FreeBSD Packaging

Packages

Binary packages are managed with the pkg(8) package manager.

To update installed packages, use pkg update && pkg upgrade.

To add a package such as HAProxy, use pkg install haproxy.

Ports

The ports project maintains a hierarchy of Makefiles to compile a much larger variety of software on FreeBSD.

Portsnap

The portsnap(8) exists to aid in maintaining ports. First, run portsnap fetch && portsnap extract. This downloads the hierarchy locally to /usr/ports.

To update the hierarchy, run portsnap fetch && portsnap update.

Git

Alternatively, clone the git(1) repository of the project.

pkg install git
git clone https://git.FreeBSD.org/ports.git /usr/ports

# or, clone a quarterly release
git clone https://git.FreeBSD.org/ports.git -b 2020Q3 /usr/ports

Subsequently, to update the repository, run:

# if using a quarterly branch, switch to the updated one
git -C /usr/ports switch 2020Q4

git -C /usr/ports pull

Subversion

Historically the project used a svn(1) repository. The process was:

pkg install subversion
svn checkout https://svn.FreeBSD.org/ports/head /usr/ports

Querying Software

Use pkg version -l "<" to list software that is out of date.

Use pkg query --all '%o %n-%v %R' | grep -e 'unknown-repository' to list installed ports.

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