# Some general ports questions



## kpedersen (Jun 5, 2010)

Hiya,

I have just decided to invest some time in learning how to use the ports collection (rather than just keeping to packages) and I have a few questions.

1) The ports collection that comes on the FreeBSD DVD, if I built it all, would the versions correspond correctly to the RELEASE packages? So I could mix these ports with release packages?

2) Why are there a limited number of RELEASE packages? License restrictions explain why some are not available but things like openoffice-2 cannot be found even though 7.0 release and 8.0 stable contain this package.

3) Whilst building openjdk, I had to hunt around for a slightly older version of some localization source on the sun/oracle website, it was by pure chance (a bit of URL guessing) that I found it. Are there backups of license crippled distfiles such as these anywhere?

4) Which distfiles are on the FreeBSD ftp? I assume they are ones not encumbered by license restrictions, but how old do they get? If I tried building ports from a ports tree found on the FreeBSD-6.0-RELEASE cds, would I be able to get hold of the distfiles from the ftp?

5) How do ports know what version their dependent ports need to be? I should be able to copy certain ports not found in the old release port tree from a latest snapshot ports tree and build it right?

If anyone has advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

(My reason for not using the latest and greatest is that I do not have the internet at home, and I have to download distfiles, packages and everything manually so when I need to download something, I really need to commit to it and not have to do it often haha.)


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## jb_fvwm2 (Jun 5, 2010)

More information:
Is the machine which *does* have net access using
the ports system yet? and how do you transfer the
updated ports tree OR packages OR distfiles OR...
(With that info if I had enough time I could answer
*some* of the questions.) (Short on time though).


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## kpedersen (Jun 5, 2010)

The machine that is connected to the internet does not have the ports collection installed. It is not even guarenteed to be FreeBSD. I simply get a list of the required distfiles and download them manually from any avaliable online machine I can find.

Thats why I want to minimize all this internet automatic downloading nonsense and take a step back to the late 90s where the users were still in control of their operating system. Or at least until British internet is made completely free and at 100MBs (aka never)

And ideally I want to stick to using packages included on the RELEASE DVD and thus a matching ports snapshot (also on DVD) I am just not sure if this is possible once the old ports tree (included on DVD) no longer has correct download links etc...


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## DutchDaemon (Jun 5, 2010)

There is absolutely no guarantee that any distfile associated with any port in an old snapshot of the ports tree will be available after a new version of that port has been made available. In order to use ports successfully you will have to work with an up-to-date version of the ports tree before installing any given port. Only then will you be able to successfully a) satisfy a port's dependencies and b) download distfiles.


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## kpedersen (Jun 5, 2010)

Ok, I can see why.

But if I do update my ports collection, I will run into problems due to the fact that I have older RELEASE packages installed. So I will then need to download and update all these as well... That is not possible.

I guess, if I come across a port (from the release ports tree) that needs updating (i.e to correct distfile), I will see if I can update that one only using CVS and just cross my fingers that it builds alright with the older ports tree lol.


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## DutchDaemon (Jun 5, 2010)

You may be better off using -STABLE packages and leaving the ports tree alone. The latter only functions well when _everything_ (tree, installed ports, installed packages) is up-to-date.


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## kpedersen (Jun 5, 2010)

Maybe, but do STABLE packages not change too?

For example what would be a bit of a shame is if I was happily running my freebsd installation with all my required stable packages, I then decide I really need to install gnucash. I attempt a pkg_add and then realize that in the time I fetched all my currently installed packages, the STABLE packages have been updated so the gnucash package requires a slightly different version of the gtk+ package. This means I will need to remove all my current packages and refetch *all* the new stable versions. This probably won't even fit on my memory stick so I will need to make multiple trips to the university and back haha.

Obviously I will try forcing the package (-f) but sooner or later this will break everything.

Would STABLE package snapshots be a solution? It seems a pain to have to duplicate all the packages e.g. every month.


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## DutchDaemon (Jun 5, 2010)

Well, that's yet another choice to make. If you're willing to settle for outdated (possibly unsafe) software, install only packages from -RELEASE (DVD), and accept that no new software or versions will be available until the next -RELEASE. The only way to stay up to date with installed software is either an 'unlimited' Internet connection at your disposal, or a FreeBSD build server in a location where there _is_ such a connection, so you can build packages from ports and take them with you for installation elsewhere.


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