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title: "FreeBSD Ports -- References"
sidenav: ports
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include::shared/en/urls.adoc[]

= FreeBSD Ports -- References

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To start learning more about ports and packages, see link:{handbook}ports/[Installing Applications: Packages and Ports], a section of the link:{handbook}[FreeBSD Handbook].

The link:{porters-handbook}[Porter's Handbook] is the master reference for both creating new ports and maintaining existing ports, including a section on link:{porters-handbook}#keeping-up[Keeping Up]. It also contains more detail about the topics below, as well as more references for further study.

You may also find the following to be useful:

* The archives of the https://docs.FreeBSD.org/mail/current/freebsd-ports.html[FreeBSD ports mailing list].
* The article link:{contributing}#ports-contributing[Contributing to the FreeBSD Ports Collection].
* https://www.FreshPorts.org[FreshPorts.org] is a valuable tool for further information about individual ports, such as current version, last checkin, and many other useful statistics. You may subscribe to a mailing list to get the latest information about your favorite ports.
* The manual pages for man:ftp[1], man:pkg[8], and man:ports[7].
* The link:../../portmgr/[Ports Management Team] (portmgr) pages.
* The https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/ports/tree[Web Interface to the Source Repository] allows you to browse the files in the source repository. Changes that affect the entire port system are now documented in the https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/ports/tree/CHANGES[CHANGES] file. Changes that affect individual ports are now documented in the https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/ports/tree/UPDATING[UPDATING] file. However, the definitive answer to any question is undoubtedly to read the source code of https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/ports/tree/Mk/bsd.port.mk[bsd.port.mk], and associated files.
