4.3 Finding Your Application

Before you can install any applications you need to know what you want, and what the application is called.

FreeBSD's list of available applications is growing all the time. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to find what you want:

• The FreeBSD web site maintains an up-to-date searchable list of all the available applications, at http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/. The name space is divided into categories, and you may either search for an application by name (if you know it), or you can list all the applications available in a category.

• Dan Langille maintains FreshPorts, at http://www.FreshPorts.org/. FreshPorts tracks changes to the applications in the ports tree as they happen, and allows you to ``watch'' one or more ports, and will send you an email when they are updated.

• If you do not know the name of the application you want, try using a site like FreshMeat (http://www.freshmeat.net/) to find an application, then check back at the FreeBSD site to see if the application has been ported yet.