Pkgsrc
Package manager for Unix-like operating systems
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
pkgsrc (package source) is a package management system for Unix-like operating systems. It was forked from the FreeBSD ports collection in 1997 as the primary package management system for NetBSD. Since then it has evolved independently; in 1999, support for Solaris was added, followed by support for other operating systems.[3]
| pkgsrc | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developers | Alistair Crooks, Hubert Feyrer and Johnny C. Lam[1] |
| Initial release | January 4, 1998 |
| Stable release | 2025Q4[2]
/ 20 December 2025 |
| Written in | C, Unix shell |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Type | Package management system |
| License | BSD License |
| Website | www |
| Repository | |
As of September 2025[update], pkgsrc currently contains over 29,000 packages[4] and includes most popular open-source software. It is the native package manager on NetBSD, SmartOS and MINIX 3, and is portable across 23 different operating systems, including AIX, various BSD derivatives, HP-UX, IRIX, Linux,[5] macOS,[6] Solaris, and QNX.[7]
There are multiple ways to install programs using pkgsrc. The pkgsrc bootstrap contains a traditional ports collection that utilizes a series of makefiles to compile software from source. Another method is to install pre-built binary packages via the pkg_add and pkg_delete tools. A high-level utility named pkgin also exists, and is designed to automate the installation, removal, and update of binary packages in a manner similar to Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool.[8]
Several vendors, including MNX.io, provide binary packages for popular operating systems, including macOS and Linux.[6][5]
Supported platforms
| Platform | Date added |
|---|---|
| NetBSD | October 1997 |
| Solaris | March 1999 |
| Linux | June 1999 |
| Darwin and macOS | October 2001 |
| FreeBSD | November 2002 |
| OpenBSD | November 2002 |
| IRIX | December 2002 |
| BSD/OS | December 2003 |
| AIX | December 2003 |
| Interix (for Windows NT) | March 2004 |
| DragonFly BSD | October 2004 |
| OSF/1 | November 2004 |
| HP-UX | April 2007 |
| QNX | October 2007 |
| Haiku | January 2010 |
| MINIX 3 | August 2010 |
| MirBSD | January 2011 |
| illumos and SmartOS | February 2011 |
| Cygwin | May 2013 |
| GNU/kFreeBSD | July 2013 |
| Bitrig | June 2015 |
History
On October 3, 1997, NetBSD developers Alistair Crooks and Hubert Feyrer created pkgsrc[1] based on the FreeBSD ports system and intended to support the NetBSD packages collection. It was officially released as part of NetBSD 1.3[9] on January 4, 1998. DragonFly BSD used pkgsrc as its official package system from version 1.4 in 2006, to 3.4 in 2013.[10][3]
On 2017-09-12, a commit message policy that accommodates DVCS was established by the project.[11]
Packages
The NetBSD Foundation provides official, pre-built binary packages for multiple combinations of NetBSD and pkgsrc releases, and occasionally for certain other operating systems as well.[12]
As of 2018, several vendors provide pre-built binary packages for several platforms:
- Since at least 2014,[13] Joyent has provided binary packages for SmartOS/illumos, macOS,[6] and Enterprise Linux (CentOS/Oracle/Red Hat/Scientific).[5][13] Packages are provided on a rolling release basis from the trunk (HEAD, in CVS terminology) of pkgsrc, with updates every few days;[6] additionally, quarterly stable releases of pkgsrc for Joyent's own SmartOS are also provided (dating back to 2012Q4).[14]
- Since 2017,[15] University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee has provided binary packages for NetBSD, RHEL/CentOS, and Darwin/macOS.[16][17] Packages are only built from the quarterly releases of pkgsrc, aiding use in long-term experiments, where stability and reproducibility of the findings is of the essence.[15]
