what is pkg_create doing?

[Conrad J. Sabatier]

On Thu, 31 May 2007 09:47:20 -0400
Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local at be-well.ilk.org> wrote:

> paul beard <paulbeard at gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > I realize it should be obvious from the name but it seems to
> > linger for several minutes after each package is installed.
> >
> > PID      USERNAME    THR PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE  C   TIME    
> > WCPU COMMAND
> > 55763         root              1    121    0     1852K  1232K
> > RUN 0   2:38 95.73% pkg_create
> >
> > I am new to 6.2 (being a belated migrator from 4.x): is there a
> > knob somewhere to turn off pkg creation? Not that I see any
> > packages being kept anywhere . . . .
> 
> When a package is built, it is always done *after* the port has been
> installed into $PREFIX.  As far as I recall, packages don't get built
> unless you explicitly ask for them, so the command you used to install
> the program is what you need to look at for details.  Incidentally,
> built packages get installed to /usr/ports/packages by default.
> 
> None of this is different from earlier versions, as far as I remember.

No, by default, portupgrade runs pkg_create *before* installing the
newly built port, to create a backup of the old version in case
something goes wrong.  Depending on the size of the old port (package),
this can take an appreciable amount of time, even on a fast system.
Packages are only built *after* installation if one explicitly tells
portupgrade to do so, via the "-p" or "--package" switches.

The man page lists several package-related ENVIRONMENT variables, which
may or may not provide a means to disable some or all of this package
creation; I don't know for sure, as I've never tried changing or
unsetting them to see what may happen.  If you're curious, though, it
may be worth experimenting with, although I would certainly advise
against disabling the precautionary backup package creation before the
new port is successfully installed.

-- 
Conrad J. Sabatier <conrads at cox.net>