Reputation: 45771
I am using MacBook Pro Mac OS 10.5 with related version of XCode. I am new to this development environment. I am learning macports, and I read information about macports from http://www.macports.org/. But I am still confused what macports is after reading information from this site.
I am previous working on Windows and Linux, could anyone let me know what macports is (in easy words) and what is the similar item on Windows/Linux?
thanks in avdance, George
Upvotes: 1
Views: 383
Reputation: 27790
It is just a convenient way to install a lot of *nix soft on your mac book. They are installed separately (not overwriting) from binaries/daemons/libs already installed on your mac (by default in folder /opl/local). Also they are much fresher than those installed on your mac.
For example 10.6 ships with bash 3.2, but after running sudo port install bash
, you will get version 4.x (to make it your default shell add /opt/local/bin/bash
to file /private/etc/shells
, run chsh -s /opt/local/bin/bash
and reopen terminal).
Note other os x package managers: fink and homebrew (superuser question)
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 32671
macports is a way of getting executables and other compiled code installed on your computer without having to work out the details of compiling/linking each apllication.
It is equivalent to a package manager under Linux and other Unicies. There is no direct equivalent under Windows.
Upvotes: 2