FreeBSD Ports vs. Gentoo Portage (a matter of concept)

[Svein Halvor Halvorsen]

On 2/7/06, FreeBSD Prospect <mailings.freebsd at o0l0o.org> wrote:
> The approach with different qualification of a software state (stable /
> unstable at least) is a common way to go, as it is handled with the FreeBSD
> OS (release / stable / current). That's why I wanted to know, how everybody
> else is comming along with such a system missing for the ports collection.

Alot of the software in the ports tree comes in several versions. E.g
mysql323-server, mysql40-server, mysql41-server and mysql50-server.
Another example is gcc which comes in nine different versions in
ports. Also a huge number of ports comes in a both a "foo" and a
"foo-devel" version.

The ports system itself is ignorant of these subtleties, though, and
it is you own responsibility to find whatever version suits your needs
and requirements best.