pkg_add(1)
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PKG_ADD(1) NetBSD General Commands Manual PKG_ADD(1)
NAME
pkg_add -- a utility for installing and upgrading software package dis-
tributions
SYNOPSIS
pkg_add [-AfILnRuVv] [-K pkg_dbdir] [-m machine] [-P destdir] [-p prefix]
[-W viewbase] [-w view] file ...
[[ftp|http]://[user][:password]@]host[:port][/path/]pkg-name ...
DESCRIPTION
The pkg_add command is used to extract and upgrade packages that have
been previously created with the pkg_create(1) command. Packages are
prepared collections of pre-built binaries, documentation, configura-
tions, installation instructions and/or other files. pkg_add can recur-
sively install other packages that the current package depends on or
requires from both local disk and via FTP or HTTP.
WARNING
Since the pkg_add command may execute scripts or programs contained
within a package file, your system may be susceptible to ``Trojan
horses'' or other subtle attacks from miscreants who create dangerous
package files.
You are advised to verify the competence and identity of those who pro-
vide installable package files. For extra protection, use the digital
signatures provided where possible (see the pkg_install.conf(5)), or,
failing that, use tar(1) to extract the package file, and inspect its
contents and scripts to ensure it poses no danger to your system's
integrity. Pay particular attention to any +INSTALL or +DEINSTALL files,
and inspect the +CONTENTS file for @cwd, @mode (check for setuid),
@dirrm, @exec, and @unexec directives, and/or use the pkg_info(1) command
to examine the package file.
OPTIONS
The following command line arguments are supported:
pkg-name [...]
The named packages are installed. pkg_add will first try to use
pkg-name as full URL or path name without any wildcard process-
ing. If that fails, pkg_add will try to match packages using
wildcard processing. If that fails as well and pkg-name does not
contain any /, the entries of the PKG_PATH variable are searched
using the wildcard processing rules.
-A Mark package as installed automatically, as dependency of another
package. You can use
pkg_admin set automatic=YES
to mark packages this way after installation, and
pkg_admin unset automatic
to remove the mark. If you pkg_add a package without specifying
-A after it had already been automatically installed, the mark is
removed.
-f Force installation to proceed even if prerequisite packages are
not installed or the install script fails. Although pkg_add will
still try to find and auto-install missing prerequisite packages,
a failure to find one will not be fatal. This flag also over-
rides the fatal error when the operating system or architecture
the package was built on differ from that of the host.
-I If an installation script exists for a given package, do not exe-
cute it.
-K pkg_dbdir
Set pkg_dbdir as the package database directory. If this option
isn't specified, then the package database directory is taken
from the value of the environment variable PKG_DBDIR if it's set,
otherwise it defaults to /var/db/pkg.
-L Don't add the package to any views after installation.
-m Override the machine architecture returned by uname with machine.
-n Don't actually install a package, just report the steps that
would be taken if it was.
-P destdir
Prefix all file and directory names with destdir. For packages
without install scripts this has the same behavior as using
chroot.
-p prefix
Set prefix as the directory in which to extract files from a
package. If a package has set its default directory, it will be
overridden by this flag. Note that only the first @cwd directive
will be replaced, since pkg_add has no way of knowing which
directory settings are relative and which are absolute. Only one
directory transition is supported and the second one is expected
to go into pkgdb.
-R Do not record the installation of a package. This implies -I.
This means that you cannot deinstall it later, so only use this
option if you know what you are doing!
-u If the package that's being installed is already installed, an
update is performed. It is currently not possible to update to
an identical version. If this is specified twice, then any
dependent packages that are too old will also be updated to ful-
fill the dependency. See below for a more detailed description
of the process.
-V Print version number and exit.
-v Turn on verbose output.
-W viewbase
Set viewbase as the base directory for the managed views. The
default viewbase directory is set by pkg_view(1). This value
also may be set from the LOCALBASE environment variable.
-w view
Set the view to which packages should be added after installa-
tion. The default view is set by pkg_view(1). This value also
may be set from the PKG_VIEW environment variable.
One or more pkg-name arguments may be specified, each being either a file
containing the package (these usually ending with the ``.tgz'' suffix) or
a URL pointing at a file available on an ftp or web site. Thus you may
extract files directly from their anonymous ftp or WWW locations (e.g.,
pkg_add ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/pack-
ages/NetBSD/i386/3.1_2007Q2/shells/bash-3.2.9.tgz or pkg_add
http://www.example.org/packages/screen-4.0.tbz). Note: For ftp trans-
fers, if you wish to use passive mode ftp in such transfers, set the
variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to some value in your environment. Otherwise,
the more standard ACTIVE mode may be used. If pkg_add consistently fails
to fetch a package from a site known to work, it may be because you have
a firewall that demands the usage of passive mode ftp.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
pkg_add extracts each package's meta data (including the ``packing
list'') to memory and then runs through the following sequence to fully
extract the contents of the package:
1. A check is made to determine if the package or another version
of it is already recorded as installed. If it is, installa-
tion is terminated if the -u option is not given.
If the -u option is given, it's assumed the package should be
replaced by the new version instead. Before doing so, all
packages that depend on the pkg being upgraded are checked if
they also work with the new version. If that test is success-
ful, replacing is prepared by moving an existing +REQUIRED_BY
file aside (if it exists), and running pkg_delete(1) on the
installed package. Installation then proceeds as if the pack-
age was not installed, and restores the +REQUIRED_BY file
afterwards.
2. The package build information is extracted from the
+BUILD_INFO file and compared against the result of uname(3).
If the operating system or architecture of the package differ
from that of the host, installation is aborted. This behavior
is overridable with the -f flag.
3. The package build information from +BUILD_INFO is then checked
for USE_ABI_DEPENDS=NO (or IGNORE_RECOMMENDED). If the pack-
age was built with ABI dependency recommendations ignored, a
warning will be issued.
4. A check is made to determine if the package conflicts (from
@pkgcfl directives, see pkg_create(1)) with an already
recorded as installed package or if an installed package con-
flicts with the package. If it is, installation is termi-
nated.
5. The file list of the package is compared to the file lists of
the installed packages. If there is any overlap, the instal-
lation is terminated.
6. All package dependencies (from @pkgdep directives, see
pkg_create(1)) are read from the packing list. If any of
these required packages are not currently installed, an
attempt is made to find and install it; if the missing package
cannot be found or installed, the installation is terminated.
If the -u option was specified twice, any required packages
that are installed, but which have a version number that is
considered to be too old, are also updated. The dependent
packages are found according to the normal PKG_PATH rules.
7. If the package contains an install script, it is executed with
the following arguments:
pkg-name The name of the package being installed.
PRE-INSTALL Keyword denoting that the script is to perform
any actions needed before the package is
installed.
If the install script exits with a non-zero status code, the
installation is terminated.
8. The files from the file list are extracted to the chosen pre-
fix.
9. If an install script exists for the package, it is executed
with the following arguments:
pkg_name The name of the package being installed.
POST-INSTALL Keyword denoting that the script is to perform
any actions needed after the package has been
installed.
10. After installation is complete, a copy of the packing list,
deinstall script, description, and display files are copied
into /var/db/pkg/<pkg-name> for subsequent possible use by
pkg_delete(1). Any package dependencies are recorded in the
other packages' /var/db/pkg/<other-pkg>/+REQUIRED_BY file (if
an alternate package database directory is specified, then it
overrides the /var/db/pkg path shown above).
11. If the package is a depoted package, then add it to the
default view.
12. Finally, if we were upgrading a package, any +REQUIRED_BY file
that was moved aside before upgrading was started is now moved
back into place.
The install script is called with the environment variable PKG_PREFIX set
to the installation prefix (see the -p option above). This allows a
package author to write a script that reliably performs some action on
the directory where the package is installed, even if the user might
change it with the -p flag to pkg_add. The scripts are also called with
the PKG_METADATA_DIR environment variable set to the location of the +*
meta-data files, and with the PKG_REFCOUNT_DBDIR environment variable set
to the location of the package reference counts database directory. If
the -P flag was given to pkg_add, PKG_DESTDIR will be set to destdir.
ENVIRONMENT
LOCALBASE This is the location of the viewbase directory in which all
the views are managed. The default viewbase directory is
/usr/pkg.
PKG_DBDIR If the -K flag isn't given, then PKG_DBDIR is the location of
the package database directory. The default package database
directory is /var/db/pkg.
PKG_PATH The value of the PKG_PATH variable overrides the
pkg_install.conf(5) variable of the same name. It is used if
a given package can't be found, it's usually set to
/usr/pkgsrc/packages/All. The environment variable should be
a series of entries separated by semicolons. Each entry con-
sists of a directory name or URL. The current directory may
be indicated implicitly by an empty directory name, or
explicitly by a single period.
PKG_REFCOUNT_DBDIR
Location of the package reference counts database directory.
The default location is the path to the package database
directory with ``.refcount'' appended to the path, e.g.
/var/db/pkg.refcount.
PKG_VIEW The default view can be specified in the PKG_VIEW environment
variable.
EXAMPLES
In all cases, pkg_add will try to install binary packages listed in
dependencies list.
You can specify a compiled binary package explicitly on the command line.
# pkg_add /usr/pkgsrc/packages/All/tcsh-6.14.00.tgz
If you omit the version number, pkg_add will install the latest version
available. With -v, pkg_add emits more messages to terminal.
# pkg_add -v /usr/pkgsrc/packages/All/unzip
You can grab a compiled binary package from remote location by specifying
a URL. The URL can be put into an environment variable, PKG_PATH.
# pkg_add -v ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/3.1_2007Q2/All/firefox-2.0.0.4.tgz
# export PKG_PATH=ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/3.1_2007Q2/All
# pkg_add -v firefox
Over time, as problems are found in packages, they will be moved from the
All subdirectory into the vulnerable subdirectory. If you want to accept
vulnerable packages by default (and know what you are doing), you can add
the vulnerable directory to your PKG_PATH like this:
# export PKG_PATH="ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/3.1_2007Q2/All/;ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/3.1_2007Q2/vulnerable/"
(The quotes are needed because semicolon (`;') is a shell meta-charac-
ter.) If you do this, consider using the audit capabilities in
pkg_admin(1) and running it after every pkg_add.
CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
The following variables change the behavior of pkg_add and are described
in pkg_install.conf(5):
CHECK_LICENSE
CHECK_VULNERABILITIES
CERTIFICATE_ANCHOR_PKGS
CERTIFICATE_CHAIN
VERIFIED_INSTALLATION
SEE ALSO
pkg_admin(1), pkg_create(1), pkg_delete(1), pkg_info(1), tar(1),
mktemp(3), sysconf(3), pkg_install.conf(5), pkgsrc(7)
AUTHORS
Jordan Hubbard
Initial work and ongoing development.
John Kohl
NetBSD refinements.
Hubert Feyrer
NetBSD wildcard dependency processing, pkgdb, upgrading, etc.
Thomas Klausner
HTTP support.
Joerg Sonnenberger
Rewrote most of the code base to work without external commands.
BUGS
Package upgrading needs a lot more work to be really universal.
Sure to be others.
NetBSD 5.0.2 August 6, 2009 NetBSD 5.0.2
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