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= How to sync your ports tree using Subversion over HTTPS

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#!div style="clear:both; display:block; width: 75%; margin: .2in auto; background: #ffedcc; border-left: 8px solid #ffa500; padding: 10px"
[[span(style=display: block; margin: 5px 0 10px; color: #ffa500; font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.1em, Note)]]
MacPorts has migrated to Git, the Subversion repositories are no longer updated. Please follow the [wiki:howto/SyncingWithGit how-to on syncing with Git] now.
}}}


- Audience: end users who cannot use rsync (873/tcp) due to firewalls,
  proxies, policy, etc.
- Requires: MacPorts
- Requires: Subversion 


== Introduction ==

Some people live and work behind a firewall or proxy that blocks or otherwise breaks rsync, which is the primary means of getting updated Portfiles in MacPorts. The following steps will switch your tree over to using Subversion over HTTPS for syncing.

Note: if you are using a custom prefix, you will have to replace the default of `/opt/local` with the location of your MacPorts install in the instructions below.


== Installation ==

=== Step 0: Install Subversion ===

Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 and later comes with Subversion already installed, but in OS X Lion 10.7 and later, it does not trust any SSL certificates by default, which requires you to manually approve the SSL certificate. To avoid that extra setup, and to ensure you have the latest Subversion, we recommend you install the MacPorts subversion port. If you have a copy of the ports tree already, just run:

{{{
sudo port install subversion
}}}

If you do not have a copy of the ports tree, you can download the daily
tarball by following [wiki:howto/PortTreeTarball the tarball howto].

=== Step 1: Checkout Initial Copy ===
{{{
cd /opt/local/var/macports/sources
mkdir -p svn.macports.org/trunk/dports
cd svn.macports.org/trunk/dports 
svn co https://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports/ .
}}}


== Configuration ==

=== Step 2: Configure MacPorts ===

Edit `/opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf` to comment out the `rsync://` entry and add the `file:///` entry:

Note: if you need to replace `/opt/local` with your custom prefix, make sure the initial "!file:///..." contains three slashes.

{{{
#rsync://rsync.macports.org/macports/release/tarballs/ports.tar [default]
file:///opt/local/var/macports/sources/svn.macports.org/trunk/dports/ [default]
}}}

=== Step 3: Configure Subversion ===

First, tell Subversion to use your proxy to connect to the server.  This
should not be necessary if your initial Subversion checkout worked, so most people should not have
to do this.  If initial checkout failed, you will need this.  If you
needed to configure your own ~/.subversion/servers file to be able to do
the initial checkout, then you *do* need this step.

1. If the /opt/local/var/macports/home/.subversion/servers file doesn't
   exist, create it by copying the corresponding ~/.subversion/servers
   file from another user to that location.  (Subversion automatically creates
   this file if it doesn't exist, so you probably already have one.)
1. Edit the file and set a proxy for hosts at `*.macports.org`.
   Different proxy configurations require different sets of options
   here, but the file is pretty well commented, so it should be easy to
   figure out what you need.  At a minimum you'll need settings for
   http-proxy-host and http-proxy-port.

Finally, if you're using the copy of `svn` that comes bundled with OS X 10.7 or later, you'll need to tell Subversion to trust the MacPorts signature.  (Apple's `svn` doesn't trust any SSL certificates, and `port sync` below invokes `svn up` with the `--non-interactive` flag, so you won't have the opportunity to accept the certificate then.)

1. `mkdir -p /opt/local/var/macports/home/.subversion/auth/svn.ssl.server`
1. As a normal user, run `svn ls https://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports/`.
   When prompted, accept the certificate permanently.
1. Subversion will store the certificate in a file in the directory
   `$HOME/.subversion/auth/svn.ssl.server`.  In that directory, find the
   file that contains the string "`https://svn.macports.org`" and copy
   it into `/opt/local/var/macports/home/.subversion/auth/svn.ssl.server`.

=== Step 4: Sync ===

On running your first sync you will have wait for the PortIndex to be generated, which will take some time. Subsequent runs will be faster, as only changed Portfiles need to be indexed again. Use the `-v` flag for verbose mode which will show you the progress of this operation.

{{{
sudo port -v sync
}}}

After this has finished, you are now receiving your Portfiles using Subversion instead of rsync. 

== See also ==

Additional topics related to MacPorts and Subversion:

- Creating and testing ports not yet submitted to MacPorts:
  [https://guide.macports.org/#development.local-repositories Local development repository]
- [wiki:RunningTrunk Running an unstable/development version of MacPorts]


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