When I install a port, I am often presented with a menu screen to select configuration options. If I'm going to install a really big package with lots of dependencies, that will be extremely inconvenient. Is there a make flag for accepting the default answers for all such prompts?
3 Answers
Probably BATCH
, described in ports(7), is what you're looking for:
# cd /usr/ports/sysutils/screen
# export BATCH=yes
# make rmconfig
# make install clean
(no configuration menu is displayed)
make rmconfig
removes OPTIONS
config for this port, and you can use it to remove OPTIONS
which were previously saved when you configured and installed screen(1)
the first time. OPTIONS
are stored to directory which is specifed via PORT_DB_DIR
(defaults to /var/db/ports
).
If you use bash, BATCH
can be set automatically every time you log in:
# echo 'export BATCH=yes' >> ~/.bash_profile

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I think it's worth mentioning that you might not always want to do this. I seem to remember, for instance, needing to config emacs to add xft support. If you want to bypass the prompts for a single build,
make install clean BATCH=yes
will work as well.

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somehow works better than putting "BATCH=yes" in the front of make. Thanks. – hari Jan 18 '12 at 00:28
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Worth noting that
make install clean BATCH=
has the same effect, as according to the manual forports(7)
, it must only be defined. It can be set to anything or nothing at all – Harold Fischer Jun 26 '18 at 15:28
This doesn't automatically accept defaults like you're asking, but I like the "make config-recursive" method which runs you through any options for the port you want as well as options for all dependencies. You don't have to change anything if you don't want to, but you go through all selection screens at once rather than whenever the building process arrives at them.
Once that's done, your "make install clean" should go pretty much unattended.

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5As I said on @Yasir's post--make sure to run this multiple times. If you change an option which brings in another dependency, if that dependency has options to configure you won't touch it until the next run of
make config-recursive
. – Alex Hirzel Mar 06 '13 at 15:23 -
make config-recursive && make install clean
, as it gives you all config-dialogs upfront while the actual installation will likely work unattended. – user569825 Sep 16 '12 at 11:56make config-recursive
multiple times until you stop getting new options (i.e. at least twice). Any time you change an option, it may bring in another dependency that has yet more options. – Alex Hirzel Mar 06 '13 at 15:22export
will only work onsh
which is not the FreeBSD default shell – ajeh Aug 02 '17 at 18:10