MacPorts For Mac

MacPorts is a software package designed to offer support for compiling, installing, and upgrading OS X applications that have been developed for the command line, or are based on the X11 or Aqua systems.

Moreover, MacPorts runs as a command line utility itself, and has been designed to facilitate the compilation and installation procedures.

To get started, you must make sure that both Xcode and the Xcode Command Line Tools are installed on your Mac. Moreover, via the Terminal application, you can run the following command an agree with the Apple Xcode license: ”sudo xcodebuild -license”.

The next step is to launch the MacPorts package and complete the installation procedure by following the on screen instructions. On completion, you can open the Terminal application and quickly update the included port definitions.

The MacPorts system is comprised by two different elements: the command line  application that facilitates the software installation, and the wide collection of Mac open source software (the apps are organized in 83 different categories).

Simply browse the software collection inside the Terminal and find applications that might prove to be useful. At the same time, the MacPorts software collection can also be perused online, on the developer website.

Once you found a software port that interests you, within the Terminal app, simply run the appropriate installation command. Note that MacPorts also provides support for uninstalling the ports, together with all dependencies.

MacPorts provides quick access to a large collection of open source software that can be easily managed via the Apple Terminal application: the MacPorts command line tool enables you to compile, install, upgrade, or uninstall application via simple Terminal commands.