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2025Q4
20 December 2025 - pkgsrc-2025Q4 released
The pkgsrc developers are proud to announce the pkgsrc-2025Q4 branch,
the 89th pkgsrc release.
See the
release announcement
for more information.
2025Q3
25 September 2025 - pkgsrc-2025Q3 released
The pkgsrc developers are proud to announce the pkgsrc-2025Q3 branch,
the 88th pkgsrc release.
See the
release announcement
for more information.
2025Q2
30 June 2025 - pkgsrc-2025Q2 released
The pkgsrc developers are proud to announce the pkgsrc-2025Q2 branch,
the 87th pkgsrc release.
See the
release announcement
for more information.
2025Q1
30 March 2025 - pkgsrc-2025Q1 released
The pkgsrc developers are proud to announce the pkgsrc-2025Q1 branch,
the 86th pkgsrc release.
See the
release announcement
for more information.
2024Q4
3 January 2025 - pkgsrc-2024Q4 released
The pkgsrc developers are proud to announce the pkgsrc-2024Q4 branch,
the 85th pkgsrc release.
See the
release announcement
for more information.
recent activity
Updated chat/soju to 0.10.1 [tm 2026-04-24]
Updated graphics/jbig2enc to 0.31 [adam 2026-04-24]
Updated security/opensc to 0.27.1 [adam 2026-04-24]
Added news/bulletty version 0.2.2 [pin 2026-04-23]
Added news/eilmeldung version 1.4.3 [pin 2026-04-23]
Added security/py-joserfc version 1.6.4 [adam 2026-04-23]
Updated security/p5-CryptX to 0.088 [wiz 2026-04-23]
Updated shells/dash to 0.5.13.3 [adam 2026-04-23]
Updated www/py-idna to 3.13 [adam 2026-04-23]
Updated devel/py-click to 8.3.3 [adam 2026-04-23]
pkgsrc is a framework for managing third-party software on UNIX-like systems, currently containing over 26,000 packages. It is the default package manager of
NetBSD
and
SmartOS
, and can be used to enable freely available software to be built easily on a large number of other UNIX-like platforms. The binary packages that are produced by pkgsrc can be used without having to compile anything from source. It can be easily used to complement the software on an existing system.
pkgsrc is very versatile and configurable, supporting building packages for an arbitrary installation prefix, allowing multiple branches to coexist on one machine, a build options framework, and a compiler transformation framework, among other advanced features. Unprivileged use and installation is also supported.
NetBSD already contains the necessary tools for using pkgsrc; on other platforms you need to bootstrap pkgsrc to get the package management tools installed.
Table of contents:
quickstart
install binary packages (NetBSD)
install binary packages (illumos, macOS, Enterprise Linux)
install source packages
community and support
security
resolving problems
platforms pkgsrc runs on
primary focus
other supported platforms
information for developers
other links
quickstart
install binary packages (NetBSD)
Set the
PKG_PATH
and install
pkgin
if it isn't installed already:
# PKG_PATH="https://cdn.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/$(uname -p)/$(uname -r|cut -f '1 2' -d.)/All/"
# export PKG_PATH
# pkg_add pkgin
Note that the "release" field of the URL should be something like 10.1, not 10.1_STABLE.
pkgin
is the primary high level tool for managing pkgsrc
binary packages, designed to be familiar to users of other package managers
such as
apt
# pkgin search nginx
libnjs-0.8.7nb3 NGINX JavaScript static library
lua-resty-core-0.1.30 FFI-based Lua API for nginx modules
nginx-1.26.2nb7 Lightweight HTTP server and mail proxy server
nginx-devel-1.27.3nb1 Lightweight HTTP server and mail proxy server
njs-0.8.7nb3 NGINX JavaScript command line utility
[...]
# pkgin install zsh nginx vim
# pkgin upgrade
browsable web index
of
NetBSD packages is available.
install binary packages (illumos, macOS, Enterprise Linux)
Binary package sets for SmartOS/illumos, macOS, NetBSD current, and Enterprise
Linux are
available from MNX
install source packages
get pkgsrc
You can checkout pkgsrc HEAD with CVS:
$ CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -danoncvs@anoncvs.NetBSD.org:/cvsroot checkout -P pkgsrc
Or pkgsrc's stable branch:
$ CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -danoncvs@anoncvs.NetBSD.org:/cvsroot checkout -r pkgsrc-2025Q3 -P pkgsrc
Or download pkgsrc from HTTP:
Download the current branch as a tarball
Download the stable branch as a tarball
bootstrap
On operating systems other than NetBSD, and on NetBSD with non-default
settings (e.g. different installation PREFIX), pkgsrc first needs to
bootstrap (build and install its tools).
$ cd pkgsrc/bootstrap
$ ./bootstrap --prefix /opt/pkg-2025Q3 --prefer-pkgsrc yes --make-jobs 4
build a package
Dependencies will be automatically downloaded, built, and installed.
$ cd pkgsrc/devel/memcached
$ bmake install clean
On a non-bootstrapped NetBSD installation,
bmake
is simply
make
Built packages can then be managed with exactly the same tools as binary
packages (pkgin, pkg_info, etc).
Various tools exist to automate the building and installation of pkgsrc
packages, including
pbulk
pkg_chk
and
pkg_rolling-replace
start packaging yourself
Take a look at
pkgsrc-wip
if you want to contribute by packaging software yourself!
community and support
We use the NetBSD mailing lists
pkgsrc-users
and
tech-pkg
If you don't want to subscribe, you can browse via web or NNTP,
and post without a subscription.
There is also a
#pkgsrc IRC channel
on the
Libera
IRC chat network.
If you want to report a bug, use the
NetBSD bug reporting tool
and select the
pkg
category.
There is a
pkgsrc account on Twitter
We organize pkgsrcCon, the conference on pkgsrc.
security
For getting the latest package vulnerabilities database and checking
your installed packages against it, use
# pkg_admin fetch-pkg-vulnerabilities
$ pkg_admin audit
The
vulnerabilities database
and
package EOL database
are both signed with the
pkgsrc-security GPG key
hardening guide
is also available.
resolving problems
For issues with the change in default PKG_DBDIR, which can manifest in
hard-to-understand ways, see the
PKGDB change page
platforms pkgsrc runs on
More details about how pkgsrc works on various platforms are in
bootstrap/README
in the pkgsrc sources, and per-platform notes are
in
bootstrap/README.${platform}
. pkgsrc aims to be portable and
works better on platforms that people actively use it on.
primary focus
These platforms have many active users and active bulk builds.
NetBSD
Solaris
SmartOS
illumos
Linux
macOS (Darwin)
other supported platforms
Code exists in pkgsrc to support 20+ Unix-like operating systems
and 15+ CPU architectures.
Operating systems that receive occasional testing include
FreeBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD, MINIX 3, SCO OpenServer/UnixWare,
HP-UX. See the various platform-specific
README
files in
bootstrap/
for more information.
Please report your experiences trying pkgsrc on unusual platforms
to the pkgsrc-users mailing list, complete with bootstrapping and
build logs. Try to provide as much detail as possible - particularly
for proprietary platforms, developers may not have access to a test
environment.
information for developers
Quarterly Branch Planning and Freeze Policy
Freeze Status
Outdated packages in pkgsrc
Outdated perl packages in pkgsrc
BulkTracker - bulk build reports
other links
pkgsrc.se - excellent pkgsrc website
NetBSD wiki pkgsrc/
pkgsrc bugs @ NetBSD
get t-shirts - pkgsrc on cafepress
Last edited
Wed Dec 17 01:59:39 2025
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