Helper Scripts Several nice helper scripts are available in /usr/ports/infrastructure/build including one I use very often: portslogger portslogger does exactly as the name suggests and logs your build process to the directory you specify. export PL=/usr/ports/infrastructure/build/portslogger make package 2>&1 | $PL . will create ${PKGNAME}.log files for each dependency and then the current port being built in the current directory. (Note: $PL only used to save space) Instead of logging to the current directory (with "."), you could also choose to log to a more standard directory like "/usr/ports/logs".