I got the ports tree in the CD and I also know how to install program using ports tree (cd /usr/ports/path/to/file && make clean install).

I am kind of clueless as to where I should unzip my ports tree tarball. I looked at the FAQ and man cvs doesn't say anything about it. Also while unzipping the tarball, should I use the -p switch?

TIA.

I can't remember which directory you should unzip it in, either /usr or /usr/ports. You can use tar -t to list the contents of a file, so you could do something like tar -tf ports.tgz |head. That will show you what directories it wil create on it's own. It should go in /usr/ports, so if the tarball looks something like
ports/net/stuff
ports/security/stuff
...

Then you want to untar it in /usr

If it has
net/stuff
security/stuff

Then it should go in /usr/ports

...

You get the idea.

Ok. Here it is:

First you have to d.load the ports*.gz and copy it to /usr directory. Then unzip the tarball (tar -zvf port*.gz) and then you will get the /usr/ports/* directory. That's all. Now, go to the respective directory of the thing you want to install. And "make install".

Now, another question:

I tried to get the latest port for nmap so I went to /usr/ports/security/nmap && make install. But it's still nmap 3.50 and NOT 3.70 - the latest one. Is it likely the I am stuck with an older version of nmap till I go for OpenBSD-CURRENT or OpenBSD 3.6? Or it's just that the ports tree has not been upgraded yet?

TIA.

Did you run CVsup to update your ports tree after extracting the tarball?

it could be an outdated one.

When you install the ports tree from the tarball, it will be whatever came with the -release. You need to cvs up your ports tree (follow the instructions on www.OpenBSD.org/ports.html) to get the latest version of OpenBSD ports. Note that this still might not be up to whatever is available at www.insecure.org, because ports are only updated when the maintainer has time to verify that they work correctly on OpenBSD.

you are right. Didn't help. I downloaded the latest ports tree from ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/. Nmap is still 3.5 altho some other stuffs have changed; like, firefox 0.8 to 0.8p etc. etc.

Yep, it's still at 3.50. Don't worry, it'll be updated soon. Dan usually gets new versions integrated very quickly.