#MACPORTS USER HOW TO#

Notes for ports can be shown by users using port notes portname, but I agree that often isn't helpful for users. Why don't you globally append /opt/local/bin to $PATH for all users? Surely you do have a mechanism to roll out configuration changes for all users? You could just add the file in /etc/paths.d/ yourself. It will need time and careful thinking to get right, but will make macports much more usable in classroom scenarios. This is why I am suggesting it as an enhancement request.

#MACPORTS USER HOW TO#

(3) port maintainers are given guidelines on how to get this right, or better still, this is built into the macports infrastructure (2) there needs to be some thinking of how to handle this in a systematic way right across macports, for all ports,

(1) some good way is needed of doing things transparently for all users - perhaps /etc/paths.d is part of the answer. This is not going to be seen by the students if the class tutor installs the piece of software, nor is it necessarily useful to show it to them anyway. Various ports themselves tell users to make further updates to their paths, set various shell variables, etc. It would be much more helpful in such a case if macports software 'just worked', for all users.Īlso, it goes deeper than than you indicate. Students may have little idea of how to 'add /opt/local/bin/ to their PATH'. That's none too friendly for a teaching lab.

Macports user