method for installing ports

[Jason C. Wells]

Jonathan Horne wrote:
> Ive read many many guides found all over the net in the past few days, and
> they can never seem to agree on the way a port is installed.  I see these
> methods:
> 
> Make install
> Make install clean
> Make install distclean
> 
> What is the difference between the 3, and are there legitimate times when
> one is preferred over the other?

Once you have run make with the 'install' target, you have your software 
installed.  You may safely use the software.

The 'clean' target removes the ./work subdirectory.  Some folks might 
keep that around for various reasons.  I like to keep the ./work subdir 
because I like to poke around in the port's config files and make files 
for things I can tweak.  Occasionally I run 'make clean' from /usr/src 
to clean EVERY port in the tree to get some disc space back.

The 'distclean' target deletes the downloaded distribution files for 
that port in /usr/ports/distfiles.  I rarely do this.

The choice is up to you.  None of the three targets listed is more 
correct than the other.

There are many possible targets one can use when running make.  For the 
ports collection, poke around in /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk to see what 
many interesting targets will do.  A make target starts at the beginning 
of a line in a makefile and in punctuated by a colon.

sometarget: optional-subtarget another-subtarget

Later,
Jason C. Wells