Software installation from ports
- How to install the software on a virtual private server. General provisions
- How to view the list of the software installed
- How to install a program from the ports
- How to delete the installed program
How to install the software on a virtual private server. General provisions
Every virtual private is provided with a rich collection of the pre-installed software. Pre-installed software does not occupy your VPS disk space and is regularly updated by our specialists. However, there may be a situation when you need to install additional software.
FreeBSD provides different technologies for installing the software: from binary packages, from the source code, but the most advantageous one is installing from the FreeBSD Ports collection. The FreeBSD Ports collection is a set of software sources. Installing from the ports considers interconnection of different programs.
The Ports collection is located in the /usr/ports directory. It is regularly updated by our specialists, so we would strongly recommend you not to update it by yourself.
How to view the list of the software installed
To view the list of installed packages, run the following program from your VPS console:
# pkg_info
This list will display all the installed packages including the pre-installed software packages and those ones that you can set up by yourself following the instructions below.
A pkg_info command has many useful parameters that you can learn in details on the corresponding page of the Guide (man pkg_info). For example, you can view the list of specific package files like that:
# pkg_info -L zip-2.31
How to install a program from the ports
Find a required program in the /usr/ports directory. The programs are structured by catalogs for you to easily find them. Go to the required catalog with a “cd” command:
# cd /usr/ports/…/program
You can configure most of the programs by executing:
# make config
As a result, a configuration menu will appear. If not, the program does not have configuration options. Once configuration is complete, run the compilation process:
# make
If the compilation process is successfully complete, run the program installation with a command:
# make install
Warning! If you already have the program present and want to update it, execute the following commands instead of “make install”
# make deinstall
# make reinstall
After installing the program, clean up contemporary files to save disk space:
# make clean
Please note, that the installed software will occupy your VPS disk space. The program that you installed won’t update along with pre-installed software even if you your program is included into it. You should watch for new program releases and update it by yourself.
How to delete the installed program
First, you should find out a full name of the previously installed package, including the version number (see. pkg_info). Then run a command:
# pkg_delete program_version
For example,
# pkg_delete zip-2.31
