Get Help

If you get stuck while using DarwinPorts and have a problem you can't figure out, we have a lot of resources to help you.

Documentation

The DarwinPorts Guide has a section for DarwinPorts users, Part 1: Using DarwinPorts.

The DarwinPorts FAQ is now an ongoing, user driven effort part of our Wiki, where anyone with a Wiki account and DarwinPorts knowledge can contribute with information to help others.

All of our documentation is a work in progress, so if you spot an error, or have a quesiton about some part of the document, let us know! This will help us

Mailing Lists

The darwinports mailing list is open to all. It is the best place to ask questions about DarwinPorts, for new users, developers, everyone alike! It is also where all discussion about DarwinPorts takes place. Please note that due to spam problems, the DarwinPorts mailing list requires posts from non-subscribers to be approved. It may be better to subscribe to the list.

You may check the darwinports mailing list archives before posting a question, although it's not necessarily a requirement. We try to be as helpful as possible, but if it's a common question, our answers may be fairly short.

Otherwise, archives of the darwinports mailing list are easily browsable at Gmane.org as well as through NNTP.

When you post a question to the mailing list, please included any information you think might be relevent to the problem, such as what operating system and version you're using (OS X 10.3.2, for example), whether you have any other third party software installed /usr/local (for example), and any error messages that DarwinPorts might give (use the -d and -v port(1)'s flags to turn on debugging informations). It's a lot easier for us to help you once these flags are used.

IRC

For more real-time discussion, the #darwinports channel on the freenode IRC network is generally where we hang out.

Though it is generally helpful, please keep in mind that no one is obligated to help or even answer your question if you join the IRC channel. Do not take it personally, simply ask your question on the darwinports mailing list instead.