FreeBSD® Unleashed

Installing Ports

Let's say that a port catches your eye, and you decide you want to install it. Here's where it gets fun. All you have to do is cd into the port's directory, and type make; this compiles the software. Then, type make install to install it.

It's a simple process on the surface, but there's a lot that goes on under the hood. The make command actually executes a series of sequential make targets (described in Table 15.3), each one of which depends on all the previous targets. You can specify any of these targets directly; this will build all targets up to and including the one you specify.

Table 15.3. make Targets in a Port Makefile

Target	Action
fetch	Downloads the source tarball from the master site into /usr/ports/distfiles
checksum ...