MacPorts 2.0.0 brings support for Lion

The MacPorts Project has announced the release of version 2.0.0 of its package management system for installing open source applications on Mac OS X. According to the project's homepage, there are currently nearly 8,200 ports available in 96 different categories.

MacPorts 2.0.0 adds support for Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). Updates to the client allow it to automatically download and install pre-built archives. Privilege dropping is enabled by default and, when uninstalling ports, the registry is "vacuumed" (compacted/defragmented) automatically. Download archives are checked for integrity using digital signatures, and sync and selfupdate can also use a signed tarball.

The developers note that the installer will automatically convert existing port images into a new format, which "can take quite some time". MacPorts 2.0.0 requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later; 10.4 (Tiger) is no longer supported.

Further information about the release, including a full list of changes since 1.9.2, can be found in the official release announcement and in the change log. Disk images (dmg files) for MacPorts 2.0.0 are available to download from the project's site; documentation is provided. MacPorts source code is released under a BSD Licence.

See also:

• MacPorts 1.8.0 for Snow Leopards, a report from The H.

(crve)