Installing open-source software on a Mac can be intimidating. You might be asked to install a bunch of weird-sounding software packages.
Bring up Terminal on your Mac
Bring up Terminal on your Mac. All of these commands to be done using Terminal.
Proceed with Caution
You can seriously mess up your Mac if you do not know what you are doing in Terminal.
Terminal is for advanced users only. Terminal assumes you are an expert and does not do the “Does the user know what they are doing?” checks the GUI does.
Terminal assumes you are an expert. It will simply not question you, and will obey.
This a very powerful feature, but is a two-edged sword if Terminal is used carelessly.
Install MacPorts
MacPorts simplifies the task of compiling and installing open-source software on a Mac.
In this blog, we are going to use MacPorts to install HTTrack on a Mac.
Go to the MacPorts home page.
Click on the Download button.
Now you are at the Installing MacPorts page. In the Quickstart section, click on the link for your Mac OSX. As of this writing, for Monterey, it is “macOS Monterey v12“.
The MacPorts installer will be downloaded to the Downloads folder.
Open the MacPorts package and install MacPorts.
Simply click on the default buttons as shown below to install MacPorts.
When asked, enter the password to authorize the installation. Enter the password you used to log into your Mac. Then click the Install Software button.
MacPorts will install. This might take a few minutes.
The installation was successful! Click the Close button.
Since you can get the MacPorts Installer from the MacPorts website, you likely do not need it. Click the Move to Trash button.
The MacPorts installation is done!
How to Install Open-Source Software with MacPorts
Go to the ports page for MacPorts.
Or go to the MacPorts home page and click on the Available Ports tab.
Either method will get you to the ports page.
I recommend bookmarking the port page. It allows you to search for ports, see the most popular ports. You can see All Ports. You can even click a button and install MacPorts from this page.
Clicking on the Ports link in the navigation bar will take you to an alphabetized list of all the ports.
Here is an alphabetized list of all the ports.
I am going to show you how to install HTTrack using MacPorts.
In the Search bar, enter the port you want, then click the Search button. In this example, we are searching for httrack.
The search results are shown. Click on the one that you want. In this example, we click on the httrack link.
This takes you to MacPorts httrack page.
Note that it says you will be using Terminal to install the port.
Click on the Copy button to copy the command into the clipboard.
Open up Terminal and paste the command into it.
Press the Enter key to execute the command.
You may be asked to enter a password. Enter the password you use to log into your Mac. Press the Enter key.
Nothing will be displayed as you enter the password. This is normal, and is a very good security feature!
The port will be installed. When the normal Terminal prompt is displayed, you will know the port is installed.
MacPorts may find some dependencies are needed. It will list these dependencies and will ask you if you want to continue.
Type a capital Y and press the enter key.
The installation will finish. It might take several minutes, so be patient.
