/opt/local/macports/software

[Ryan Schmidt]

Please Reply All so that the discussion stays on the mailing list.

> On Jan 19, 2015, at 3:26 AM, Akim Demaille wrote:
> 
>> Le 19 janv. 2015 à 09:27, Ryan Schmidt a écrit :
> 
> Hi Ryan,
> 
>> If you mean /opt/local/var/macports/software, that's where the compressed archives of all your installed ports are stored. You are not meant to interact with this directory manually. To remove an archive from this directory, uninstall the corresponding port. If you're still using the port and don't wish to uninstall it, then you should not delete the corresponding archive in this directory, or you won't be able to re-activate the port if you deactivate it. There may be other aspects of MacPorts that also assume you have not tampered with the contents of this directory.
> 
> Well, I'm a grownup and willing to take these chances.  I don't
> play with activate/deactivate.  I know of no other distros that
> "wastes" that kind of disk space for that.  That some wish to
> use this feature, fine.  But I need those gigs back.

Of note is that MacPorts used to not do this, or rather, using these archives used to be optional, and not the default. Previously, the default was that the contents of /opt/local/var/macports/software was the actual software being installed. Hard links would then be created in the "real" locations. This did not waste disk space, however various new features of OS X interacted badly with this, including Spotlight as of OS X v10.4 and Time Machine as of OS X v10.5, so we were forced to remove the previous mode of operation and insist on using archives instead.

I am not familiar with what other package management systems do.