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ProgPorts

Project Description

ProgPorts provides a robust method for the adminstration and use of the many computer programs that are interesting to protein scientists in such disciplines as Bioinformatics, Proteomics, Molecular Dynamics and Energetics, Protein Crystallography, and NMR spectroscopy. Many of these programs are difficult to install and they often have complex user interfaces, but our system provides a simple command-line interface to setup the user enviroment in order to use the programs. The GNU-Darwin ports and packaging system has been adapted to ease the administrative burden for the hundreds of supported programs, and to provide for consistency of installation and continuity in the user experience. The installed base and package management system is self-contained in a /prog directory, and software installation occurs in /prog/ports. ProgPorts is an elegant system to provide software to demanding scientists so that the programs "just work", even when the software version changes. GNU/Linux and IRIX are fully supported, and development for OpenBSD and Darwin OS is underway.

Project status

Although the system has been in active use for years at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, we are stuggling to create a release version, so we are still in alpha pre-release status.  If you would like to check out our progress, use CVS. Mon Jan 8 15:10:33 EST 2007: Notably, progports has now been added to the /prog/setup script, so that users can build projects in their home directories. A broader range of architectures is recognized as well. We may be going beta soon.

Project Links

SourceForge home
Prog/setup info page
CVS web archive
Email forum

Related Links

Robert's homepage
Michael's homepage
The GNU-Darwin ports system
X-ray crystallography lab and Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine