pkg_add(1)

NAME
pkg_add - a utility for installing software package distributions

SYNOPSIS
[-vInfRMS] [-t template] [-p prefix] pkg-name ...

DESCRIPTION
The pkg_add command is used to extract packages that have been previously created with the pkg_create(1) command.

WARNING
Since the pkg_add command may execute scripts or programs contained within a package file, your system may be susceptible to ``trojan horses'' or other subtle attacks from miscreants who create dangerous package files.

You are advised to verify the competence and identity of those who provide installable package files. For extra protection, use the -M flag to extract the package file, and inspect its contents and scripts to insure it poses no danger to your system's integrity. Pay particular attention to any +INSTALL, +DEINSTALL, +REQUIRE or +MTREE_DIRS files, and inspect the +CONTENTS file for @cwd, @mode (check for setuid), @dirrm, @exec, and @unexec directives, and/or use the pkg_info(1) command to examine the package file.

OPTIONS
The following command line arguments are supported:

pkg-name [... pkg-name]
    The named packages are installed. A package name of - will cause pkg_add to read from stdin. If the packages are not found in the current working directory, pkg_add will search them in each directory named by PKG_PATH.

-v  Turn on verbose output.

-I  If an installation script exists for a given package, do not execute it.

-n  Don't actually install a package, just report the steps that would be taken if it was.

-R  Do not record the installation of a package. This means that you cannot deinstall it later, so only use this option if you know what you are doing!

-f  Force installation to proceed even if prerequisite packages are not installed or the requirements script fails. Although pkg_add will still try to find and auto-install missing prerequisite packages, a failure to find one will not be fatal.

-p prefix
    Set prefix as the directory in which to extract files from a package. If a package has set its default directory, it will be overridden by this flag. Note that only the first @cwd directive will be replaced, since pkg_add has no way of knowing which directory settings are relative and which are absolute. It is rare in any case to see more than one directory transition made, but when such does happen and you wish to have control over *all* directory transitions, then you may then wish to look into the use of MASTER and SLAVE modes (see the -M and -S options).

-t template
    Use template as the input to mktemp(3) when creating a ``staging area.'' By default, this is the string /var/tmp/instmp.XXXXXX, but it may be necessary to override it in the situation where space in your /var/tmp directory is limited. Be sure to leave some number of `X' characters for mktemp(3) to fill in with a unique ID.

    You can get a performance boost by setting the staging area template to reside on the same disk partition as target directories for package file installation; often this is /usr.

-M  Run in MASTER mode. This is a very specialized mode for running pkg_add and is meant to be run in conjunction with SLAVE mode. When run in this mode, pkg_add does no work beyond extracting the package into a temporary staging area (see the -t option), reading in the packing list, and then dumping it (prefaced by the current staging area) to stdout where it may be filtered by a program such as sed(1). When used in conjunction with SLAVE mode, it allows you to make radical changes to the package structure before acting on its contents.

-S  Run in SLAVE mode. This is a very specialized mode for running pkg_add and is meant to be run in conjunction with MASTER mode. When run in this mode, pkg_add expects the release contents to be already extracted and waiting in the staging area, the location of which is read as a string from stdin. The complete packing list is also read from stdin, and the contents then acted on as normal.

One or more pkg-name arguments may be specified, each being either a file containing the package (these usually ending with the ``.tgz'' suffix) or a URL pointing at a file available on an ftp or web site. Thus you may extract files directly from their anonymous ftp or WWW locations (e.g. pkg_add ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.3.2/i386/shells/bash-2.02.1.tgz). Note: If you wish to use passive mode ftp in such transfers, set the variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to some value in your environment. Otherwise, the more standard ACTIVE mode may be used. If pkg_add consistently fails to fetch a package from a site known to work, it may be because you have a firewall that demands the usage of passive mode ftp.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
pkg_add extracts each package's "packing list" into a special staging directory in /tmp (or $PKG_TMPDIR if set) and then runs through the following sequence to fully extract the contents of the package:

1.  A check is made to determine if the package or another version of it is already recorded as installed. If it is, installation is terminated.

2.  A check is made to determine if the package conflicts (from @pkgcfl directives, see pkg_create(1)) with an already recorded as installed package. If it is, installation is terminated.

3.  All package dependencies (from @pkgdep directives, see pkg_create(1)) are read from the packing list. If any of these required packages is not currently installed, an attempt is made to find and install it; if the missing package cannot be found or installed, the installation is terminated.

4.  A search is made for any @option directives which control how the package is added to the system. The only currently implemented option is @option extract-in-place, which causes the package to be extracted directly into its prefix directory rather than moving it through a staging area in /tmp.

5.  If @option extract-in-place is enabled, the package is now extracted directly into its final location, otherwise it is extracted into the staging area.

6.  If the package contains a require script (see pkg_create(1) ), it is executed with the following arguments:

    pkg-name
        The name of the package being installed

    INSTALL
        Keyword denoting to the script that it is to run an installation requirements check. (The keyword is useful only to scripts which serve multiple functions).

    If the require script exits with a non-zero status code, the installation is terminated.

7.  If the package contains an install script, it is executed with the following arguments:

    pkg-name
        The name of the package being installed.

    PRE-INSTALL
        Keyword denoting that the script is to perform any actions needed before the package is installed.

    If the install script exits with a non-zero status code, the installation is terminated.

8.  If @option extract-in-place is not present in the packing list, then it is used as a guide for moving (or copying, as necessary) files from the staging area into their final locations.

9.  If the package contains an mtreefile file (see pkg_create(1) ), then mtree is invoked as:
    mtree -u -f mtreefile -d -e -p prefix

    where prefix is either the prefix specified with the -p flag or, if no -p flag was specified, the name of the first directory named by a @cwd directive within this package.

10. If an install script exists for the package, it is executed with the following arguments:

    pkg_name
        The name of the package being installed.

    POST-INSTALL
        Keyword denoting that the script is to perform any actions needed after the package has been installed.

11. After installation is complete, a copy of the packing list, deinstall script, description, and display files are copied into /var/db/pkg/<pkg-name> for subsequent possible use by pkg_delete(1). Any package dependencies are recorded in the other packages' /var/db/pkg/<other-pkg>/+REQUIRED_BY file (if the environment variable PKG_DBDIR is set, this overrides the /var/db/pkg/ path shown above).

12. Finally, the staging area is deleted and the program terminates.

The install and require scripts are called with the environment variable PKG_PREFIX set to the installation prefix (see the -p option above). This allows a package author to write a script that reliably performs some action on the directory where the package is installed, even if the user might change it with the -p flag to pkg_add.

ENVIRONMENT

  PKG_PATH
The value of the PKG_PATH is used if a given package can't be found, it's usually set to /usr/pkgsrc/packages/All. The environment variable should be a series of entries seperated by colons. Each entry consists of a directory name. The current directory may be indicated implicitly by an empty directory name, or explicitly by a single period.

  PKG_DBDIR
Where to register packages instead of /var/db/pkg.

SEE ALSO
pkg_admin(1), pkg_create(1), pkg_delete(1), pkg_info(1), mktemp(3), sysconf(3), mtree(8)

AUTHORS
Jordan Hubbard
    Initial work and ongoing development.
John Kohl
    NetBSD refinements.
Hubert Feyrer
    NetBSD wildcard dependency processing, pkgdb, etc.

BUGS
Hard links between files in a distribution are only preserved if either (1) the staging area is on the same file system as the target directory of all the links to the file, or (2) all the links to the file are bracketed by @cwd directives in the contents file, and and the link names are extracted with a single tar command (not split between invocations due to exec argument-space limitations--this depends on the value returned by sysconf(_SC_ARG_MAX)).

Sure to be others.