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About FreeBSD Ports
===================
Search ports for: All Package Name Description Long description
Maintainer Requires
--------------
The FreeBSD Ports and Packages Collection offers a simple way for users
and administrators to install applications. There are currently
**25015** ports available.
The Ports Collection supports the latest release on the
`FreeBSD-CURRENT <../doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/introduction.html#current>`__
and
`FreeBSD-STABLE <../doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/introduction.html#stable>`__
branches. Older releases are not supported and may or may not work
correctly with an up-to-date ports collection. Over time, changes to the
ports collection may rely on features that are not present in older
releases. Wherever convenient, we try not to gratuitously break support
for recent releases, but it is sometimes unavoidable. When this occurs,
patches contributed by the user community to maintain support for older
releases will usually be committed.
Each “port” listed here contains any patches necessary to make the
original application source code compile and run on FreeBSD. Installing
an application is as simple as typing ``make install`` in the port
directory. If you download the framework for the entire list of ports by
installing the `ports
hierarchy <../doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports-using.html>`__,
you can have thousands of applications right at your fingertips.
Each port's ``Makefile`` automatically fetches the application source
code, either from a local disk, CD-ROM or via
```ftp`` <../cgi/man.cgi?query=ftp>`__, unpacks it on your system,
applies the patches, and compiles. If all went well, a simple
``make install`` will install the application and register it with the
package system.
For most ports, a precompiled ``package`` also exists, saving the user
the work and time of having to compile anything at all. Use
```pkg install`` <../cgi/man.cgi?query=pkg-install>`__ to securely
download and install the precompiled version of a port. For more
information see `Using pkg for Binary Package
Management <../doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/pkgng-intro.html>`__
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