Difference between revisions of "Pkg"

Revision as of 00:23, 24 February 2020

Application Management
pkg	Software Station	Update Station	Ports	Applications
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Introduction

pkgng is the next generation replacement for the traditional FreeBSD package management tools, offering many features that make dealing with binary packages faster and easier.

For beginners with GhostBSD it is a bit confusing which package manager is now working on my computer.

For now pkgng is a synonym for pkg. It emphasize, that the package manager pkgng is a new version from pkg and is designed to work with versions of FreeBSD starting with 10.X. see also 4.4.1. Getting Started with pkg on the FreeBSD Handbook. The differences between pkg and pkgng are described on page pkg

   Important: Once the package database has been converted to the new pkg format, 
the traditional pkg_* tools should no longer be used. 
And from this time on is pkg the name of the new generation package manager.

The new generation package manager pkg(8) is a powerful tool to manipulate pre-compiled copies of all the commands for an application, as well as any configuration files and documentation.

While the two technologies ports and packages are similar, each have their own strengths. Select the technology that meets your requirements for installing a particular application. 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.

Sorce: Handbook: 4.2. Overview of Software Installation

Overview About PKG Commands

Function and Examples

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/TrueOS package mirrors.

"GhostBSD now use TrueOS packages base from ports." See: What changed since 19.04.

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

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

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

# pkg delete packagename

Upgrading Installed Packages

Update the local catalogues of the enabled package repositories

# 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.

Not Updating A Package

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

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

pkg info packagename

Auditing Installed Packages

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

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

The pkg mirrors are located in:

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

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

To change the mirror go to the file /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/GhostBSD.conf and change the URL.

For more Information

Source: *FreeBSD Handbook/chapter 4.4. Using pkg for Binary Package Management