FREEBSD-BASE(7)

💅 freebsd-base(7) — the girliepop guide to base system packages

okay so this is freebsd-base, straight out of the Miscellaneous Information Manual, and honestly? it's giving "the future is now" ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

freebsd-base — base system packages. that's it, that's the vibe. 💖

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

bestie, listen. the FreeBSD base system can be installed as a whole set of pkg(8) packages, and this supersedes the traditional method of installing using tar(1) archives. like, the old way is out, the new way ate. 🔥

every base package has a name that starts with the string “FreeBSD-”, and has an origin beginning with “base/”. in the default system configuration, the repository containing these packages is called “FreeBSD-base”, but honestly any name may be used — you do you. 🎀 the repository name can be used with pkg(8) to restrict package operations to just the base system packages, which is lowkey essential.

packages for all supported FreeBSD releases as well as active “STABLE” and “CURRENT” branches are hosted on the Internet at https://pkg.freebsd.org. these packages get updated when new errata or security updates are released (for supported release versions), or twice daily for development branches. twice daily!! the dedication, the main character energy. 👑

alternatively, packages may be built from the system source tree according to the instructions in build(7), which lets you update the system from source code using packages. options, we love options. 🦋

---

🌈 PACKAGE ORGANISATION 🌈

so to allow customisation of the installed system, each package is split into several subpackages which contain different components of the package. for the package FreeBSD-foo, the following subpackages may be available:

• FreeBSD-foo — base files for the package (typically executables)
• FreeBSD-foo-lib — native runtime libraries
• FreeBSD-foo-lib32 — 32-bit compatibility runtime libraries
• FreeBSD-foo-dev — development files (headers and static libraries)
• FreeBSD-foo-dev-lib32 — 32-bit development files
• FreeBSD-foo-dbg — debugging symbols
• FreeBSD-foo-man — manual pages. manual pages are only packaged separately if the WITH_MANSPLITPKG src.conf(5) option was enabled when building the system, which is not the default. (iykyk)

the exact set of available subpackages differs for each individual package. for example, some packages may not provide any development files, in which case the -dev subpackage is not present. no dev files, no dev subpackage — simple as that. 💅

---

🎀 PACKAGE SETS 🎀

package sets are meta-packages which do not contain any files themselves, but depend on a selection of other packages, such that each package set allows the complete set of packages for a supported workload to be installed. meta! iconic behaviour honestly. ✨

package sets are provided as packages named FreeBSD-set-<name>. the following package sets are available in the base system:

• minimal — the minimal set of packages required to bring up a multi-user FreeBSD system. this includes the core system, along with packages required for hardware support (such as devmatch(8) and downloadable firmware), and basic networking, including DHCP and IEEE Std 802.11™ wireless networks. 💖
• minimal-jail — the equivalent of minimal for systems running in a jail(8) environment. this set excludes hardware support not typically required for jails.
• devel — development tools, including C/C++ compilers, the link loader, and other tools such as ar(1) and nm(1). this set also includes native development files (headers and static libraries) for all packages. compilers!! we love her 💜
• optional — optional software which is not part of either the devel or minimal sets.
• optional-jail — the equivalent of optional for systems running in a jail(8) environment. this set excludes system functionality which typically does not work or is not useful in a jail.
• lib32 — 32-compatibility libraries, for running 32-bit applications on a 64-bit host system. this set includes both runtime libraries and development files.
• base — the complete base system, excluding tests, the system source code, and debugging symbols. installing the base set is equivalent to installing minimal, devel and optional.
• base-jail — the equivalent of base for systems running in a jail(8) environment. this set excludes system functionality which typically does not work or is not useful in a jail. installing the base-jail set is equivalent to installing minimal-jail, devel and optional-jail.
• src — the system source tree for the userland and kernel, installed in /usr/src.
• tests — the system test suite, installed in /usr/tests.
• kernels — all available system kernels. all of them. 👑

---

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

install a single piece of userland

install the vi(1) text editor on the running system:

pkg install FreeBSD-vi

install userland to a jail

install a new jail(8) system using the minimal-jail package set:

pkg -r /jails/myjail install FreeBSD-set-minimal-jail

install native compilers

install C/C++ compilers on the running system:

pkg install FreeBSD-set-devel

update the currently running system

apply available updates to the running system:

pkg upgrade -r FreeBSD-base

install cross compilers

install the development toolchain for FreeBSD/powerpc64le in an alternate root (for example, to support cross-compiling software for a different target than the host system):

pkg -r /ppcdev -oABI=FreeBSD:16:powerpc64le \
    install FreeBSD-set-devel

adding a locally built repository for snapshots

disable the predefined repository, and add a local repo for locally built base system packages:

cat << EOF > /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf
FreeBSD-base: { enabled: no }
FreeBSD-local: {
        url: "file:///usr/obj/usr/src/repo/${ABI}/latest",
        enabled: yes
}
EOF

the packages are created by the build(7) system at ${REPODIR}/${PKG_ABI}/<VERSION>, which defaults to the example directory. 📁

note: the repo must have a different name than the predefined repository. no duplicates, bestie. 🙈

unregister a currently running system

systems managed through pkg(8) can be unregistered from the package manager — for example to upgrade in-place via “make installworld”. see build(7).

to unregister the base system from the package manager:

pkg unregister -fg 'FreeBSD-\*'

then, disable the base system package repository. if a configuration file was created in /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/ to enable base system packages, remove it:

rm /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD-base.conf

alternatively, if it is desired to keep it, edit the file and change “enabled:” to “no” to disable the entry.

warning: this is a destructive action which will prevent updating the base system via pkg(8). like, fr fr, be careful. 💀

---

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

build(7), pkg(8), src.conf(5)

---

🌸 HISTORY 🌸

support for installing the base system as packages was introduced in FreeBSD 15.0. earlier releases supported a subset of this functionality. support for unregistering an existing installation appeared in pkg 2.5. glow-up timeline honestly. ✨

---

⭐ CAVEATS ⭐

upgrading from a RELEASE to a STABLE or CURRENT branch requires “pkg upgrade -f”. don't forget the -f, bestie, it literally will not work otherwise. 💅

---

mwah 💋 this page came from the Debian flavour of the Miscellaneous Information Manual, dated April 23, 2026 — and that's the whole FREEBSD-BASE(7) tea. slay, install responsibly, and go touch some /usr/src. 🫶🎀