Integration of a Ports Tree into cAos Linux

cAos has integrated a basic ports tree and the use of environment modules into cAos Linux. The purpose of the ports tree is to facilitate customizations, and development. The environment modules allow per user (or more specifically, per shell) configuration of these tools. Between the two, one can literally do the following:

# yum install ports
# cd /usr/src/ports/programs/gcc/4.1-20050403
# make install
# su - user
$ module avail
$ module load gcc/4.1-20050403
$ which gcc
$ module unload gcc

To keep your your ports system updated:

# yum update portstree

Please note that ports tree is composed of Makefiles. When you run make install it willl literally fetch the source code from the configured download site, attempt to compile and then install. This means that there may be build problems for particular architectures, or dependancies that are not met. The ports tree will figure out its own dependancy resolution for other packages in the ports tree, but not available via RPM. We are looking to fix this, but at this point system level dependancies are not included.

What the cAos ports system is:

• A convenience tool for developers and people that need a custom environment

What the cAos ports system is not:

• A system level maintenance and packaging tool
• Fully encompassing and redundant
• A solution for obtaining system updates or security fixes

We feel that the use of a ports tree is very valuable, but not as the primary form of package maintenance. cAos Linux is an RPM based and distributed form of Linux, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.