Chris,
1. Checkout ports tree and place in standard MacPorts location: cd /opt/local/var/db/dports/sources/ svn co http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports \ rsync.rsync.darwinports.org_dpupdate_dports
That should work fine, but you might want to be careful against a selfupdate (updating the MacPorts base). If rsync were to overwrite that directly, you would be disappointed. I would recommend leaving /opt/local/var/db/dports/sources/ rsync.rsync.darwinports.org_dpupdate for rsync only, if for no other reason than to avoid any possible conflict.
OK, I agree and have decided on using this directory: /opt/local/var/db/dports/sources/http.svn.macports.org_dports for the subversion working copy, as this will avoid possible conflict with current MacPorts. Now I have a question about manual selfupdate, how do I manually update MacPorts? From reading the GettingStarted-MacPorts-Trac wiki page and snooping around darwinports tcl code, it looks like I can run subversion on http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/base and write the working copy to /opt/local/var/db/dports/sources/http.svn.macports.org_base Then compare my working copy base/config/dp_version to MP's dpupdate1/ base/config/dp_version and if newer, then ./configure make make install Looks like a lot of repetitive work. I'm tempted to hack the selfupdate routine in my working copy of base/src/darwinports1.0/ darwinports.tcl. Brian