Portsnap

[AnatoliyL]

Will users have to install ports tree while installing FreeBSD? Because portsnap was deprecated

 

[larshenrikoern]

You can use git. Look in the handbook. https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/ports/#ports-using

 

[joneum@]

pkg install git
git clone https://git.freebsd.org/ports.git /usr/ports/

 

[richardtoohey2]

Or gitup (working for me as a replacement for portsnap).

But in answer to the question “will users have to install ports tree” - no, they don’t have to install the ports tree. Generally speaking they can just use binary packages with the pkg command.

 

[balanga]

Is there a single version of ports?

I would like to install it on a centralised server, but use system with different versions of FreeBSD. Would I need a different ports tree for each version?

 

[richardtoohey2]

different ports tree for each version

See e.g. SirDice's comment (basically no, there aren't different versions of ports):

Working with EOLed PHP versions

Hi all, I'm trying to upgrade a neglected Nextcloud machine originally installed in an iocage jail, and running php74. My first problem is that the jail is running 13.2R. For some reason the host and the jail have been updated from time to time, but without touching the Nextcloud configuration...

forums.freebsd.org

 

[SirDice]

Would I need a different ports tree for each version?

There is and always has been only one ports tree. All versions on all architectures use the same tree. It has always been version controlled, but there never was a relation with the version of the base OS. It was version controlled with CVS, later with subversion, and nowadays it uses git. The current git tree actually contains the entire history.