Installing Software in FreeBSD with pkg

pkg command is used to install software in FreeBSD.

To update package repo, run

pkg update -f

Example

root@ok-vm:~ # pkg update -f
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
pkg: Repository FreeBSD has a wrong packagesite, need to re-create database
Fetching meta.txz: 100%    940 B   0.9kB/s    00:01    
Fetching packagesite.txz: 100%    6 MiB 878.0kB/s    00:07    
Processing entries: 100%
FreeBSD repository update completed. 28776 packages processed.
All repositories are up to date.
root@ok-vm:~ # 

To install postfix mail server, run

pkg install postfix

To auto start postfix, you need to run

sysrc postfix_enable="YES"

You can also add postfix_enable=”YES” to /etc/rc.conf manually.

root@ok-vm:~ # cat /etc/rc.conf
hostname="ok-vm"
ifconfig_hn0="DHCP"
ifconfig_hn0_ipv6="inet6 accept_rtadv"
sshd_enable="YES"
# Set dumpdev to "AUTO" to enable crash dumps, "NO" to disable
dumpdev="AUTO"
waagent_enable="YES"
root@ok-vm:~ # sysrc postfix_enable="YES"
postfix_enable:  -> YES
root@ok-vm:~ # cat /etc/rc.conf
hostname="ok-vm"
ifconfig_hn0="DHCP"
ifconfig_hn0_ipv6="inet6 accept_rtadv"
sshd_enable="YES"
# Set dumpdev to "AUTO" to enable crash dumps, "NO" to disable
dumpdev="AUTO"
waagent_enable="YES"
postfix_enable="YES"
root@ok-vm:~ # 

Finding Software

To find package that provides a software, you can run

pkg search -o SOFTWARE_NAME

Example

root@ok-vm:~ # pkg search -o nginx
www/nginx                      Robust and small WWW server
www/nginx-devel                Robust and small WWW server
www/nginx-full                 Robust and small WWW server (full package)
www/nginx-lite                 Robust and small WWW server (lite package)
www/nginx-naxsi                Robust and small WWW server (plus NAXSI)
www/p5-Nginx-ReadBody          Nginx embeded perl module to read and evaluate a request body
www/p5-Nginx-Simple            Perl 5 module for easy to use interface for Nginx Perl Module
www/p5-Test-Nginx              Testing modules for Nginx C module development
root@ok-vm:~ # 

Delete a software

pkg delete PACKAGE_NAME

Upgrade all installed software

pkg upgrade