Hitchhiker's Guide to Openbsd

15.2.2 - Making things easy: PKG_PATH
You can make things really easy by using the 
PKG_PATH
environment variable. Just point it to your 
favorite location, and pkg_add(1) will automatically look there for any package you specify, and also 
fetch and install the necessary dependencies of this package automatically. 
A list of possible locations to fetch packages from is given in the 
following section
. 
Example 1: fetching from your 
CDROM
, assuming you mounted it on 
/mnt/cdrom
$ export PKG_PATH=/mnt/cdrom/4.9/packages/`machine -a`/
Example 2: fetching from a nearby 
FTP mirror
 
$ export PKG_PATH=ftp://your.ftp.mirror/pub/OpenBSD/4.9/
packages/`machine -a`/
It's usually a good idea to add a line similar to the above examples to your 
~/.profile
. As with the 
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html (3 of 27)9/4/2011 10:02:29 AM

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15 - The OpenBSD packages and ports system
classic 
PATH
variable, you can specify multiple locations, separated by colons. Prior to OpenBSD 4.4, 
every path in the 
PKG_PATH
 variable MUST end in a slash (/). That way, pkg_add(1) can split the 
path correctly even if it holds URL schemes containing colons. If the first entry in 
PKG_PATH
fails, the 
next one will be tried, and so on, until the package is found. If all entries fail, an error is produced. 
Notice the use of 
machine(1)
 in the above command lines. This automatically substitutes your installed 
OpenBSD "application architecture", which is usually, but not always, your platform name. Of course, if 
you are using snapshots, you will replace "4.9" with "snapshots". 
15.2.3 - Finding packages
A large collection of pre-compiled packages is available for the most common architectures. Just look 
for your package in one of these places: 
●
On one of the three 
CD-ROMs
, depending on your architecture. The CD-ROMs carry only the 
most commonly used, freely distributable packages for the most commonly used platforms. 
●
On the 
FTP mirror servers
. Packages are located in the 
/pub/OpenBSD/4.9/packages
directory. From there, packages are broken down depending on architecture. 
If you have the ports tree on your system, you can quickly find the package you are looking for as 
explained in 
Searching the ports tree
. 
You will notice that certain packages are available in a few different varieties, formally called flavors. 
Others are pieces of the same application which may be installed separately. They are called