[NCLUG] FreeBSD versus Linux?

[Chris Ernst]

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 18:00:48 -0700 (MST)
Alan Silverstein <ajs at frii.com> wrote:

> Thanks John and Chris.
> 
> > The package is available here:
> > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-stable/All/mailx-0.5.tgz
> > .
> 
> I did find that, but dunno what a *.tgz is, so I didn't try it.  Later I
> found a tar.gz, but the hyperlink was broken, in fact so were all the
> ones I tried on the same page...
>
> Hey, is *.tgz shorthand for a gzipped tarchive?  I'll have to try that.

You got it.   Try 'man pkg_add'    ;-)
 
> > Alternatively, mailx is in the ports tree, so you should be able to cd
> > into /ports/mail/mailx and do a 'make' then 'make install' to install
> > it.
> 
> What is a "ports tree"?  I can only guess.  :-)

Basically, it's a collection of software ported to FreeBSD (OK.. the purists out there might jump down my throat for that explaination, but, in a nutshell, that's what it is).  You should probably read http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html to get a better understanding of package management.  There are several options and which method you choose depends on your particular tastes and needs.

Good luck!

	- Chris