FreeBSD – the unknown Giant

Often, after a fresh new installation of FreeBSD, we have a set of programs we want to install. The conventional method would be installing it one by one in /usr/ports. Today, we will use meta ports to install the set of applications by just one “make install clean” rather then “cd” into individual directories and do “make install clean” for every ports.

Meta ports are, as the name implies, ports file that describe about the program we are installing. The ports file describe where & what to install for this ports to work. A sample of “where” would be “where to download the source“, “where to install it” and so on. As for “what“, it would be “what to install to fulfill the dependencies“. In this post, we will take advantage of this “what“. We will define the dependencies as the list of programs we want to install so that the ports will install it.

Here’s an example how to set up a meta port

Thanks Edmondas, for emailing me the link.

Related posts:

1. Download ports simultaneously with multiple connections (howto)
2. Win4BSD 1.1 in ports
3. Update all installed Ports / Applications in FreeBSD
4. A basic FreeBSD server install
5. FreeBSD software, ports and applications