MacPorts Packages
Contents
MacPorts Packages
MacPorts is currently my preferred package manager for Mac OS X. It is more active than Fink and Homebrew (in number of provided packages)
One of the most striking features of MacPorts is that it provides its own libraries rather than relying on the Apple-provided libraries. This increases robustness, at the downside of requiring long dependency lists. While I dislike the long dependency list, I've seen too many migration problems (e.g. with X11 from Xfree to Xorg or from gcc to llvm compiler, and I'm sure that a migration of Python 2 to Python 3 will also introduce some issues) that I prefer MacPort's philosophy to avoid these issues. It certainly helps that MacPorts nowadays provides binary packages, which both reduces the total compile time as well as the number of build dependencies.
For a good manual, see http://guide.macports.org/
Installing a Package
First, get new packages description, and install a particular package:
sudo port sync sudo port install curl port list installed
List Installed Packages
To list all installed packages:
port installed
To list all manually installed packages:
port installed requested
or
port installed requested and active
To list all ports that are not requested, but have no dependents (e.g. no other port relies on it). This typically gives a list of packages that you can uninstall without problems (a common reason how they get installed is due to build dependencies):
port installed leaves
To mark a port as requested:
port setrequested <portnames>
To delete leaves:
port uninstall leaves
See also Config:MacPorts Packages for a list of currently installed packages.
Build from Source
If available, a precompiled binary of a package is installed. To force the package to be build from source, specify:
port -s
or set buildfromsource always in macports.conf.
Local Builds
It is possible to create a Portfile, and run that build script. Make sure you have a Portfile in a folder with the same name of the port.
E.g. for a port called py-mymod:
cd py-mymod port build
In case the Portfile defines subports (such as most Python and Perl modules do):
cd py-mymod port build subport=py33-mymod
Update
First, download new package descriptions:
% sudo port selfupdate
Then, check for outdated packages:
% port outdated The following installed ports are outdated: gnupg 1.4.2.2_0 < 1.4.3_0 pango 1.12.0_1 < 1.12.1_0 subversion 1.3.0_2 < 1.3.1_0
Finally, upgrade the packages:
% sudo port upgrade installed
Force Rebuild
In case a package is broken, you can force a rebuild:
% sudo port installed php5 The following ports are currently installed: php5 @5.1.4_3+apache2+darwin_8+macosx+mysql5 (active) % sudo port uninstall php5 % sudo port clean --all php5 % sudo port install php5 +apache2+darwin_8+macosx+mysql5
Ports Variants
Packages may have multiple variants. For example, a version with or without IPv6 support. Most packages are default configured with most options enabled, so that the packages has maximum use. However, it may sometimes be necessary to specify a certain option, for example to disable SSL by specifying +no_ssl
% port variants wireshark
wireshark has the variants:
adns: use adns library for async. dns resolution instead of the default c-ares library
gnutls
ipv6
libgcrypt
libsmi
lua
no_ssl
no_x11
pcre
python25: use python25 for the experimental python interface
* conflicts with python26 python27
python26: use python26 for the experimental python interface
* conflicts with python25 python27
python27: use python27 for the experimental python interface
* conflicts with python25 python26
rtp: add rtp support with portaudio
universal: Build for multiple architectures
To specify the non-default variant during installation, use the +variant option:
% sudo port install wireshark +ipv6
Replace an installed variant
The following example adds the ipv6 variant to wireshark.
% port installed ethereal ethereal @0.10.14_0+darwin_8 (active) % sudo port deactivate ethereal @0.10.14_0+darwin_8 % port installed ethereal ethereal @0.10.14_0+darwin_8 % port clean ethereal % sudo port install ethereal @0.10.14_0+darwin_8+ipv6 % port installed ethereal ethereal @0.10.14_0+darwin_8 ethereal @0.10.14_0+darwin_8+ipv6 (active)
Installed Files
To find which file installed a particular package:
% port provides /opt/local/bin/xe* /opt/local/bin/xelatex is not provided by a MacPorts port. /opt/local/bin/xetex is provided by: texlive_base
To list which files are installed by a particular packages:
% port contents texlive /opt/local/bin/etex /opt/local/bin/latex /opt/local/bin/pdflatex
Contributions
See MacPorts Trac page for a list of package contributions I made in the past.
List of Useful MacPorts packages
This is a list of packages I've found useful. For a more recent list, see Config:MacPorts_Packages.
LAMP packages
To customize the existing LAMP ("Linux", Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python) installation, you can use these packages:
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| apache2 | www | The extremely popular second version of the Apache http server |
| lua | lang | powerful, lightweight programming language |
| mysql5 | databases | Multithreaded SQL database server |
| perl5.18 | lang | Perl 5.18.x - Practical Extraction and Report Language |
| pypy | lang, python, devel | implementation of Python in Python |
| python26 | lang | An interpreted, object-oriented programming language |
| python27 | lang | An interpreted, object-oriented programming language |
| python32 | lang | An interpreted, object-oriented programming language |
| python33 | lang | An interpreted, object-oriented programming language |
| ruby19 | lang, ruby | Powerful and clean object-oriented scripting language |
| php5-pear | php, www | Optional port adds the PEAR repository to the include path for php5. |
Developer packages
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ddd | devel | Data Display Debugger |
| git-core | devel | A fast version control system |
| libgcrypt | devel, security | Crypto library |
| mercurial | devel, python | A fast, lightweight, distributed SCM system written in Python. |
| openssl | devel, security | OpenSSL SSL/TLS cryptography library |
| readline | devel | Library that provides command line editing |
| subversion | devel | subversion (svn) -- a version control system designed to be a better cvs |
GNU replacement packages
To replace the BSD tools with GNU tools, you can use these packages:
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| coreutils | sysutils | GNU File, Shell, and Text utilities |
| findutils | sysutils | findutils contains GNU find, xargs, and locate |
| logrotate | sysutils | Rotates, compresses, and mails system logs |
| mlterm | x11 | Multi-lingual X11 terminal emulator |
| xterm | x11 | the ubiquitous X terminal emulator, stand-alone |
Multimedia packages
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ImageMagick | graphics, devel | Tools and libraries to manipulate images in many formats |
| graphviz | graphics | graph visualization software |
| gnuplot | math, science | A command-driven interactive function plotting program |
| fondu | A set of programs to interconvert between Mac font formats and pfb, ttf, otf and bdf files on UNIX. | |
| pdflib | PDFlib Lite (Source Code) is a subset of PDFlib | |
| MPlayer | multimedia | The MPlayer movie player built from SVN. |
| soundtouch | audio, multimedia | Audio processing application and library for changing the Tempo, Pitch and Playback Rates of audio streams or files. |
WWW packages
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| curl | net, www | Tool for transferring files with URL syntax |
| curl-ca-bundle | net | CA certificate bundle for curl |
| lynx | www | The text web browser |
| wget | net, www | internet file retriever |
Compression tools
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| bzip2 | archivers, sysutils | compression library and tools |
| deb2targz | archivers | converts .deb packages to .tar.gz archives |
| p7zip | archivers | 7-Zip implementation |
| unrar | archivers | Extract, view & test RAR archives |
Email packages
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| gnupg | mail, security | GNU pretty-good-privacy package |
| signing-party | mail, security | Various OpenPGP related tools |
Network tools
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ifstat | sysutils, net | ifstat is a tool to report network interface bandwidth |
| lft | net, security | Layer Four Traceroute - advanced traceroute tool |
| mtr | net | traceroute and ping in a single tool |
| ngrep | net | Network grep |
| nmap | net | Port scanning utility for large networks |
| ptunnel | net | tunnel over ICMP |
| rrdtool | net | Round Robin Database |
| rsync | net | Fast incremental file transfer |
| sipcalc | net | An advanced IP subnet calculator |
| tuntaposx | net | Tun and tap virtual devices. |
| whois | net | A replacement whois client |
| wireshark | net | Graphical network analyzer and capture tool |
Text processing packages
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| aspell | textproc | Spell checker with better logic than ispell |
| diffutils | sysutils, textproc, devel | GNU diff utilities |
| enca | textproc | character set analyser |
| figlet | textproc, amusements | banner-like program prints strings as ASCII art |
| flip | textproc | convert text file line endings |
| gsed | textproc | GNU version of the stream editor, sed |
| tidy | www | Fixes and tidies up HTML files |
| xml2rfc | textproc | RFC formatting utility using XML source |
| xtail | sysutils | like 'tail -f' on a bunch of files at once |
LaTeX packages
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| latexdiff | tex | determine and mark up significant differences between latex files |
| texlive-bibtex-extra | tex | TeX Live: BibTeX additional styles |
| texlive-bin | tex | TeX Live Binaries. |
| texlive-fonts-extra | tex | TeX Live: Additional fonts |
| texlive-fonts-recommended | tex | TeX Live: Recommended fonts |
| texlive-formats-extra | tex | TeX Live: Additional formats |
| texlive-generic-extra | tex | TeX Live: Generic additional packages |
| texlive-generic-recommended | tex | TeX Live: Generic recommended packages |
| texlive-latex | tex | TeX Live: LaTeX fundamental packages |
| texlive-latex-extra | tex | TeX Live: LaTeX additional packages |
| texlive-latex-recommended | tex | TeX Live: LaTeX recommended packages |
| texlive-pictures | tex | TeX Live: Graphics, pictures, diagrams |
| texlive-plain-extra | tex | TeX Live: Plain TeX packages |
| texlive-publishers | tex | TeX Live: Publisher styles, theses, etc. |
| texlive-science | tex | TeX Live: Natural and computer sciences |
| texlive-xetex | tex | TeX Live: XeTeX and packages |
Python packages
| Package | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| py-checker | python | python source code checker for finding bugs |
| py-construct | python | python module for parsing and building binary or textual data structures |
| py-dnspython | python, net | DNS toolkit for Python |
| py-docutils | python, textproc | A set of tools for processing plaintext documentation |
| py-dot | python, graphics | python module for creating graphs |
| py-epydoc | python | API documentation generator for Python modules |
| py-gnuplot | python, devel, math | A Python interface to the gnuplot plotting program. |
| py-hggit | python, devel | Push to and pull from a Git server repository from Mercurial. |
| py-hgsvn | python, devel | hgsvn is a set of scripts for Subversion and Mercurial |
| py-ipython | python | An enhanced Interactive Python shell |
| py-libxml2 | python, textproc | Python bindings for libxml2 |
| py-matplotlib | python, graphics, math | Matplotlib is a python plotting library |
| py-modulegraph | python, devel | Python module dependency analysis tool |
| py-mysql | python, devel, databases | Python interface to mysql |
| py-networkx | python, science | NetworkX in a Python package for graph manipulation. |
| py-numpy | python, math | The core utilities for the scientific library scipy for Python |
| py-openssl | python, devel, security | python wrapper around the OpenSSL library |
| py-oursql | python, devel, databases | Python driver for MySQL |
| py-pdfminer | python | Python pdf extraction package |
| py-pdfrw | python, graphics | Pure Python PDF file reader/writer library |
| py-pep8 | python, devel | Python style guide checker |
| py-Pillow | python, devel | Python Imaging Library (fork) |
| py-pip | python, www | A tool for installing and managing Python packages. |
| py-pychecker | python | python source code checker for finding bugs |
| py-pyflakes | python, devel | Passive checker of Python programs. |
| py-pygraphviz | python, science | A Python wrapper for the Graphviz Agraph data structure. |
| py-pypdf | python, devel | A Pure-Python PDF toolkit. |
| py-pypdf2 | python, devel | A utility to read and write pdfs with Python |
| py-rdflib | python, textproc | Python library for working with RDF |
| py-readline | python | GNU readline extension for Python |
| py-scipy | python | An opensource library of scientific tools for Python |
| py-setuptools | python, devel | distutils enhancement for build and distribution |
| py-sphinx | python, textproc, devel | Python documentation generator |
| py-tkinter | python, graphics | Python bindings to the Tk widget set |
| py-unittest2 | python | New features in the unittest library |
| py-wxpython | python, graphics | Python interface to the wxWidgets 2.8 cross platform GUI |
| py-yaml | python, devel | YAML 1.1 parser and emitter for Python |
