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How to search for a port in MacPorts?
Run port help search for an exhaustive list of possible switches. Suppose you are looking for PHP in MacPorts. You might start with port search php and notice your query produces a lot of output. In fact, at the time of writing this, this search produces 661 matches. By default, port search searches both name and description of a port.
How do I install MacPorts on my computer?
Double-click the downloaded package installer to perform the default “easy” install. After this step you are done already, MacPorts is now installed and your shell environment was set up automatically by the installer. To confirm the installation is working as expected, now try using port in a new terminal window.
Which is the most recent version of MacPorts?
The list of available ports is very long, so use search if you are looking for a specific port. port list always lists the most recent version available in MacPorts, which is not necessarily the version you have installed. For this reason, port list installed likely produces unexpected output.
Can you use MacPorts on any other OS?
MacPorts is developed on macOS, though it is designed to be portable so it can work on other Unix-like systems, especially those descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). In practice, installing ports only works on macOS.
What do you need to know about MacPorts?
A MacPorts port is a set of specifications contained in a Portfile that defines an application, its characteristics, and any files or special instructions required to install it. This allows you to use a single command to tell MacPorts to automatically download, compile, and install applications and libraries.
What is the port command port on Mac?
The port Command port is the main utility used to interact with MacPorts. It is used to update Portfile s and the MacPorts infrastructure, and install and manage ports. The help action shows some brief information about the specified action, or if no action is specified, shows basic usage information for port in general.