HOWTO section

This section contains some HOWTOs for different things, which users might find useful.

These HOWTOs are organized in a ​wiki, which means everyone can edit these pages. You can also contribute new HOWTOs right away. All you need is to login with your GitHub account in order to keep spam bots away.

General Notes

Some command you should type in your Terminal are marked with a dollar sign ($) in front. Example:

$ sudo port selfupdate

HOWTO Index

• Port building:
  • How to create standalone installers with MacPorts
  • How to install an older version of a port
  • How to disable parallel building
  • How to share archives between computers under MacPorts 1.0
  • How to share port archives between computers
  • How to build Universal Binaries
  • How to enable ccache

• Software setup:
  • How to setup Apache2
  • How to integrate Apache2, PHP, and MySQL (MAMP)
  • How to setup MAME emulator
  • How to setup MySQL
  • How to configure the Finder to read/write NTFS with the ntfs-3g port
  • How to setup PHP
  • How to setup Dovecot IMAP Server
  • How to setup Fetchmail mail collector
  • How to setup an interception/transparent Squid
  • How to use Trac with ajp-wsgi and Apache
  • How to setup Xymon Server
  • How to setup Subversion client or server

• Daily use:
  • How to use bash-completion

• Alternatives for syncing the ports tree without rsync:
  • How to use the Daily Tarball to sync your ports tree
  • How to use git for syncing the ports tree
  • How to use svn for syncing the ports tree (deprecated)

• MacPorts Development:
  • How to avoid master_sites redirects
  • How to run MacPorts from git master
  • How to most effectively upgrade outdated ports (mostly complete)
  • How to create portfiles for CPAN Perl modules

Unfinished HOWTOs

Feel free to add HOWTO requests to this list or help out to complete them!

• Advanced Daily Administration (script dump)
• How to install Koha - Integrated Library System (unfinished)
• How to setup a mail server using MacPorts software (unfinished)
• How to setup MySQL Workbench to work with MacPorts (unfinished)
• How to patch an existing port (unfinished)
• How to start writing a Portfile (unwritten, requested)
• How to setup PostfixAdmin (unfinished)
• How to use a proxy for rsync/HTTP/FTP? (unwritten)
• How to install and set up Ruby on Rails (unfinished)
• How to setup Postfix mail transfer agent (unfinished)
• How to setup ProofGeneral and Isabelle
• How to add additional local or remote source trees? (unwritten)
• How to build 64-bit binaries? (unwritten)
• How to enable distcc? (unwritten)
• How to build ports with no Xcode.app, and Command Line Tools only? (unwritten, requested)
• How to set up GitHub Actions for a personal fork of MacPorts? (unwritten, requested)

There is also a Template for new HOWTOs.