MacPorts¶

ID: macports
Links: Home page · Documentation · Repository · Wikipedia
Upstream stars: ⭐ 1,049
Last commit: 2026-09-28
Version requirement: >= 2
Platforms: 🍎 macOS
Operations: installed · outdated · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove · sync · cleanup · doctor
purl types: pkg:macports/
CLI name: port
Extra search paths: /opt/local/bin
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: macports
Source: macports.toml

MacPorts is a source-based ports system for macOS: it builds and installs packages under its own /opt/local prefix (the port binary lives at /opt/local/bin/port), isolated from the system.

Parsing notes:

port -q installed reports only active ports: the (active) anchor in the installed regex skips the inactive versions MacPorts keeps around, and the version capture stops at the first “+” so variant suffixes (“@3.12.3_0+lzma+optimizations”) stay out of the version.
port -q outdated prints name installed < latest rows; the < arrow separates the current version from the available one.
port search --line prints tab-separated “name version category description” rows; the {extended_args} template maps mpm’s --extended to --description and {exact_args} maps --exact, both sitting before the trailing --line {query}.
The standard MacPorts install owns /opt/local as root and port does not self-escalate: mutating operations fail with “Insufficient privileges” as a plain user, so they escalate through sudo by default (sudo port install, the invocation every MacPorts guide documents). A user-prefix (non-root) MacPorts build can opt out with --no-sudo or a sudo = false override.

What `mpm` adds to `macports`¶

mpm reaches across every manager at once, not macports alone: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover macports alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `macports` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know macports: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `macports`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`port -q installed`	`mpm --macports installed`
List outdated packages	`port -q outdated`	`mpm --macports outdated`
Search for a package	`port search --name <extended_args> <exact_args> --line <query>`	`mpm --macports search <pkg>`
Install a package	`port install <package_id>`	`mpm install pkg:macports/<package_id>`
Upgrade one package	`port upgrade <package_id>`	`mpm --macports upgrade <package_id>`
Upgrade everything	`port upgrade outdated`	`mpm --macports upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`port uninstall <package_id>`	`mpm remove pkg:macports/<package_id>`
Clear caches	`port clean --all installed`	`mpm --macports cleanup --cache`
Run health checks	`port diagnose --quiet`	`mpm --macports doctor`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported
`installed`	✅
`outdated`	✅
`orphans`
`search`	✅
`install`	✅
`upgrade`	✅
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	✅
`sync`	✅
`cleanup`	✅
`doctor`	✅

Configuration¶

Ignore macports on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-macports option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
macports = false
```
Raise the timeout of all macports calls:
```
[mpm.overrides.macports]
timeout = 900
```

Run mpm config-template macports to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.macports]
cli_names = [
    "port",
]
cli_search_path = [
    "/opt/local/bin",
]
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = []
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=2.0.0"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "Version:\\s+(?P<version>\\S+)",
]

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around macports, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --macports dump macports.toml, then mpm restore macports.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --macports sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).
Gate CI on health: mpm --macports doctor relays MacPorts’s own diagnosis and exits non-zero on trouble.

Privilege escalation¶

System-wide manager: mpm wraps its privileged operations in sudo out of the box. Instead of letting the tool prompt mid-run, mpm primes the credential cache up-front, with a single branded password prompt at most. Turn escalation off for rootless setups with --no-sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

Its privileged operations are cleanup, install, remove, sync, upgrade, upgrade_all.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown¶

State of MacPorts’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: Git-manifest indexes
Retraction: Index revert: reverting the manifest, Portfile or derivation commit withdraws the version
Publish date: ❌ only the commit date, which is client-set and trivially backdated. A date declared in the manifest, like winget’s optional ReleaseDate, is author-supplied too and no sounder

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Reference traces¶

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the bundled definition. If you know MacPorts well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ port -q installed
  curl @8.7.1_0 (active)
  python312 @3.12.3_0+lzma+optimizations (active)
  vim @9.1.0_0 (active)

$ port -q outdated
curl                            8.7.1_0 < 8.8.0_0
python312                       3.12.3_0 < 3.12.4_0

$ port search --name {extended_args} {exact_args} --line {query}
MacVim	9.1.1092	aqua	MacVim - VIM for macOS
vim	9.1.1092	editors	Vi IMproved

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ port version
Version: 2.12.4

and extracted with:

r"Version:\s+(?P<version>\S+)"

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`macports/macports-base`
Activity
Popularity
Metadata

Changelog¶

7.4.0 (2026-07-25)
- Mutating operations now escalate through sudo by default, matching each tool’s canonical invocation (sudo port install, sudo pkg install, sudo snap install): MacPorts installs root-owned under /opt/local, the FreeBSD pkg frontend gains the markers its ports sibling already had, and snapd denies state changes from an unprivileged client. Opt out with --no-sudo or a per-manager sudo = false override. pkg passes IGNORE_OSVERSION as a command-line option now, which survives the sudo environment reset where the environment variable would be stripped.
7.3.0 (2026-07-17)
- Convert from a Python class to a bundled configuration definition, the native exact/extended search switches declared through the new refinement templates. The optional description column of its search results is no longer populated.
6.4.0 (2026-04-27)
- Add MacPorts package manager with installed, outdated, search, install, upgrade, remove, sync, and cleanup support.