Hey Guys,

I am novice in *BSD but been working on most of the Linux flavors since ages. I have just started playing with FreeBSD and few questions are hovering in my mind.

1] What is the package management system being used in FreeBSD? The reason behind asking this question is, on Linux you got pre-compiled packages like rpm, deb..etc. so do we have anything like this on FreeBSD.

2] I saw most the packages are in a form of a source codes i.e in tar.gz, so I am bit keen to know the installation procedure. Please let me know if you have any good link/s to refer to.

3] Can I remaster the FreeBSD just like you can do with linux and with linux its pretty easy i believe. so, is there any such option available under FreeBSD?


Thanks,
Manya

I'm just a few steps ahead...

in freebsd, there are three ways : 1. to install packages that you get from the repositories in binary form you have sysinstall. Download the .tar.bz (or other ) file into a directory, run sysinstall as root, change the option for package location and you are done.
2. To install apps from source, there is a vast collection of apps already available under /usr/ports. Here you only need to cd to the particular folder containing the app and run make install. The required files are downloaded and compiled automatically. Say you want to install wine, cd to /usr/ports/emulators/wine and run make install.
3. Other packages like opera 10 for freebsd need to be installed the old fashion sh <packagename>.sh. way.

The best source of info is the manual at freebsd.org.

Packages

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/...ges-using.html


or

Ports

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/...rts-using.html


I personally prefer ports.

@manya: FreeBSD's third-party application support pretty much revolves around the Ports system. Thus, depending on your needs, that's likely where you want to focus your energy.

Binary packages are built at infrequent intervals (primarily when a new -RELEASE version is ready), and some apps are not available as packages at all (due to licensing and other reasons).

I've got nothing to add, really, except that it's best to run a make install clean instead of just a make install when installing from ports so that temporary files that are created in the installation process are removed. It's possible that these files can cause problems after upgrades, so it's best to take this extra step.

You might want to listen to this episode of Hacker Public Radio, in which I briefly describe what goes on during the process of installing software from source using FreeBSD's ports.

I've never heard of a simple method for remastering a BSD, but FreeBSD derivatives such as DesktopBSD, MidnightBSD, and PC-BSD prove that it's certainly possible.