I have some programs I want to build on my machine which I've previously built on some other operating systems using the standard gnu configure/make/patch utilities and a bash script to automate the process. I checked the ports directory and there are not already ports for these applications. What's the fastest, easiest and best way to get these applications built and installed properly on FreeBSD? If I just build them using the bash script and install them, they're not part of the package management system (cannot be handled or viewed with pkg_add, pkg_info, etc.). I read through the Porter's Handbook. It seems pretty complicated to build Makefile and related files. Is there a way to automate the process more or does this have to be done by hand for each application? Is there a way to skip the Makefile and just create a binary package with the proper files to use with pkg_add? I'm looking for some tips to automating the package creation process. My other thought was to use two package management systems one for FREEBSD related packages and one for tarballs I build locally on the machine that have no ports available. I think that might get messy though. Any suggestions on good options for creating and installing binary packages if the ports for the applications don't already exist? Help, suggestions, pros and cons, appreciated. Thanks.