packages. FreeBSD maintains a build farm called the pointyhat cluster in which all packages for all supported architectures and major releases are built. The build logs and known errors for all ports built into packages through the pointyhat cluster are available in a database and weekly builds logs are also available through mailing list archives. These pre-compiled packages are separated into categories by the architectures for which they are available. Packages are further separated into several "release" directories, one for each current production release built from the ports collection and shipped with the release. These production release directories are never updated. There are also stable and current directories for several major release branches. These are updated more or less weekly. In most cases a package created for an older version of FreeBSD can be installed and used on a newer system without difficulty since binary backward compatibility across major releases is enabled by default. A packaging system for binary packages called pkg has replaced the package management system in FreeBSD 10. History Jordan Hubbard committed his port make macros to the FreeBSD CVS repository on August 21, 1994. His package install suite Makefile had been committed a year earlier (August 26, 1993). The core ports framework was at first maintained by Hubbard along with Satoshi Asami for several years. The Ports Management Team was later formed to handle this task. NetBSD's pkgsrc and OpenBSD's ports collection trace their roots to FreeBSD. DPorts Since its release, 3.6 DragonFly BSD project uses FreeBSD Ports as a base for its own DPorts ports collection. John Marino of DragonFly BSD project created DeltaPorts repository – a collection of patches and files that overlay and modify the FreeBSD Ports, in order to generate DPorts. See also MacPorts References External links Official FreeBSD Ports web page FreshPorts - website that tracks port updates Port-Tags - Project to add tags to the ports collection Installing Applications: Packages and Ports from the FreeBSD Handbook (Chapter 4) Free package management systems FreeBSD