$NetBSD: README,v 1.5 1998/04/30 20:58:13 frueauf Exp $ Welcome to the NetBSD Packages Collection ========================================= In brief, the NetBSD Packages Collection is a set of software utilities and libraries which have been ported to NetBSD. The packages collection software can retrieve the software from its home site, assuming you are connected in some way to the Internet, verify its integrity, apply any patches, configure the software for NetBSD, and build it. Any prerequisite software will also be built and installed for you. Installation and de-installation of software is managed by the packaging utilities. The packages collection is made weekly into a tar_file: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/tar_files/pkgsrc.tar.gz and you can sup the pkgsrc tree using the `pkgsrc' name for the collection. The pkgsrc tree is laid out in various categories, and, within that, the various packages themselves. You need to have root privileges to install packages. We are looking at ways to remove this restriction. + To install a package on your system, you need to change into the directory of the package, and type "make && make install". + If you've made a mistake, and decided that you don't want that package on your system, then type "pkg_delete ", or "make deinstall". + To find out all the packages that you have installed on your system, type "pkg_info". + To remove the work directory, type "make clean", and "make clean-depends" will clean up any working directories for other packages that are built in the process of making your package. + To find out what variables exists to customize some behaviour of pkgsrc (e.g. where it installs to) have a look at pkgsrc/mk/mk.conf.example. You can set those in /etc/mk.conf. The best way to find out what packages are in the collection is to move to the top-level pkgsrc directory (this will usually be /usr/pkgsrc), and type "make readme". This will create a file called README.html in the top-level pkgsrc directory, and also in all category and package directories. You can then see what packages are available, along with a short (one-line) comment about the function of the package, and a pointer to a fuller description, by using a browser like lynx (see pkgsrc/www/lynx) or something like Mozilla (pkgsrc/www/mozilla), or Communicator. Another way to find out what packages are in the collection is to move to the top-level pkgsrc directory and type "make index". This will create pksrc/INDEX which can be watched via "make print-index | more". You can also search for particular packages or keywords via "make search key=". It is also possible to use the packaging software to install pre-compiled binary packages by typing "pkg_add ". To see what binary packages are available, see: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages///All/ where is the NetBSD release, and is the hardware architecture. See: http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/netbsd/Packages.txt for more information on the packages collection.