install binary packages without pkg

[gahn]

thanks. the VM is provided by the company's lab management for my lab and i have no choice to choose what version or what operating system i could run.
   On Thursday, November 29, 2018, 5:10:21 AM EST, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:  
 
 On Thu, 29 Nov 2018 02:48:40 +0000 (UTC), gahn via freebsd-questions wrote:
> i have a freebsd 7.1 station. how could i install binary packages
> from freebsd sites without pkg?

You probably can't.

FreeBSD 7 is long time EOL. It doesn't even have pkg. If I remember
correctly, the new pkg system appeared along FreeBSD 8, and became
standard around FreeBSD 9. Packages for FreeBSD 7 are no longer
being generated for current software.

The older pkg_ format and the new pkg format for precompiled packages
are not compatible. On a FreeBSD 7 system, you'd have to use the
program pkg_install to install packages. As long as they are in the
old format, this will still work.

It might be possible that you examine the package content, and then
manually extract them, so its content gets written to the correct
location. This however does _not_ deal with keeping the system's
records about installed packages (the package database) consistent
with the actually installed software! Again, note that those are
in different formats.

Is there a reason you cannot upgrade the system to a currently
supported version of FreeBSD, and use pkg as intended?


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...