Difference between revisions of "Pkg"

Latest revision as of 08:19, 19 November 2020

Application Management
pkg	Software Station	Update Station	Ports	Applications
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Introduction[edit]

pkg is the FreeBSD package management tools, offering many features that make dealing with binary packages faster and easier. See pkg(8)

Package Benefits

• A compressed package tarball is typically smaller than the compressed tarball containing the source code for the application.

• Packages do not require compilation time. For large applications, such as Mozilla, KDE, or GNOME, this can be important on a slow system.

• Packages do not require any understanding of the process involved in compiling software on FreeBSD.

Overview About PKG Commands[edit]

Function and Examples[edit]

A package can be manipulated with the pkg(8) commands, such as pkg install.

pkg only works with binary packages. By default, pkg uses the binary packages from the GhostBSD package mirrors.

Each pkg command argument is documented in a command-specific manual page. To read the manual page for pkg install, for example, run either of these commands:

# pkg help install

or

# man pkg-install

Installing Packages[edit]

To install a binary package use the following command, where packagename is the name of the package to install:

# pkg install packagename

This command uses repository data to determine which version of the software to install and if it has any uninstalled dependencies.

Removing Packages[edit]

Packages that are no longer needed can be removed with pkg delete. For example:

# pkg delete packagename

Upgrading Installed Packages[edit]

Update the local package repository index

# pkg update

Installed packages can be upgraded to their latest versions by running:

# pkg upgrade

This command will compare the installed versions with those available in the repository catalogue and upgrade them from the repository.

If a kernel has to be upgraded, you have to do a forced upgrade. It is needed that all packages have to be reinstalled, so that all the package are compiled with the right kernel.

# pkg update -f

# pkg upgrade -fy

Not Updating A Package[edit]

If you have got an application via the ports system and don't like to change it during pkg upgrade process, do

#pkg lock packagename

To Get Info About An Installed Package[edit]

If you like to know if a package is installed and which version, you have to write:

pkg info packagename

Auditing Installed Packages[edit]

Software vulnerabilities are regularly discovered in third-party applications. To address this, pkg includes a built-in auditing mechanism. To determine if there are any known vulnerabilities for the software installed on the system, run:

# pkg audit -F

Automatically Removing Unused Packages[edit]

Removing a package may leave behind dependencies which are no longer required. Unneeded packages that were installed as dependencies (leaf packages) can be automatically detected and removed using:

# pkg autoremove

Repositories[edit]

The pkg mirrors are located in:

• in the US: http://pkg.us.ghostbsd.org/stable/FreeBSD:12:amd64/
• in France: http://pkg.fr.ghostbsd.org/stable/FreeBSD:12:amd64/
• in Cynyda: http://pkg.ghostbsd.org/stable/FreeBSD:12:amd64/

To change the mirror go to the file /etc/pkg/GhostBSD.conf and change the URL.
There in it is described as:

• in France: url: "http://pkg.fr.ghostbsd.org/stable/${ABI}/latest",
• in Canada: url: "http://pkg.ca.ghostbsd.org/stable/${ABI}/latest",
• in US: url: "http://pkg.us.ghostbsd.org/stable/${ABI}/latest",

For upgrading your system chose the nearest mirror to your location.

For more Information[edit]

Sources:

• FreeBSD Handbook/chapter 4.4. Using pkg for Binary Package Management
• VULTR