pkg-create and plist

toddg · Sunday at 6:31 PM

What's the current way of creating a FreeBSD package?

This post shows embedding the files in the `+MANIFEST`:

How to Create a FreeBSD Package with `pkg-create` on FreeBSD Operating System

Learn how to create custom FreeBSD packages using the `pkg-create` utility, with practical examples and best practices.

siberoloji.com

The man pages show a `package-list` or `plist` file:

pkg-create

man.freebsd.org

The `plist` file does have more fidelity, in that you can set the uid and gid of the files...

Emrion · Sunday at 6:38 PM

It depends if you want to create a pkg just for you or if you want that software be available for anyone on FreeBSD. For this latter, you must create a port.

Chapter 1. Introduction

Why port a program to the FreeBSD Ports Collection

docs.freebsd.org

MG · Sunday at 6:40 PM

pkg-plist is in a port directory and shows which compile result files in the workdir should be added to the package.
It requires the command 'make package' while in the port dir. The destination usually is /usr/ports/<port>/work/pkg/<package>
The workdir name can variate for to me unclear reasons. (Different output results depending on settings means different ports with work as all-tune result location. No need for a family tree.)

Charlie_ · Sunday at 7:06 PM

The pkg create creates a package from installed files.
This is useful when you've built something yourself but have deleted WRKDIR and don't want to rebuild it again, or when you want to save an older version of the pkg that you have installed when the port is updated.
ports-mgmt/portmaster also uses pkg create when creating backups.

Normally, to create a package, you run make package in the port tree.

T-Aoki · Sunday at 7:20 PM

In some ports, no pkg-plist file is provided. These are:

equivalent data is defined in ports Makefile with PLIST_FILES variable, or
for python ports, generate on-the-fly by specifying autoplist in USE_PYTHON variable in ports Makefile.

And some complexed ports adds / modifies / removes entries of pkg-plist on build conditionally.

T-Aoki · Sunday at 7:23 PM

Charlie_ said:
Normally, to create a package, you run make package in the port tree.

Note that package is generated in work/pkg/ subdirectory of the ports by default.

toddg · Sunday at 10:48 PM

Emrion said:
It depends if you want to create a pkg just for you or if you want that software be available for anyone on FreeBSD. For this latter, you must create a port.

Chapter 1. Introduction

Why port a program to the FreeBSD Ports Collection

docs.freebsd.org

I have both use cases:

1. Code I am developing just for myself that I want to package as FreeBSD packages to make deployments easier
2. Code that I would like to make available in the FreeBSD ports tree

For #1, I have written a CLI tool to package Gleam apps into FreeBSD packages:

glm_freebsd · v1.3.0

CLI tool to package a Gleam app as a FreeBSD package, with a service script.

hexdocs.pm

However, I'm not satisfied with what I wrote, and so I'm re-writing it.

For #2, I'd like to package the open source martin tile server and publish as a port.

GitHub - maplibre/martin: Blazing fast and lightweight PostGIS, MBtiles and PMtiles tile server, tile generation, and mbtiles tooling.

Blazing fast and lightweight PostGIS, MBtiles and PMtiles tile server, tile generation, and mbtiles tooling. - maplibre/martin

github.com

toddg · Sunday at 10:51 PM

To re-phrase the original question: when do you list your files in a separate `plist` file, vs. in the `files` stanza within the `+MANIFEST` file?

T-Aoki · Sunday at 11:39 PM

toddg said:
To re-phrase the original question: when do you list your files in a separate `plist` file, vs. in the `files` stanza within the `+MANIFEST` file?

+MANIFEST is generated by /usr/ports/Mk/Scripts/create-manifest.sh, called via create-manifest: target runs on make package in /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk. pkg-plist (and its alternatives I've noted on comment #5) is the source of +MANIFEST.

toddg · 2026-05-18T16:28:37+0100

I think this is what I was looking for:

Chapter 3. Quick Porting

How to quickly create a new FreeBSD Port

docs.freebsd.org

Code:

Usage of PLIST_FILES should not be abused.When looking for the origin of a file, people usually try to grep through the pkg-plist files in the ports tree.Listing files in PLIST_FILES in the Makefile makes that search more difficult.

So it seems that listing included files in the `pkg-plist` file is preferred over listing included files in the +MANIFEST `files` stanza.

Thanks everyone!