• Ports

FreeBSD Ports

The term Ports when used without qualification may refer to any of the following:

1. The Ports Git Repository

   • Contains many branches of the "Ports Collection", the two supported versions at any one time being: main and Quarterly

2. The Ports Collection

   • Conceptually: The entire set of individuals ports a user can install

   • Technically: Everything you get with Git or gitup of a branch, or, all the things in /usr/ports

   • Also known as: The Ports Tree

   • Includes the framework

3. The Ports Framework: The set of files within the Mk/ subdirectory that provide features for individual ports to use.

   • Ports does not work without the framework

ASCII diagrams are always useful:

• /usr/ports         <-- "Ports Collection" or "Ports Tree"      (2)
  |- Mk              <-- "Ports Framework"                       (3)
  `- category
     `---- port      <-- "A Port"

Further Information

The main page was removed in October 2023. For posterity, in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine:

• About FreeBSD Ports — The FreeBSD Project

With the removal:

• https://www.freebsd.org/ports/ began redirecting to FreeBSD Ports Search.

In the FreeBSD Handbook:

• Installing Applications: Packages and Ports

• Using the Ports Collection.

See Also

• Community/Services

Usage in this wiki

Info about particular ports or files in the ports tree may be placed under Ports/category/portname, or Ports/pathto/anyfile.

Ports-related articles may be placed under Ports/ and categorized with CategoryPorts

The following entries currently reside under this one:

CategoryPorts