Ports update, packages update

Hi,

I am trying to understand the concept of updating ports and installing from ports.

Before we get into that - someone told me I have to use portupgrade to upgrade my ports...

so I do portversion | less
and I see the ports that have to be upgraded...

Are ports the same as packages?
When installing apache, php, perl - is installing from the ports the best way?

Whats a good tutorial for the ports...?

Paul

>> Are ports the same as packages?
No. Ports are installed by downloading the source code onto your computer and compiling it on your computer, with the settings/optimizations that you specify. Packages are precompiled with settings/optimizations for lowest end hardware (say for intel boxes, they're compiled for the 386 CPU which is several years old) and are merely downloaded from the FTP site and installed. Hence, packages take less time to install than ports, but ports are more flexible to install.

>> When installing apache, php, perl - is installing from the ports the best way?
I would tend to say yes -- definitely preferred over packages. However, I should say that apache and php are 2 pieces of software that we at work personally DON'T install from ports -- instead we download our own sources and compile separately. This is because we have very specific compile options for them (and we compile PHP into the Apache binary instead of using DSO). We do install all most perl packages from ports. Your needs are probably way different from ours, so you can stick with ports.

>> What is a good tutorial for the ports...?
Start with the handbook.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.IS...book/ports.html

Scorpions4ever, you are quite possibly the most patient and forgiving person in this forum... (or the most forgetful )

-Steven
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No. No, not really, the only change is if you could go and put your face in some manure and follow along at a reasonable distance, that would be fine. –Edmund Black Adder