pkg_install

by Joerg Sonneberger

Abstract

Pkgsrc is a framework for building third party software on a variety of systems. It is the system of choice on DragonFly and NetBSD.

Pkgsrc was originally derived from FreeBSD ports and many features were added to that foundation. One central component is pkg_install, a collection of small programs to install and remove packages and other related tasks. While it has been extended over time, the original code base is still mostly present, together with a number of limitations.

During Google's Summer of Code 2006 program this component was rewritten to better fulfill the needs of pkgsrc:

Integrated archive handling.
Full specifications of file formats and algorithms.
Versioned, extensible meta data.
Better integration of the install framework.

In the paper a comparison of the old approaches, the new solution and the rationale, as well as the state of integration in pkgsrc and of the conversion tools are given.

Author bio

Jorg Sonnenberger is currently studying mathematics at the university of Rostock, Germany. He has been contributing to the DragonFly project almost since the beginning. Since May 2005 he started fixing packages for pkgsrc, gaining developer and CVS rights in September of the same year.

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