what is pkg_create doing?

[Lowell Gilbert]

"Conrad J. Sabatier" <conrads at cox.net> writes:

> 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.

Ah; I'm sure that's it.  
I didn't realize that the poster was using portupgrade...