Packages are the precompiled binaries of some of the most used programs.
They are ready for use on an OpenBSD system. Again, like the ports, packages
are very easy to maintain and update. Packages are constantly being added so
be sure to check each release for additional packages.
Tools For Managing Packages
- pkg_add(1) - a utility for installing software package distributions
- pkg_create(1) - a utility for creating software package distributions
- pkg_delete(1) - a utility for deleting previously installed software package distributions
- pkg_info(1) - a utility for displaying information on software packages
Where to find packages
If you are a smart user and bought one of the OpenBSD CD, then packages can
be found on both CDs depending on your architecture. If you don't have an
OpenBSD CD in your possession you can download packages from any of the ftp
mirrors. You can get a list of mirrors http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html.
Packages are located at /pub/OpenBSD/3.0/packages from there packages are
broken down depending on architecture.
Installing Packages
To install packages, the utility pkg_add(1) is used. pkg_add(1) is an
extremely easy utility to use, in the following two examples pkg_add(1)
will be used to install a package. The first example will show pkg_add(1)
installing a package that resides on a local disk, the second example will
show an installation of a package via ftp. In both examples screen-3.9.1
will be installed.
Installing via local disk
# pkg_add -v screen-3.9.1.tgz
Installing via ftp
# pkg_add ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.0/packages/i386/pkg.tgz
The package `screen-3.9.1' will be registered at "/var/db/pkg/pkg".
Viewing and Deleting Installed Packages
The utility pkg_info(1) is used to view a list of packages that are already
installed on your system. This is usually needed to find out the correct
name of a package before you remove that package. To see what packages are
installed on your system simple use:
$ pkg_info
mpg123-0.59r mpeg audio 1/2 layer 1, 2 and 3 player
nmap-2.54BETA25 port scanning large networks
ircii-20011210 enhanced version of ircII (internet relay chat)
screen-3.9.1 multi-screen window manager
unzip-5.42 extract, list & test files in a ZIP archive
ntp-4.1.72 Network Time Protocol implementation
icb-5.0.9 Internet CB - mostly-defunct chat client
To delete a package, simple take the proper name of the package as shown by
pkg_info(1) and use pkg_delete(1) to remove the package. In the below example
the screen package is being removed. Notice that on some occasions there are
instructions of extra objects that need to be removed that pkg_delete(1) did
not remove for you. As with the pkg_add(1) utility, you can use the -v flag
to get more verbose output.
$ sudo pkg_delete screen-3.9.1
+---------------
| To completely deinstall the screen-3.9.1 package you need to perform
| this step as root:
|
| rm -f /etc/screenrc
|
| Do not do this if you plan on re-installing screen-3.9.1
| at some future time.
+---------------