The pkg Interface

Before a software package may be readily used from within a shell on a UNIX system, the shell's environment needs to be set up. CTS provides a simple set of commands, called pkg commands, for adding and removing packages to and from a shell's environment.

Availability

The pkg commands are currently available only to csh and tcsh users. If you don't know which shell you use, it's probably one of those two.

If you use the CTS init System, then you automatically have access to the pkg commands. If you want to use the pkg commands without using the init System, you need to do the following:

  1. Add these lines to ~/.cshrc or ~/.bashrc: 

    setenv PKGHOME /pkg/.pkg
    source $PKGHOME/lib/pkgsetup

  2. Create the file ~/.pkgrc, which is a list of packages to be added automatically every time you log in. The file /pkg/cts/init/default/.pkgrc is the recommended minimum set of packages, so you might start by simply copying this file into your home directory.

pkg Commands

In the commands below, list means a list of one or more package names.

pkgadd list
Add packages to the environment, letting each package decide whether to append or prepend to PATH, MANPATH, etc.

pkgaddperm list
Add packages to ~/.pkgrc, which is used to initialize the environment at login time. Each package decides whether to add at the beginning or end.

pkgappend list
Add packages to the environment, appending to paths.

pkgappendperm list
Add packages at the end of ~/.pkgrc.

pkghelp
Display a command summary very similar to this one.

pkglist
List all packages (even ones that are unavailable on the local machine).

pkgprepend list
Add packages to the environment, prepending to paths.

pkgrm list
Remove packages from the environment.

pkgrmperm list
Remove packages from ~/.pkgrc.

pkgshow
List the packages in the current environment.

pkgshowperm
List the packages in ~/.pkgrc.

pkgversion pkg
List all versions of pkg (even ones that are unavailable on the local machine).

pkgwhich command
List the packages containing command.

Notes

Using pkgadd, pkgappend, or pkgprepend on a package that is already in the current environment will do nothing but issue a warning. The same goes for using pkgrm on a package that is not in the current environment.

pkgwhich checks only the most recent version of the package. Therefore if there are different versions of the package for SunOS4 and Solaris machines, its information will be taken from the Solaris version, even if you are currently logged on to a SunOS4 machine.

If there are any problems, please send mail to bugs.

See Also

CTS Help Center