How to configure the pkgsrc portable package system

Pierre-Philipp Braun <pbraun@nethence.com>

Introduction

pkgsrc is NetBSD's package system for all plateforms. It may nevertheless be used on other operating systems, as it automates compilations from source.

As for the NetBSD system itself see pbraun.nethence.com/doc/sysutils/NetBSD.html

Usage for binaries

Once NetBSD is installed, find your relevant binary repository depending on your NetBSD version (release and architecture) and country (choose your NetBSD mirror),

export PKG_PATH=ftp.fr.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/4.0/All

pkg_add -v screen

Eventually do,

export PASSIVE_FTP=yes

to get through firewall, but ftp(1) should switch to that by default.

Once this is working add the PKG_PATH export line into root's ~/.profile.

Binaries are more convenient but you may also compile the packages using the pkgsrc tree.

Usage from source

Either get pkgsrc.tar.gz from your NetBSD FTP mirror and extract it,

cd /root

ftp -a ftp.fr.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/tar_files/pkgsrc.tar.gz

tar xzf pkgsrc.tar.gz -C /usr

Or get the tree from CVS,

export CVSROOT=anoncvs@anoncvs.fr.netbsd.org:/cvsroot

export CVS_RSH=ssh

cd /usr

cvs -q co pkgsrc

Note. you may specify a branche using "-r". See cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/pkgsrc/ (at the bottom)

To update the tree,

cd /usr/pkgsrc

cvs -q update -dP

To compile & install pacakges using pkgsrc,

cd /usr/pkgsrc/misc/screen

make install

To do the same while keeping a copy of the binary package into /usr/pkgsrc/packages,

make package

Note you may create a small binary addon repository with that, without the use of bulk.sh.

To quickly show dependencies, besides looking at the Makefile,

make clean-depends

Note. use that +" cvs up -dP" on the relevant packages' directories before installing them, if you don't want to update the whole tree.

Eventually create /etc/mk.conf to define a few specifics,

vi /etc/mk.conf

MASTER_SITE_SOURCEFORGE=ovh.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge \

        heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ \

        belnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/

USA_RESIDENT=NO

PASSIVE_FETCH=YES

Note. a more recent way to deal with master sites is the use of those,

#MASTER_SORT=

#MASTER_SORT_RANDOM=NO

Some additionnal examples,

#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=pine-license

#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=lame-license

#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=majordomo-license

#MOZILLA_USE_LINUX=YES

#IRSSI_USE_PERL=YES

#PINE_USE_LDAP=YES

#X11_TYPE=xorg

#USE_X11BASE=YES

#X11BASE=/usr/X11R6

#PKGSRCDIR=/usr/pkgsrc

#PACKAGES=/alternatepath/packages

#DISTDIR=/alternatepath/distfiles

#WITH_DVDCSS=YES

#USE_OPENLDAP=NO

#USE_SASL=NO

#USE_SASL2=NO

#ALLOW_VULNERABLE_PACKAGES=YES

Note. IRSSI_USE_PERL is the new syntax. Before it was,

#PKG_OPTIONS.irssi=irssi-perl

For NetBSD only, this copies newly created /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/* script to /etc/rc.d,

#PKG_RCD_SCRIPTS=YES

#RCD_SCRIPTS_DIR=/etc/rc.d

Note. you may play with CPU optimizations too. Although one could edit /etc/mk.conf and do one of those,

#

# Those are just examples, it might break things

#

#CFLAGS+=-O2 -march=i686 -mcpu=i386

#CXXFLAGS=-O2 -march=i686 -mcpu=i386

#COPTS+=-O2 -mcpu=i686 -fexpensive-optimizations -ffast-math -msoft-float \

# -fmemoize-lookups -fthread-jumps -m486 -fomit-frame-pointer \

# -finline-functions

it's preferable to use the relevant cpuflags package but I'm hearing it doesn't work for the latest CPUs,

  devel/cpuflags

  sysutils/cpuid might be helpful too

Note. gentoo's optimization pages may be worth visiting anyways,

www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gcc-optimization.xml

fr.gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_CFLAGS

pkgsrc security

Install the audit-packages package to check for vulnerabilites,

cd /usr/pkgsrc/security/audit-packages

make install

vi /usr/pkg/etc/audit-packages.conf

  VUL_SOURCE="ftp.fr.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/distfiles/pkg-vulnerabilities"

If there's definitely some vulnerable package you need to install, add this to /etc/mk.conf,

ALLOW_VULNERABLE_PACKAGES=YES

Making bulks

Edit bulk.conf and execute bulk.sh. Alternatively, use this little wrapper,

#!/bin/sh

PATH=/usr/pkg/bin:/usr/pkg/sbin:$PATH

export PATH=/usr/pkg/bin:/usr/pkg/sbin:$PATH

cd /usr/pkgsrc/mk/bulk

sh build --config /usr/pkgsrc/mk/bulk/build.conf -r

References

Pkgsrc's Home Page,

www.netbsd.org/docs/software/packages.html

Pkgsrc's CVS frontend,

cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/pkgsrc/

Pkgsrc guide

www.netbsd.org/docs/pkgsrc/using.html

Some great web pkgsrc browser,

pkgsrc.se