NAME

pkg —

a utility for manipulating packages

SYNOPSIS

pkg ⟨command⟩

pkg add [-f] [-r reponame] [-y] ⟨pkg.txz⟩

pkg -N

pkg [-4 | -6] bootstrap [-f] [-r reponame] [-y]

DESCRIPTION

pkg is the package management tool. It is used to manage local packages installed from ports(7) and install/upgrade packages from remote repositories.

To avoid backwards incompatibility issues, the actual pkg(8) tool is not installed in the base system. The first time invoked, pkg will bootstrap the real pkg(8) from a remote repository.

pkg ⟨command⟩: If pkg(8) is not installed yet, it will be fetched, have its signature verified, installed, and then have the original command forwarded to it. If already installed, the command requested will be forwarded to the real pkg(8).
pkg add [-f] [-r reponame] [-y] ⟨pkg.txz⟩: 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 valid before the package will be installed. If the -f flag is specified, then pkg(8) will be installed regardless if it is 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 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.
pkg [-4 | -6] bootstrap [-f] [-r reponame] [-y]: Attempt to bootstrap and do not forward anything to pkg(8) after it is 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 if it is 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.

CONFIGURATION

Configuration varies in whether it is 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. 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 are 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 autoremove from removing it:

% pkg set -A 0 perl

Change a package from non-automatic to automatic, which will make autoremove allow it 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

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).