During 2004, i used to use FreeBSD 4 and 5 servers. During this time Cpanel Control panel supported FreeBSD. After cpanel stopped supporting FreeBSD, all the servers slowly got converted to Linux.
I was FreeBSD free for several years. Today i decided to try FreeBSD again.
I tried to install node.js from ports to see how ports work.
cd /usr/ports/www/node make
It started with a dialogue box, where i select some of the options, that made me happy that i have freedom what to install. Then it started downloading software, compiling it. It is good to see where all the software coming.
After some time, it popup another dialogue box, it wanted me select some options. I done it.
It repeated 3 or 4 times. I lost my patience and pressed CTRL+C, that stopped the installation.
It is impossible to watch the screen during such long installs and select options as it pops up. If you are only doing it for one software and only update once in a while, then it is fine, if that is the case, why ports even there. I can’t imaging how many popups i will get if i am installing Apache + PHP and all its module from ports.
I remember long back i had web sites break after doing ports upgrade, php web sites just show source code, then i have to shutdown apache to prevent disclosure of database credentials stored in PHP files and reinstall PHP from ports to get it working.
I ended up installing node.js from pkg, that worked perfectly fine.
pkg install node
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