Something else I like about Homebrew is the brew cask command, which allows you to very easily install GUI applications from the command line as well. When it came to packages I actually wanted to install, Homebrew invariably had the most current version, whereas MacPorts often did not.Īdmittedly, I made the switch to brew many years ago and haven’t revisited this decision since then, but that was my reasoning back then. MacPorts had many more packages available, but many of them were out of date. Homebrew packages were updated far, far more frequently.I remember it being many GB of wasted space on my first Macbook, which only had a 128GB HD so the space was precious. The bloat caused by not re-using dependencies / not using built-in libs by MacPorts was extensive.I originally used MacPorts for package management on MacOS, but switched to Homebrew for two reasons (many years ago): I don’t know how installing multiple package managers would work out but it doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.Įdit: Thanks for the link it explains the differences between MacPorts and Homebrew very well. Would this be correct?Ī: From a cursory glance at their website it appears you are correct. Q: Does using Miniconda/Anaconda fit into this (specifically point 3?) It looks like Anaconda would need me to install packages from Conda and so it replaces MacPorts instead of working with it. The ports are built to use MacPort’s installation of Python. Presently, that means you would have multiple installations of Python (the one Apple includes, and the one you install with MacPorts). Python is not part of XCode so MacPorts will install it (if needed). MacPorts installs everything in a dedicated directory structure, and it will install everything except software that is included in the XCode command line tools. Q: How do I ensure that packages/scripts that need Python 3 have access to it without making changes to the macOS PythonĪ: When you install a “port” (a package), the port will specify what it needs and MacPorts will install it automatically. However, if you ‘sudo install python3’ (instead of python37) I would guess that it would upgrade in the manner you describe. Q: will this upgrade Python 3.7 to 3.8/further versionsĪ: I’m not sure, but I would guess not. Q: I take it that ports can be updated via sudo port upgrade outdated Q: Is installing Python on MacPorts as simple as running sudo port install python37 ? You don’t need the full-blown XCode development environment. I assume you know that MacPorts requires Xcode’s command line tools, which are free from Apple. I’ll do my best to answer, however 1) I don’t have access to my Mac right now, and 2) I don’t use Python, so you may have to validate what I say. This is a lot to ask so please feel free to ignore bits of it. Does using Miniconda/Anaconda fit into this (specifically point 3?) I must confess that I know even less about pip/virtual environments than I do about everything I have mentioned so far! It looks like Anaconda would need me to install packages from Conda and so it replaces MacPorts instead of working with it.How do I ensure that packages/scripts that need Python 3 have access to it without making changes to the macOS Python as per advice on another thread?.I take it that ports can be updated via sudo port upgrade outdated but will this upgrade Python 3.7 to 3.8/further versions when they are released? (As an aside, I see that Python is at version 3.8 but has not even been updated on Homebrew because of some issues ).Is installing Python on MacPorts as simple as running sudo port install python37?.I remember having to jump through a lot of hoops when Python 2 reached EOL and having to symlink things etc., which I gather is not the best idea. I would be very grateful if you could expand on how it is that you have Python set up on your system. but am able to find my way around the few packages that I rely on. I am a noob when it comes to scripting etc. After some further research (mainly Saagar Jha’s excellent article and the discussion about it) I am thinking of using MacPorts instead of Homebrew. Hi I am going to nuke and pave my Mac soon and was intrigued by your comment to checkout MacPorts.
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