I haven't been following this thread, but it's my understanding that Mac
ports is just Darwinports renamed and further developed. There's a dmg file
on the macports site that makes it very simple to install; it works just
like most other installers; open the .dmg file and follow the instructions;
can't remember if you have to open an installer file inside or not but you
should see it when you open the .dmg file. I'm sure there are instructions
on the website and/or in the .dmg file but the basic format to install a
port is:
sudo port install
with the name of the package you want. But packages have different variants
so you should read the documentation about that. For instance, if you want
lynx with ssl you should do
sudo port install lynx +ssl
To upgrade everything you have installed, you do:
sudo port upgrade installed
If you get an error about the port command not being found, it's because you
don't have /opt/local/bin in your path. You can either type the full path
every time or put a line in your .profile in your home directorye (note the
dot; you might have to create it):
PATH="$PATH:/opt/local/bin"
This adds /opt/local/bin to your path but if you have a package in /bin /or
/usr/bin by the same name as one in /opt/local/bin you'd have to type the
whole path to make sure you get the one in /opt/local/bin where all
Darwinports/Macports packages are located. I think in the documentation it
tells you how to do a full path in our /etc/profile or home directory
.profile with /opt/local/bin at the front so those packages get used by
default.
You also need a password for sudo and I'm sorry but you'll have to check the
documentation for this because I don't remember at the moment how I did
this. I did it once on my first machine and it has always been migrated with
my settings into new machines.
Hth.
