At the present time, FreeBSD is transitioning toward a new method of package management. Users may wish to investigate the benefits of using PKGng to manage third-party software on FreeBSD. This section describes the traditional method for managing binary packages and only applies to those users who have not yet migrated to the pkgng format.
This method of package management uses a
package database directory,
/var/db/pkg, to track
installed software versions and the files installed with each
application. Several utilities interact with the database
directory and are used to manage binary packages. These
commands begin with pkg_. This section
provides an overview of the commands which are used to install,
delete, and gather information about binary packages. Each
command provides many switches to customize its operation.
Refer to the listed man pages for more details and further usage
examples.
To install a binary package from
a local FreeBSD media or a remote FreeBSD package server, use pkg_add(1).
While a FreeBSD media can provide a source of local packages
without requiring a network connection, it may not contain
the latest versions of binary packages as new versions are
always being rebuilt for the FreeBSD package servers. To install
from a package server, always include -r (for remote) with
pkg_add(1). This automatically determines the correct
object format and release, and then fetches and installs the
package from a package server without any further user
intervention.
# pkg_add -r lsofIn this example, lsof is used without
specifying a version number as the version is not included when the remote
fetching feature is used. To specify an alternative FreeBSD FTP mirror, specify the
mirror in the PACKAGESITE environment variable.
pkg_add(1) uses fetch(3) to download files, which
uses various environment variables, including
FTP_PASSIVE_MODE, FTP_PROXY, and
FTP_PASSWORD. You may need to set one or more
of these if you are behind a firewall, or need to use an
FTP/HTTP proxy. See fetch(3) for the complete list of FTP-related variables.
pkg_add(1) will automatically download the latest
version of the application if you are using FreeBSD-CURRENT or
FreeBSD-STABLE. If you run a -RELEASE version, it instead
installs the version of the package that was built with that
release. It is possible to change this behavior by
overriding PACKAGESITE. For example, on a
FreeBSD 9.1-RELEASE system, by default pkg_add(1)
will try to fetch packages from
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-9.1-release/Latest/.
To force pkg_add(1) to download FreeBSD 9-STABLE
packages, set PACKAGESITE to
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-9-stable/Latest/.
Package files are distributed in the
.tbz format. Packages are
available from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/packages/
or the /packages directory of the FreeBSD
DVD distribution. The layout of the packages directory is similar to
that of the /usr/ports tree. Each
category has its own directory, and every package can be found
within the All directory.
To list and describe installed packages, use pkg_info(1):
# pkg_info
colordiff-1.0.13 Tool to colorize diff output
docbook-1.4 Meta-port for the different versions of the DocBook DTD
...To receive a summary of the versions of all installed packages and a comparison of the installed package versions to the current versions found in the locally installed ports tree, use pkg_version(1):
# pkg_version
colordiff =
docbook =
...The symbols in the second column indicate the relative age of the installed version and the version available in the local ports tree.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| = | The version of the installed package matches the one in the local ports tree. |
| < | The version of the installed package is older than the one in the local ports tree. |
| > | The version of the installed package is newer than the one in the local ports tree, meaning that the local ports tree is probably out of date. |
| ? | The installed package cannot be found in the ports index. This can happen when an installed port is removed from the Ports Collection or is renamed. |
| * | There are multiple versions of the package. |
| ! | The installed package exists in the index but for
some reason pkg_version was unable
to compare the version number of the installed package
with the corresponding entry in the index. |
To remove a previously installed software package, use pkg_delete(1):
# pkg_delete xchat-2.8.8_1Note that pkg_delete(1) requires the full package
name and number and that the above command would not work if
xchat was given instead of
xchat-2.8.8_1. Use
pkg_version(1) to find the version of the
installed package, or use a wildcard:
# pkg_delete xchat\*in this case, all packages whose names start with
xchat will be deleted.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.