DESCRIPTION

sources.conf is the configuration file used by the MacPorts system to locate its port definitions. The file is read by the port command to find available ports and how to install them. Lines beginning with # are comments, empty lines are ignored. Entries in this file are URIs optionally followed by flags in square brackets. Each source specification is given on a separate line. A grammar in EBNF is given below:

line  = URI, [ '[', flag, { space, flag }, ']' ] ;
flag  = 'default' | 'nosync' ;
space = ' ' | '\t' ;

URI FORMATS

MacPorts supports a number of different protocols as source descriptions.

rsync://

Followed by a server name and a path on this server, this URI instructs MacPorts to fetch the contents of the file or directory referenced by this URI into a path of its own choosing. This is the default method of port tree synchronization and is generally recommended. MacPorts will derive a machine- and architecture-specific URI (in the subdirectory PortIndex_${platform}_${os_major}_${os_arch}/) and attempt to download a pre-generated PortIndex (including the PortIndex.quick file) from there.

Example

rsync://rsync.macports.org/macports/release/tarballs/ports.tar

Default

rsync://rsync.macports.org/macports/release/tarballs/ports.tar [default]

file://

Followed by an absolute path (which will result in three slashes at the beginning of the URI) to a local directory that should be used as port tree. A port index will automatically be generated for this source. Note that MacPorts will try to determine whether the given path is under source control and attempt to update from the default remote server if it is. Currently, Subversion and Git (including git-svn) are supported options. You can add the nosync tag to avoid this behavior.
NOTE: The MacPorts user (usually called macports) needs to be able to read and write to this location. This usually means your home directory is not a suitable place for a port tree, unless you adjust permissions accordingly.

Example

file:///opt/dports [nosync,default]

Default

none

http://, https:// and ftp://

Followed by a server name and a path on this server, this URI instructs MacPorts to download a tarball snapshot of a ports tree from the URI and extract it to a path of its choice. This possibility is provided as a fallback to users that can use neither rsync nor subversion to sync the MacPorts port tree.
If the tarball contains a pre-built PortIndex and PortIndex.quick file at PortIndex_${platform}_${os_major}_${os_arch}/, those will be used as default. If it does not, MacPorts will build a suitable port index for the local system automatically.

SOURCE FORMATS

Port definition trees can be either directories (e.g. for the file:// and rsync methods) or tarballs (for HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and rsync). For the directory format, no additional verification is performed. Because transfers using rsync are not encrypted or authenticated, the use of this setup over rsync is discouraged.

If the URI ends with .tar, MacPorts assumes the source is a tarball and attempts to download an additional .tar.rmd160 signature file. It then uses the public keys configured in pubkeys.conf(5) to verify this signature to ensure the source has not been tampered with. You are strongly encouraged to use this setup, and it has been the default for MacPorts since it has been introduced.

FLAGS

Source specifications support a number of flags that modify the behavior of a source:

nosync

Skip this source when port sync or port selfupdate are used. You can use this flag to avoid updating your local ports tree managed by a source control system such as Git or Subversion. You are responsible for generating a current port index using the portindex(1) command for sources marked with this flag.

default

Mark this source as the default. The default source is used as a fallback to load additional files (such as PortGroups and mirror definitions) from the _resources/port1.0 directory.

FILES

The path of the sources.conf file is specified in the sources_conf option of macports.conf(5). It defaults to ${prefix}/etc/macports/sources.conf. There is no user-specific sources.conf file, but support for this can be emulated by setting sources.conf in the user-specific macports.conf(5) file.

SEE ALSO

port(1), port-selfupdate(1), port-sync(1), portindex(1), macports.conf(5)

AUTHORS

(C) 2015 The MacPorts Project
Clemens Lang <cal@macports.org>