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PKG-TRIGGERS(5) File Formats Manual PKG-TRIGGERS(5) NAME triggers -- trigger file format DESCRIPTION Package triggers define commands to be executed when particular files are installed, modified, or removed by pkg(8). Triggers can be used, for exam- ple, to update a database or index of files based on files installed by other packages. There are two kinds of triggers: Per-transaction Executed once at the end of the transaction, after all pack- ages have been processed and all file changes committed to disk. Even if multiple packages match the same trigger, it is executed only once and receives the combined list of matched paths. Per-package Executed individually for each package as it is being in- stalled or removed. Per-package triggers run at a specific phase of the operation (pre-install, post-install, pre-deinstall, or post-deinstall). Their failure is non- blocking: the package operation continues even if the trigger fails. Triggers are searched for in the list of directories configured by the PKG_TRIGGERS_DIR configuration option. By default, this includes /usr/share/pkg/triggers and <localbase>/share/pkg/triggers. Triggers are in UCL format and should have a .ucl extension. Per-transaction triggers Per-transaction trigger files are placed directly in a trigger directory. The format is the following: description An optional string providing a human-readable description of what the trigger does. path An array of strings containing exact paths. Each time a pack- age installs a file or directory whose name is equal to one of the strings, the trigger will be executed at the end of the transaction. path_glob An array of strings containing shell-style glob patterns. Each time a package installs a file or directory whose name matches one of the patterns, the trigger will be executed at the end of the transaction. path_regexp An array of strings containing regular expressions. Each time a package installs a file or directory whose name matches one of the regular expressions, the trigger will be executed at the end of the transaction. cleanup An object which represents the script to execute in case the transaction results in removal of the trigger from the instal- lation. The object requires the following fields: type The type of the script to be executed. The only sup- ported type is Lua, indicated by the value "lua" (see pkg-lua-script(5)). script The script itself. sandbox A boolean controlling whether the script runs inside a capsicum(4) sandbox. Defaults to true. When dis- abled, the script has full system access including pkg.exec(). trigger An object which represents the script to execute at the end of the transaction if a pattern has been matched. This object is required and has the following fields: type The type of the script to be executed. The only sup- ported type is Lua, indicated by the value "lua" (see pkg-lua-script(5)). script The script itself. It will receive as arguments the list of paths that matched the patterns during the transaction. sandbox A boolean controlling whether the script runs inside a capsicum(4) sandbox. Defaults to true. When dis- abled, the script has full system access including pkg.exec(). Per-package triggers Per-package trigger files are placed in a subdirectory of a trigger direc- tory named after the phase at which they should execute: pre_install/ Before the package files are extracted. post_install/ After the package files have been extracted and post-in- stall scripts have run. pre_deinstall/ Before the package files are removed. post_deinstall/ After the package files have been removed and post-dein- stall scripts have run. For example, a trigger that should run after each package installation would be placed in: <localbase>/share/pkg/triggers/post_install/mytrigger.ucl The file format is the same as for per-transaction triggers. The path, path_glob, and path_regexp fields are used to match the files and directo- ries of the individual package. The trigger object contains the script to execute. Per-package triggers are reloaded from disk before processing each package, so a trigger installed by an earlier package in the same transaction will be active for subsequent packages. In addition to the arg table containing matched paths, per-package trigger scripts have access to the following Lua global variables: pkg_name The name of the package being processed. pkg_version The version of the package being processed. pkg_upgrade A boolean set to true if the operation is part of an upgrade, or false for a fresh installation or a standalone removal. 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.conf(5), pkg(8), pkg-add(8), pkg-alias(8), pkg-annotate(8), pkg-audit(8), pkg-au- toremove(8), pkg-check(8), pkg-clean(8), pkg-config(8), pkg-create(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-unregister(8), pkg-update(8), pkg-updating(8), pkg-upgrade(8), pkg-version(8), pkg- which(8) FreeBSD ports 15.1 March 4, 2026 PKG-TRIGGERS(5)
NAME | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO
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