On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 1:26 PM, Ryan Schmidt <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Nov 11, 2011, at 13:02, Peng Yu wrote:
>
>> On ubuntu, it can prompt me what to do if a package is missing. I'm
>> wondering if there is anything similar on mac.
>>
>> ~$ hg
>> The program 'hg' is currently not installed.  You can install it by typing:
>> sudo apt-get install mercurial
>
> Phil, I think you missed the point of the question. The question is, if a 
> user knows they need a program called "hg" but they don't have it installed, 
> what can they do to find out what port, if any, would install it? I happen to 
> know that "hg" is provided by the port "mercurial", but someone not familiar 
> with the software might not know that. The answer is that there is no feature 
> in MacPorts to help you with that. "port provides" only works if you know 
> exactly where the file is on disk, and if you already have the port 
> installed. "port search" only works if the maintainer put the name of the 
> program into the port's description. So, to find out what software package 
> provides a given program, your best bet is to use an Internet search engine, 
> e.g. Google. Then use "port search" to find out if MacPorts has a port for 
> that software package.
>

That was my question.

Although searching in google is one option, it will be convenient if
it can be prompt at the command line (google search is much slower
than a direct command line prompt). I'm not sure what is used in
ubuntu, but if ubuntu can do it, theoretically, port should also be
able to do it.

-- 
Regards,
Peng
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