Installing Packages on NetBSD and OpenBSD

Last month I wrote about installing packages on FreeBSD. This entry covers my NetBSD and OpenBSD experiences.

First, a few differences between NetBSD and OpenBSD. Root's default shell in NetBSD is /bin/sh, while OpenBSD uses /bin/csh. This means environment variables can be set in .profile for NetBSD and .cshrc for OpenBSD.

FreeBSD gives users the chance to automatically retrieve packages and dependencies remotely, e.g., 'pkg_add -r mtr'. FreeBSD makes its remote retrieval decisions based on the installed OS. NetBSD and OpenBSD allow the same, but you must specify the OS in an environment variable.

For NetBSD, add the following to .profile:

export PKG_PATH=ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All

For OpenBSD, add this to .cshrc:

setenv PKG_PATH ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.4/packages/i386/

These additions make automatic package retrieval easier. I'll install the GTK version of MTR to demonstrate the process on each OS.

For NetBSD, you can browse or search pkgsrc.netbsd.se to find packages. A visit there shows two versions of MTR: mtr and mtr-gtk (both with version 0.54nb1).

Install the newest package with this syntax:

pkg_add -v mtr-gtk

Watch pkg_add find the newest package and install it:

parsing: ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All

path: ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All

increasing RLIMIT_NOFILE to max. 1772 open files

trying PKG_PATH ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All

Spawning FTP coprocess

ftp -detv ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All/

Eventually it finds what it needs:

nlist mtr-gtk-*.t[bg]z /var/tmp/pkg.02535d

ftp> cd .

best match: 'ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All/mtr-gtk-0.52.tgz'

'ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All/mtr-gtk-[0-9]*.t[bg]z'

expanded to 'ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All/mtr-gtk-0.5

2.tgz'

Trying to fetch ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.6.1/i386/All/mtr-gtk-

0.52.tgz.

...and so on...

When done, MTR version 0.52 and dependencies are installed:

# pkg_info

pkg_info: disabling PKG_PATH when operating on all packages.

pth-1.4.1nb7        GNU Portable Thread library

bash-2.05.2.7nb1    The GNU Bourne Again Shell

glib-1.2.10nb3      Some useful routines for C programming

gtk+-1.2.10nb3      Gimp toolkit. Libraries for building X11 user interfaces

mtr-gtk-0.52        Traceroute and ping in a single graphical network diagnostic

For OpenBSD, you can browse or search ports.puffy.nu. A search for MTR finds "mtr 0.49" and "mtr 0.49-no_x11". To know the exact name, I prefer searching for mtr at BSDcoders. It shows "mtr-0.49
" and "mtr-0.49-no_x11". (One could assume the hyphens were needed earlier, but it's good to be sure.)

To install the package, you must specify the version, unlike FreeBSD or NetBSD:

pkg_add -v mtr-0.49

Trying to fetch ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.4/packages/i386//mtr-0.49.tg

z.

>>> ftp -o - ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.4/packages/i386//mtr-0.49.tgz

Extracting from FTP connection into /var/tmp/instmp.Zouhf13798

Unknown command.

+CONTENTS

+COMMENT

+DESC

sbin/mtr

man/man8/mtr.8

tar command returns 0 status

pkg: Handling dependencies for mtr-0.49

  checking gtk+-* (gtk+-1.2.10p1) -> Not found

checking gtk.1.2 not found

pkg: Handling dependencies for gtk+-1.2.10p1

  checking glib-* (glib-1.2.10) -> Not found

checking glib.1.2 not found

  checking libiconv-* (libiconv-1.8) -> Not found

checking iconv.3.0 not found

  checking gettext->=0.10.38 (gettext-0.10.40p1) -> Not found

checking intl.1.1 not found

...and so on...

When done, mtr-0.49 and its dependencies are installed:

lemelin# pkg_info

bash-2.05b-static  GNU Bourne Again Shell

libiconv-1.8       character set conversion library

gettext-0.10.40p1  GNU gettext

glib-1.2.10        useful routines for C programming

gtk+-1.2.10p1      General Toolkit for X11 GUI

mtr-0.49           Matt's traceroute - network diagnostic tool

The best bet for installing newer versions of any software on BSD is to use the ports tree. The absolute newest version can sometimes be only found in source code from the developer, before the ports tree is modified. Still, to quickly install an app, the package system can't be beat -- especially for large apps with numerous dependencies.