FreeBSD's list of available applications is growing all the time. There are a number of ways to find software to install:
The FreeBSD web site maintains an up-to-date searchable list of all the available applications, at http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/. The ports can be searched by application name or by software category.
Dan Langille maintains FreshPorts which provides a comprehensive search utility and also tracks changes to the applications in the Ports Collection. Registered users can create a customized watch list in order to receive an automated email when their watched ports are updated.
If you do not know the name of the application you want, try using a site like Freecode (http://www.freecode.com/) to find an application, then check back at the FreeBSD site to see if the application has been ported yet.
To find out which category a port is in, type
whereis
,
where file
file
is the program to be
installed:
#
whereis lsof
lsof: /usr/ports/sysutils/lsofAlternately, an echo(1) statement can be used:
#
echo /usr/ports/*/*lsof*
/usr/ports/sysutils/lsofNote that this will return any matched files downloaded
into the /usr/ports/distfiles
directory.
Another way to find software is by using the Ports
Collection's built-in search mechanism. To use
the search feature, cd to
/usr/ports
then run make
where search
name=program-name
program-name
is the name of
the software. For example, to search for
lsof
:
#
cd /usr/ports
#
make search name=lsof
Port: lsof-4.56.4
Path: /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
Info: Lists information about open files (similar to fstat(1))
Maint: obrien@FreeBSD.org
Index: sysutils
B-deps:
R-deps: make search
searches through a file
of index information. If a message indicates the
INDEX
is required, run
make fetchindex
to download the current
index file. With the INDEX
present,
make search
will be able to perform the
requested search.
The “Path:” line indicates where to find the port.
To receive less information, use the
quicksearch
feature:
#
cd /usr/ports
#
make quicksearch name=lsof
Port: lsof-4.87.a,7
Path: /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
Info: Lists information about open files (similar to fstat(1))For more in-depth searching, use
make
or
search
key=string
make
, where
quicksearch
key=string
string
is some text to search
for. The text can be in comments, descriptions, or dependencies
in order to find ports which relate to a particular subject
when the name of the program is unknown.
When using (search
and
quicksearch
), the search string
is case-insensitive. Searching for “LSOF” will
yield the same results as searching for
“lsof”.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.