MacPorts Project's main goal is to provide an easy way to install various open-source software products on the Darwin OS family (OpenDarwin, Mac OS X and Darwin)
What's New
Version 2.1: Release notes were unavailable when this listing was updated.
This is an amazing piece of software, virtually any piece of free open-source software is available to you with this tool, including Gimp, Tesseract OCR, and even Wine.
An uninstaller for MacPorts would be a welcome idea. I installed this once before and found no easy way to get rid of it after it scattered thousands of files onto my HD.
I have no complaints about MacPorts since it helped me get the task done but I only needed it for the one use and had no way to get rid of it once I was finished with it. I was left with only one choice to re-install 10.6 again.
The important parts are all placed in /opt/local, which you can simply delete. The remaining bits in /Library are easy to track down and anything sitting in your .profile or your home folder should be no trouble. I really don't see why you would ever need to format after installing Macports. This is a 2 minute job. What did you compile with it?
I was needing Inkscape with the textext plugin. I have installed Fink but I was having building problems. I have then tested MacPorts 1.9.1 and launched sudo port install inkscape. After a long delay Inkscape has been built with all the dependencies (there are a lot of them) and Voilà ! It worked without a hitch. Inkscape gives some warnings during the launch but it seem to work and the launch is quick. I am using OSX 10.6.4. Now I can begin to explore other OS softwares.
Thanks to the MAcPorts team, very nice job!
MacPorts works GREAT for me. No problems at all. I currently use it with a 10.5.8 PPC system, and will continue using it when I upgrade to a 10.6.x Intel. MacPorts is also a lifesaver. As a simple example, I just used it to compile the latest bug-fix release of the VideoLAN media player (VLC 1.0.6), which is currently only available in source form. Without MacPorts, I would need to download and compile by hand, and who knows what would have happened. As it is, I just typed "sudo port install vlc", and MacPorts handled the rest, compiling not only VLC, but all the dependencies, and it used the right variants so that I ended up with a clickable program in my /Applications/MacPorts directory as well. Sweet.
Although I use MacPorts as my primary package manager, I also use Fink, and if you configure things correctly, they can easily co-exist on the same system and not get in each other's way. All you have to do is make sure that the path to MacPorts' directories come before Fink. You do that like this in your .profile or .bash_profile:
As a counterpoint to the last two comments, MacPorts almost always works well if it's correctly installed. Apart from Xcode, there are no external dependencies. Once in a while a port fails to build, and then you have to take a particpatory, problem-solving approach -- this is open-source software. I've found that most problems can be resolved by looking up bug reports, reading the mailing list, or posting a query myself. MacPorts is not a point-and-click kind of thing. You have to be comfortable with UNIX or willing to learn.
90% of everything I have tried to install, related to the X Windowing System, fails to install. I have Apple's development tools installed, too.
The errors are usually "error code (1)" or "error code (0)" or " 'some-piece' failed to compile" no reason given. I get these whether I install using a GUI or the Terminal. No mention of what these codes mean.
The other issue is, although it lists dependencies, it gives no clue as to where to get these or, in many cases, to which of these dependencies come with an application available through Macports.
Nothing builds with 1.8 under Snow Leopard. Not gimp, not emacs, most of their dependencies fail. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling using instructions given on the web site. Still no luck. A varying handful of important ports are always broken at any given time, but 1.8 achieves new milestones in port breakage.
A lot of ports are indeed broken in Snow Leopard, but this cannot be blamed on MacPorts. A lot of changes has been made under the hood in Snow Leopard, and a lot of GNU software needs to be patched or updated in order to build under this environment.
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MacPorts Project's main goal is to provide an easy way to install various open-source software products on the Darwin OS family (OpenDarwin, Mac OS X and Darwin)
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mymon reviewed on 15 May 2012
1) port -d selfupdate
2) port upgrade outdated
3) port install mc
(use with sudo)
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https://trac.macports.org/wiki/MacPortsGUI
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And yah, I didn't know of Pallet either.
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Clayton Walker reviewed on 04 Dec 2010
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I have no complaints about MacPorts since it helped me get the task done but I only needed it for the one use and had no way to get rid of it once I was finished with it. I was left with only one choice to re-install 10.6 again.
So please consider making an uninstaller.
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Yildi reviewed on 20 Jun 2010
Thanks to the MAcPorts team, very nice job!
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Negritude reviewed on 10 Jun 2010
Although I use MacPorts as my primary package manager, I also use Fink, and if you configure things correctly, they can easily co-exist on the same system and not get in each other's way. All you have to do is make sure that the path to MacPorts' directories come before Fink. You do that like this in your .profile or .bash_profile:
test -r /sw/bin/init.sh && . /sw/bin/init.sh
export PATH="/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:${PATH}"
export MANPATH="/opt/local/share/man:${MANPATH}"
export INFOPATH="/opt/local/share/info:${INFOPATH}"
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Borlox reviewed on 10 Jun 2010
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The errors are usually "error code (1)" or "error code (0)" or " 'some-piece' failed to compile" no reason given. I get these whether I install using a GUI or the Terminal. No mention of what these codes mean.
The other issue is, although it lists dependencies, it gives no clue as to where to get these or, in many cases, to which of these dependencies come with an application available through Macports.
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albion reviewed on 05 Sep 2009
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sudo port selfupdate
Should update for you (it does for me on 10.5.8, at least).
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /MacPorts/MacPorts-1.8.0-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg on this server.
HassanH rated on 17 May 2012
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Eridani rated on 06 Dec 2011
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Shooters rated on 18 Sep 2011
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Fongd rated on 17 Sep 2011
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ProjectBuilders rated on 30 Jul 2011