Ports vs Packages on FreeBSD

Many people know about the FreeBSD ports tree but complain that installing software via source code is time-consuming. Those people may not know about FreeBSD's precomplied packages that can be added with the following simple syntax: 'pkg_add -vr packagename'. For example:

orr:/root# pkg_add -vr tcpdstat
looking up ftp.freebsd.org
connecting to ftp.freebsd.org:21
setting passive mode
opening data connection
initiating transfer
Fetching ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-
 5.3-release/Latest/tcpdstat.tbz...x +CONTENTS
x +COMMENT
x +DESC
x +MTREE_DIRS
x bin/tcpdstat
tar command returns 0 status
 Done.
extract: Package name is tcpdstat-0.9
extract: CWD to /usr/local
extract: /usr/local/bin/tcpdstat
extract: CWD to .
Running mtree for tcpdstat-0.9..
mtree -U -f +MTREE_DIRS -d -e -p /usr/local >/dev/null
Attempting to record package into /var/db/pkg/tcpdstat-0.9..
Package tcpdstat-0.9 registered in /var/db/pkg/tcpdstat-0.9

If you want to avoid the potential load on the main FTP server, set an alternate package site:

orr:/root# setenv PACKAGESITE ftp://ftp2.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/
 i386/packages-5.3-release/Latest/

Now install the package as desired:

orr:/root# pkg_add -vr srm
looking up ftp2.freebsd.org
connecting to ftp2.freebsd.org:21
setting passive mode
opening data connection
initiating transfer
Fetching ftp://ftp2.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5.3
-release/Latest/srm.tbz...x +CONTENTS
x +COMMENT
x +DESC
x +MTREE_DIRS
x bin/srm
x man/man1/srm.1.gz
tar command returns 0 status
 Done.
extract: Package name is srm-1.2.6
extract: CWD to /usr/local
extract: /usr/local/bin/srm
extract: /usr/local/man/man1/srm.1.gz
extract: CWD to .
Running mtree for srm-1.2.6..
mtree -U -f +MTREE_DIRS -d -e -p /usr/local >/dev/null
Attempting to record package into /var/db/pkg/srm-1.2.6..
Package srm-1.2.6 registered in /var/db/pkg/srm-1.2.6

Notice how the system retrieved the package from ftp2.freebsd.org, not ftp.freebsd.org as per the default settings.