# Questions about pkg_add, make.conf and ports



## atmosx (Jul 7, 2012)

Hello,

I've read the FreeBSD Handbook about pkd_add. I wonder if there is any way to see what pkg's are going to be installed before actually running the command.

I have read tha man page of pkg_add(1) and seems like the option "*dry run*" would be apropriate, however when I gave the command, pkg_add tried to fetch the package.

So what is the safest way of checking what/which packages are going to be installed before actually issuing pkg_add?


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## jrm@ (Jul 7, 2012)

This will give you close to what you want.  `% cd /usr/ports/some_port_name && make run-depends-list`  With the new package system, pkng, you can query a remote package database and find out lots of information.  I want to say it tells you exactly what packages will be installed, but I don't have access to a box with pkgng at the moment to verify.

Here are some related, useful targets.


```
% make all-depends-list
% make run-depends-list
% make missing
```


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## atmosx (Jul 7, 2012)

Hello,

After reading the manual and some other doc online I've found plenty of tools in the ports able to manage successfully the ports system, so far.

My question was referring to the pre-compiled binaries used by pkg_add. My system is an rdc Vortex86 SoC with 256 MB of RAM, so it's not really optimal to compile everything. That's one of the main reasons I flew from Gentoo to FreeBSD anyway.

Thanks for the reply.

ps. I'm looking at pkgng at Githum looks really promising, thanks for the hint


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