Note

This page is obsolete. Please see http://pkgsrc.joyent.com/ where you will find the latest package sets and improved instructions.

Original Article

pkgsrc is a cross-platform packaging framework, designed to build a large number of third-party open source software packages on many different operating systems. It is the primary package manager on Joyent’s SmartOS distribution, and the packages are built portably so that they can be used unmodified on other illumos distributions as well.

Included in the binary package set is the pkgin package manager which is designed to look and function very similar to apt-get, making it very easy to add, upgrade, and remove packages.

Currently there are over 12,900 up-to-date binary packages available, built for individual 32-bit and 64-bit sets.

pkgsrc is released every quarter, and the current release is 2014Q2.

Quick Start

: Install either the 32-bit bootstrap..
$ curl -s http://pkgsrc.joyent.com/packages/SmartOS/bootstrap/bootstrap-2014Q2-i386.tar.gz \
    | gzcat | (cd /; sudo tar -xpf -)

: ..or the 64-bit bootstrap.
$ curl -s http://pkgsrc.joyent.com/packages/SmartOS/bootstrap/bootstrap-2014Q2-x86_64.tar.gz \
    | gzcat | (cd /; sudo tar -xpf -)

: Packages are kept under /opt/local, add to $PATH
$ PATH=/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:$PATH

: Refresh the package repository to get the very latest packages
$ sudo pkgin -y update

: Find out what packages (and how many) are available
$ pkgin avail | wc -l

: Search for a particular package, for example 'tmux'
$ pkgin search tmux

: Install a package
$ sudo pkgin -y install tmux

: Upgrade all packages
$ sudo pkgin -y full-upgrade

Building From Source

pkgsrc is based on the FreeBSD ports system, so if you are used to that (or other similar forks such as OpenBSD ports) and want to build packages from source the procedure is very similar:

: Install the git package and fetch pkgsrc from the converted cvs->git repo
$ sudo pkgin -y install git
$ git clone git://github.com/joyent/pkgsrc.git

: By default you will get pkgsrc trunk.  If you want the most recent stable
: branch, then switch to it first.
$ git checkout joyent/release/2014Q2

: Change to the package directory and download/compile/install with one command.
$ cd pkgsrc/<category>/<package>
$ bmake install

Here are some common configuration settings you may wish to add to /opt/local/etc/mk.conf:

# Avoid root password prompt for package install/deinstall
SU_CMD=		sudo /bin/sh -c

# Re-use existing binary packages, replace <ARCH> with the bootstrap you
# chose earlier, i.e. 'i386', 'x86_64', or 'multiarch'.
BINPKG_SITES=	http://pkgsrc.joyent.com/packages/SmartOS/2014Q2/<ARCH>
DEPENDS_TARGET=	bin-install

# Build everything with -j8
MAKE_JOBS=	8

# Ignore vulnerability and license checks
ALLOW_VULNERABLE_PACKAGES=	yes
SKIP_LICENSE_CHECK=		yes

# Configure where to store distfiles, binary packages, and build areas
DISTDIR=	/content/distfiles
PACKAGES=	/content/packages
WRKOBJDIR=	/var/tmp/pkgsrc-build

If you want to change the build options for a particular package, first find out which options are available with show-options, and then set the particular option in /opt/local/etc/mk.conf before building:

$ cd pkgsrc/net/nmap

$ bmake show-options
Any of the following general options may be selected:
	inet6	 Enable support for IPv6.
	ndiff	 Enable tool to compare Nmap scans.
	zenmap	 Enable nmap GUI frontend.

These options are enabled by default:
	inet6

These options are currently enabled:
	inet6

You can select which build options to use by setting PKG_DEFAULT_OPTIONS
or PKG_OPTIONS.nmap.

$ vi /opt/local/etc/mk.conf
PKG_OPTIONS.nmap+=	ndiff

$ bmake install

Further Information

The pkgsrc guide is packed with information about the internals of pkgsrc, and is useful if you would like to dig deeper and start hacking.

There are also various pkgsrc-related posts on my blog which contain various hints and tricks. I also post new branch builds and updates there.

We hang out on Freenode #pkgsrc, and our mailing lists are:

• pkgsrc-users@netbsd.org for users
• tech-pkg@netbsd.org for developers

Get Involved

There are over 13,000 packages in pkgsrc, so there are quite a few which currently do not build on illumos. We perform regular bulk builds that are posted to the pkgsrc-bulk@netbsd.org mailing list, which shows all the currently failing packages as well as their build logs here:

Build fixes, package updates as well as new packages are very welcome:

• If you have a small patch and prefer using GitHub, feel free to raise it as an issue against Joyent’s pkgsrc repository.

• If you want to get involved in creating new packages, the pkgsrc-wip project is a great way to get started.

• Otherwise, there is always the NetBSD GNATS database.

Finally

Enjoy!