# Retrieving installation notes



## ucsdboy (Nov 21, 2014)

Hello,

Is there a way to re-read the installation notes, after a successful `portmaster` or `make install`? I made the mistake of letting some important post-installation configuration notes slip by.

Thanks!


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## SirDice (Nov 21, 2014)

You mean the pkg-message that some ports/packages print? You can read them using `pkg info -D apache22` for example.


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## Chris_H (Nov 21, 2014)

You can probably generate an entire catalog of that sort of information. By
`cd /var/db/pkg`
`find -s . -type f -name '+COMMENT' -exec cat $name '{}' \; -print >>../CATALOG`
You should end up with a complete listing in the file /var/db/CATALOG

HTH

--Chris


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## wblock@ (Nov 21, 2014)

Um... those files are not in /var/db/pkg any more.  They are likely in local.sqlite, and can be shown as SirDice shows, or possibly with `pkg query`.  With a fancy query or a little piping, it should be possible to get the pkg-message of only the packages installed most recently.


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## Chris_H (Nov 21, 2014)

wblock@ said:


> Um... those files are not in /var/db/pkg any more.  They are likely in local.sqlite, and can be shown as SirDice shows, or possibly with `pkg query`.  With a fancy query or a little piping, it should be possible to get the pkg-message of only the packages installed most recently.


Umm... Yes they are. Well, on the one I'm writing this from, anyway. In fact I actually proofed the script before posting it.
But I'm currently writing this from RELENG_9. Which apparently enjoyed ports-mgmt/portmaster and possibly pkg(7), before pkg(8) took over the system.

So, YMMV 

--Chris


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## Chris_H (Nov 21, 2014)

OK a little more thought on how to get around the _seeming_ limitations pkg(8) imposes over pkg(7). I came up with the following:
Get a list of everything installed, and direct it to a file handle that can later be manipulated, and fed/incorporated to a script.
`pkg info >./GETLIST`
Now that we have our list (I had 1660, on the box I experimented on). We find we're also blessed with the one-liner description provided in the ports Makefile. That's all well, and good for gathering quick information. But is a *major* nuisance  for our needs. I used my editor to perform an RE, which simply stripped everything that started with a space, to the end of line (including the space). So that all I had left was the list of ports, one on each line. It'd be trivial to run the file against sed(1), or using perl(1)'s powerful RE to accomplish the same. But I'm out of time. So I'll leave that up to the reader. Unless I find the time later. 
EDIT
The Oracle (wblock@), someone _far_ more versed in the FreeBSD documentation than I, has spoken! I can now happily declare that the operation is far more trivial than I had imagined. Thanks wblock@!
/EDIT
OK now that you've got a file with one port name on each line. We'll want to create a shell script out of it. Here's what I did (*extremely* condensed list), edit the file we just got GETLIST, and add the following:

```
#!/bin/sh -

fls="GentiumPlus-1.510_1
GraphicsMagick-1.3.20,1
ImageMagick-6.8.9.8_1,1
Lohit-20130612
ORBit2-2.14.19_1
OpenEXR-2.2.0_3
OpenSP-1.5.2_2
Thunar-1.6.3_2
a2pdf-1.13
a2ps-4.13b_6"

for name in $fls

do
  pkg info -D $name >>./CATALOG

done
```
Which, when run (don't forget to `[man=1]chmod[/man] +x` the script first)
gave me the following, in the file named CATALOG:

```
GentiumPlus-1.510_1:
To use these fonts, add the following line to the "Files" section of
xorg.conf:

   FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/GentiumPlus/"

Users of older versions of X may additionally have to make sure that
the freetype module is loaded.  Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for error
messages.  If freetype is required, add the following line to the
"Modules" section of xorg.conf:

   Load "freetype"



GraphicsMagick-1.3.20,1:
ImageMagick-6.8.9.8_1,1:
Lohit-20130612:
To use these fonts, add the following line to the "Files" section of
xorg.conf:

   FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Lohit/"

Users of older versions of X may additionally have to make sure that
the freetype module is loaded.  Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for error
messages.  If freetype is required, add the following line to the
"Modules" section of xorg.conf:

   Load "freetype"


ORBit2-2.14.19_1:
OpenEXR-2.2.0_3:
OpenSP-1.5.2_2:
Thunar-1.6.3_2:
a2pdf-1.13:
a2ps-4.13b_6:
```
Maybe not the most elegant. But it'll get you where you need to go. 

All the best.

--Chris


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## wblock@ (Nov 22, 2014)

Chris_H said:


> We find we're also blessed with the one-liner description provided in the ports Makefile.



`pkg info -q`

Really, there is a wealth of options in the pkg man pages.


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## Chris_H (Nov 22, 2014)

wblock@ said:


> `pkg info -q`
> 
> Really, there is a wealth of options in the pkg man pages.


Ya know. I really _did_ take the time to read both `man pkg`, as well as `pkg help`, *hoping* to find such an option. But (apparently) overlooked that. It's not like I didn't want to find such an option. 

Thanks for the heads-up, wblock@. I'll update the script, and post.

--Chris


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