PKG(7)

📦 version 15.1, in freebsd 14.5, freebsd 15.1

🌸 PKG(7) 🌸

okay bestie so this is the manual page for pkg — it lives in the Miscellaneous Information Manual section and honestly? it's the glow-up era of package management. sit down, grab a strawberry drink 🍓, and let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

pkg — a utility for manipulating packages 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

pkg [-d] command ...
pkg [-d] add [-fy] [-r reponame] pkg.pkg
pkg -N
pkg [-46d] bootstrap [-fy] [-r reponame]

👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

pkg is the package management tool. periodt. it's what you use to manage the local packages you installed from ports(7), and also to install/upgrade packages from remote repositories. it's giving main character energy, fr fr.

so here's the thing — to avoid backwards incompatibility issues (ugh, the drama), the actual pkg(8) tool is not installed in the base system. nope. the first time you invoke it, pkg will bootstrap the real pkg(8) from a remote repository. iconic behaviour honestly.

pkg command ... if pkg(8) isn't installed yet, it gets fetched, has its signature verified, gets installed, and then your original command gets forwarded to it. if it's already installed? the command you asked for just gets forwarded straight to the real pkg(8). no cap. 🫶

pkg add [-fy] [-r reponame] pkg.pkg install pkg(8) from a local package instead of fetching from remote. if signature checking is enabled, then the correct signature file must exist and the signature must be valid before the package will be installed — no shortcut, bestie. if the -f flag is specified, then pkg(8) will be installed regardless of whether it's already installed. and if the -y flag is specified, no confirmation will be asked when bootstrapping pkg(8).

if a reponame has been specified, then the signature configuration for that repository will be used. 💖

pkg -N do not bootstrap, just determine if pkg(8) is actually installed or not. returns 0 and the number of packages installed if it is, otherwise 1. simple as that. ⭐

pkg [-46] bootstrap [-fy] [-r reponame] attempt to bootstrap and do not forward anything to pkg(8) after it's installed. with -4 and -6, pkg will force IPv4 or IPv6 respectively to fetch pkg(8) and its signatures as needed. if the -f flag is specified, then pkg(8) will be fetched and installed regardless of whether it's already installed. if the -y flag is specified, no confirmation will be asked when bootstrapping pkg(8).

if a reponame has been specified, then the configuration for that repository will be used.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

the following options are supported by pkg:

  • -d, --debug — show debug information. may be specified more than once to increase the level of detail 🔥. when specified twice, fetch(3) debug output is enabled. iykyk.

🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

configuration varies in whether it's in a repository configuration file or the global configuration file. the default repository configuration for FreeBSD is stored in /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf, and additional repository configuration files will be searched for in REPOS_DIR, or /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos if it is unset. ✨

for bootstrapping, pkg will process all repositories that it finds and use the last enabled repository by default.

repository configuration is stored in the following format:

FreeBSD: {
  url: "pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/latest",
  mirror_type: "srv",
  signature_type: "none",
  fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
  enabled: yes
}
  • url — refer to PACKAGESITE in “ENVIRONMENT” 💜
  • mirror_type — refer to MIRROR_TYPE in “ENVIRONMENT”
  • signature_type — refer to SIGNATURE_TYPE in “ENVIRONMENT”
  • fingerprints — refer to FINGERPRINTS in “ENVIRONMENT”
  • enabled — defines whether this repository should be used or not. valid values are yes, true, 1, no, false, 0.

global configuration can be stored in /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf in the following format:

PACKAGESITE: "pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/latest",
MIRROR_TYPE: "srv",
SIGNATURE_TYPE: "none",
FINGERPRINTS: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
ASSUME_ALWAYS_YES: "yes"
REPOS_DIR: ["/etc/pkg", "/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos"]

reference “ENVIRONMENT” for each variable. 🌈

🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

the following environment variables can be set to override the settings from the pkg.conf file used:

  • MIRROR_TYPE — this defines which mirror type should be used. valid values are SRV, HTTP, NONE.
  • ABI — this defines the ABI for the package to be installed. the default ABI is determined from /bin/sh.
  • ASSUME_ALWAYS_YES — if set, no confirmation will be asked when bootstrapping pkg(8).
  • SIGNATURE_TYPE — if set to FINGERPRINTS then a signature will be required and validated against known certificate fingerprints when bootstrapping pkg(8).
  • FINGERPRINTS — if SIGNATURE_TYPE is set to FINGERPRINTS this value should be set to the directory path where known fingerprints are located.
  • PACKAGESITE — the URL that pkg(8) and other packages will be fetched from.
  • REPOS_DIR — comma-separated list of directories that should be searched for repository configuration files.

🦋 FILES 🦋

configuration is read from the files in the listed order. this path can be changed by setting REPOS_DIR. the last enabled repository is the one used for bootstrapping pkg(8). 🔥

  • /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf
  • /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf
  • /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/*.conf

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

some examples are listed here. the full list of available commands is available in pkg(8) once it is bootstrapped. 👑

search for a package:

$ pkg search perl

install a package:

% pkg install perl

list installed packages:

$ pkg info

upgrade from remote repository:

% pkg upgrade

list non-automatic packages:

$ pkg query -e '%a = 0' %o

list automatic packages:

$ pkg query -e '%a = 1' %o

delete an installed package:

% pkg delete perl

remove unneeded dependencies:

% pkg autoremove

change a package from automatic to non-automatic, which will prevent pkg-autoremove(8) from removing it:

% pkg set -A 0 perl

change a package from non-automatic to automatic, which will make pkg-autoremove(8) allow it to be removed once nothing depends on it:

% pkg set -A 1 perl

create package file from an installed package:

% pkg create -o /usr/ports/packages/All perl

determine which package installed a file:

$ pkg which /usr/local/bin/perl

audit installed packages for security advisories:

$ pkg audit

check installed packages for checksum mismatches:

# pkg check -s -a

check for missing dependencies:

# pkg check -d -a

fetch a package for a different FreeBSD version, along with all its dependencies:

# pkg -o ABI=FreeBSD:15:amd64 -o IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes fetch -o
destdir -d perl
💀 also note the synopsis up top mentions pkg [-d] add and pkg [-46d] bootstrap — the -d debug flag rides along with those too, bestie.

💖 SEE ALSO 💖

ports(7), pkg(8)

🌸 HISTORY 🌸

the pkg command first appeared in FreeBSD 9.1. it became the default package tool in FreeBSD 10.0, replacing the pkg_install suite of tools pkg_add(1), pkg_info(1) and pkg_create(1). glow-up of the century, honestly. ✨

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this edition is from Debian, dated April 29, 2025 — mwah, go install something cute 💅

📦 where this page comes from