree updated is now considered obsolete. This guide will teach you how to install and maintain your ports tree using the built-in portsnap utility.
Just like any of the BSDs, OpenBSD can be upgraded by grabbing the latest builds and compiling them from the Internet. Below are the steps to perform this.
Something I’ve noticed recently after updating my ports tree and trying to install something is that the latest version of gettext is causing compiles to fail on anything that relies on it. This has been happening on both my FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE and 5.1-RELEASE machines so it doesn’t seem to be something just specific to a certain release. The easiest way to fix these annoyances is to install portupgrade and just update everything that depends on gettext.
So, you install stuff from ports and then updates are released. How do you upgrade your software without having to uninstall and reinstall? This guide will show you how to use portupgrade.
The ports tree (/usr/ports) contains many useful programs that have been ported over to work on FreeBSD. Almost every tutorial here uses something from the ports collection in one way or another. Since all programs are constantly being updated, it’s a good idea to update your ports tree at least once every week to stay current with all the changes that are happening. While this tutorial will not tell you how to setup a program to upgrade every ports program you install (one does exist) it will tell you how to keep the make files current so you’ll always be compiling the latest version. For an extensive resource on what ports are constantly being updated see FreshPorts.org.
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