How to Build a Custom Port Tree

[Geert Hendrickx]

On Thu, Aug 19, 2004 at 06:34:25PM -0400, Abid Saigol wrote:
> I am a newbie to FreeBSD
> 
> I'm using an old machine right now with limited disk space, so I don't want to install the entire ports collection.  I want to build a custom port tree, and I'm finding the docs to be a bit silent on this account as I guess nowadays disk space is usually abundant so installing the entire port tree is the preferred route.
> 
> Can someone give some basic guidance on:
> 
> 1)  Do I install a compiler or does the basic FreeBSD install have it installed already?
> 2)  How do I setup a single application port?
> 3)  Will I need to trace dependence or will make pull in the required libraries?
> 4)  Can I use CVsup to keep a limited number of ports up to date?
> 
> Any and all guidance in this regard will be highly appreciated.
> 
> Abid

portcheckout(1) may be what you are looking for.  It's in the Ports :-)
but of course you can also install it with pkg_add portcheckout.  Using
the method described in it's manpage, you would only fetch the files
necessary for a specific port + it's dependencies.  

GH