HELP!!! I'm a newbie

[John Murphy]

"Tony Pidluberg" <tpidluberg at hotmail.com> wrote:

>I want to install the sources for the ports from a CD, not ftp.

The sources for the entire ports tree would be massive.  There are
about 8,000 ports currently.  I don't know of any CDs that include
ports sources, these days, so if you don't want pre-compiled packages
you will have to use ftp.

Even with minimal ftp access you can explore the ports you are particularly
interested in by installing the 'skeletons'.
Follow the instructions at:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports-using.html

When the tree is installed it's best to 'cvsup' immediately.  The sources
are 'a work in progress' so you wouldn't want to be limited to the out of
date Makefiles etc. on your CD.

All you need do then is to:
# cd /usr/ports
# make search key="whatever"

then 'cd' to the location indicated and simply:
# make install

If all goes well (and it won't if you don't have ftp access) the ports system
will download the tarballs containing the sources for all of the dependencies
required by the 'target' program, check the sanity of the environment, and
eventually make and install the desired application.

I frequently watch in awe as the compilation proceeds and almost always ends
up with a functioning "whatever".

You've obviously got some level of internet connectivity, so why can't
you use ftp?

-- 
John.