# use stable insted of release?



## StaticPhilly (May 17, 2010)

hello all,

ok I'm new to FreeBSD, I've been hunting around for the config file for pkg_* but not been able to find it.

What I'm wanting to do is use the stable packages rather than the release packages, can anyone tell me how to do this?

thanks.
Phil


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## jb_fvwm2 (May 17, 2010)

Install /usr/ports/ftp/ncftp3/ ...

```
cd /usr/ports/distfiles
ncftp ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-8-stable/[www, or multimedia, or...]
#ncftp> ls some-package-some-number
#ncftp> get " " 
#ncftp> quit (or bye)
pkg_add ./[some_new_package]
```
Put the command line 
(ncftp...)
on or below the monitor on a label
to remember it next time unless your shell saves history...
(using -7- OR -8- )
Beware some ports may want perl 5.10 rather than 5.8 if
installing the package.
You can usually ignore "warnings" though.


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## SirDice (May 17, 2010)

Set the PACKAGESITE variable as explained in pkg_add(1).



> The environment variable PACKAGESITE specifies an alternate location for pkg_add to fetch from.  This variable subverts the automatic directory logic that pkg_add uses when the -r option is invoked.  Thus it should be a complete URL to the remote package file(s).


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## tankist02 (May 18, 2010)

For example on amd64:


```
setenv PACKAGESITE  ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-8-stable/Latest/
```


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