NAME
pkg_add —
a utility for installing and
upgrading software package distributions
SYNOPSIS
pkg_add |
[-AfInRUuVv]
[-C
config]
[-K
pkg_dbdir]
[-m
machine]
[-P
destdir]
[-p
prefix] 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,
configurations, installation instructions and/or other files.
pkg_add can recursively 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 provide
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 processing. 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.
-
-
- -C
config
- Read the configuration file from
config instead of the system default.
-
-
- -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 overrides the fatal error when the operating system or architecture
the package was built on differ from that of the host.
-
-
- -D
- Force updating even if the dependencies of depending
packages are not satisfied by the new package. This is used by "make
replace", after which one would typically replace the depending
packages.
-
-
- -I
- If an installation script exists for a given package, do
not execute it.
-
-
- -K
pkg_dbdir
- Override the value of the
PKG_DBDIR
configuration option with the value pkg_dbdir.
-
-
- -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(8).
-
-
- -p
prefix
- Override the prefix stored in the package with
prefix.
-
-
- -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
- Replace an already installed version from a package.
Implies -u.
-
-
- -u
- If the package that's being installed is already installed,
an update is performed. Installed dependent packages are updated
recursively, if they are too old to fulfill the dependencies of the
to-be-installed version. See below for a more detailed description of the
process.
-
-
- -V
- Print version number and exit.
-
-
- -v
- Turn on verbose output.
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/packages/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 transfers, 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:
- A check is made to determine if the package or another
version of it is already recorded as installed. If it is, installation is
terminated if the -u or -U options are
not given.
If the same version is installed and -U is not given, it
is marked as manually installed and process stops. 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 not successful, the dependent packages are
updated first. The replacing is then 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 package was not
installed, and restores the +REQUIRED_BY file
afterwards.
- 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.
- The package build information from
+BUILD_INFO is then checked for
USE_ABI_DEPENDS=NO
(or
IGNORE_RECOMMENDED
). If the package was built with
ABI dependency recommendations ignored, a warning will be issued.
- 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 conflicts
with the package. If it is, installation is terminated.
- The file list of the package is compared to the file lists
of the installed packages. If there is any overlap, the installation is
terminated.
- 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 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.
- The files from the file list are extracted to the chosen
prefix.
- 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.
- After installation is complete, a copy of the packing
list, deinstall script, description, and display
files are copied into <PKG_DBDIR>/<pkg-name>
for subsequent possible use by
pkg_delete(1). Any
package dependencies are recorded in the other packages'
+REQUIRED_BY file.
- 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. Additionally,
PKG_METADATA_DIR
and
PKG_REFCOUNT_DBDIR
are prefixed with
destdir.
ENVIRONMENT
See
pkg_install.conf(5)
for options, that can also be specified using the environment.
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 base URL can also be provided by the configuration 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
SEE ALSO
pkg_admin(1),
pkg_create(1),
pkg_delete(1),
pkg_info(1),
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.