PORTINDEX(5)

📦 version 15.1, in freebsd 14.5, freebsd 15.1

💅 NAME 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to PORTINDEX(5) — yeah, it lives in the File Formats Manual section, and it's literally the glow-up guide for the port index file 🫶

INDEX — a file that's holding all the info about the state of the ports tree. periodt.

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

The port index file in /usr/ports is lowkey a whole vibe check on the ports tree — it's got various bits of information about it. Every major branch of FreeBSD gets its own separate index file, and it's named INDEX-N, where N is the major version number of the FreeBSD branch. So like, INDEX-7, or INDEX-8. iykyk 💅

Here's the tea on what each field is giving:

  • name — the name of the package 👑
  • path — the path to the port directory 🗂️
  • install prefix — the default install prefix
  • short description — a short description (she's brief, she's iconic)
  • full description — the path to the full description
  • maintainer email — the email address of the maintainer 📧
  • index — the categories this port is part of
  • build dependencies — the ports that are required to be installed prior to building this port 🔨
  • run dependencies — the ports required to be installed for this port to run 🏃‍♀️
  • website — the project website for the port 🌐
  • e-deps — ports that may be required to extract this port
  • p-deps — ports that may be required to patch this port
  • f-deps — ports that may be required to fetch this port

no cap, that's the whole lineup 💖

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /usr/ports/INDEX-N — where N is the major version number of the FreeBSD branch 🦋

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

here's what one looks like, literally copy-pasted energy:

vim-6.3.15|/usr/ports/editors/vim|/usr/local|Vi "workalike", with many additional features|/usr/ports/editors/vim/pkg-descr|obrien@FreeBSD.org|editors|libiconv-1.9.2_1|libiconv-1.9.2_1|http://www.vim.org/|||

she ate, honestly 💅✨

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

go read those too, bestie, they're giving essential 💜

👑 AUTHORS 👑

This manual page was written by Paul Armstrong and Thomas Abthorpe <tabthorpe@FreeBSD.org>. absolute icons, we stan 🫶

and that's the whole page!! mwah 💋 — this one's from Debian, dated October 14, 2012, so yeah she's a little vintage but she still slays 🌈⭐

📦 where this page comes from