FreeBSD keep ports collection up to date in two easy steps

The FreeBSD ports collection offers a simple way for users and administrators to install applications. The ports made FreeBSD quite popular. Keeping ports up to date is an essential task.

FreeBSD Install cvsup

If you never upgraded freebsd ports collection then first step is required; otherwise skip this step and goto step # 2

# pkg_add -r cvsup-without-gui
# mkdir /usr/ports

CVSup is a software package for distributing and updating collections of files (ports) across a network.

Update ports collection/tree

# cvsup -L 2 -h cvsup9.FreeBSD.org
/usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile

Above step will take some to fetch files and it will update your ports collection.

Note if you got an error as follows:

Rejected by server: Access limit exceeded; try again later
Will retry at 01:36:41

Then replace cvsup9.FreeBSD.org with cvs8.freebsd.org, cvs7.freebsd.org etc. You are done. Install packages from updated tree, before that consider installing security auditing port to avoid vulnerabilities warning. Now you can install application via ports.

Running the cvsup command later agian will download and apply all the recent changes to your Ports Collection, except actually rebuilding the ports for your own system. Next time you will see howto use the portupgrade utility to upgrade installed ports.

portsnap command

You can use portsnap command. It is an alternative system for distributing the Ports Collection. It was first included in FreeBSD 6.0. Install portsnap as follows:

# mkdir /usr/ports
# pkg_add -r portsnap
# portsnap fetch
# portsnap extract
# portsnap update

See FreeBSD handbook topic Using Portsnap more information.