This chapter describes using +port+, port variants, common tasks and port binaries.
+port+ is the main utility used to interact with MacPorts.
It is used to update [path]`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.
$ port help selfupdate
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.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.
$ sudo port selfupdate
---> Updating MacPorts base sources using rsync MacPorts base version 2.6.2 installed, MacPorts base version 2.6.2 downloaded. ---> Updating the ports tree ---> MacPorts base is already the latest version
If selfupdate detects that a newer version of MacPorts is available, it automatically updates the installed copy of MacPorts base to the latest released version.
In that case, you will see this message:
---> Updating MacPorts base sources using rsync MacPorts base version 2.6.1 installed, MacPorts base version 2.6.2 downloaded. ---> Updating the ports tree ---> MacPorts base is outdated, installing new version 2.6.2 Installing new MacPorts release in /opt/local as root:admin; permissions 755
If the selfupdate procedure fails you’ll see a message like this:
Error installing new MacPorts base: command execution failed
As always, you can use the debug flag -d to enable verbose output.
If your selfupdate failed, re-run it with debug output enabled to see all output generated by the build system.
$ sudo port -d selfupdate
The output may give you an idea why the build failed.
Look for the first occurrences of “error”.
If you cannot figure out what’s wrong yourself, feel free to ask on the macports-users@lists.macports.org mailing list and attach the output generated by +sudo port -d selfupdate+.
selfupdate accepts a single switch:
--no-syncThe sync action performs a subset of +selfupdate+.
It synchronizes the ports tree, as does +selfupdate+, but it does not check for MacPorts upgrades.
On macOS, unless there is a special reason not to do so, run selfupdate instead.
sync does not accept any switches.
The diagnose action checks for common issues in the user’s environment and reports all issues it finds to the user, along with possible fixes for said problem.
diagnose accepts a single switch:
--quietThe reclaim action attempts to reclaim space by uninstalling inactive ports, and removing unnecessary files that were downloaded during the installation process.
reclaim accepts switches to configure automatic reminders.
If passed, the reclaim process will not be run.
--enable-reminders+port reclaim+.--disable-reminders+port reclaim+.The list action lists the currently available version of the specified ports, or if no ports are specified, displays a list of all available ports.
The list of available ports is very long, so use search if you are looking for a specific port.
$ port list
+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.
In most cases where you would +list+, using installed or echo is the better choice instead.
Both +port installed+ and +port echo installed+ would produce the output you might expect from the command, +port list installed+ will not (and, to make matters worse, will be slow).
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.
Other fields can be matched against, and matched in different ways, by using options. +port
search+ is the tool of choice if you are looking for a specific software in MacPorts.
We recommend you read up on some of its flags to improve your efficiency when searching for ports.
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.
While we’re looking for PHP, we can reduce the number of hits by using the --name flag.
Furthermore, we only want ports whose name starts with “php”, so we add the --glob flag (actually, we could leave it out because it is the default) and modify the search term to +php*+:
$ port search --name --glob 'php*'
Furthermore, we can enable compact output by using the --line switch.
This causes only a single line to be printed for each match:
$ port search --name --line --glob 'php*'
Among a large number of PHP modules you will find the main PHP ports, which are named php<version>.
Choose one to install.
If you know regex and know about the format of the PHP versions, you can further reduce the output of +port search+:
$ port search --name --line --regex '^php\d*$'
php 5.5 lang www PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor php4 4.4.9 lang www PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor php5 5.3.28 lang www PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor php52 5.2.17 lang www PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor php53 5.3.28 lang www PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor php54 5.4.31 lang www PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor php55 5.5.15 lang www PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor php56 5.6.0RC2 lang www PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
Let us look at another example that is less complicated.
Assuming you are looking for +rrdtool+, a popular system to store and graph time-series data, the simple search approach works well:
$ port search rrd
cacti @0.8.8b (net)
Cacti is a complete RRDtool network graphing solution.
jrrd @1.0.4 (java)
Java interface to RRDTool
netmrg @0.20 (net)
An RRDtool frontend for network monitoring, reporting, and graphing that generates day/week/month
MRTG style graphs.
network-weathermap @0.97c (net)
Weathermap is a network visualisation tool, to take graphs you already have and display an
overview of your network as a map. It supports RRD, MRTG (RRD and old log-format), and
tab-delimited text files. Other sources are via plugins or external scripts.
php-rrd @1.1.3 (php, net, devel)
PHP rrdtool extension
php5-rrd @1.1.3 (php, net, devel)
PHP rrdtool extension
php5-rrdtool @1.0.5 (php, net, devel)
this port is only a stub and has been made obsolete by php5-rrd
php53-rrd @1.1.3 (php, net, devel)
PHP rrdtool extension
php54-rrd @1.1.3 (php, net, devel)
PHP rrdtool extension
php55-rrd @1.1.3 (php, net, devel)
PHP rrdtool extension
rrdtool @1.4.7_5 (net)
Round Robin Database
Found 11 ports.The possible switches to search and their meaning are:
--case-sensitive--exact--glob+\*+, +?+, and +[chars]+). This is the default behavior.--regex--field+<field>+.
Can be specified multiple times to test against multiple fields.
The default is +--name --description+.
Possible values for <field> are+--category+, --categories+--depends+, +--depends_build+, +--depends_extract+, +--depends_fetch+, +--depends_lib+, --depends_run--depends is an alias for all other --depends_ options combined.
Note that only dependencies specified in default variants will be found.+--description+, --long_description--homepage+--maintainer+, --maintainers--name--portdir+--variant+, --variantsThe info action is used to get information about a port: name, version, description, variants, homepage, dependencies, license, and maintainers.
$ port info yubico-pam
yubico-pam @2.16 (security)
Variants: universal
Description: The Yubico PAM module provides an easy way to integrate the YubiKey into your
existing user authentication infrastructure. The module can be configured to
validate YubiKeys against Yubico's YubiCloud infrastructure, a custom YubiKey
validation server or it can be used for offline authentication with newer
YubiKeys supporting a challenge-response protocol.
Homepage: https://github.com/Yubico/yubico-pam
Build Dependencies: pkgconfig, autoconf, automake, libtool
Library Dependencies: ykpers, yubico-c-client
Platforms: darwin
License: BSD
Maintainers: cal@macports.orgThe deps action lists the dependencies of a port.
Dependencies are the packages are required by a port at runtime (library and runtime dependencies) or required to install it (build, fetch, and extract dependencies).
$ port deps apache2
Full Name: apache2 @2.2.27_0+preforkmpm Library Dependencies: apr, apr-util, expat, openssl, pcre, perl5, zlib
Note that the list of dependencies might depend on the variants you chose.
For example, choosing the \+openldap variant of apache2 adds a dependency on +openldap+:
$ port deps apache2 +openldap
Full Name: apache2 @2.2.27_0+openldap+preforkmpm Library Dependencies: apr, apr-util, expat, openssl, pcre, perl5, zlib, openldap
deps accepts two switches:
--indexPortfile to determine dependencies.
Instead, rely on the information cached in the port index.
Note that (despite specifying them), this option will ignore any effects of variants.
It is, however, much faster.--no-buildThe variants action allows you to check what variations of a port are available before you install it.
Variants are a way for port authors to provide options you can use to customize your build at install time.
See Invoking Port Variants below to install ports that have variants.
$ port variants apache2 +universal
apache2 has the variants:
eventmpm: Use event MPM (experimental)
* conflicts with preforkmpm workermpm
openldap: Enable LDAP support through OpenLDAP
[+]preforkmpm: Use prefork MPM
* conflicts with eventmpm workermpm
+universal: Build for multiple architectures
workermpm: Use worker MPM
* conflicts with eventmpm preforkmpmThis output lists all variants followed by their description.
If a variant depends on or conflicts with other variants, a line detailing that follows.
A variant name prefixed by + indicates that it has been enabled (on the command line), while a prefix - indicates that it has been disabled.
When bracketed, a prefix \+ means that the variant is enabled by default.
Any [] are derived from the Portfile.
While () are derived from the variants.conf.
See Section 6.2.3, “variants.conf” for more information on variants.conf.
The action install is used to install a port.
Once you determined the name of a port you want (possibly using +port search+), you can install it using this command.
See Section 3.2.1, “Invoking Variants” on how to choose variants when installing a new port.
For example,
$ sudo port install apache2 -preforkmpm +workermpm
installs the apache2 port without the +preforkmpm+, but with the workermpm variant.
If the installation of a port fails, you can enable verbose or debug output by giving the -v or -d flag to port:
$ sudo port -v install apache2
All debug information is also kept in main.log for the port you installed.
Its path will be printed automatically if the installation fails.
You can manually get the path using +port logfile portname+.
Note that logfiles will automatically be deleted on successful installation.
If the installation of a port fails, you should always clean and try again, i.e., run
$ sudo port clean portname
and re-execute the command you ran before.
You might also want to try enabling trace mode, which can prevent conflicts caused by files installed by other ports or in common system locations, such as /usr/local.
To do that, re-run the installation with the -t flag, i.e.,
$ sudo port -t install portname
If the port still fails to install after you have followed these steps, please file a ticket and attach the main.log of a clean attempt.
The installation of a single port consists of multiple phases.
These phases are fetch, extract, patch, configure, build, destroot, archive, and finally install.
You may break up a port’s installation into smaller steps for troubleshooting by using the name of one of these phases as action rather than +install+.
For example
$ sudo port destroot apache2
will run the installation of apache2 until the destroot phase.
See Section 5.3, “Port Phases” for a complete list of phases and a detailed description.
install takes the following switches:
--no-rev-upgraderev-upgrade is run automatically after each successful installation.
Pass this flag, if you want to avoid running this step, for example if you want to run it explicitly later after a number of installations using +sudo port rev-upgrade+, or if you know it will detect problems but want to defer dealing with them.--unrequestedinstall explicitly (contrary to ports installed as a dependency of a different port) is marked as “requested”.
If you want MacPorts to treat a port you installed manually as if it was automatically installed as a dependency (e.g., if a dependency failed to build and you re-tried installing the dependency only), pass this flag.The action clean deletes intermediate files created by MacPorts while installing a port.
A +port clean+ is often necessary when builds fail and should be the first thing to try after a failed installation attempt.
$ sudo port clean portname
+port clean+ can also be used to remove corrupted downloads after a failed fetch phase, by specifying the --dist flag:
$ sudo port clean --dist portname
deletes all files that have been downloaded for the given port.
clean accepts the following options:
--archive--dist--logs--workwork directory, i.e., the directory used by MacPorts to build a software.
This removes all traces of an attempted build and is the default operation.--allThe uninstall action will remove an installed port.
It is one of the actions you will use fairly often in MacPorts.
$ sudo port uninstall portname
MacPorts will refuse to uninstall ports that are still needed by other ports. For example:
$ sudo port uninstall libcomerr
---> Unable to uninstall libcomerr @1.42.9_0, the following ports depend on it: ---> kerberos5 @1.11.3_0 ---> subversion @1.8.9_0 ---> subversion-perlbindings-5.16 @1.8.9_0 Error: port uninstall failed: Please uninstall the ports that depend on libcomerr first.
You can recursively uninstall all ports that depend on the given port before uninstalling the port itself to work around this.
To do that, use the --follow-dependents flag.
$ sudo port uninstall --follow-dependents libcomerr
You can also override this safety check using the -f (force) flag. Since
this will obviously break the dependents you shouldn’t do this unless you know what you are
doing.
$ sudo port -f uninstall libcomerr
Uninstalling a port will not uninstall ports that have been automatically installed as dependencies of the uninstalled port and are otherwise unused.
You can trigger this behavior by passing the --follow-dependencies flag.
Ports that were manually installed (i.e., are marked as “requested”) or have other dependents will not be removed.
You can manually uninstall the unneeded ports later using the leaves pseudo-port, e.g., using +sudo port
uninstall leaves+.
uninstall supports the following switches:
--follow-dependents--follow-dependencies--no-execThe contents action displays a list of all files that have been installed by a given port.
You can only use contents for ports you installed.
$ port contents xorg-renderproto
Port xorg-renderproto contains: /opt/local/include/X11/extensions/render.h /opt/local/include/X11/extensions/renderproto.h /opt/local/lib/pkgconfig/renderproto.pc /opt/local/share/doc/renderproto/renderproto.txt
Common uses for contents are finding the location of a port’s executable after installing it.
The following line is usually helpful in this case:
$ port -q contents portname | grep -E '/s?bin/'
The -q (quiet) flag suppresses the header line in this case, but is not strictly necessary.
contents accepts:
--size--units UNIT--size to choose the unit of the file size.
Valid parameters for UNIT areB+K+, +Ki+, or KiB+KiB+, i.e., 1024 bytes.+Mi+, or MiB+MiB+, i.e., 1024 * 1024 bytes.+Gi+, or GiB+GiB+, i.e., 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes.+k+, or kB+kB+, i.e., 1000 bytes.+M+, or MB+MB+, i.e., 1000 * 1000 bytes.+G+, or GB+GB+, i.e., 1000 * 1000 * 1000 bytes.The installed action displays the installed versions and variants of the specified ports, or if no ports are specified, all installed ports.
It also displays whether a port is “active”, i.e., whether the files belonging to this port are currently present on disk or inactive, i.e., stashed away in a compressed tarball.
$ port installed
The following ports are currently installed: a52dec @0.7.4_0 (active) adns @1.4_0 (active) apache2 @2.2.27_0+preforkmpm (active) apr @1.5.1_0 (active) apr-util @1.5.3_0 (active) aquaterm @1.1.1_0 (active) asciidoc @8.6.9_1+python27 (active) … XviD @1.3.3_0 (active) xz @5.0.5_0 (active) yasm @1.2.0_0 (active) ykpers @1.12.0_0 (active) youtube-dl @2014.07.25.1_0+python27 (active) yubico-c-client @2.12_0 (active) yubico-pam @2.16_0 (active) zlib @1.2.8_0 (active)
Use -v to also display the platform and CPU architecture(s) for which the ports were built, and any variants which were explicitly negated.
$ port -v installed libsdl
The following ports are currently installed: libsdl @1.2.15_3-x11 (active) platform='darwin 13' archs='x86_64'
The outdated action checks your installed ports against the current ports tree to see they have been updated since you installed them.
Note that you will only get new versions by updating your ports tree using <<using.port.selfupdate,selfupdate>> (or +sync+).
$ port outdated
The following installed ports are outdated: gnupg 1.4.16_0 < 1.4.18_0 gnupg2 2.0.22_2 < 2.0.25_0 gpg-agent 2.0.22_1 < 2.0.25_0 gpgme 1.5.0_0 < 1.5.1_0 HexFiend 2.1.2_1 < 2.3.0_0 libksba 1.0.8_0 < 1.3.0_0 p5.16-class-methodmaker 2.180.0_1 < 2.210.0_0 p5.16-gnupg-interface 0.330.0_3 < 0.500.0_1 p5.16-ipc-run 0.910.0_1 < 0.920.0_0
+port outdated+ lists the ports for which an upgrade is available and on the second column, why MacPorts thinks the port needs an upgrade.
In most cases, this will be an increase in the version number.
If it isn’t, more details will be given.
The upgrade action upgrades installed ports and their dependencies to the latest version available in MacPorts.
In most cases, you will run
$ sudo port upgrade outdated
to update all ports that have an upgrade available. You can, however, selectively upgrade ports if you want to delay other upgrades until later. This is not recommended unless you know what you are doing, since you might experience software errors for the ports that have not yet been upgraded. To upgrade individual ports, specify the name(s) of the port(s) to upgrade:
$ sudo port upgrade gnupg2
Note that MacPorts may decide to upgrade other dependent ports before upgrading the port you requested to be updated. Do not attempt to prevent this, since it will very likely lead to problems later.
upgrade does not uninstall the old version of a port.
Instead, it deactivates it, i.e., it stashes the files belonging to the older version away in a tarball.
This allows you to go back to the older version if there happens to be a problem with the updated one.
To do that, run
$ port installed portname
to determine the version number of the old version you want to re-activate, and run
$ sudo port activate portname @old-version
to go back to the old version.
If you do not want to keep the old versions around while upgrading, you can pass -u when upgrading:
$ sudo port -u upgrade outdated
However, we instead recommend keeping the older versions around for a while and running
$ sudo port uninstall inactive
once in a while.
upgrade accepts a number of switches:
--force--enforce-variants$ sudo port upgrade --enforce-variants apache2 -preforkmpm +workermpm
+
Note that --enforce-variants will also enforce your variant selection in all dependencies.
If you know this is not necessary, you can avoid processing dependencies using the global -n flag:
+
$ sudo port -n upgrade --enforce-variants apache2 -preforkmpm +workermpm
--no-replaceThe dependents action reports what ports depend upon a given (installed) port, if any.
$ port dependents openssl
apache2 depends on openssl curl depends on openssl cyrus-sasl2 depends on openssl git depends on openssl kerberos5 depends on openssl lftp depends on openssl libssh depends on openssl mosh depends on openssl openldap depends on openssl p5.16-net-ssleay depends on openssl python27 depends on openssl python32 depends on openssl qt4-mac depends on openssl ruby19 depends on openssl serf1 depends on openssl textmate2 depends on openssl wireshark depends on openssl
Note that dependents does not work for ports that are not installed on your system.
If you want to find out, which ports depend on a port that you have not installed, you can use
$ port echo depends:portname
This command will, however, not cover dependencies that are only present in non-default variants.
The livecheck action checks to see if the application corresponding to a given port has been updated at the developer’s download site.
This action is mostly useful for port maintainers to determine whether their port needs to be updated, but other may also wish to see if a port packages the latest available version.
See Section 5.8, “Livecheck / Distcheck” for more information on livecheck.
$ port livecheck rb19-sass
rb19-sass seems to have been updated (port version: 3.3.10, new version: 3.3.14)
If livecheck finds no higher version at the port’s download site, it prints nothing.
The option -d (debug) may be used for detailed livecheck processing information.
The lint action checks if the Portfile conforms to the MacPorts standards specified in Portfile Development.
You should use this if you modified a Portfile before submitting patches back to MacPorts.
If a Portfile validates fine the following message is shown.
$ port lint rb19-sass
---> Verifying Portfile for rb19-sass ---> 0 errors and 0 warnings found.
Otherwise the warnings and errors are listed.
$ port lint abiword
---> Verifying Portfile for abiword Warning: Variant use_binary does not have a description Warning: Variant use_source does not have a description Warning: no license set ---> 0 errors and 3 warnings found.
lint has the following flag:
--nitpick