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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.
Which is the best way to update MacPorts?
Usage: selfupdate –no-sync Upgrade MacPorts itself and run the sync target –no-sync Do not run the sync target, i.e., do not update the ports tree. Only checks for (and installs, if available) new versions of MacPorts.
Is there a way to install MacPorts on another OS?
However, if you wish to install multiple copies of MacPorts or install MacPorts on another OS platform, you must install MacPorts from the source code. The macOS package installer automatically installs MacPorts, sets the shell environment, and runs a selfupdate operation to update the ports tree and MacPorts base with the latest release.
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 is the selfupdate action used in MacPorts?
Only checks for (and installs, if available) new versions of MacPorts. The selfupdate action should be used regularly to update the local ports tree with the global MacPorts ports repository so you will have the latest versions of software packages available. It also checks for new releases of MacPorts itself, and upgrades it when necessary.
Do you need a port list to use MacPorts?
You will hardly need port list at all to work with MacPorts. When searching, port search is the better choice and when trying to list ports, port installed and port echo are much more useful. The search action allows finding ports by partial matches of the name or description.