GSP
Quick Navigator

Search Site

Unix VPS
A - Starter
B - Basic
C - Preferred
D - Commercial
MPS - Dedicated
Previous VPSs
* Sign Up! *

Support
Contact Us
Online Help
Handbooks
Domain Status
Man Pages

FAQ
Virtual Servers
Pricing
Billing
Technical

Network
Facilities
Connectivity
Topology Map

Miscellaneous
Server Agreement
Year 2038
Credits
 

USA Flag

 

 

VPS v2: FreeBSD Ports: Collection of Applications

bullet Introduction

The makers of FreeBSD have compiled a collection of common programs that have been designed to run on the FreeBSD operating system. The VPS v2 has been designed to be able to use the ports collection to install programs on your VPS v2. There are several popular ports for VPS v2. It is important to note that not all of the ports are compatible with the VPS v2 environment.

The FreeBSD ports collection can be found in the /ports directory of your VPS v2. From there, the ports are divided up by categories. Inside each category is a directory containing information about the individual program for each port. The best way to see what ports are available is to check out the ports index at http://www.freebsd.org/ports/.

Some ports may not install easily into the VPS v2 environment, or they may require additional configuration to get them to work. Some of the more common ports that require such special effort have a vinstall script to ease the installation process. You may want to see if a vinstall exists for the packages you are interested in using.

The pkg_info command can be used for two common tasks. First, simply running pkg_info at the command prompt will list the ports that are currently installed on your server. Another option is to find out specific information about a port that is installed. To find out about a specific port, run pkg_info [package-name]. For more information on the pkg_info command, see the man page.

 

bullet Installing Packages

Once you know the name of the package you want to add, you can use the pkg_add command. Because it is unlikely the package files are stored on your VPS v2, you will probably need to use the -r flag to install the program. An example of using the pkg_add command follows.

# pkg_add -r package-name

The pkg_add command is a one step way to install a port. Alternatively, you could go through each of the individual steps to build the package by using the make utility. The following is an example of the commands you would need to run to install a port using the make utility.

# cd path/to/package
# make
# make install
# make clean

Both make and pkg_add should download and install all the program files and dependencies that are required for the package to run on your server. There may be some additional configuration steps required for the specific program you are using.

 

bullet Removing Packages

Once you have installed a package, you can use the pkg_delete or make deinstall tools to remove them. As with any time you use make, the command must be run from the port directory where the appropriate Makefile is stored.


Toll Free 1-866-GSP-4400 • 1-301-464-9363 • service@gsp.com
Copyright © 1994-2016 GSP Services, Inc.