How to Install BASH in FreeBSD

Question

I really find that using bash helps a lot, when you need to retrieve strings of text that you used previously.

But how can I install it on FreeBSD?

I have tried typing bash into the terminal, but that returns: bash: not found

Answer 1

Assuming you have the ports tree installed, it's as easy as

cd /usr/ports/shells/bash
make all install clean

If you don't have the ports tree, just do this:

portsnap fetch extract

and then try again. You'll need to periodically update the ports tree:

portsnap fetch update

EDIT

As pointed out by sr_ in a comment, FreeBSD also offers precompiled binary packages of many (most, but not all) ports. In practice, while they usually offer a faster install, I find the pkg_* tools don't handle installing dependencies as well as the ports system, so it can sometimes take a few goes to get everything working. However, it's well worth looking at pkg_add and friends.

There is a new poject under way, called pkgng, which aims to address the problems with the current pkg_* tools. It's still fairly new, but it looks good.