FreeBSD Handbook
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# 5.3 Finding Software

FreeBSD's list of available applications is growing all the time. There are a number of ways to find software to install:

- The FreeBSD web site maintains an up-to-date searchable list of all the available applications, at http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/. The ports can be searched by application name or by software category.

- Dan Langille maintains FreshPorts which provides a comprehensive search utility and also tracks changes to the applications in the Ports Collection. Registered users can create a customized watch list in order to receive an automated email when their watched ports are updated.

- If you do not know the name of the application you want, try using a site like Freecode (http://www.freecode.com/) to find an application, then check back at the FreeBSD site to see if the application has been ported yet.

- To find out which category a port is in, type `whereis `file``, where `file` is the program to be installed:

      # whereis lsof
      lsof: /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof

  Alternately, an echo(1) statement can be used:

      # echo /usr/ports/*/*lsof*
      /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof

  Note that this will return any matched files downloaded into the `/usr/ports/distfiles` directory.

- Another way to find software is by using the Ports Collection's built-in search mechanism. To use the search feature, cd to `/usr/ports` then run `make `search` name=`program-name`` where `program-name` is the name of the software. For example, to search for `lsof`:

      # cd /usr/ports
      # make search name=lsof
      Port:   lsof-4.56.4
      Path:   /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
      Info:   Lists information about open files (similar to fstat(1))
      Maint:  obrien@FreeBSD.org
      Index:  sysutils
      B-deps:
      R-deps:

  The “Path:” line indicates where to find the port.

  To receive less information, use the `quicksearch` feature:

      # cd /usr/ports
      # make quicksearch name=lsof
      Port:   lsof-4.87.a,7
      Path:   /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
      Info:   Lists information about open files (similar to fstat(1))

  For more in-depth searching, use `make `search` key=`string`` or `make `quicksearch` key=`string``, where `string` is some text to search for. The text can be comments, descriptions or dependencies in order to find ports which relate to a particular subject when the name of the program is unknown.

  When using (`search` and `quicksearch`), the search string is case-insensitive. Searching for “LSOF” will yield the same results as searching for “lsof”.

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