Jun 052001
Specifying alternative port download sites
I think it is fairly important to mention that since ftp.freebsd.org is hosed [ed. note. this article was written back on 2 May 2000, shortly after ftp.freebsd.org went offline. see this message from the FreeBSD Mailing list archives for details.] (only allows 200 users) ports that take files off of it are, well, broken.
To save the trouble of having the makefile hunt all over for a tarball
that doesn’t exist, add the following lines to your /etc/make.conf
[create the file if it doesn’t already exist]:
The first assignment tells the ports system to check the specified site as a final resort. The second will tell it to look there first. Of course, you’re welcome to use any FreeBSD mirror site [ed. note I use Official Mirrors to choose my mirrors], however I would advise making sure that the mirror you choose has the distfiles you will be looking for, because some of them don’t.MASTER_SITE_BACKUP?= \ ftp://ftp7.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/${DIST_SUBDIR}/ MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE?= ${MASTER_SITE_BACKUP}
Additionally, it should be said that if you’re doing your own local mirror, or installing the same thing on many machines, there’s nothing wrong with putting a local address instead of a freebsd mirror.
NOTE: If you use pkg_add, you can use something similar. See man pkg_add and look under environmental variables for details.