Pkgsrc in PC-BSD®

Available to PC-BSD is its own PBI collection, FreeBSD ports, and FreeBSD packages. However, it is also possible to use the NetBSD pkgsrc system to build software. This is not (yet) a pre-configured feature, which means there are some special instructions to follow for this functionality to be enabled. This section will describe how to configure and use NetBSD pkgsrc from PC-BSD.

Setting things up

1. Obtain the NetBSD pkgsrc tree by the following commands:
   
   # cd /usr/
   # env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d anoncvs@anoncvs.NetBSD.org:/cvsroot checkout pkgsrc
   
   
2. FreeBSD stores its ports pkg database in /var/db/pkg/. It is therefore recommended that you use /usr/db/pkgsrc/ with the --pkgdbdir flag as below:
   
   # cd /usr/pkgsrc/bootstrap/
   # ./bootstrap --pkgdbdir /var/db/pkgsrc/
   
   
3. The NetBSD pkg tools and FreeBSD pkg tools have identical names. It is recommended to change the name of the NetBSD set to match 'bmake' by prepending a 'b' to each, as follows:
   
   # cd /usr/pkg/sbin/
   # mv pkg_add bpkg_add
   # mv pkg_create bpkg_create
   # mv pkg_delete bpkg_delete
   # mv pkg_info bpkg_info
   
   If you do not intend to use the FreeBSD ports tools, they can be moved out of the way as follows:
   
   # cd /usr/sbin/
   # mv pkg_add pkg_add.orig
   # mv pkg_create pkg_create.orig
   # mv pkg_delete pkg_delete.orig
   # mv pkg_info pkg_info.orig
   
   An example mk.conf file will be placed in /etc/mk.conf.example file when you use the bootstrap script.
   
   
4. Add the location of bmake (/usr/pkg/bin) and NetBSD pkg tools (/usr/pkg/sbin) to the user's search path variable.
   Edit the file .cshrc in the user's home directory to modify the following line:
   
   set path = (/sbin /bin /usr/sbin /usr/bin /usr/games /usr/local/sbin /usr/local/bin /usr/pkg/sbin /usr/pkg/bin $HOME/bin)
   
   
5. Add the PKG_PATH definition for the current version of pkgsrc (5.1) to the user's .cshrc file with the following line:
   
   setenv PKG_PATH ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/`uname -m`/5.1/All/
   
   
6. Obtain the vulnerabilities file:
   # /usr/pkg/sbin/pkg_admin fetch-pkg-vulnerabilities
   
   
7. The vulnerabilities of some ports (ie Firefox) may prevent them from being built.
   Adjust /usr/pkg/etc/mk.conf to allow vulnerable programs to be built by adding the following line:
   
   ALLOW_VULNERABLE_PACKAGES=TRUE

Using pkgsrc to build

Much like using the FreeBSD ports system, building with the NetBSD pkgsrc system is a rather simple matter of going to the location of the application within the pkgsrc tree, and then using bmake, for example:

# cd /usr/pkgsrc/www/firefox/

# bmake install clean

Adding a NetBSD pkg

%su -m

# bpkg_add www/firefox

The above probably should simply work, or the NetBSD documentation would not mention renaming the FreeBSD pkg tools. However, for the moment, testing throws the following type of error:

pkg_add: Warning: package `firefox-3.6.16' was built for a platform:

pkg_add: NetBSD/x86_64 5.1 (pkg) vs. FreeBSD/x86_64 9.0 (this host)

pkg_add: 1 package addition failed