# Is there a way to catalog the ports tree?



## Beastie7 (Jun 21, 2015)

Maybe I'm missing something but I've been getting tired of switching between directories to install multiple ports. Is there some type of tool or front-end I can use to enumerate the tree with a arranged descriptions to pick and choose from? Perhaps an aptitude like tool I can use?


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## MarcoB (Jun 21, 2015)

Did you take a look at https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports-using.html ?


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## ANOKNUSA (Jun 21, 2015)

Read the "search" and "quicksearch" sections of ports(7), and read the descriptions in /usr/ports/ports-mgmt.


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## hukadan (Jun 21, 2015)

If you do not mind to use your browser, there is also the freshports website. It is, in my eyes, the most convenient way to search ports.


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## SirDice (Jun 22, 2015)

Have a look at ports-mgmt/psearch.


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## Beastie7 (Jun 22, 2015)

All right so iI've recently tried these and they all seem to do the same thing; incremental searching. I'm looking for a way to actually browse the tree holistically, not input search.



hukadan said:


> If you do not mind to use your browser, there is also the freshports website. It is, in my eyes, the most convenient way to search ports.



Yes, this works. The "Category" section is the closest to what I'm looking for. I just wish I had an ncurses based tool with shortcuts/descriptions so iI won't have to switch away from my keyboard.

I guess what I'm looking for is aptitude. The site will do for now though.

Thanks guys


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## hukadan (Jun 22, 2015)

Beastie7 said:


> The "Category" section is the closest to what I'm looking for.


Then you might want to try the following (see ports(7) for details) :

```
$ cd /usr/ports
# make readmes
$ lynx /usr/ports/README.html
```
You can of course use whatever browser you like.


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## Beastie7 (Jun 22, 2015)

Ah yes!  This will work. Now, do I have to re-do this every time iI update the ports tree? If so, does it use the existing indexes to speed things up? Because that took a while.


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## hukadan (Jun 23, 2015)

Beastie7 said:


> Because that took a while.


Well, we do not live in a perfect world . You do not have to run it every single time. It depends on how often you update your ports tree and how accurate your information about new ports/versions needs to be.

On my computer, it takes six minutes (do not forget that you can use `make -j max_jobs readmes` where you can replace `max_jobs` by your CPU core number). Compared to the four to five hours needed to build ports, it would be bearable to run it each time I update the ports tree.


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## Beastie7 (Jun 23, 2015)

Ok, will keep in mind. I was just curious about it. At least I'm able to scan through and easily locate stuff for future reference.

Thanks.


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