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PKG-CREATE(8) System Manager's Manual PKG-CREATE(8) NAME pkg create -- a utility for creating software package distributions SYNOPSIS pkg create [-enqv] [-f format] [-l level] [-o outdir] [-p plist] [-r rootdir] [-t timestamp] [-T threads] -m metadatadir pkg create [-enqv] [-f format] [-l level] [-o outdir] [-r rootdir] [-t timestamp] [-T threads] -M manifest pkg create [-egnqvx] [-f format] [-l level] [-o outdir] [-r rootdir] [-t timestamp] [-T threads] pkg-name ... pkg create [-enqv] [-f format] [-l level] [-o outdir] [-r rootdir] [-t timestamp] [-T threads] -a pkg create [--expand-manifest] [--no-clobber] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--format format] [--level level] [--out-dir outdir] [--plist plist] [--root-dir rootdir] --metadata metadatadir pkg create [--expand-manifest] [--no-clobber] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--format format] [--level level] [--out-dir outdir] [--root-dir rootdir] --manifest manifest pkg create [--expand-manifest] [--{glob,no-clobber,regex}] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--format format] [--level level] [--out-dir outdir] [--root-dir rootdir] pkg-name ... pkg create [--expand-manifest] [--no-clobber] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--format format] [--level level] [--out-dir outdir] [--root-dir rootdir] --all DESCRIPTION pkg create is used to create packages from binaries or other files in- stalled on your computer. Package tarballs can be created from the files of a previously installed package using metadata from the local package database. Any number of packages may be created in one invocation of this style. Alternatively, a single package can be created from an arbitrary selection of files on your system, but this requires a metadatadir and optionally plist to be supplied. The package name will be derived from the +MANIFEST file which must be contained within the metadatadir, or passed as the argu- ment to -M. Packages thus created can be distributed and subsequently installed on other machines using the pkg add command. OPTIONS The following options are supported by pkg create: -M manifest, --manifest manifest Read all of the package metadata from the manifest file. This is exactly the same format as +MANIFEST mentioned above, but any file name can be used, and no other file will be used to read package metadata from. If specified, only a single package will be created. This option is in- compatible with the -m, -a, -g or -x options. -T threads threads represents the number of threads to use during the compression of the archive. Set it to "0" or "auto" to have pkg create detect the number of CPUs and use one thread per CPU. -a, --all Create package tarballs from all packages installed on your system. This option is incompatible with the -g, -x or -m metadatadir options. -e, --expand-manifest The manifest contained in pkg will be expanded to readable UCL format. -f format, --format format Set format as the package compression format. It can be one of tzst, txz, tbz, tgz or tar which are currently the only supported formats. If an invalid format, or no for- mat, is specified then tzst is assumed. (The .pkg exten- sion is used for all compression types.) -h, --hash Append a short hash of the package contents to the package filename. This can be used in combination with -s to cre- ate symlinks between the hashed and regular filenames. -g, --glob Interpret pkg-name as a shell glob pattern and create pack- age only for installed binaries whose name match this pat- tern. This option is incompatible with the -a, -x or -m metadatadir options. -l level, --level level Set the compression level for created packages. It can be any valid numeric compression level you might specify to the underlying compression format. Additionally, level may be one of the special words "fast" or "best". If level is one of these special words, the fastest or slowest compres- sion level, respectively, for the specified compression format, is used. -m metadatadir, --metadata metadatadir Specify the directory containing the package manifest, +MANIFEST and optionally two other files; one containing a message to be displayed on package installation, +DISPLAY, and another containing the description for the package, +DESC. If specified, only a single package will be cre- ated. +DISPLAY and +DESC are not required; the +MANIFEST file can contain all the required information needed to build a package. This option is incompatible with the -M, -a, -g or -x options. -n, --no-clobber Do not overwrite already existing packages. -o outdir, --out-dir outdir Set outdir as the output directory. If this option is not given, all created packages will be saved in the current directory. -p plist, --plist plist Specify some package metadata using the legacy plist format from pkg_add(1), commonly found in pkg-plist files in the ports tree. Metadata from the plist file, if specified, will take precedence over any equivalents from the metadatadir. Only has any effect when used with metadatadir. See "PLIST FORMAT" for details. -q, --quiet Force quiet output. This is the default, unless PKG_CREATE_VERBOSE is set to yes in pkg.conf. -r rootdir, --root-dir rootdir rootdir specifies the top-level directory to be treated as the root of the filesystem hierarchy containing the package files. File paths in generated packages will be relative to rootdir. This allows a package to be generated from content offset from its intended final location, which al- lows a package building without disturbing similar content already on the system. If unspecified, the default is ef- fectively /, the actual root directory. -t timestamp, --timestamp Set the timestamp of the files within the archive. -v, --verbose Force verbose output, the opposite of --quiet. -x, --regex Like -g, but interpret pkg-name as a regular expression us- ing the "modern" or "extended" syntax described in re_for- mat(7). This option is incompatible with the -a, -g or -m metadatadir options. MANIFEST FILE DETAILS name pkg-name This entry sets the package's name to pkg-name. Among other things, this name is used - with the version and the origin of the concerned package - to identify a dependency. version pkg-version This entry sets the package's version to pkg-version. origin pkg-origin This entry sets the package's origin to pkg-origin. This is a string of the form category/port-dir which designates the port this package was built from. comment comment-string comment-string is a one-line description of this package. It is the equivalent of the COMMENT variable for a port, not a way to put com- ments in a +MANIFEST file. desc description description is a longer description of the package. It is the equiva- lent of the pkg-descr file for a port. It may be one to a few para- graphs. For example: desc = <<EOD This is a longer description of the package. It can span multiple lines. It can also span multiple paragraphs. EOD arch cpu-type The architecture of the machine the package was built on. cpu-type takes values like x86, amd64... www url The software's official website. maintainer mail-address The maintainer's mail address. prefix path-prefix The path where the files contained in this package are installed (usually /usr/local). flatsize size The size that the files contained in this package will occupy on your system once uncompressed. This value does not take into account files stored in the package database. deps dep-name dep-origin dep-version Associative array of package dependencies, keyed on dep-name and with values version dep-version and origin dep-origin. For example: "deps" : { "pstree" : { "version" : "2.36", "origin" : "sysutils/pstree" }, "cdiff" : { "version" : "0.9.6.20140711,1", "origin" : "textproc/cdiff" }, }, conflict pkg-glob Flag this package as incompatible with the one designated by pkg-glob. Conflicting packages cannot be installed on the same system as they may contain references to the same files. option option-name option-value Set the option option-name to the value option-value. file sha256-hash path file entries list files included in the package. If the file is a regular one, such an entry contains its sha256 digest along with its path. If a packaged file is a link, you must use this entry's other form, as described below. file - path Same as above but for file links. The sha256 hash is replaced with a - (dash). dir path Mimics the file entry but for directories. PLIST FORMAT The following describes the plist format: The plist is a sequential list of lines which can have keywords prepended. A keyword starts with an `@'. Lines not starting with a keyword are con- sidered as paths to a file. If started with a `/' then it is considered an absolute path. Otherwise the file is considered as relative to PREFIX. Keyword lines are formed as follows: @keyword line Available keywords are the following: @cwd [directory] Set the internal directory pointer to point to directory. All sub- sequent filenames will be assumed relative to this directory. @mode mode Set default permission for all subsequently extracted files to mode. Format is the same as that used by the chmod command. Use without an arg to set back to default (mode of the file while being packed) permissions. @owner user Set default ownership for all subsequent files to user. Use with- out an arg to set back to default (root) ownership. @group group Set default group ownership for all subsequent files to group. Use without an arg to set back to default (wheel) group ownership. @comment string The line will be ignored when packing. @dir name Declare directory name to be deleted at deinstall time. By de- fault, most directories created by a package installation are deleted automatically when the package is deinstalled, so this di- rective is only needed for empty directories or directories outside of PREFIX. These directives should appear at the end of the pack- age list. If the directory is not empty a warning will be printed, and the directory will not be removed. (Subdirectories should be listed before parent directories.) @include name Include the name plist file to the plist currently being parsed. the name will be opened relatively to the main plist file being parsed. Note: only one level of @include is allowed ESCAPE SEQUENCES ENVIRONMENT The following environment variables affect the execution of pkg create. See pkg.conf(5) for further description. PKG_DBDIR PLIST_KEYWORDS_DIR PORTSDIR SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH Set the timestamp for every single file in the archive to the one specified in the environment variable FILES See pkg.conf(5). EXAMPLES Create package files for installed packages: % pkg create -a -o /usr/ports/packages/All Create package file for pkg: % pkg create -o /usr/ports/packages/All pkg SEE ALSO pkg_create(3), pkg_printf(3), pkg_repo_create(3), pkg_repos(3), pkg-key- words(5), pkg-lua-script(5), pkg-repository(5), pkg-script(5), pkg-trig- gers(5), pkg.conf(5), pkg(8), pkg-add(8), pkg-alias(8), pkg-annotate(8), pkg-audit(8), pkg-autoremove(8), pkg-check(8), pkg-clean(8), pkg-config(8), pkg-delete(8), pkg-fetch(8), pkg-help(8), pkg-info(8), pkg-install(8), pkg- key(8), pkg-lock(8), pkg-plugins(8), pkg-query(8), pkg-register(8), pkg- repo(8), pkg-repositories(8), pkg-rquery(8), pkg-search(8), pkg-set(8), pkg-shell(8), pkg-shlib(8), pkg-ssh(8), pkg-stats(8), pkg-triggers(8), pkg- unregister(8), pkg-update(8), pkg-updating(8), pkg-upgrade(8), pkg-ver- sion(8), pkg-which(8) FreeBSD ports 15.1 December 13, 2025 PKG-CREATE(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | MANIFEST FILE DETAILS | PLIST FORMAT | ESCAPE SEQUENCES | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO
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