PKG_ADD(1) NetBSD Reference Manual PKG_ADD(1)
NAME
pkg_add - a utility for installing and upgrading software package distri-
butions
SYNOPSIS
pkg_add [-fIMnRSuVv] [-s verification-type] [-t template] [-p prefix]
[ftp://[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 re-
quires from both local disk and via FTP.
WARNING
Since the pkg_add command may execute scripts or programs contained with-
in 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 -s option), or, failing that,
use the -M flag 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, +DEINSTALL, +REQUIRE or +MTREE_DIRS
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-name may be either a URL
or a local pathname, a package name of "-" will cause pkg_add to
read from stdin. If the packages are not found in the current
working directory, pkg_add will search them in each directory
named by the PKG_PATH environment variable. Any dependencies re-
quired by the installed package will be searched in the same lo-
cation that the original package was installed from.
-f Force installation to proceed even if prerequisite packages are
not installed or the requirements 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.
-I If an installation script exists for a given package, do not exe-
cute it.
-M Run in MASTER mode. This is a very specialized mode for running
pkg_add and is meant to be run in conjunction with SLAVE mode.
When run in this mode, pkg_add does no work beyond extracting the
package into a temporary staging area (see the -t option), read-
ing in the packing list, and then dumping it (prefaced by the
current staging area) to stdout where it may be filtered by a
program such as sed(1). When used in conjunction with SLAVE
mode, it allows you to make radical changes to the package struc-
ture before acting on its contents.
-n Don't actually install a package, just report the steps that
would be taken if it was.
-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 di-
rectory settings are relative and which are absolute. It is rare
in any case to see more than one directory transition made, but
when such does happen and you wish to have control over *all* di-
rectory transitions, then you may then wish to look into the use
of MASTER and SLAVE modes (see the -M and -S options).
-R Do not record the installation of a package. This means that you
cannot deinstall it later, so only use this option if you know
what you are doing!
-S Run in SLAVE mode. This is a very specialized mode for running
pkg_add and is meant to be run in conjunction with MASTER mode.
When run in this mode, pkg_add expects the release contents to be
already extracted and waiting in the staging area, the location
of which is read as a string from stdin. The complete packing
list is also read from stdin, and the contents then acted on as
normal.
-s verification-type
Use a callout to an external program to verify the binary package
being installed against an existing detached signature file. The
signature file must reside in the same directory as the binary
package. At the present time, the following verification types
are defined: none, gpg and pgp5. The signature will be verified
at install time, and the results will be displayed. If the signa-
ture type is anything other than none, the user will be asked if
pkg_add should proceed to install the binary package. The user
must then take the decision whether to proceed or not, depending
upon the amount of trust that is placed in the signatory of the
binary package. Please note that, at the current time, it is not
possible to use the verification feature when using pkg_add to
add a binary package via a URL - the package, and the related de-
tached signature file, must be local for the verification to
work.
-t template
Use template as the input to mktemp(3) when creating a ``staging
area.'' By default, this is the string /var/tmp/instmp.XXXXXX,
but it may be necessary to override it in the situation where
space in your /var/tmp directory is limited. Be sure to leave
some number of `X' characters for mktemp(3) to fill in with a
unique ID.
You can get a performance boost by setting the staging area
template to reside on the same disk partition as target directo-
ries for package file installation; often this is /usr.
-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/NetBSD/pack-
ages/1.5/i386/shells/bash-2.04.tgz). Note: 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 us-
age of passive mode ftp.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
pkg_add extracts each package's "packing list" into a special staging di-
rectory in /tmp (or $PKG_TMPDIR if set) and then runs through the follow-
ing 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
upgraded instead. This is prepared by moving an existing
+REQUIRED_BY file aside (if it exists), and by running
pkg_delete(1) on the installed package. Installation then pro-
cedes as if the package was not installed.
2. A check is made to determine if the package conflicts (from
@pkgcfl directives, see pkg_create(1)) with an already record-
ed as installed package. If it is, installation is terminated.
3. 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 at-
tempt is made to find and install it; if the missing package
cannot be found or installed, the installation is terminated.
4. A search is made for any @option directives which control how
the package is added to the system. The only currently imple-
mented option is @option extract-in-place, which causes the
package to be extracted directly into its prefix directory
rather than moving it through a staging area in /tmp.
5. If @option extract-in-place is enabled, the package is now ex-
tracted directly into its final location, otherwise it is ex-
tracted into the staging area.
6. If the package contains a require script (see pkg_create(1)),
it is executed with the following arguments:
pkg-name The name of the package being installed
INSTALL Keyword denoting to the script that it is to run
an installation requirements check. (The key-
word is useful only to scripts which serve mul-
tiple functions).
If the require script exits with a non-zero status code, the
installation is terminated.
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 in-
stalled.
If the install script exits with a non-zero status code, the
installation is terminated.
8. If @option extract-in-place is not present in the packing
list, then it is used as a guide for moving (or copying, as
necessary) files from the staging area into their final loca-
tions.
9. If the package contains an mtreefile file (see pkg_create(1)),
then mtree is invoked as:
mtree -u -f mtreefile -d -e -p prefix
where prefix is either the prefix specified with the -p flag
or, if no -p flag was specified, the name of the first direc-
tory named by a @cwd directive within this package.
10. 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.
11. 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
the environment variable PKG_DBDIR is set, this overrides the
/var/db/pkg/ path shown above).
12. The staging area is deleted and the program terminates.
13. 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 and require scripts are 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.
ENVIRONMENT
PKG_PATH
The value of the PKG_PATH 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 consists of a
directory name or URL. The current directory may be indicated implicitly
by an empty directory name, or explicitly by a single period. FTP URLs
may not end with a slash.
PKG_DBDIR
Where to register packages instead of /var/db/pkg.
PKG_TMPDIR
Staging directory for installing packages, defaults to /tmp. Set to di-
rectory with lots of free disk if you run out of space when installing a
binary package.
EXAMPLES
In all cases, pkg_add will try to install binary packages listed in de-
pendencies list.
You can specify a compiled binary package explicitly on the command line.
# pkg_add /usr/pkgsrc/packages/All/tcsh-6.10.00.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 specify-
ing a URL. The URL can be put into an environment variable, PKG_PATH.
# pkg_add -v ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.5/i386/All/mozilla-0.8.1.tgz
# export PKG_PATH=ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.5/i386/All
# pkg_add -v mozilla
SEE ALSO
pkg_admin(1), pkg_create(1), pkg_delete(1), pkg_info(1), mktemp(3),
sysconf(3), mtree(8)
AUTHORS
Jordan Hubbard
Initial work and ongoing development.
John Kohl
NetBSD refinements.
Hubert Feyrer
NetBSD wildcard dependency processing, pkgdb, upgrading, etc.
BUGS
Hard links between files in a distribution are only preserved if either
(1) the staging area is on the same file system as the target directory
of all the links to the file, or (2) all the links to the file are brack-
eted by @cwd directives in the contents file, and and the link names are
extracted with a single tar command (not split between invocations due to
exec argument-space limitations--this depends on the value returned by
sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX)).
Pkg upgrading needs a lot more work to be really universal.
Sure to be others.
NetBSD 1.5.3_RC1 March 12, 2001 5
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